XP Pro running slow

[Guest]

Everything worked fine for 2 years but after the last Microsoft update,
most Microsoft products are running slow. Firefox loads the pages faster
than IE 7 but it takes several minutes to type anything into a text field.
Both Microsoft Live and Yahoo IM fails to login. Takes several attempts and
usually logs in after 5 minutes. The system process is taking up as much as
50% of the CPU time. I would expect this if I were running too many apps and
running low on resources but I have 1 gig of ram and the task manager shows
that I am only using 414 megs so why is the system process taking up so much
CPU?
I am also having intermitten problems with Visual Studios 2005. It can
take several minutes to load a project but at other times, it loads without
any unusual delays. I can debug existing code but it takes several minutes
to add a new page to the project.
Based on other posts, I have scanned for spy ware and found nothing. I
have run check disk and defrag. There were some bad sectors but I would not
expect that to cause problems for Windows. I tried reinstalling XP and all
the apps. This did fix the problem for about 2 days and then everything
start to run slowly again.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rock]

Everything worked fine for 2 years but after the last Microsoft update,
most Microsoft products are running slow. Firefox loads the pages faster
than IE 7 but it takes several minutes to type anything into a text field.
Both Microsoft Live and Yahoo IM fails to login. Takes several attempts
and
usually logs in after 5 minutes. The system process is taking up as much
as
50% of the CPU time. I would expect this if I were running too many apps
and
running low on resources but I have 1 gig of ram and the task manager
shows
that I am only using 414 megs so why is the system process taking up so
much
CPU?
I am also having intermitten problems with Visual Studios 2005. It can
take several minutes to load a project but at other times, it loads
without
any unusual delays. I can debug existing code but it takes several
minutes
to add a new page to the project.
Based on other posts, I have scanned for spy ware and found nothing. I
have run check disk and defrag. There were some bad sectors but I would
not
expect that to cause problems for Windows. I tried reinstalling XP and
all
the apps. This did fix the problem for about 2 days and then everything
start to run slowly again.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There are some things in your post that are unclear. You originally state
you thought it slowed down after doing some updates through windows update.
Did you try removing those updates, through add/remove programs, to verify
if one of them was a problem?

How did you do this reinstall of XP? Was it a repair install with the XP
installation CD, aka an in place upgrade, or was it some sort of system
recovery with the computer manufacturer's supplied restore method? Did you
reinstall drivers after doing the reinstall? Did you go back to windows
update after the reinstall and install all the updates?

What changes did you make to the system during those 2 days that it had been
running well before it started to run poorly? Did you undo any of those
changes?

Did you have a firewall in place at all times? How did you check for
malware?

Here is a link with general tips on dealing with a slow computer.
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm

Malware Removal
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

THE PARASITE FIGHT
Finding, Removing & Protecting Yourself From Scumware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Please try the following article:

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Shell/User
Please reply to the Newsgroup


Please reply to the Newgroups

 

[Guest]

Rock,
Unfortunately, I decided to rebuild the box instead of trying to diagnose
the problem first. I usually have to rebuild my workstation every year or so
anyway due to all the unnecessary apps I use for development. I never do an
upgrade, I always reformat the c drive and start from scratch. After the
reinstall, I downloaded and installed the latest drivers from Fujitsu site
for the Lifebook. I usually check for any critical updates once a week.
I've used Ad-Aware SE and the Microsoft product. Neither found anything
on the laptop.
I did not install any new software, but I did install some critical
updates the morning before the problems started. There is a memory leak in
Visual Studios 2005 and I usually get an error message that there are not
enough resources to save my changes. It then creates upto 64k *.tmp files in
the working directory. I usually get this error at least once a day so I
didnt think much about the problem when I got it the day before the problem
started. I had to manually shut down the computer by removing the battery
since no other method worked.
I am not sure which firewall my company uses, and I am not aware of any
downtime.


Ha

 

[Guest]

Woot!!!! I found the problem! There were 20k tmp files in the Virus
definition directory. After I deleted the files, things seems to be back to
normal.

Ha

 

[Rock]

Woot!!!! I found the problem! There were 20k tmp files in the Virus
definition directory. After I deleted the files, things seems to be back
to
normal.

Ha

Interesting. Good detective work, thanks for posting back the resolution.