Problems with IE after clean Install of Win XP & SP2

[Sam Wonderer]

I was having some niggling problems with my PC, especially slow speed - even
just deleteing a small doc would take noticeably longer than it used to. So,
I formatted the hard drive, clean-installed Win XP from a CD, upgraded to SP2
(downloaded from MS website) and loaded a minimum set of drivers. But the
machine is still slow, and some even slower than before the re-install - e.g.
opening apps, displaying folders in Windows Explorer, IE 6 is very slow (ISP
confimed that internet line performance is the same as before). I* have only
loaded Avast antivirus and MS Office 2003. Have 1 gb mem.

Thanks... .Sam

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Purchase and install additional memory?

Help! My computer is slow!
http://miekiemoes.blogspot.com/2008/02/help-my-computer-is-slow.html

 

[Sam Wonderer]

Thanks you for that option. I guess my real question is that it was working
much better before and I haven't even installed many apps. Any thought why?

 

[Daave]

Since Sam already has 1 GB of RAM (which is normally a large amount for
XP), I doubt that will help.

 

[Daave]

I was having some niggling problems with my PC, especially slow speed
- even just deleteing a small doc would take noticeably longer than
it used to. So, I formatted the hard drive, clean-installed Win XP
from a CD, upgraded to SP2 (downloaded from MS website) and loaded a
minimum set of drivers. But the machine is still slow, and some even
slower than before the re-install - e.g. opening apps, displaying
folders in Windows Explorer, IE 6 is very slow (ISP confimed that
internet line performance is the same as before). I* have only loaded
Avast antivirus and MS Office 2003. Have 1 gb mem.

What is the make and model of this PC? What are its specs? XP Home or XP
Pro? Is it on a network? Did you try configuring a Clean Boot?
Instructions for Clean Boot:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Have you tried hardware troubleshooting?

Sam, here are the typical (software-related) causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). Noramlly, this should be ruled out
first! This page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Viruses_Malware

[Then again, if you have just completed a Clean Install, that's probably
not your problem.]

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

[Again, since you are running Avast, the above paragraph probably
doesn't apply to you, either.]

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge.

First, run Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and see write down the names of
all the running processes.

Them, use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn
how to configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for
Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

[Once more, if you have 1 GB of RAM and if you are not running
memory-intensive programs, not enough RAM is probably not your problem.]

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Repost:

Help! My computer is slow!
http://miekiemoes.blogspot.com/2008/02/help-my-computer-is-slow.html

 

[smlunatick]

I was having some niggling problems with my PC, especially slow speed - even
just deleteing a small doc would take noticeably longer than it used to. So,
I formatted the hard drive, clean-installed Win XP from a CD, upgraded toSP2
(downloaded from MS website) and loaded a minimum set of drivers. But the
machine is still slow, and some even slower than before the re-install - e.g.
opening apps, displaying folders  in Windows Explorer, IE 6 is very slow (ISP
confimed that internet line performance is the same as before). I* have only
loaded Avast antivirus and MS Office 2003. Have 1 gb mem.

Thanks... .Sam

What drivers do you mean when you state that you loaded/installed a
"minimum set of drivers?" One important "driver set" is usually the
chipset driver for the chipset used on the motherboard. Chipset
drivers tend to provide the correct drivers for AGP slot drivers, IRQ
controls, USB ports, EIDE UltraDMA and sometimes SATA (??) port
drivers.

 

[Sam Wonderer]

Hi all. Firstly, thank you so much for all your help and some detailed
replies. I really appreciate it. Sorry about delay in replying.

