Brand New XP PC is Slow

[Guest]

I recently purchased a brand new HP Pavillion computer with Windows XP as the OS. It has a 2.6 GHz Celeron processor. The first week I had it, it ran just fine. Everything moved smoothly and swiftly. Now, various programs are constantly freezing up: IE, Word, Outlook Express, etc... When browsing through folders the computer takes forever to display contents. Various simple operations like searching or opening the start menu are "jerky". I've run a full system scan on the PC using Norton AntiVirus which came up with nothing. I'm using less than a quarter of the computer's disc space. My old Packard Bell running 95 was faster! What is going on!?

 

[Mary Sauer]

Do a disk clean-up, your cache maybe full. Start with IE, tools, Internet Options,
delete files. In the control panel right-click your hard-drive, properties, disk
clean-up, may take awhile to populate

--
Mary Sauer MS MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/
http://www.mvps.org/msauer/getting_started.htm
news://msnews.microsoft.com

I recently purchased a brand new HP Pavillion computer with Windows XP as the OS.

It has a 2.6 GHz Celeron processor. The first week I had it, it ran just fine.
Everything moved smoothly and swiftly. Now, various programs are constantly freezing
up: IE, Word, Outlook Express, etc... When browsing through folders the computer
takes forever to display contents. Various simple operations like searching or
opening the start menu are "jerky". I've run a full system scan on the PC using
Norton AntiVirus which came up with nothing. I'm using less than a quarter of the
computer's disc space. My old Packard Bell running 95 was faster! What is going on!?

 

[purplehaz]

Sounds like spyware or a home page hijacker.
Run these tools weekly:
spybot -- http://www.safer-networking.org/
ad-aware -- http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
HiJackThis - http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/

 

[Larc]

| Do a disk clean-up, your cache maybe full. Start with IE, tools, Internet Options,
| delete files. In the control panel right-click your hard-drive, properties, disk
| clean-up, may take awhile to populate

Also defrag your hard drive.

Larc



§§§ - Please raise temperature of mail to reply by e-mail - §§§

 

[Locoweed]

If you have Norton System works, try undoing the one button checkups. This
was causing me similar problems. I now only have the antivirus part of
System works installed.

I recently purchased a brand new HP Pavillion computer with Windows XP as

the OS. It has a 2.6 GHz Celeron processor. The first week I had it, it ran
just fine. Everything moved smoothly and swiftly. Now, various programs are
constantly freezing up: IE, Word, Outlook Express, etc... When browsing
through folders the computer takes forever to display contents. Various
simple operations like searching or opening the start menu are "jerky". I've
run a full system scan on the PC using Norton AntiVirus which came up with
nothing. I'm using less than a quarter of the computer's disc space. My old
Packard Bell running 95 was faster! What is going on!?

 

[Guest]

Did a disk cleanup. Still no better. I don't think I have the Norton System Works. I just have the short trial version that came free with the PC.

 

[DILIP]

Make sure you run a firewall on your computer. Also keep XP updated, and
read purplehaz's post.
--
Dilip

I recently purchased a brand new HP Pavillion computer with Windows XP as

the OS. It has a 2.6 GHz Celeron processor. The first week I had it, it ran
just fine. Everything moved smoothly and swiftly. Now, various programs are
constantly freezing up: IE, Word, Outlook Express, etc... When browsing
through folders the computer takes forever to display contents. Various
simple operations like searching or opening the start menu are "jerky". I've
run a full system scan on the PC using Norton AntiVirus which came up with
nothing. I'm using less than a quarter of the computer's disc space. My old
Packard Bell running 95 was faster! What is going on!?

 

[Guest]

I have a firewall up on my router. I did a defrag and installed and ran Spybot. Am still getting slow results and nonresponsive programs.

 

[R. McCarty]

Slow response can be caused by a number of problems.
Here are some things to Check/Update.

Before Starting make sure you have a System Image or at the
least your personal data is backed up.

