SLOW Windows with low CPU and RAM usage - wtf????

[JohnnySuperHero]

I just purchased a new eMachines desktop with an Athlon 64 (2.2GHz)
3700 and 512MB of PC3200 DDR RAM. I was so excited to get a better
system than my 4-year-old Sempron 3200, but now my new computer is
running much slower than my older system! Here is a list of everything
I've installed and uninstalled since the beginning:

Install:

Additional 1.0GB of PC3200 DDR RAM
New 500 watt PSU
CutePDF Writer
FreeRam XP Pro
Vcom Fix-it Utilities 7 Professional
Kaspersky Antivirus 6.0
DVD Shrink 3.2
Imgburn (for my personal DVD's of course)
SpeedFan
Windows Media Player 11
Ad-aware SE Personal
Mozilla Firefox 2.0

Uninstall:

McAfee Internet Security 30-day trial
BigFix utility
Microsoft Money 2006
Napster 30-day trial
AOL 9.0 trial
Soybot S&D (thought the real time protection was a problem, so I
unintalled soon after installing)


I thought adding the extra RAM would solve the problem, but it has made
little to no difference. I've run all kinds of anti-spyware and
ant-virus scans to find nothing. The Fix-It seems to tax the CPU when
running certain checks, but otherwise it stays around the 5- 15% usage
usually. I've been monitoring it with SpeedFan and attempting to keep
the RAM in line with FreeRam. Countless cleanings and defragging
through Fix-It have done nothing also. I'm not sure what else to do,
other than take it to the shop and have them take a look, which I hate
to do!

Something that may help is that when I start Firefox it usually takes a
few minutes to even open. Then sometimes the first window minimizes
automatically, or at least starts as a really small window in the upper
left edge of the screen. When I'm trying to do something on-line it
will take forever to load things (with that nice little
'non-responding' icon in the upper left corner appearing all too
frequently), even though I ran a ping test and it came back as normal
for my digital cable.

Another thing that struck me as odd is that I can't seem to get any of
my updates from Microsoft. The page simply will not let me update
manually at least. This is in IE also, so I'm not sure what to say.
It just keeps saying that it's searching for updates or something.
This system came with XP Home preloaded, with an Office 2003 trial that
I haven't started or uninstalled yet. Not sure if I need it, so it
will get the axe soon most likely. How frustrating can a new computer
be??? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[DandyDon]

Run Disk Cleanup and do a defrag, you've got files scattered all over your
disk. Make sure your new memory is compatible with your system, with memory
one size doesn't fit all.

 

[DL]

If you cannot connect to win update something is wrong with your sys,
address this first

You are probably wasting your time with the memory optimizer (FreeRam Pro)

 

[JohnnySuperHero]

If you cannot connect to win update something is wrong with your sys,
address this first

You are probably wasting your time with the memory optimizer (FreeRam Pro)

I went home over lunch today after leaving the Fix-It Utilities running
on a full system diagnostics check. It looked like it had either
gotten stuck, or it was meant to seem stuck. The check it was on was
"Extended System Stress" and that's what it was doing. My CPU was
maxed out and I could hear plenty of work being done inside the case.
I decided to stop the utility and Windows update started soon after.
It downloaded some apparent critical updates to office (which I don't
even have?), outlook, and a few others. After rebooting it again went
into auto update and recommended that I update to IE 7, which is what
it was doing when I left.

From the looks of it, the system runs pretty well during the day, but

at night it gets hammered. That leads me to believe that I've got some
nasty malware on my system somewhere. Are there any other ideas? I
forgot to mention that I have HijackThis! installed, so maybe that
could shed some light on the subject. Since I've opened the case
already, I really don't want to deal with BestBuy customer service or
the Geek Squad. Thanks.

 

[DL]

Personally I've not run any 'system utilities' of the Vcom type since I
updated from win9*
If the Vcom is anything like Norton Utilities its likely a resource hog, and
since you allready have an AV its likely causing conflicts.
I dont believe there is any neccessity for these type of utilities with a
win2k/xp based sys
Cleaning/optimising the registry is of a debateable advantage.
Many of the tools in this utility are allready available in XP

If you have Outlook, as apposed to Outlook Express, you have MS Office, but
perhaps a trial version..
Maybe you have a version of Works that includes Word, an office app.

If this was my sys I'd be uninstalling the VCom utilities and the FreeRam
tool and installing ZoneAlarm, free version. Together with MS Defender,
Adaware & SpyBot also all free

You can allways bring up the Task Manager>Processes Tab to see what is
consumming the cpu.

 

[JohnnySuperHero]

Personally I've not run any 'system utilities' of the Vcom type since I
updated from win9*
If the Vcom is anything like Norton Utilities its likely a resource hog, and
since you allready have an AV its likely causing conflicts.
I dont believe there is any neccessity for these type of utilities with a
win2k/xp based sys
Cleaning/optimising the registry is of a debateable advantage.
Many of the tools in this utility are allready available in XP

If you have Outlook, as apposed to Outlook Express, you have MS Office, but
perhaps a trial version..
Maybe you have a version of Works that includes Word, an office app.

If this was my sys I'd be uninstalling the VCom utilities and the FreeRam
tool and installing ZoneAlarm, free version. Together with MS Defender,
Adaware & SpyBot also all free

You can allways bring up the Task Manager>Processes Tab to see what is
consumming the cpu.

My next course of action is to remove the V-Com utilities. It was part
of a free-after-rebate deal, so there is no loss in purchasing and not
using it. I've already installed Ad-aware, SpyCatcher (in place of
SpyBot, which I may change back), and that Kaspersky Anti-Virus. I
usually have AVG on my systems, but thought the V-com would be
sufficient for a back-up av program. I'm going to try and revert back
to my free-ware only system to see if that helps.

I was working on everything last night trying to get a few things
cleaned up and actually found 7 potential malware entries that Ad-aware
wasn't catching. I cleaned or removed them and will begin work again
tonight. Hopefully I'll get my quick system back! Otherwise I plan to
reformat everything and start from the beginning all over again. My
girlfriend is jealous that my new computer is getting all my free time
:-D Thanks for your help.

 

[DL]

Your welcome.
NB Dont install multiple AV apps, they *will* conflict
I believe Kaspersky has some problems with certain malaware apps.
I use F-Secure and it doesnt play with AdawareSE