Performance issues

[Bruce]

I have XP Pro installed on a Toshiba Satellite laptop,
1.8GHz Pentium IV, 256 Mb RAM. It was a clean install
with a new machine. I am running Office, Acrobat, scanner
software, and a few other odds and ends such as a time
clock program. All of the many updates and patches are
installed. I have full administrative rights to the
machine.
XP does some things very well, but in other areas it seems
to have taken a large step backward from previous OS
versions. My chief complaint is that in some operations
it is very slow. It always has been, since the machine
was new. In particular, deleting a file (network or
local) takes up to ten seconds. Also, shut down takes
several minutes, and about one time out of five stops at
the final blue screen.
The other problem with speed occurs especially after the
computer has been inactive and gone on standby. When it
wakes up again, it writes to the hard drive constantly for
at least five minutes. During that time whatever it is
doing to attempt to revive itself consumes system
resources so extensively that it is virtually impossible
to so much as navigate in Windows Explorer or access a
menu in Word. Such operations are very slow, and
attempting them can lead to freezes. I am using the
laptop on AC power most of the time, so power conservation
is not much of an issue.
I have been into msconfig to disable what I recognize as
unnecessary, such as Acrobat Assistant and HP Share-to-
Web, which came with the scanner. I would like to disable
everything I don't need, which leads me to the question of
what is necessary at Startup. Same for Services. I have
disabled the worthless Error Reporting Service, but would
like to disable anything I can that consumes system
resources.
What else can I do to speed up this clunker? All of the
gains in XP are lost because of a few time-consuming,
resource-hogging "features". If I could disable some of
the extra garbage that is going on behind the scenes and
devote the extra processor time to the work I am trying to
do, this could actually be a pretty good OS.
Now if they would only do something about Find.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a
combination of factors. Listed
below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor
performance after
the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of
Windows XP but the
list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list
until you achieve an
acceptable result.

Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often
you do it will depend
on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include:

1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder.
2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE.
3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
Cleanup with
Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), and Recycle Bin
selected for
deletion. If you have more than one drive / partition you may need to do
this operation for
each drive / partition.
4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete
Cookies.
5. Run Disk Defragmenter.

Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites
visited is retained. Start,
Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History.

Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or
update Reference file
from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove
parasites. If Spyware
persists as a problem try a Hosts file.
http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html

Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance
on virtual memory,
may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier
version of Windows.
Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB
is
recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile
(virtual
memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/

Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your
pagefile is located.
You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better.

Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools,
Services, Indexing
Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More
information here:
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm#Indexing_Service

You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close
programmes/windows after
use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are
really necessary.
http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm

Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme.
Look in Google to
see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution.
http://groups.google.com/

Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by
selecting Start,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the
error, information
regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important.
HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&Product=winxp

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Bruce]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have performed maintenance
regularly. I have 256 Mb of RAM, and plenty of disk
space. Indexing service is off. I will check for adware,
but the problem is not so much degradation of performance
over time as clunky performance from the beginning.
Certain actions such as deleting files and shutting down
take a long time. I have adjusted the power saver
settings in the hope of reducing the problem of stepping
away from the computer for ten minutes and having it write
constantly to the disk for the first five minutes or more
after attempting to resume work. The ten seconds it takes
to delete a file is reduced after deleting the first file,
so I guess I can put up with that annoyance. I have
McAffee anti-virus, which can be quite a system hog at
times, so part of the problem is probably related to that
program. I will continue searching as you suggest. I
think a lot of the problem is that there are too many
features that are designed to anticipate my next move. As
I discover more of these I can continue to turn them off.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

-----Original Message-----

Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a
combination of factors. Listed
below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor
performance after
the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of
Windows XP but the
list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list
until you achieve an
acceptable result.

Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often
you do it will depend

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Bruce

What size and type of files are you deleting? Are you using Windows Explorer
to delete or some other application?

What is the size of your hard disk and how much free space are you seeing?
Is your hard disk partitioned? How is it formatted? How large are your
system restore files? Which programmes are you using when you most notice
clunky performance?

Removal of spyware can materially improve performance.

Some would say 256 mb RAM memory is a minimum. Do you know the extent to
which your paging file is being used? Doug Knox has made available a script
to monitor pagefile usage.
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

You may need to work hard to reduce the number of programmes loading. You
need the firewall and anti-virus scanner. I do hope you are not using any
continuous cleaner of the sort that Norton and I think McAfee are offering.
They will drain system performance. Also if you use Outlook Express deselect
the option to "Compact messages in the background" -Tools, Options,
Maintenance.


--

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for the suggestions. I have performed maintenance
regularly. I have 256 Mb of RAM, and plenty of disk
space. Indexing service is off. I will check for adware,
but the problem is not so much degradation of performance
over time as clunky performance from the beginning.
Certain actions such as deleting files and shutting down
take a long time. I have adjusted the power saver
settings in the hope of reducing the problem of stepping
away from the computer for ten minutes and having it write
constantly to the disk for the first five minutes or more
after attempting to resume work. The ten seconds it takes
to delete a file is reduced after deleting the first file,
so I guess I can put up with that annoyance. I have
McAffee anti-virus, which can be quite a system hog at
times, so part of the problem is probably related to that
program. I will continue searching as you suggest. I
think a lot of the problem is that there are too many
features that are designed to anticipate my next move. As
I discover more of these I can continue to turn them off.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply.