Format, install, ahhhhh!

[Ed H]

Just for a heads up. After several posts here comparing the pros/cons of
maintaining my computer vs. formatting and installing XP, I finally made a
move. I tried every imaginable tool to keep my pc clean. I use, faithfully,
a good AV, firewall, several spyware apps (on board and online), CC cleaner
etc., etc. I am diligent with program installation and proper removal and
updating drivers. I can't see what I do wrong, yet my computer performance
deteriorated with time. It ran like crap! Finally I formatted/installed XP,
drivers, programs and apps and she runs like a charm once again. I don't
know.

Thanks all,
Ed H

 

[ArameFarpado]

Em Sábado, 3 de Janeiro de 2009 14:24, Ed H escreveu:

Just for a heads up. After several posts here comparing the pros/cons of
maintaining my computer vs. formatting and installing XP, I finally made a
move. I tried every imaginable tool to keep my pc clean. I use,
faithfully, a good AV, firewall, several spyware apps (on board and
online), CC cleaner etc., etc. I am diligent with program installation and
proper removal and updating drivers. I can't see what I do wrong, yet my
computer performance deteriorated with time.

Everything you're doing is wrong, even the OS you're using is not (and never
was) proper to connect to the internet.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Just for a heads up. After several posts here comparing the pros/cons of
maintaining my computer vs. formatting and installing XP, I finally made a
move. I tried every imaginable tool to keep my pc clean. I use, faithfully,
a good AV, firewall, several spyware apps (on board and online), CC cleaner
etc., etc. I am diligent with program installation and proper removal and
updating drivers. I can't see what I do wrong, yet my computer performance
deteriorated with time. It ran like crap! Finally I formatted/installed XP,
drivers, programs and apps and she runs like a charm once again. I don't
know.

Glad to hear that it's better, but one of the main problems with what
you did is that the reason it ran poorly is that you did something
wrong. Since you did a clean reinstallation rather than find out what
was wrong, it's likely that you will repeat the behavior that caused
the problem and quickly find yourself back where you started. It's one
of the main reasons I am almost always against doing a clean
reinstallation instead of troubleshooting to fix a problem.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Just for a heads up. After several posts here comparing the pros/cons of
maintaining my computer vs. formatting and installing XP, I finally made a
move. I tried every imaginable tool to keep my pc clean. I use,
faithfully, a good AV, firewall, several spyware apps (on board and
online), CC cleaner etc., etc. I am diligent with program installation and
proper removal and updating drivers. I can't see what I do wrong, yet my
computer performance deteriorated with time. It ran like crap! Finally I
formatted/installed XP, drivers, programs and apps and she runs like a
charm once again. I don't know.

Thanks all,
Ed H

It's the various third-party programs you installed that are slowing down
your machine. It's like buying a little car for a holiday trip, then loading
it up more and more each year, perhaps even towing a trailer. Buying a new
car is one way to speed it up again; not loading it up as much is another.
Run msconfig.exe to check the stuff you're loading at boot-up time, then do
a proper spring-cleaning next time it's getting slow again.

Instead of reloading Windows each time, consider using an imaging program
such as Acronis TrueImage.

 

[Michael Jennings]

Just for a heads up. After several posts here comparing the pros/cons of
maintaining my computer vs. formatting and installing XP, I finally made a
move. I tried every imaginable tool to keep my pc clean. I use, faithfully, a
good AV, firewall, several spyware apps (on board and online), CC cleaner
etc., etc. I am diligent with program installation and proper removal and
updating drivers. I can't see what I do wrong, yet my computer performance
deteriorated with time. It ran like crap! Finally I formatted/installed XP,
drivers, programs and apps and she runs like a charm once again. I don't know.

I don't know, either, Ed. Whether it was malware or just an accumulation
of crud, it's gone. But the clean installation consumed a big chunk of your
time. You'll probably be less adventurous because you'll remember that.
If not, then drive imaging software - the venerable Ghost, the easy to use
Acronis, or the interesting BootItNG - would save you gobs of future time.
If you ever do any beta testing, there's no other sensible way to go.

 

[Daave]

Just for a heads up. After several posts here comparing the pros/cons
of maintaining my computer vs. formatting and installing XP, I finally
made a move. I tried every imaginable tool to keep my pc clean. I use,
faithfully, a good AV, firewall, several spyware apps (on board and
online), CC cleaner etc., etc. I am diligent with program installation
and proper removal and updating drivers. I can't see what I do wrong,
yet my computer performance deteriorated with time. It ran like crap!
Finally I formatted/installed XP, drivers, programs and apps and she
runs like a charm once again. I don't know.

Not enough information, Ed.

Not all antivirus programs are helpful. Some are resource hogs and when
out of the box, will scan your entire hard drive every time you boot up
your PC. For most people, the built-in Windows firewall is sufficient.
Also, some people unknowingly run their third-party firewall along with
the Windows firewall -- a no no!

You haven't told us which particular programs you run. Without that
information and without knowing how the programs are configured (for
instance, it's also problematic to have two anti-spyware programs
running at the same time), it's hard to know what's going on.

