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Paul H said:
I have a freshly installed XP Home w/sp3 on a Celeron
laptop with 512kb memory. That should be enuf to make it
run in a reasonable manner - not lightning fast, but
acceptable. However, the disk stays so busy doing I don't
know what that the laptop runs like a snail! I had this
problem a few years ago with another laptop, but don't
remember what the solution was. Help anyone? TIA, Paul
It could be several things from "good" applications running
that -should- get out of your way when you want the cpu's
attention, to malware.
The "good" stuff could be things like indexing (there is a
default magnifying glass in the system tray if it's turned on,
which pulsates during indexing). It might run a lot when first
turned on but after a couple days should settle down and not
run unless you've added files or deleted/changed files on the
system; then it may run long enough to index those files.
Indexing can be turned off, but in general is a good thing
and speeds up opening files and finding files.
Another is Anti-Virus. AV programs can be set to run during
machine idle times. It should stop and get out of your way if
you want to use the machine though. Background AV can be
turned off, too.
Same for some anti-spyware/malware applications you may be
running in real time.
And so on; there are a fairly long list of items it could be.
Task Manage might show you which task if using up all the cpu
time on you. Start TM, click the cpu column to select it,
then click it again to set the sort order so the largest
numbers are at the top of the list. When the machine has set
idle for a minute or so, the System Idle Process should show
numbers in the 90% or more area during idle (computer sitting,
doing nothing).
Look for the process that has the highest cpu usage; it's
likely the culprit. Then you have to figure out what that
process is (ask here if you don't know), and act accordingly.
Another handy tool is msconfig: It lets you turn things off
and reboot to see if what you turned off is causing the
problem. Once known, then it can be corrected the proper way.
I would recommend:
-- Disconnect from the internet.
-- Do a Cold Boot. That means turn the PC off, and then
disconnect its power cord for about 30 seconds minimum. Start
the computer.
-- Do a ...System Toos; Disk Cleanup. Might take awhile to
run so be patient.
-- Restart.
-- Update and run your anti-virus program
-- Restart or do as instructed on the screen if anything
comesup. Then Restart.
-- Update and run at least three anti-spyware programs. e.g.
superantispyware, adaware, spybot search & destroy; there are
many of them available. Ask here if you want help choosing
which ones. You need at least 3 because so far no single
program seems to catch or check for all possibilities: Each
has their own strengths and weaknesses, so three or more gives
much better odds of finding malware. Some people try to say
SuperAnti... does it all, but that's not true by any means.
It's good, but not that good. No program is yet.
-- Restart. I know it's a pita to do all the restarts, but
they can make the difference between realizing it's fixed &
not, and continuing with TSing steps when it's not necessary.
-- Run ChkDsk with NO flags! Nothing will get fixed, but it
WILL report any problems it finds. Based on what it finds,
then you can make a decision as to whether to run it with the
switches or not.
I do it that way because it IS possible, under the right
circumstances, for Chkdsk to trash your drive to the point of
going non-bootable when the "fix" switch is set.
Then come back here and describe what you've done and the
results, if any, of each step. The next steps will become a
little more complex and depend on the results of all the
above. Write down any meaningful messages you get so you can
accurately detail them here.
HTH,
Twayne`