I think hardware check may be my next step. Here are some answers to the
various questions a few of you asked:
The system is a Dell Dimension 8600, 232 GB hard drive, 1GB ram. Win XP
Home, running standalone (not on any network). I did a clean install, having
wiped the hard disk first. Then installed the drivers for network, video,
audio, chipset.
Startup is running: Avast antivirus, Atipax ATI control), ssmgr (samsung
printer panel manager), ctfmon.exe, and MS services.
Task Manager was runnning: Outlook 2003, IE v6, Word 2003, Excel 2003.
Memory performace seems fine - Commit figures (Total=315 MG and Peak ( 318
MB) are about one third of the physically mem.
Thanks
...Sam

I was having some niggling problems with my PC, especially slow speed
- even just deleteing a small doc would take noticeably longer than
it used to. So, I formatted the hard drive, clean-installed Win XP
from a CD, upgraded to SP2 (downloaded from MS website) and loaded a
minimum set of drivers. But the machine is still slow, and some even
slower than before the re-install - e.g. opening apps, displaying
folders in Windows Explorer, IE 6 is very slow (ISP confimed that
internet line performance is the same as before). I* have only loaded
Avast antivirus and MS Office 2003. Have 1 gb mem.

What is the make and model of this PC? What are its specs? XP Home or XP
Pro? Is it on a network? Did you try configuring a Clean Boot?
Instructions for Clean Boot:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Have you tried hardware troubleshooting?

Sam, here are the typical (software-related) causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). Noramlly, this should be ruled out
first! This page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Viruses_Malware

[Then again, if you have just completed a Clean Install, that's probably
not your problem.]

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

[Again, since you are running Avast, the above paragraph probably
doesn't apply to you, either.]

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge.

First, run Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and see write down the names of
all the running processes.

Them, use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn
how to configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for
Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

[Once more, if you have 1 GB of RAM and if you are not running
memory-intensive programs, not enough RAM is probably not your problem.]

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/

 

[Daave]

I'm leaning toward a hardware issue, too. Let us know what you find out!

Hi all. Firstly, thank you so much for all your help and some detailed
replies. I really appreciate it. Sorry about delay in replying.

I think hardware check may be my next step. Here are some answers to
the various questions a few of you asked:
The system is a Dell Dimension 8600, 232 GB hard drive, 1GB ram. Win
XP Home, running standalone (not on any network). I did a clean
install, having wiped the hard disk first. Then installed the drivers
for network, video, audio, chipset.
Startup is running: Avast antivirus, Atipax ATI control), ssmgr
(samsung printer panel manager), ctfmon.exe, and MS services.
Task Manager was runnning: Outlook 2003, IE v6, Word 2003, Excel 2003.
Memory performace seems fine - Commit figures (Total=315 MG and Peak
( 318 MB) are about one third of the physically mem.
Thanks
..Sam

I was having some niggling problems with my PC, especially slow
speed - even just deleteing a small doc would take noticeably
longer than it used to. So, I formatted the hard drive,
clean-installed Win XP from a CD, upgraded to SP2 (downloaded from
MS website) and loaded a minimum set of drivers. But the machine is
still slow, and some even slower than before the re-install - e.g.
opening apps, displaying folders in Windows Explorer, IE 6 is very
slow (ISP confimed that internet line performance is the same as
before). I* have only loaded Avast antivirus and MS Office 2003.
Have 1 gb mem.

What is the make and model of this PC? What are its specs? XP Home
or XP Pro? Is it on a network? Did you try configuring a Clean Boot?
Instructions for Clean Boot:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Have you tried hardware troubleshooting?

Sam, here are the typical (software-related) causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). Noramlly, this should be ruled out
first! This page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Viruses_Malware

[Then again, if you have just completed a Clean Install, that's
probably not your problem.]

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they
simply use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts
with other programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire
hard drive each time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other
antimalware programs available that use far fewer resources (e.g.,
NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

[Again, since you are running Avast, the above paragraph probably
doesn't apply to you, either.]

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge.

First, run Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and see write down the names
of all the running processes.

Them, use these sites to determine what these programs are and to
learn how to configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the
programs to not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is
Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return
to the startup list anyway!

