computer getting slow for not the usual reasons

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

pagefilemon takes snapshots. You need to run it at the beginning of
the session at then run it again at intervals throughout the sessions.

I do think your is heading towards a diagnosis of insufficient RAM
memory for the activities you are using your computer for!

What is your CPU processor speed?

What is your graphics card make and model?

--

Hope this helps.

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

 

[paulmars]

yea, I just figured that out:

2/23/2007 12:21:20 PM
Pagefile Physical Location: C:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 213 MB
Session Peak Usage: 499 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 562 MB

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

If I have had enough ram for 3.5 years now and with no new processes all of
a sudden I need more ram???? and over the last week or so my condition has
been getting worse, even though I have not been doing many of the things I
usually do...Does that mean I need even more ram NOW then the extra I needed
a week ago?

Please excuse me for not accepting that I need more to do the things I used
to do 3 weeks ago....also lets not forget that sometimes when almost nothing
is running, clicking on start and navigation to open a new process each menu
that opens might take 5 or 10 seconds. Not being able to send mail when all
I m doing is surfing the web and hav 2 IM apps open. I never had this
condition even before I upped my ram 3.5 years ago...XP was slow then, I
think I had 128Mhz of ram back then.

1.333 ghz

graphics and sound are part of the gigibyte mainboard.

I have been doing what I do not for about a year (uploading vids,
downloading vids, watching vids), and just now it is a problem....And the
problem is there without doing any video processing. All I have to do is
open both IM apps, OE, surf the web and it creeps. Sometimes much less and
it creeps.

paul

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

The evidence speaks for itself.

Running Windows XP on a machine needs a minimum of 256 mb but for
most users 512 mb is needed for a satisfactory experience. Few
experienced users will advise differently.

I recommended pagefilemon to you so that you could test for yourself
the extent to which your system is using the pagefile. You have so far
only conducted minimal tests. You will have a better picture once you
have carried out tests over a longer period.

The second result indicates that at some point use of the pagefile
went as high as 499 mb but has since fallen to 213 mb. On a system
with 512 mb ram I would be thinking of adding RAM if readings went
above 100 mb. Running graphics programs, especially if they include
using undo features, require significantly more ram. Videos are
graphics. Photography ( not sure if you are engaged in this activity )
involves graphics and if editing is undertaken the undo feature as
well. These types of activity render 256 mb insufficient.

You can try to reduce reliance on the pagefile by closing programmes
after use. You might also check to see whether any programmes are
loading on startup which might be run on an on demand basis. Also
check whether anti-virus and other programmes carrying full system
scans are scheduled to carry these out at times when you are not
otherwise using the computer.

Which anti-virus programme are you using? Some have a much heavier
footprint than others. A change might help. It need not cost anything.

Another measure you can take which might help is to increase you
maximum pagefile setting by an extra 512 mb.

It would be helpful to know the model number of your motherboard. This
freeware programme is excellent for getting information about your
computer: Everest Home Edition (freeware)
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

Tip: To copy select Report, Quick Report, Plain Text, highlight
required text, right click and select copy. However, whilst this is
fine for posting small amounts of information into newsgroup messages
longer reports will irritate other newsgroup subscribers. Given your
present problems you may fing copy and pasting not working with this
programme also.

Since 2003 programme updates will have changed system requirements.
The Windows XP SP2 update in 2004 being an obvious example. You will
not be using the same programmes today that you were using a month
ago, let alone 3 years ago. The anti-virus and anti-spyware programmes
in 2007 are much bigger beasties than they were in 2003.


--

Hope this helps.

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

 

[Daave]

Paul

The evidence speaks for itself.

Running Windows XP on a machine needs a minimum of 256 mb but for
most users 512 mb is needed for a satisfactory experience. Few
experienced users will advise differently.

I second what Gerry is saying.

I recommended pagefilemon to you so that you could test for yourself
the extent to which your system is using the pagefile. You have so far
only conducted minimal tests. You will have a better picture once you
have carried out tests over a longer period.