You also didn't tell us the make/model of your PC along with its specs.
Perhaps you don't have enough RAM for the combination of programs your
run. We don't know how much free space you had on your hard drive. You
didn't post any error messages or provide information such as if any
particular process is consuming a lot of RAM and/or CPU cycles (info
gleaned from Task Manager).

You never told us if you ever configured a clean boot to see if the
sluggishness went away.

You never told us what impact upgrading to SP3 had on your PC.

Running anti-malware programs does not guarantee you will never be
infected by malware. Some programs are better than others at detecting
malware (currently, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is among the leaders).
Sometimes, a scan needs to be performed in Safe Mode. Sometimes, a boot
disk is even necessary.

The bottom line: It isn't a mystery at all why your PC "ran like crap."
All that is needed is facts, and by using the scientific method, the
reason will eventually reveal itself.

In the event you don't practice the safest "hex" possible, these links
should be helpful:

http://www.claymania.com/safe-hex.html
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/security.htm
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=27971

Regarding sluggishness in general, here are its usual causes:

1. Malicious software (malware)

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up.

3. Too many of *certain types* of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge.

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
Otherwise, you may want to explore this further by running Page File
Monitor for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/

and

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

 

[Ed H]

No Sir. I wrote back here several times and followed many leads to improve
my performance short of formatting. Nothing helped.

Ed H

 

[Ed H]

I use Avast AV(free), always updated, windows firewall, spybot s&d always
updated, CA anti virus on-line, sometimes Symantec on-line. When I'm
suspicious I'll run even more, ad-aware, Trend etc. I also defrag
regularly, keep windows up to date, and I don't believe I've installed a lot
of programs unnecessarily. I try to follow the advice of this newsgroup.

Ed H

 

[Ed H]

I did just purchase Terabyte's "Image for Windows" and have stored a nice
clean image of my drive for the future, thanks.

Ed H

 

[Ed H]

This is a lot of information Dave. I'll look into it in depth, thanks for
all that time. I had asked some of those questions in the past. One asking
if it is normal for a computer to slow down a lot just because it's older
and getting near full, which it is. My 60 gig drive is at about 80% full.
But it seemed the answers were a no.

Dell Dimension 4550, WinXP Home SP3
60 Gig. HD, 512 DDR, Pentium IV 2.40 GHz.

No issues that I'm aware of after Sp3.

 

[ArameFarpado]

Em Domingo, 4 de Janeiro de 2009 11:00, Ed H escreveu:

lot of programs unnecessarily. I try to follow the advice of this
newsgroup.

no wonder you keep failing

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

No Sir. I wrote back here several times and followed many leads to improve
my performance short of formatting. Nothing helped.

OK, if you tried everything you could, you may have reached the point
of not being able to find another alternative other than reformatting
and reinstalling. Nevertheless, it's alternative that I would
personally be very unhappy with.

But good luck.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I use Avast AV(free),

Not the best anti-virus (I think NOD32 is), but Avast is a good
choice.

always updated, windows firewall, spybot s&d

Another pretty good choice, but it's very important to realize that no
single anti-spyware program is anywhere near perfect, and therefore
running just one is insufficient for good protection. The best one
these days is Malwarebytes, and I recommend running that *and* at
least one or two others.

It's just a guess of course, but my guess is that you were infected
with malware, and that was what caused your performance problem.

always
updated, CA anti virus on-line, sometimes Symantec on-line. When I'm
suspicious I'll run even more, ad-aware, Trend etc. I also defrag
regularly, keep windows up to date, and I don't believe I've installed a lot
of programs unnecessarily.

How many programs you have installed doesn't affect performance at
all. It's not even entirely how many programs you have running that
affects performance. The real issue is *which* programs you have
running, particularly in the background, where you can't readily see
what they are and what they are doing.

I try to follow the advice of this newsgroup.

That last sentence worries me somewhat. This is *not* a uniform
newsgroup, with everybody being equally skilled and equally helpful.
There are many people here with excellent advice, but there are also
others who are wrong in what they write far more often than not. To
use the newsgroup well, you need to hang around it long enough to
learn whose advice can be trusted and whose can not.

 

[Unknown]

You didn't say you run/ran disk cleanup.

This is a lot of information Dave. I'll look into it in depth, thanks for
all that time. I had asked some of those questions in the past. One asking
if it is normal for a computer to slow down a lot just because it's older
and getting near full, which it is. My 60 gig drive is at about 80% full.
But it seemed the answers were a no.

Dell Dimension 4550, WinXP Home SP3
60 Gig. HD, 512 DDR, Pentium IV 2.40 GHz.

No issues that I'm aware of after Sp3.

 

[Ed H]

Yes, disk clean up too, including old system restore files.

Ed H

 

[Daave]

This is a lot of information Dave. I'll look into it in depth, thanks
for all that time. I had asked some of those questions in the past.
One asking if it is normal for a computer to slow down a lot just
because it's older and getting near full, which it is. My 60 gig drive
is at about 80% full. But it seemed the answers were a no.

Eighty percent is starting to push the envelope, but it probably won't
slow you down. However, once you're above 85%, all bets are off.

I still would have also looked into the hard drive's access mode.
Academic now, I know. But remember that for the future.