Laptop runs slow.

[Guest]

Approximately 2 days ago, my laptop started to run really slowly(randomly).
Even when I use my mouse it pauses for like 2 seconds and then moves..When I
try to play a song, I hear 3 second long pauses. I ran a virus scan but I
couldnt find anything. I did disc clean up and disc Defragmenter, nothing
happened. Your help would be appriciated. Thanks.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

Approximately 2 days ago, my laptop started to run really slowly(randomly).
Even when I use my mouse it pauses for like 2 seconds and then moves..When I
try to play a song, I hear 3 second long pauses.

Something is running in the back ground and consuming processor
resources.

Have you run a scan of your computer for "malware"??? Google
"Adaware" and "Spybot" for starters. Download and run those two
programs.

 

[Guest]

I downloaded the two programs and scanend my computer again. Even though they
both found some problems and deleted them, my laptop is still slow. Thanks
for your help though.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

I downloaded the two programs and scanend my computer again. Even though they
both found some problems and deleted them, my laptop is still slow. Thanks
for your help though.

Now it's time to play around with MSCONFIG.

Are you familiar with that?

 

[Malke]

I downloaded the two programs and scanend my computer again. Even though they
both found some problems and deleted them, my laptop is still slow. Thanks
for your help though.

Things to check:

1. Make sure the computer is clean. Here's a link for general malware
removal steps, but it sounds like you've already done this.
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

2. Make sure your hard drive isn't in PIO Mode. See MVP Hans-Georg
Michna's page about this:
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxDMA.htm

3. It could also be other hardware issues such as overheating:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

4. Do clean-boot troubleshooting to see if some program/process running
intermittently (since you say the slowdown is random) is the culprit:

Clean boot in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353
Clean-boot advanced troubleshooting in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434
How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

5. Other resources for troubleshooting a slow computer:

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm
http://aumha.org/a/health.htm - Take Out the Trash

And as always, your first step is to ask yourself The First Question Of
Troubleshooting: what changed between the time things worked and the
time they didn't?


Malke