computer getting slow for not the usual reasons

[paulmars]

I was just cruzing the net and my computer rebooted all by itself. Then a
few hours later it popped up that message. All my settings are default.

All is left is my cpu which might be bad. How can I test it to be sure.
Also, when I rebooted the first time after reinstalling xp pro, I got a BOIS
message I had to press F1 to custom set it, or F2 for default. I choose F2.
Later I looked in my mainboard book and it told me to set smart to on, virus
check to on and I also set the cpu shut down temp to below the max rating.

I looked on the net and see all these other BIOS settings that effect the
speed and stability of the OS and I started writing down them all, so I can
check mine...that;s when my system rebooted. I kno next to nothing about
BIOS and do not want to learn the whys and whens. Should I go back to those
sites and check all my settings? What about the "Fail safe" and "optimal"
settings. Those are two settings in my BIOS. Fail Safe says is for most
stable, so I m inclined to press that, but optimal says for the optimal
settings.....WTF????? and I found nothing on the AMI BIOS site.

Also, since this SLOW condition developed before I reinstalled xp, it must
not be the BIOS, but it being possibly set differently then before concerns
me. One thing at a time...I m getting so far behind on my work. I would buy
a new board or cpu, but I need to know for sure what's wrong first.

HELP.

 

[paulmars]

my system hardware is unchanged for 3.5 years. During that time I
reinstalled xp pro only once about 1.5 years ago, until a week ago, when I
did my 3rd install because of the slowness.

No new software. I have checked all startup items and all running processes
in task mgr. Everything is ok.

Sometimes it gets slow then almost nothing is running, but more common is to
get inconsistently slow when I have several things going on at once, but no
more then in the past. I only have 300 meg ram, but it has been fine for 3.5
years.

I tested the ram, tested the HDD. Remember that this condition is why I
zeroed my HDD and reinstalled xp, and when I did, I got this slow problem
back.

is dust really a possible issue? It is dusty in there, but the cpu fans are
mounted to the heatsink and the temp never gets too high.

 

[Daave]

is dust really a possible issue? It is dusty in there, but the cpu
fans are mounted to the heatsink and the temp never gets too high.

Dust is very often an issue!

You should use a can of compressed air on your machine. Carefully check
all of the fans, including the one in the PSU.

Also, it wouldn't be a bad idea to use a multimeter to measure voltages.
See:

http://techrepublic.com.com/5102-10586-5566528.html

and

www.ochardware.com/articles/psuvolt/psuvolt.html

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

Might the problem described in this link apply?
http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/...w-to-get-rid-of-locked-avi-bug-in-windows-xp/

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[paulmars]

no, no AVI problems here. Although I have not watched any of my AVIs since
the reinstall. All my time is trying to figure out what's wrong. I hav had
that condition with video and other files on occasion, and a reboot always
fixes it.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

You could try the suggestion and observe for affect

BTW in one breath you say you have no AVI problems and in the next
breath you describe how you deal with them. Something not quite right
there!

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

Have these errors stopped or continued to occur?

How many hard drives do your have?

Have you monitored the actual use of the pagefile over a session? Does
use of the pagefile steadily increase or rise and fall back?

You may find it helpful to know exactly how much of your pagefile is
being used. Use page file monitor to observe what is the peak usage.
Start it to run immediately after start-up and look at the log at the
end of the session.The log is Pagefile log.txt. If you right click on
the file in Windows Explorer and select Send to, Desktop (Create
Shortcut). The same applies to XP_PageFileMon.exe. A small utility to
monitor pagefile usage:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

Note programs using undo features particularly those associated with
graphics and photo editing require large amounts of memory so if you
use this type of programme check these first observing how the page
usage increases when they start and whether the usage decreases when
you close the programme.


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Daave]

(Sorry if this is a duplicate post...)

Sometimes it gets slow then almost nothing is running, but more
common is to get inconsistently slow when I have several things going
on at once, but no more then in the past. I only have 300 meg ram,
but it has been fine for 3.5 years.

It's entirely possible that your RAM is too low. Not enough memory
(i.e., forcing your PC to over-rely on Virtual Memory) can certainly
produce what you're experiencing. My Windows XP PC at work has only 256
MB, but I only run a handful of low-memory apps at any given time. For
most people, 512 MB is the practical minimum requirement. Double this
amount (or more) if multitasking or running memory-intensive apps.

But 300 MB? And how many sticks and how much are each? Do you have
onboard video?

For now, I'm leaning toward not enough RAM being your main problem.

