Slow machine/System Process check?

[Dennis Adamisin]

Home PC with Celeron, 1.3mhz, 512 Ram, XP-Home, all updates ( automatic)
Have two user profiles set-up, with me as administrator.

System is crawling to a halt - seems to be something(s) running in the
background I cannot find. Open Task Manager, shows 40 (give or take) process
open, only the "taskmgr.exe" shows CPU usage of 0-2, "System Idle Process"
shows CPU 90-98. The graph on the "Performance" tab shows lots of activity
spikes, Page file Usage of 308Mb & steady.

The system no longer produces clear sounds, it is garbled as if the system
cannot sort through the workload(?). If I log-off (or shut down) upon
logging back on the CPU shows near 100% activity for 20+ minutes. During
this time even the Mouse cursor hangs up (apparently) due to system load.

Just recently also lost ability to run Printer on USB, so reverted to
Parallel Cable - seems to be OK.

Have uninstalled everything I can do without.

I suspected some kind of bug, and have run alternative virus sweeps, &
adware checks - comes through clean


Oh yeah, I can plead IGNORANCE and make a strong case!


* Is there a "correct" number of processes more or less than the 40 I see?

*Is there some kind of checklist to see if the RIGHT processes are running?

* Is the CPU usage of 90-98 on System Idle Processes indicative of something
burrowed in there?



....and THANKS in advance for any "coaching" or advice

Dennis A

 

[paulmd]

Home PC with Celeron, 1.3mhz, 512 Ram, XP-Home, all updates ( automatic)
Have two user profiles set-up, with me as administrator.

System is crawling to a halt - seems to be something(s) running in the
background I cannot find. Open Task Manager, shows 40 (give or take) process
open, only the "taskmgr.exe" shows CPU usage of 0-2, "System Idle Process"
shows CPU 90-98. The graph on the "Performance" tab shows lots of activity
spikes, Page file Usage of 308Mb & steady.

The system no longer produces clear sounds, it is garbled as if the system
cannot sort through the workload(?). If I log-off (or shut down) upon
logging back on the CPU shows near 100% activity for 20+ minutes. During
this time even the Mouse cursor hangs up (apparently) due to system load.

Just recently also lost ability to run Printer on USB, so reverted to
Parallel Cable - seems to be OK.

Have uninstalled everything I can do without.

I suspected some kind of bug, and have run alternative virus sweeps, &
adware checks - comes through clean


Oh yeah, I can plead IGNORANCE and make a strong case!


* Is there a "correct" number of processes more or less than the 40 I see?

Not exactly a correct number, it all depends on your system. Can you
post a list of what processes are running?

*Is there some kind of checklist to see if the RIGHT processes are running?

* Is the CPU usage of 90-98 on System Idle Processes indicative of something
burrowed in there?

System idle process is just saying your system is, well, idle.

THere's two main theories. Either your computer is dying all around
you, or something is royally screwed up in Windows somewhere.

To diagnose the hardware:

o Download memtest86+ from www.memtest.org
o Downlood the hard drive diagnostic utility from the manufacturor of
your hard drive.
o Crack open the case and look for bad capicitors (little soda cans).
If ANY are bulging or leaking, the motherboard is toast. (It's
possible, but not usually economical to desolder and replace them,
unless you can do the work yourself)
o While you're there, make sure that ALL the fans are spinning, and the
board is resonably free of dust.



After you're sure the hardware is fine, we'll see about windows.

 

[Dennis Adamisin]

First off, THANKS for your offer of help!

* Checked out the mechanicals. The fan on the AGP card is locked up. Have
removed it in and looking for replacement. Checked to assure all the
plugged in things were still plugged in - no worries.

Had eaten up a motherboard in the past, it died NOW - not an extended death.

* Other factoids: 80G hard drive split into three sectors, total of 18 G
used, rest free.

* Was unsuccessful with the memory test. Downloaded a couple versions and
tried them without getting them to operate. Most likely a "dummy" error on
my part somewhere. The normal boot-up sequence conducts a memory check that
comes up clean - is the other test more intense than that?

Found a couple of misc AOL utilities that seeme to run all the time -
removed them...

* Sounds are still messed up,...