The second result indicates that at some point use of the pagefile
went as high as 499 mb but has since fallen to 213 mb. On a system
with 512 mb ram I would be thinking of adding RAM if readings went
above 100 mb. Running graphics programs, especially if they include
using undo features, require significantly more ram. Videos are
graphics. Photography ( not sure if you are engaged in this activity )
involves graphics and if editing is undertaken the undo feature as
well. These types of activity render 256 mb insufficient.

Again, agreed. Watching video, especially these days, can be very
taxing, so you need 512 MB of RAM *at the very minimum*.

You can try to reduce reliance on the pagefile by closing programmes
after use. You might also check to see whether any programmes are
loading on startup which might be run on an on demand basis. Also
check whether anti-virus and other programmes carrying full system
scans are scheduled to carry these out at times when you are not
otherwise using the computer.

Which anti-virus programme are you using? Some have a much heavier
footprint than others. A change might help. It need not cost anything.

Just for yucks, I Googled paulmars & hijackthis and found:

http://spywarewarrior.com/viewtopic.php?t=14920

You have a fair number of programs you certainly don't need running all
the time. See the following for ideas as to which ones to disable from
running in the background:

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

http://www.sysinfo.org/startupinfo.html

Furthermore, Norton is a resource hog. Dump it post haste. AVG is an
excellent and free alternative. Also, I'm pretty sure there are
alternatives to Zone Alarm which use considerably fewer resources.

How much free space do you have on your hard drive?

And did you catch my other post. Lately, some of my posts haven't been
showing up on the Microsoft news server. Odd... Anywho, please look at:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/msg/61c6806afbe57447?hl=en&

(Or http://shurl.org/uTYgu )

 

[paulmars]

yes the evidence speaks for itself. It worked for years and under the
current work load it works for >6 months, then performance starts to
decline. Something changed, not something needs to change. I hav had no
major upgrades for a very long time.

If my condition started after upgrading to lets say sp2, then that would be
something else. I often use VideoLAN, since it uses less resources then wmp
and qt, but I occasionally use those two. As can be seen, I am aware of
resources and often did experience slight slowdowns, but I could manage
that. Now it is much less consistent. The only consistent problem that I do
have, is not being able to upload videos. I could do it while doing other
things, but now I can never do it, even while doing nothing else. I
experienced this maybe a week or two before I started experiencing
slowdowns. Every video upload starts and gets slower and slower and stops at
xx%, always double figure and almost always between 50 and 80%. Yes I have
tried different videos. Since this was repeating itself day after day, after
doing all the security scans, bla, bla,bla I actually contacted youtube, I
thought something was wrong with my account. I noticed but was not sure
there was a correlation with my google video postings. They started to fail
more often....Then a week or two later other things start getting slower and
slower. But not consistently slower.

Why after closing several apps should it take 10 minutes for my system to
recover?

Why would apps refuse to open and then open 20 minutes later? I have NEVER
seen this condition before.

My video editing has no undo. But that really does not matter, since I have
been using that program for well over a year.

I check my start~startup folder, my startup in msconfig, and services
running regularly. I hav 3 startup items; zonealarm, teatimer, avg av. I hav
3 non ms services; zonealarm, 2 avg. I also have many ms services changed
from auto to manual or disabled.

One of my security apps also reports new services. So, I keep an eye on this
too.

My only security that runs at startup is avg av, spybot w/ teatimer,
zonealarm, but gee I have been running all those for years, excepting the
avg, since I used to use norton and switched about 12 months ago, since
norton is such a memory hog. Even with norton, I never had apps refuse to
open, folders taking 22 seconds to open....

All system scans are set to off, so I can do them manually during light
loads.

I also regularly check for surprises in add/remove...nothing there.

Maybe about a year ago, I looked into changing my pagefile size, but all the
reading and monitoring I did convinced me to leave it set to auto. Maybe I
should do this again, since maybe I did not investigate enough, but again it
has been working....up until about a month ago.

I m using the same programs as I was 3 months ago, excepting minor upgrades,
which have not been the cause of my condition. After all, I can just have 2
instances of ie opened and be watching a video on one and downloading a
video in the other and I experience noticeable slowdowns, like NEVER before.

When I ran 3.1, and when I ran 95 and 98se I always used less ram then was
recommended. Its the way I m, and I hav always recognized the need for more
and do so.

