Running soooo slow

[StressMonkey]

I have a user with a computer that she said was really fast when she got it
(don't know how long ago.) Now it is just so slow it isn't even funny. We
have some other slow ones but not like this. She has Windows XP service
pack 2. I did a defrag but it said it has like 78% free space. She has the
same antivirus as the rest of us (who have absolutely no problem) and I just
got a new antispyware on this morning cause she didn't have one. I only
caught 1 thing. She isn't running anything out of the ordinary. What
started me on this mission (besides hearing her complain) is that she is
having problems with an accounting package that everyone else uses with no
(at least not the same) problems. I also updated her Office 2000 so she has
service pack 3. That and 3 accountning programs plus Adobe are all she uses
I believe. Is there anything else I can check or look for? If I need to
provide more information let me know.

Thanks.

 

[Leythos]

I have a user with a computer that she said was really fast when she got it
(don't know how long ago.) Now it is just so slow it isn't even funny. We
have some other slow ones but not like this. She has Windows XP service
pack 2. I did a defrag but it said it has like 78% free space. She has the
same antivirus as the rest of us (who have absolutely no problem) and I just
got a new antispyware on this morning cause she didn't have one. I only
caught 1 thing. She isn't running anything out of the ordinary. What
started me on this mission (besides hearing her complain) is that she is
having problems with an accounting package that everyone else uses with no
(at least not the same) problems. I also updated her Office 2000 so she has
service pack 3. That and 3 accountning programs plus Adobe are all she uses
I believe. Is there anything else I can check or look for? If I need to
provide more information let me know.

Open Task Manager, how much RAM is in use and how much does she have?

 

[StressMonkey]

She has 256 MB and is using right around 90-100 MB.

 

[Mark F.]

I have a user with a computer that she said was really fast when she got it
(don't know how long ago.) Now it is just so slow it isn't even funny. We
have some other slow ones but not like this. She has Windows XP service
pack 2. I did a defrag but it said it has like 78% free space. She has the
same antivirus as the rest of us (who have absolutely no problem) and I just
got a new antispyware on this morning cause she didn't have one. I only
caught 1 thing. She isn't running anything out of the ordinary. What
started me on this mission (besides hearing her complain) is that she is
having problems with an accounting package that everyone else uses with no
(at least not the same) problems. I also updated her Office 2000 so she has
service pack 3. That and 3 accounting programs plus Adobe are all she uses
I believe. Is there anything else I can check or look for? If I need to
provide more information let me know.

Thanks.

Now there is an all too familiar phrase; "isn't running anything out of
the ordinary." The truth is that over time we tend to "collect" more on
our PC's than we realize.

Open task manager and see what is running. Apps like Yahoo messenger,
AOL messenger, etc. are the usual suspects. Also do a little house
cleaning by deleting internet cache files, .tmp files, etc. The cool
menu managers, taskbar icons and other stuff people download eat system
resources while they run in the background. Some are poorly written and
cause memory leaks as they run.

There are a few tools here that will help you find out what processes
are really running.
http://www.sysinternals.com/ProcessesAndThreadsUtilities.html

HTH
Mark

 

[StressMonkey]

I have already done all of that. But thanks anyway. I'll go check again
next week. I'll probably disable everything at startup and just start
adding stuff back in.