Recent XP slowdown

[RS]

I recently have had a slow down of my system using XP SP2 (Build
2600). I have
turned off Automatic Updates a little while back when there was some
stability
issues reported with new updates.

For some reason, about a month ago my system started slowing down. I
have
done numerous defrags, spyware checks, have 25% hd space free, but
it's still
not able to do the various multi-tasking I do (about five to 6
programs up all the
time, often two browsers because of Firefox bloating with certain
sites, IE is actually a more
efficient program).

I have checked Services, MSConfig for the normal stuff, but nothing
unusual
is shown as running.

Short of using a registry cleaner program, anyone have any suggestions
at
what might be the cause and how to fix it? I don't see anything in
Add or Remove programs
that may have been the cause and I haven't installed any big programs
recently
that may have slowed things down. I did just switch to Comcast cable
from using
DSL and not sure how this might have changed things.

 

[Paul]

I recently have had a slow down of my system using XP SP2 (Build
2600). I have
turned off Automatic Updates a little while back when there was some
stability
issues reported with new updates.

For some reason, about a month ago my system started slowing down. I
have
done numerous defrags, spyware checks, have 25% hd space free, but
it's still
not able to do the various multi-tasking I do (about five to 6
programs up all the
time, often two browsers because of Firefox bloating with certain
sites, IE is actually a more
efficient program).

I have checked Services, MSConfig for the normal stuff, but nothing
unusual
is shown as running.

Short of using a registry cleaner program, anyone have any suggestions
at
what might be the cause and how to fix it? I don't see anything in
Add or Remove programs
that may have been the cause and I haven't installed any big programs
recently
that may have slowed things down. I did just switch to Comcast cable
from using
DSL and not sure how this might have changed things.


--
Robert Pearson
ParaMind Brainstorming Software http://www.paramind.net
Creative Virtue Press/Telical Books/Regenerative Music
http://www.rspearson.com

If you try CPUZ from cpuid.com , are the hardware numbers for
clock rates correct ?

Paul

 

[R. McCarty]

One commonly overlooked issue is the status of the Windows volume.
When a volume becomes inconsistent ( Dirty ) the performance of the
PC may degrade. You can open a Command Prompt window and
do a Chkdsk C: The system will run a read only Chkdsk and report
if a boot-time session using /R or /F is indicated.

If the Windows volume is clean the next most likely cause of slow(er)
performance would be some Malware infection. For that I'd do an
online scan from either NOD32 or Kaspersky. If you don't use the
program Malwarebytes I'd download and run it on your system.

 

[Gerry]

RS


What is the CPU and how much RAM does the computer have? Right click on
the My Computer icon on ther Desktop and select Properties to get this
information.

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

In what ways is your system slow? Is it booting or overall performance?

Is your system free from error?

Have a look in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for
Errors and Warnings and post copies here. Don't post any more than 48
hours ago.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

You may help system performance by changing programmes from starting
during the boot process to loading on demand. Minimising multi-tasking
will help. Putting shortcuts like Show Desktop, Internet Explorer,
Outlook Express and Windows Explorer in the Quick Launch Tray may help
to encourage you to close these applications after use as it is easy to
reopen them when required.

Minimising the use of Add-Ons with Internet Explorer will help.

Avoid seciuity software which generates excessive demands for memory.
McAfee and Norton products are notably among those to be avoided.

Avoid using facilities which run in the background when they can be run
when the computer is not being used. An example is Diskeeper which can
continuously defragment when it can be set to run on demand.

In what mode is your computer reading the hard drive? Try HD Tune. It
only gives information and does not fix any problems.

Download and run it and see what it turns up. You want HD Tune
(freeware) version 2.55 not HD Tune Pro (not Freeware) version 3.00.
http://www.hdtune.com/

Select the Info tabs and place the cursor on the drive under Drive
letter and then double click the two page icon ( copy to Clipboard )
and copy into a further message.

Select the Health tab and then double click the two page icon ( copy to
Clipboard ) and copy into a further message. Make sure you do a full
surface scan with HD Tune.

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Bob Millard]

Boot the computer into Safe Mode (F8) and then see how it runs.

If it is OK, then you have something either using up CPU time or a program
that is slowing down your system.

If it is OK in Safe Mode, do you have a Norton product or McAfee product
installed?

If so remove them and then see if the system runs better.



Bob

 

[Brainstormer]

Thanks for all the advice.

I uninstalled a few programs (Qwest DSL was one) and things seem to be
better.
I will keep trying suggestions and report back if anything substantial
comes up.

I tried to uninstall Google Desktop twice but it was hanging on the
uninstall.
It is still there although I did take it out of the config.sys.
Uninstall took out some
stuff but didn't take the icon out of the Add or Remove Programs.

Robert