I tested the ram, tested the HDD. Remember that this condition is why
I zeroed my HDD and reinstalled xp, and when I did, I got this slow
problem back.

I once ran a hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility, and the drive
passed with flying colors. Turns out the problem was intermittent and
the drive was indeed slowly dying (the give-away was clicking noises).
Formatting/zero-filling doesn't address the issue...

I know you feel the CPU might be faulty. Although this is possible, it's
relatively rare. I'm sure there are a number of diagnostics. I would
only look into it if nothing else seems to help. I believe there is a
shareware app called Hot CPU Tester, but I have no experience with it.
Perhaps you'd be better posting to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt . But
I still would suspect RAM issues before the CPU.

Other thoughts:

Double- and triple-check connections. Make sure everything, especially
RAM, is seated properly.

Check your temperature. You might find SIW helpful (for this and many
other things):
http://www.gtopala.com

Blow out those dust bunnies!

Update your drivers.

Also, have you tried working in Safe Mode? Although you're limited, you
can still run a number of apps. If you have no problems in Safe Mode,
that's useful information!

Could be the power supply (but I doubt it). Still, for rupture
reference:

http://techrepublic.com.com/5102-10586-5566528.html

www.ochardware.com/articles/psuvolt/psuvolt.html

Have you gone to microsoft.com to research the error reports you
mentioned elsewhere?

Finally, give us all your specs: make/model of PC, motherboard, and CPU,
size of hard drive, amount of free disk space, RAM, Virtual Memory
settings, and anything else you can think of.

I still think it's the memory...

 

[paulmars]

Gerry, I never complained of this condition. I should have just said in my
reply below that I never have this problem, but I usually do not answer
questions with just a yes or no. On occasion I have had a file that could
not be deleted or moved or renamed. Sometimes it has been a video file (avi,
mpg, etc). I have also had this occasionally with non video files, including
ms word. It happens rarely and I have always presumed that the system has
not let it go, after the application closed. It has happened when the
application crashes or freezes and I force a close with task mgr, although
it has also happened rarely for other unknown reasons. When ever it does
happen a reboot fixes the condition. There was once that I can remember a
long time ago that I needed to go in under safe mode to delete a file that I
could not otherwise delete. I have also had this happen using win 98, win 95
and on computers at work and at home. I once had a friend complain of not
being able to delete a file and safe mode took care of it for him.

My problem is inconsistent slowness that often occurs after a few things are
running at once, but it has gotten worse and sometimes it gets very slow
with almost nothing running.

Is there a reason that you think this might be my fix, despite the symptom
being different?

Paul

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

The problem with avi files is something I have only recently become
aware of. I do not fully understand it's implications. It may have a
connection with DEP. It may also have a connection with this Error
Report you posted earlier. I also posted another message to you late
last night, which makes some further suggestions regarding monitoring
memory usage. Look back up the thread.

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1517
Date: 2/20/2007
Time: 3:21:34 AM
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: PAULMARS
Description:
Windows saved user PAULMARS\Administrator registry while an
application or
service was still using the registry during log off. The memory used
by the
user's registry has not been freed. The registry will be unloaded when
it is
no longer in use.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[paulmars]

voltages check out ok. I cleaned out all the dust.

Problem remains

 

[paulmars]

No errors, but slow to a crawl. I was ready to write this 25 minutes ago,
but I could not even make this the active window, until I closed most other
things and each app that I closed took between 5 and 10 minutes to close.
They were all open and all was fine and I was watching a google video and
after about 10 minutes it started to loose frames, then the audio started to
stop and start. So, I closed ie and started switching to other open apps and
close them, but switching took minutes and so did closing.

one HDD, 4 partitions. C is 20 gig with 14 gig free. OS is on C. All system
files are on C, except that I keep favs and OE store on D, as I have always
done.

No, I had not monitored it. Here is the file from that exe u mentioned. I
left it running, but did not see it in task mgr.

2/22/2007 7:44:03 AM
Pagefile Physical Location: C:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 132 MB
Session Peak Usage: 132 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 432 MB

slowdown happens with no graphics and photo editing app opened.

Please note that nothing on my system has changed when this condition
started. And after the reinstall, I have never even installed many existing
apps that I did have.

Paul

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

You need to start Pagefilemon as soon as you can after the Desktop
appears and then see how usage varies. A session peak of 132 mb would
not be too bad but you need to monitor it over a period of time. It
would interesting to see what happens when you are running a video and
what happens when you stop the video.

How much RAM memory do you have? What are your virtual memory
settings?