Question: I have read about some problems with USB operation adversely
affected in a recent update. Understand that the USB-Printer problem I have
(had) on both PC's might be due to that. Have switched both PC's/Printers
back to parallel printer port. Is the USB problem "real" and should I
prioritize that fix?ports - went to USBman site and got instructions to
basically remove the drives, then reboot to restore.... whatcha think?

da

 

[paulmd]

There's a lot to digest all at once, to follow. PLEASE ask if you need
clarificitions.
Also, posting that list of system processes may be very helpful.

First off, THANKS for your offer of help!

* Checked out the mechanicals. The fan on the AGP card is locked up. Have
removed it in and looking for replacement. Checked to assure all the
plugged in things were still plugged in - no worries.

This may definately cause an unstable machine. Not sure about slow, but
definately unstable. It's still a top priority to replace.

Had eaten up a motherboard in the past, it died NOW - not an extended death.

* Other factoids: 80G hard drive split into three sectors, total of 18 G
used, rest free.

No issue here.

* Was unsuccessful with the memory test. Downloaded a couple versions and
tried them without getting them to operate. Most likely a "dummy" error on
my part somewhere.

There are a couple things that can go awry with creating and using the
memtest CD.

The perferred version I use is the pre-compiled ISO (zip)

http://www.memtest.org/download/1.65/memtest86+-1.65.iso.zip

To use, extract the ISO file from the archive.

Burn the ISO image to a CD. IT's a complete CD Image. (See your
burning program's documentation on how to use ISOs, or google.) Or have
a friend burn a copy for you.

Boot from CD. Make sure that your system is set up to boot from a cd,
and that it is set up to boot from the cd before the hard drive.

The normal boot-up sequence conducts a memory check that

comes up clean - is the other test more intense than that?

Yes, A complete loop may take an hour or more, depending on memory size
and speed. A level of testing that would drive PC users crazy, if it
were implemented at EVERY boot up. (It would be great if A similar tool
were included in PC BIOSES, and you could run it from the bios setup
screen, but I don't see it happening for a while, yet)

Found a couple of misc AOL utilities that seeme to run all the time -
removed them...

* Sounds are still messed up,...

I'm thinking the sounds are a symptom of the overall SLOWness of your
system.

This is gonna sound random, but....

Check that the hard drive is set to DMA mode.

Windows logo key+Pause->hardware->device manager->IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers->Primary IDE channel->advanced

Set
Device 0 transfer type to DMA if available. If it says PIO only, that's
wrong.

And if current transfer mode does not contain "DMA" in there somewhere,
or if it says PIO, that's your issue. It might even cause the USB
thing. Except, the USB is a recent deveolpment, so probably not.

Question: I have read about some problems with USB operation adversely
affected in a recent update. Understand that the USB-Printer problem I have
(had) on both PC's might be due to that.

Windows update annoyances are a real possibility.

Have switched both PC's/Printers

back to parallel printer port. Is the USB problem "real" and should I
prioritize that fix?

I'd prioritize what ever annoys you most, first. Except: The video card
replacement should be HIGHEST priority. Even a tempory replacement is
better than running without a working fan. And, well, A working card
may just fix the other porblems (probably not). But still, tackle
things one at a time.

ports - went to USBman site and got instructions to

basically remove the drives, then reboot to restore.... whatcha think?

Better to uninstall the recent windows updates first. They're under
add/remove programs, there's a checkbok to hide windows updates from
the list, uncheck it.


*Then* try the other thing. If removing recent updates don't work.

 

[wayLum]

I have a similar problem with my comp. My comp is a fresh system with a new 250GB Segate HD, fresh copy of Windows XP. It would load to desktop really quick but then when it's showing my desktop it takes forever to load, my processing light is on for so long and I can't click on anything because it won't respond. It'll only respond until it's done processing whatever it processes. This never happened to me before, I'm just wondering whether it's because I have a bigger hard drive now or there is some malfunction to my motherboard, rams, or something.

I have:
MB: Asus A8V
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 FX-53
RAM: 2x 1gb Kingston ram
PS: Antec TruePower 2.0 550 Watts
V.Card: (Current) Geforce4 Ti440, (In a couple days) evga Geforce 7800 GS agp
HD: Seagate 250gb
ROM: Sony IDE DVD Rom / Burner

Here is a picture of what my system is processing after like 20 mins of opening and closing some programs.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/Waylum/list2.jpg

 

[wayLum]

Anyone? Please