I found and ran 3 different ram scan apps, since that was a suspect. Its in
good health.

paul

 

[paulmars]

is this relevant? (2005)
Just for yucks, I Googled paulmars & hijackthis and found

been done, one of the first things I learned after switching to xp
You have a fair number of programs you certainly don't need running all

the time. See the following for ideas as to which ones to disable from
running in the background

I hav been using avg for a year or so.

free space is about 50% of the 120g HDD.

Just read that post now.

 

[paulmars]

I think I did not even mention Azureus. i also used to download videos while
doing other things, like watching videos, cruzing the net, uploading, etc.
Now i never use azureus. If it is downloading, I can do NOTHING else.

P

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

Have you tried creating a new user profile for yourself and observe
for affect.

Are you still running any 16 bit applications? These can fail to
release memory until the system is restarted.

Are you using Adobe Acrobat Reader? If yes consider switching to Foxit
Reader.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

What is your motherboard model number?

Otherwise all I can say is try to identify which programmes generate
high pagefile usage.


--

Hope this helps.

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

 

[paulmars]

I was reading an Email and my system rebooted. Did insufficient ram do that?

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the
System and Application logs in Event Viewer for when the restart
occured. No Information Reports please.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you
should double click for further information. You can copy using copy
and paste. Often the link will, however, say there is no further
information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

--

Hope this helps.

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

 

[paulmars]

no errors or warnings since yesterday

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the
System and Application logs in Event Viewer for when the restart occured.
No Information Reports please.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of
the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description are
important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you should
double click for further information. You can copy using copy and paste.
Often the link will, however, say there is no further information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event Viewer.Now
start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of the message.
Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from Event Viewer.

--

Hope this helps.

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

 

[paulmars]

it just happened again. I was reading about some diagnostic software while
downloading it from http://www.majorgeeks.com/ and self-reboot.

and it is now lost. So I try and do it again.

again nothing in event viewer.

 

[paulmars]

I m downloading some diagnostics and will run them tonight. Hopefully, it
will not reboot during the tests.

Have you tried creating a new user profile for yourself and observe for
affect.

I will try that next, after the tests run.

16 bit apps, not that I kno.

I will also try Foxit later. Thanks.

GA-7VKMLS gigabyte

 

[Daave]

I was reading an Email and my system rebooted. Did insufficient ram
do that?

Insufficient RAM, no. *Faulty* RAM, likely.

Also, setting Norton to scan e-mails has been know to cause this
behavior.

 

[paulmars]

I am doing another diagnostic tonight. I hav already run 3 on the ram.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

What diagnostic software?


--

Hope this helps.

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

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

I have got hold of a copy of your Motherboard Manual. The motherboard
dates from 2002. There have been no driver updates for some years,
except for an audio driver in 2006.

The motherboard supports up to 1 gb dram max. Adding RAM of this
vintage is quite cheap so you should give the matter serious thought
if you intend to go on using the computer for some time to come.

Some of the problems you are now encountering suggest you need to
check out hardware. The memory, the hard drive and the power supply
come to mind.
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

--

Hope this helps.

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

 

[paulmars]

I will follow those tests after my tests I got from Major geeks are
complete. Previously, I had done 3 memory tests, power supply test, and a
HDD test. Mojor Geeks I got some mainboard, cpu, and memory tests. I have
run several including mainboard and so far no errors.

Hmmm, I was told to use SDRam and that is what I hav in her.

Yea, I kno. I had already gotten that 2006 update last year. When I removed
my soundblaster and went back to the onboard sound. I did such, because I
needed to install a flash card and needed a slot. So, out with the sound
card. Only 3 bays on this board.

 

[paulmars]

Hot CPU, Big Fix, CPU stability Test all from
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads7.html
Most Hot CPU tests have completed and passed, CPU stability test passed.
I may not run the Big Fix.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Paul

Says in Manual regarding Memory

2 168-pin SDRAM DIMM sockets
Supports PC-100/PC-133 SDRAM (Auto)
Supports up to 1GB DRAM (Max)
Supports only 3.3V SDRAM DIMM
Supports 64bit DRAM integrity mode

--

Hope this helps.

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