Which of four settings do you have selected? Right click My Computer
icon on Desktopand select Properties, Advanced, Performance Settings,
Visual Effects to see setting options.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[paulmars]

ok, I was watching that google video while it was running last night. I just
started it again now, about 60 seconds after the desktop appeared. So, now I
will run a video, but actually I have not yet install any players since my
last xp reinstall. Let me install VideoLAN and watch one of my videos....

Ok, now I am watching an mpg...

24 minutes into watching that mpg and:
2/22/2007 2:13:05 PM
Pagefile Physical Location: C:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 18 MB
Session Peak Usage: 18 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 432 MB

At 26 minutes I close the video and:
2/22/2007 2:13:05 PM
Pagefile Physical Location: C:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 18 MB
Session Peak Usage: 18 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 432 MB

is this monitoring or just a snapshot?

"...but you need to monitor it over a period of time."
"I left it running, but did not see it in task mgr."

288meg ram since june 2003, before that I was running xp with less.

Adjust for best performance. That's what I had before and one of the first
things I checked/set after reinstall. I just double checked and it is still
Adjust for best performance.

 

[paulmars]

ok,

I just looked in Event Viewer Application and I see that same error report
several times again since I changed my cable, and I have NOT opened or
viewed or hovered over any avi files.

I see another error in event viewer system that I did not see before, but I
do not see the cable error again. This error says 7:51a and that was shortly
before shutdown and the system was so slow and I was trying to close apps,
but it was getting so slow and apps were taking10 minutes to close and I
think I may have gotten one of those XP application wont close notices for
one of those apps I was trying to close. So, maybe that cause this error?

Or, maybe this was for this reason. I was looking in task mgr and I saw
wdfmgr.exe and I had never seen that before, so I looked it up. The first
three google hits that I looked at said it was a wmedia player 10 file to
monitor bla bla bla and that it cause problems and it a security issue and
can be shutdown, so I did. Then I read some more and 5 google hits said it
was a file installed with wmp 10 and / or xp sp2 and it sounded important
but not critical. So, I decided to reboot and let it restart. I have wmp 9
and I installed sp2 several days ago, and this file was not in task mgr
until last night....strange...I will do I virus / spyware check now.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7034
Date: 2/22/2007
Time: 7:51:47 AM
User: N/A
Computer: PAULMARS
Description:
The Windows User Mode Driver Framework service terminated unexpectedly. It
has done this 1 time(s).

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

paul

 

[paulmars]

I have been using the computer for over one hour now with just one web page
opened, win explorer, and a small access db that I needed to do some things
in, oh yea OE too. I sent out several Emails too during this time and no
slow down.

Still says:
2/22/2007 2:13:05 PM
Pagefile Physical Location: C:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 18 MB
Session Peak Usage: 18 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 432 MB

Let me try opening some more stuff...OK, I just started uploading a video to
youtube. Remember that this failing many 10s of times in a row over several
weeks was the precursor to the other slowdown issues. 4% uploaded and
progressing...

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

You have posted two copies of the same report ie. the second report
should be 24 minutes later but it has the same time as the first!

2/22/2007 2:13:05 PM
Pagefile Physical Location: C:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 18 MB
Session Peak Usage: 18 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 432 MB

At 26 minutes I close the video and:
2/22/2007 2:13:05 PM
Pagefile Physical Location: C:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 18 MB
Session Peak Usage: 18 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 432 MB

288 mb RAM would reckoned by most people to be insufficient RAM for
Windows XP. The normal recommendation is 512 mb.

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

Do you have Windows Media Player version 10 or 11 installed?

Select Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services. Locate
Windows User Mode Driver Framework service, right click and select
Properties, General and ascertain what startup type is set?

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[paulmars]

yes and looking at it now, 1/2 a day later and it is unchanged (2:13:05pm).

Before my problems started 3 or 4 weeks ago, I could upload a video, edit
another video and watch a third online - all at the same time. And have OE
and both IM opened. Now with all that the upload did show down, but not too
much. If I was doing all that, but instead of watching video online I tried
to watch a video on my HDD it might be chopping, but the audio would be
fine, the upload file would upload not too slowly and the Edit would
complete at a good speed.

No way now!

commit charge
375804
714486
639332

 

[paulmars]

I have wmp 9 that was part of the xp install. I did receive one security
update for it. I did refuse the version 10 upgrade. I just opened it and
confirmed it is v 9.00.00.3349.

the "...framework" is of course set to automatic. xp installed it, I
terminated it, triggering that event viewer error. I decided to let it run
so I left it automatic.

paul