Computer is lagging

[irncru]

A few weeks ago I was using adobe premiere when my computer froze. When it
came about after a few minutes it has since not been working properly. Its
not as if its particularly slow - programs still fire up just as fast, web
pages still load as fast etc. Its almost as if the memory has messed up or
something. i can listen to music in wmp if i have nothing else open, but if i
have, say, firefox running the music will lag. and will lag even more if i do
something as simple as click on a folder in explorer.
my whole comp is like this, like i can only use a tiny bit of memory or
whatever at once. i can watch a highly compressed video if i have nothing
else running, but an avi file will just freeze up the computer until im
forced to end the wmp process.
also when i start up my computer the windows loading screen stays there for
about 5 minutes, and the welcome screen stays for longer than usual, start
bar takes longer to appear etc.
this has happened once before a few months ago, and a system restore to
before it happened solved the problem, which leads me to believe its not a
physical problem. but running ccleaner on my comp just before it happened
seems to have deleted all my restore points so thats not an option this time.
im running xp home

 

[R. McCarty]

An abrupt loss of performance can be due a "Dirty" or inconsistent disk
state on the Windows volume. You probably should run a Chkdsk C:
from a command prompt window and watch for the summary results.
If necessary, Chkdsk will report that certain problems could not be
resolved and recommend a 2nd run with a /F or /R qualifier added to
the Chkdsk command.
*Never run Chkdsk /F ( or /R ) unless your data is properly backed up.

Once Chkdsk gives a Clean state, you'll want to check the System and
Application Event Logs. From your description it appears the system is
having problems at boot that may be related to Service Start issues.

Finally, whenever you install ANY application immediately visit the
vendor's website and apply any updates and patches for the app.

 

[Bob I]

Disc read errors can set Drive access to PIO instead of DMA. Look in
Device manager at the IDE controllers and if the Primary channel has
changed down to PIO, remove it and allow windows to reinstall it.

 

[Alan]

Hi Bob,

I once knew how to get to the PIO/DMA settings, but it's been a long time
and the adage "use it or lose it comes to mind."

Can you please refresh my memory how to see these settings?

Thanks.

Alan

 

[Bob I]

Device Manager, IDE Controller, R-click Primary channel, Properties,
Advanced settings

 

[irncru]

thanks

this is what the properties say

i cant change the current transfer mode, not sure if im meant to be able to

in the event viewer there are no application errors or warnings from the
time i last turned on my computer. here is the system event log from around
the time i last started up

 

[irncru]

i see forum code doesnt work, apologies

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j191/irncru/rt3r5twe.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j191/irncru/jfukfrtjur.jpg

 

[Daave]

If you're comfortable with editing the registry, the method to return to
DMA mode can be found here:

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

i see forum code doesnt work, apologies

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j191/irncru/rt3r5twe.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j191/irncru/jfukfrtjur.jpg

thanks

this is what the properties say

i cant change the current transfer mode, not sure if im meant to be
able to

in the event viewer there are no application errors or warnings from
the
time i last turned on my computer. here is the system event log from
around
the time i last started up

 

[irncru]

It worked! i followed the steps to edit the registry editor and the problem
seems to have been fixed, although my computer seemed to still take a long
time to start up. thanks alot for the help guys. one question though - if
this were to happen again *touches wood* as it has before, could i just
safely repeat this process?

If you're comfortable with editing the registry, the method to return to
DMA mode can be found here:

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

i see forum code doesnt work, apologies

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j191/irncru/rt3r5twe.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j191/irncru/jfukfrtjur.jpg

thanks

this is what the properties say

i cant change the current transfer mode, not sure if im meant to be
able to

in the event viewer there are no application errors or warnings from
the
time i last turned on my computer. here is the system event log from
around
the time i last started up

 

[Daave]

I'm glad to hear that it worked. Since I don't know what caused your
hard drive access to change to PIO mode in the first place, I can't say
whether or not the behavior will repeat itself. The method should work
again -- as long as you follow the instructions to the letter. But
nothing is 100% guaranteed. And you should know that there have been
many instances of people futzing around with the registry, resulting in
a PC that won't boot up properly!