1. Open Device Manager - make sure no devices are shown
with a Yellow exclamation mark or a Red X. If any exist
then drivers are incorrect/not loaded or just wrong.
1a. Verify there is no Category "Other Devices", if so you
have devices connected that are unknown to Windows
2. Open Management Console - Expand the Event logs and
look through both System & Application. Any Errors found
should be investigated and resolved.
3. Download and install the latest drivers for "Everything."
Vendors are always correcting issues with drivers. The adage
about "Don't fix it, if it ain't broke" doesn't apply to PC's
This is especially important for Chipset Drivers (Intel, Via or
SiS) Yes, Sometimes new drivers break things but that's the
risk you have to take. Microsoft has estimated that a high
% of all Windows errors are directly related to either Video
or Printer driver problems.
4. Update Windows (Criticals, Direct-X, Media Player)
If you don't have Broadband, go to a friend's house that has
it and go to Windows Catalog and download and burn the
updates to CD. I just recently did this for someone and it
totaled around 210 Megabytes ( ~30 Minutes)
5. Update all Programs (Patches & Updates) - For free prgms
like Adobe Acrobat Reader get the latest versions and
uninstall the older ones. ( Make it a habit to Bookmark/Favs
all your driver web sites and program update URL's)
6. Go to Add/Remove programs in Control Panel and remove
any applications you do not use or need.
7. Run a Chkdsk C: \R - Reboot and then Defrag (After Chkdsk
verifies the volume is "Clean".
8. Learn how to and remove Startups & Watchdogs that take up
Memory and significantly extend Boot times.
MSConfig is O.K., for testing but learning how to safely export
the Registry Run Keys and modify them is beneficial.
9. Run both AdAware and SpyBot and if your Anti-Virus is older
than 2-years, go buy Norton Internet Security 2004 and
install it.
10.Remove the Microsoft Java and replace it with the latest Sun
Java 1.4.2_03. (Google for Instructions)
11. Examine your Services list - There are a number of Services
that XP starts Automatically that can be safely set to "Manual"
or even Disabled. (See http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
12. Run a System File Checker, Start/Run (Type) SFC /Scannow
**But only if you have a full Windows XP CD-ROM

The next ones require a little more Technical savvy, but have some
value

13. Check your motherboard vendor's website for the latest BIOS
(At the least see how many revisions behind your computer is,
this can give you an idea of how many problems that these
BIOS updates have fixed)
14. A Registry Cleanup - But only if your machine is backed up.

I have a firewall up on my router. I did a defrag and installed and ran

Spybot. Am still getting slow results and nonresponsive programs.

 

[Guest]

Okay, here's something. I was reading some other posts and found one that said to do a cold boot and then check CPU usage. I shut down the PC, waited a while and then restarted. I waited until there was no activity going on and I had no programs running and checked the CPU. It had 100% usage and thirty something processes going on

kbd.ex
hphmon.ex
hpwuSchd.ex
HpqCmon.ex
hkcmd.ex
hpsysdrv.ex
OPXPApp.ex
Several svchost.ex
omniServ.ex
Navapsvc.ex
ccEvtMgr.ex
csrss.ex
realsched.ex

To name a few. I know this is not normal. Could this be part of my problem and if so, what can I do about it? Thanks.

 

[Buz [MSFT]]

Hello,

Manufacturers like to package computers with allot of software, some of this
software is automatically configured to load at boot and this can suck up
available resources. See if your computer is faster after running through
the steps below:

We want to implement the Cleanboot process using MSCONFIG to rule out 3rd
party software as the cause of this issue. MSCONFIG from XP can also be used
on a Windows 2000 Pro or Server client.

Go to Start\Run type in Msconfig and press OK.
Go to the Startup tab.
Click on "Disable All"
Go to the Services Tab
Click on "Hide all Microsoft Services"
Uncheck the 3rd party services that are left
Press OK twice to reboot.

Once your computer is restarted see if the issue still occurs. if it still
does go to Msconfig and select Enable All on the startup tab.
If the issue does not occur go to the Startup tab and select items 4 at a
time or so with reboots in between to narrow down the exact item causing
your problem.

310353 How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310353

Buz Brodin
MCSE NT4 / Win2K
Microsoft Enterprise Domain Support

"Please do not send e-mail directly to this alias. This alias is for
newsgroup purposes only."

Okay, here's something. I was reading some other posts and found one that

said to do a cold boot and then check CPU usage. I shut down the PC, waited
a while and then restarted. I waited until there was no activity going on
and I had no programs running and checked the CPU. It had 100% usage and
thirty something processes going on.

kbd.exe
hphmon.exe
hpwuSchd.exe
HpqCmon.exe
hkcmd.exe
hpsysdrv.exe
OPXPApp.exe
Several svchost.exe
omniServ.exe
Navapsvc.exe
ccEvtMgr.exe
csrss.exe
realsched.exe

To name a few. I know this is not normal. Could this be part of my problem

and if so, what can I do about it? Thanks.

 

[Guest]

I did a Start\Run\msconfig\General\Selective Startup and then went to the Startup tab and deselected all of the unnecessary options. After rebooting, the CPU was down to normal and everything was running great! Thanks for everyone's help!