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the
pagefile. A quick way to determine if this is happening is to open
Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note
the three values under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand
corner: Total, Limit, and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at
that very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of
memory you used since last bootup. If both these figures are below
the value of Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have
plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File
Monitor for
Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

[Once more, if you have 1 GB of RAM and if you are not running
memory-intensive programs, not enough RAM is probably not your
problem.]

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/

 

[Jon]

OK, I know this may be much help after the event, but if you cannot locate the problem and decide to
re-install again...

When I re-install, I only install Windows (and essential drivers) then try it out to make sure it's
working quickly, including on the internet. Then I apply the Windows updates and do a quick
responsiveness test.

Then I install Office and quickly make sure speed is OK, then I apply the Office updates and quickly
make sure speed is OK

If there are problems, I turn off automatic updates and re-boot to see if this fixes them - I've
know Automatic updates to cause serious slowdown on some PCs for the duration that it is "talking
to" Microsoft. This doesn't last for ever, but can make a PC very sluggish for quite a long time.
Don't forget to turn them back on again - I only turn them off to work out it they are causing the
problem, then at least I know that it will be temporary.

Then I install other important programmes + printer, etc.

For all of the above, I make sure the Windows Firewall is on, or I am behind a firewall built into
the internet modem, and I only go to trusted sites, eg Microsoft, since I don't at this point have
anti-virus software.

The last think that I install in anit-virus and anti-spyware software. In fact, I normally make a
disk image before installing these two types of software so that I can get rid of them if they cause
problems. It's the point that I add anti-virus and anti-spyware that I find can often cause
problems.

By doing this, I can find out roughly at what point the slowdown occurs, and at that point, I start
investigating to try to work out what is causing it. I look at Windows Task manager (checking CPU
and memory usage of the processes) and I look at the event log to see this gives any clues.

As others have said, it's a reasonably spec-ed PC and shouldn't be slow. I would suspect a hardware
problem, a driver problem, or a software incompatibility.




Hi all. Firstly, thank you so much for all your help and some detailed
replies. I really appreciate it. Sorry about delay in replying.

I think hardware check may be my next step. Here are some answers to the
various questions a few of you asked:
The system is a Dell Dimension 8600, 232 GB hard drive, 1GB ram. Win XP
Home, running standalone (not on any network). I did a clean install, having
wiped the hard disk first. Then installed the drivers for network, video,
audio, chipset.
Startup is running: Avast antivirus, Atipax ATI control), ssmgr (samsung
printer panel manager), ctfmon.exe, and MS services.
Task Manager was runnning: Outlook 2003, IE v6, Word 2003, Excel 2003.
Memory performace seems fine - Commit figures (Total=315 MG and Peak ( 318
MB) are about one third of the physically mem.
Thanks
...Sam

I was having some niggling problems with my PC, especially slow speed
- even just deleteing a small doc would take noticeably longer than
it used to. So, I formatted the hard drive, clean-installed Win XP
from a CD, upgraded to SP2 (downloaded from MS website) and loaded a
minimum set of drivers. But the machine is still slow, and some even
slower than before the re-install - e.g. opening apps, displaying
folders in Windows Explorer, IE 6 is very slow (ISP confimed that
internet line performance is the same as before). I* have only loaded
Avast antivirus and MS Office 2003. Have 1 gb mem.

What is the make and model of this PC? What are its specs? XP Home or XP
Pro? Is it on a network? Did you try configuring a Clean Boot?
Instructions for Clean Boot:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Have you tried hardware troubleshooting?

Sam, here are the typical (software-related) causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). Noramlly, this should be ruled out
first! This page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Viruses_Malware

[Then again, if you have just completed a Clean Install, that's probably
not your problem.]

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

[Again, since you are running Avast, the above paragraph probably
doesn't apply to you, either.]

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge.

First, run Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and see write down the names of
all the running processes.

Them, use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn
how to configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for
Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

[Once more, if you have 1 GB of RAM and if you are not running
memory-intensive programs, not enough RAM is probably not your problem.]

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/