slow and choppy

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Guest

After about an hour of my computer being switched on, it begins to get
'choppy' at about 15 second intervals (the mouse jumps, sound freezes
momentarily etc). When I restart the computer things run smoothly again, but
only for a while, before it happens again.
I have plenty of disk space left, I don't multi-task, and I scanned for
viruses and spyware, and that isn't the problem either. I use XP.

What might be the matter, and how can I fix it? This happened once before,
and I had to reformat the computer, and it worked fine for a few months, but
now has started again. I don't want to have to reformat again. Thanks.
 
questionguy said:
After about an hour of my computer being switched on, it begins to get
'choppy' at about 15 second intervals (the mouse jumps, sound freezes
momentarily etc). When I restart the computer things run smoothly again, but
only for a while, before it happens again.
I have plenty of disk space left, I don't multi-task, and I scanned for
viruses and spyware, and that isn't the problem either. I use XP.

What might be the matter, and how can I fix it? This happened once before,
and I had to reformat the computer, and it worked fine for a few months, but
now has started again. I don't want to have to reformat again. Thanks.
Click to expand...

This can happen if you have a program installed that has a memory leak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_leak

Open the task manager (Right click the task bar - task manager)
And see if your memory usage increases over time.

If so, remove or stop using the program responsible.
 
Thanks for the replies.

1- i don't think it's because the computer is overheating, because once i
restart it, it works fine for a while again (so obviously when i restart, the
heat doesn't disappear).

2- i have a feeling it might actually be a memory leak after reading that
link, yes. My question now is, how do I detect which program is the cause of
this? How do I find out which program to cancel?
 
questionguy said:
2- i have a feeling it might actually be a memory leak after reading that
link, yes. My question now is, how do I detect which program is the cause of
this? How do I find out which program to cancel?
Click to expand...

If it is caused by a memory leak, Task manager and watching program
memory usage is the easy way, cause if it's not obvious it's pretty
rough to find.

It's going to be a third party program (Not MS) - If you have
something you run at start up you can disable it with
Start | Run <type in> msconfig <enter> startup entries

If it fix's you problem stop using the program :)
 
If it is caused by a memory leak, Task manager and watching program
memory usage is the easy way, cause if it's not obvious it's pretty
rough to find.

It's going to be a third party program (Not MS) - If you have
something you run at start up you can disable it with
Start | Run <type in> msconfig <enter> startup entries

If it fix's you problem stop using the program :)
Click to expand...

I'll try that, thanks for all the help
 
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