Slow Running (continued)

[Terry Bennett]

Many thanks to all those who offered advice in response to my previous post
(18 August). I followed all the suggestions given (mainly to free-up hard
drive space, clear-out temporary files, reduce system restore points,
disable hibernation, etc) and this appeared to yield real improvements. The
response speeds were much improved.

I have started the machine today, however, and it is once again as slow as
ever. There seems to be something continually running in the background as
I can hear the disk drive noise (gentle 'scratching' or whirring), yet I am
doing nothing. Whilst this noise persists the responses are painfully slow
(30 seconds or more to change from Mail to Tasks in Outlook) ... virtually
unusable. How do I find out what it is that's going on in the background
that is slowing things down so badly? Task Manager doesn't seem to show
anything obvious. When the noise stops (entirely of its own accord) then
things rapidly improve.

 

[Peter Foldes]

Terry

When this is happening Go to Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) and open the Processes Tab. Make sure you put a checkmark to ***Show processes from
all users***** and then check and see which process(s) are running and using a lot of the CPU. Post back
and let us know

 

[JS]

It could be a sub-process or application that's running in the background
and taking all
the CPU resources, which could be the cause of your PC running slow.

To find and display what could be the problem try Process Explorer:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

Once you have Process Explorer installed and running:
In the taskbar select View and check 'Show Process Tree' and the
'Show Lower Pane' options.
Then expand the process named 'Explorer' (click on the + sign)
In the column on the left named 'CPU', look for any high CPU usage.
Next click on the CPU column to sort the processes by %CPU usage
(Highest to Lowest).

Move the mouse cursor over any process, you should see a popup with some
detailed info.
Then mouse over the process that's using most or all the CPU %.
Then click on that process to highlight it,
Now that it's highlighted, right click and from the options listed select:
Search Online
This should display what out there on the web about that process.
You can also double click on any process to open up a more detailed
'Properties' window.

Note: some entries like Explorer, System/Services, and
Svchost entries may need to be expanded to show the detail (sub processes),
in this case click on the + located to the left of the entry.

An alternate method when using Process Explorer is to double click on the
Graph just below the Menu bar.
This will open the 'System Information' window, which has a larger display
of all three graphs.
Move your mouse over any spike in the CPU Usage graph to see what
process/application or service was the cause of the spike.

Another tool available is: What's Running
http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/main.aspx

JS
www.pagestart.com

 

[Daave]

JS beat me to the punch! Peter, you should definitely run Process
Explorer, which is more useful than Task Manager.

How much free space do you have on your drive now?

And you should also check what mode your hard drive access is in:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/

Once the noise stops, is it gone for good (i.e., until the next time you
boot up)?

 

[Terry Bennett]

Thanks Dave. I looked at the mode and that seems to be fine as per the
instructions given on the website.

I now have 19Gb free on the C drive.

The noise is definitely more prevalent just after booting the PC but at
times can last for quite a while (1/2 hour or more) and does sometimes
return.

 

[Terry Bennett]

Thanks JS. I've downloaded Process Explorer and will keep an eye on what's
running when the problem recurs. At the moment everything is quiet although
the Norton Live Update did run for 10 minutes or so when I first logged on.

 

[Terry Bennett]

Thanks Peter.

I'm keeping an eye on it using this and the other tools suggested. Will
report back as and when!


Terry

When this is happening Go to Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) and open the
Processes Tab. Make sure you put a checkmark to ***Show processes from
all users***** and then check and see which process(s) are running and using
a lot of the CPU. Post back
and let us know

 

[JS]

One problem with 'Live Update' is that it has a bad habit of
starting an update (unknown to me as it runs in the background)
and every once in a while I'm shutting down the PC when
Live Update is running.

The result can cause problems the next time I turn on
my PC. So in my case I shut off the Autoupdate option in
Norton and I now choose when to download updates.

JS

 

[Terry Bennett]

Good idea - I will do the same!

On a similar matter, I seem to get a lot of instances of Windows updates
being downloaded without any intervention on my part. These then have to be
installed and the system re-booted. I presume that I ignore these at my
peril, ie; that they are important to have?!

 

[JS]

I turn off Automatic Updates
(Start/Control Panel/Security Center/Automatic Updates/Turn off Automatic
Updates)

Updates are generally released on the second Tuesday
of each month (Patch Tuesday). I wait a week or two to see
what the feedback/problems are on any updates, then I do an
image backup of Windows and finally install the updates by
going directly to the Windows Update site,
selecting the 'Custom' option,
reviewing what updates are available for my PC
and then checking/selecting those updates I want to install,
which most of the time means all the security updates.

Optional Updates are listed separately and are just that 'Optional'!!!

I never download any Microsoft driver updates as they
are know to cause problems from time to time.

JS
www.pagestart.com

 

[pelancho]

Terry

When this is happening Go to Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) and open the Processes Tab. Make sure you put a checkmark to ***Show processes from
all users***** and then check and see which process(s) are running and using a lot of the CPU. Post back
and let us know

--
Peter

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