My computer goes really slow when running applications.

[Guest]

Hello, I have windows xp, and had my computer since 2001. In this previous
year I have expierenced a great deal of slowing down when running many
applications, playing games, running dvds, being on MSN 9, ( they say nothing
should be wrong ), searching my computer, ( start, search ), using Spybot
Search And Destroy ( When Scanning ), I have 256 MB of RAM, and about 51%
available. I tryed ram boosters over the internet but they don't fix the
problem, ( I still use them, anything may help). I have 1.5 GHZ, my computer
is manufactured by COMPAQ, I have Spybot Search and Destroy, Zone Lab ( or
Zone Alarm, firewall protection ) I have AVG, ( anti virus ). I have runned
the test from Microsoft to test memory and It said nothing was wrong, My
computer ran extremely slow during these test ( AND I MEAN
SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW ) It goes like this for allot of things like running
many applications, playing games, running dvds, being on MSN 9, and what I
mentioned above. I used factory restore about 3 times but that didn't fix the
problem, and I also ran Quick Restore once and I still have the same problem
sad enough. I have a dail-up modem but it says that I connect on 115.20 KBPS
( Probally and error ) I thought about increasing my RAM but I thought, why
should I do this if It worked fine before, please help me get my computer to
the condition I bought It in, ( QuickRestore deleted all the viruses on my
computer, I have no spyware, I used disk cleanup, defragmentor, ) I have
about 33.3 GB of space on my C: drive , and about 3 on my D: drive. I have a
feeling that this is going to be a tough one. I have shockwave, ZoneAlarm,
Spybot, and AVG on my computer. Thats it. I have also updates on my computer.
Also when I try to play a dvd on windows media player, it says that there is
no dvd decoder, but even if you fixed this my comp would still run slow. One
last thing is that my fan goes really high and my CPU usages goes really up
when it is about to slow down. It slows down like every minute when I watch a
dvd, play a game, or used spy bot ( this was 6 months back before I used
Quick Restore )

 

[Guest]

Have you adjusted the pagfile to 2.5x the memory for both min and max. And if
that doesn't work, have you tried adding more memory, just to rule it out?
When the computer starts to slow down, is there a process or processes that
are comsuming the cpu time?

Jeff S.

 

[mpm2004]

Have you adjusted the pagfile to 2.5x the memory for both min
and max. And if
that doesn't work, have you tried adding more memory, just to
rule it out?
When the computer starts to slow down, is there a process or
processes that
are comsuming the cpu time?

Jeff S.

We have a dell with 1g of memory and a pagefile of 5g and are having
the problem with one program. A view report that normaly reacts in
nanoseconds is now taking minutes to execue. During the wait time
there is zero cpu usage. I’m searching for ideas.

 

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 11:35:04 -0800, mtjoyhero

Have you adjusted the pagfile to 2.5x the memory for both min and max. And if
that doesn't work, have you tried adding more memory, just to rule it out?

Nah, I don't think it's anything to do with that.

When the computer starts to slow down, is there a process or processes that
are comsuming the cpu time?

That's a better question

"My computer sucks?" wrote:

Dump ram boosters - they are snake-oil junk.

First; disconnect from all networks - LAN, Internet and any wireless
stuff. Does that speed things up? Troubleshoot if so; bad LAN cable,
active malware trying to "call home", etc.

If your slowdowns are patchy (not *all* the time) and profound, and
they stop the mouse pointer from moving, then I'd suspect a failing HD
that's bogging down on retries. This is serious, because you could
lose your data and your software installation.

If your slowdows are general and profound, then it could be that your
processor's Level 1 and Level 2 cache are disabled in CMOS setup.

My condolances on the "Compaq" thing.

Unlike bad HD (which causes multiple retries to read a sector that's
noted to be corrupt when read) bad RAM will not slow down the computer
at all. It will crash at full speed ;-)

http://cquirke.mvps.org/reinst.htm explains why this is no surprise.

That's the modem to PC speed, not the modem to modem line speed that
you really want to know about.

If you had active viruses and have no idea what they were and how they
got there, it's only a matter of time before you have them again.

You say the RAM tests were very slow - are you saying that because
they take long, or because you've watched similar PCs doing them
faster? If the latter, then it's very likely to be either disabled L1
and L2 cache in CMOS, or an overheating processor retreating into a
slow mode to save itself. When running RAM tests, there's no HD
activity, so this points away from a failing hard drive (HD).

If you have a duff disk in a CD or DVD drive, then "My Computer" and
Windows Explorer will be slow to show the contents of the PC - because
they will chug away trying to read the sick disk in the drive.

But that won't slow down RAM testing either.

Ah, then suspect overheating and thermal protection. Knowing Compaq,
you're likely to have the lamest possible fan, or even just a heatsink
and no fan at all if Compaq could get away with that.

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Proverbs Unscrolled #37
"Build it and they will come and break it"