The best course of action is to regularly back up your system. Imaging
the hard drive and keeping this image on external media (like an
external hard drive) is what you should be doing. Then if you ever run
into any problem, all you need to do is restore the image and you're
good to go -- just as if the problem never occurred.

Acronis True Image is what I and many others use. DriveImageXML is a
good free imaging program, but it lacks the ability to make incremental
images. Still, it's better than nothing!

It worked! i followed the steps to edit the registry editor and the
problem
seems to have been fixed, although my computer seemed to still take a
long
time to start up. thanks alot for the help guys. one question though -
if
this were to happen again *touches wood* as it has before, could i
just
safely repeat this process?

If you're comfortable with editing the registry, the method to return
to
DMA mode can be found here:

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

i see forum code doesnt work, apologies

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j191/irncru/rt3r5twe.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j191/irncru/jfukfrtjur.jpg

:



thanks

this is what the properties say

i cant change the current transfer mode, not sure if im meant to
be
able to

in the event viewer there are no application errors or warnings
from
the
time i last turned on my computer. here is the system event log
from
around
the time i last started up

 

[Alan]

Hi Bob,

Now it's all coming back to me. :->

Except, on the PC I'm trying it on, there is no Advanced choice. When I
right-click on Properties, there are four tabs: General; Driver; Details;
and Resources.

Way back when, I believe there was some sort of tool that I downloaded,
which would display whether it was in UDMA or PIO mode, but as I said
earlier, it was a long time ago.

Is there any way to force the Advanced tab to show, or do you know of some
tool that I can use that will show the settings?

Alan

 

[R. McCarty]

The "Advanced" Tab is a function of the driver and not an option that
is configurable. One thing that might help is a Registry Key/Value that
resets the error counter if the disk I/O succeeds.
ResetErrorCountersOnSuccess -
See the following KB article ( The pertinent information is about 65%
down the page ).

 

[Bob I]

Try this from Daaves posting

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

 

[Alan]

Hi Bob I and R. McCarty,

After reading Daaves posting, I realize that I'm not seeing the Advanced Tab
because that computer IS using the Intel Graphics accelerator.

Daave states: "Notes: If you don't have the Advanced Settings tab, check if
you're on an Intel chipset using a background app usually visible in the
System Tray called Intel Accelerator. People I've seen with this thing
installed never have the Advanced Settings tab. Also, according to their
Registry settings, their DMAEnabled flag (see below) has never been
compromised. Are they immune to the PIO fallback? I'm still trying to find
out. "

Additionally, by using the AIDA32 application I *can* see the PIO/UDMA
settings.

Thanks for your responses.

Alan

 

[Daave]

Except, on the PC I'm trying it on, there is no Advanced choice. When
I right-click on Properties, there are four tabs: General; Driver;
Details; and Resources.

Way back when, I believe there was some sort of tool that I
downloaded, which would display whether it was in UDMA or PIO mode,
but as I said earlier, it was a long time ago.

Is there any way to force the Advanced tab to show, or do you know of
some tool that I can use that will show the settings?

If this tool was the Intel Application Accelerator, I believe it took
away the advanced tab. However, I'm pretty sure that that very program
should tell you the transfer mode of your drive.

 

[Alan]

Hi Daave,

Yes, you're correct. Launching the Intel Application Accelerator, does allow
me to see -- and reset, if necessary -- the UDMA/PIO rates. I also have a
couple of UDMA reset VB scripts that I downloaded a few years ago.

Thank you.

Alan

 

[Daave]

YW.

Hi Daave,

Yes, you're correct. Launching the Intel Application Accelerator, does
allow me to see -- and reset, if necessary -- the UDMA/PIO rates. I
also have a couple of UDMA reset VB scripts that I downloaded a few
years ago.

Thank you.

Alan