Slow XP Boot, Slow Performance

[Phil Horton]

Introduction: Me - I know just enough computer knowledge to be dangerous.
Here's the problem: A friend of mine called me to see if I could figure out
what was wrong with her computer. It is a Pentium 4 running windows XP. When
you first turn it on, the normal memory check etc. is displayed - then
instead of the XP logo "popping" up like I'm used to, the screen displays
very dimly and gets brighter in increments about 5 seconds apart. Finally
this screen appears along with the scrolling bar that indicates XP is
loading, although this scrolling bar is VERY VERY slow. After about 3
minutes, XP loads and displays the desktop. I first opened 'My COmputer' to
see if the C drive was full (my first guess). It took 55 seconds for the 'My
Computer' window to open. The C drive had 70 GB of free space. I then looked
at the CPU usage, and it was 100% all of the time (although when I looked at
the services tab, it said the system idle process was between 70-80).

This computer is about 1 year old (not a name brand), with 512 MB RAM. It
was shipped from WIsconson to California last week. WHen it arrived, my
friend had a guy install a DSL line/modem to the system. It is running
Norton Antivirus and it did not detect any viruses.

What should I check first? Any Suggestions? Thanks!

P. Horton
(e-mail address removed)

 

[XP User]

Have you tried defragmenting the harddrive or updating your anti-virus
software and checking again
Anti-virus needs constant updating to stay current with the new threats that
show up.

 

[Malke]

Have you tried defragmenting the harddrive or updating your anti-virus
software and checking again
Anti-virus needs constant updating to stay current with the new
threats that show up.

While checking for viruses and spyware is always a good first step with
Windows, your friend's problems sound like they are more likely bad
hardware. Just because the computer is new doesn't mean the hardware
can't fail. Here are some generic troubleshooting steps for hardware:

1) open the computer and run it open, cleaning out all dust bunnies and
observing all fans (overheating will cause system freezing); 2) test
the RAM - I like Memtest86 from www.memtest86.com - let the test run
for an extended (like overnight) period of time - unless errors are
seen immediately; 3) test the hard drive with a diagnostic utility from
the mftr.; 4) the power supply may be going bad or be inadequate for
the devices you have in the system; 5) test the motherboard with
something like TuffTest from www.tufftest.com. Testing hardware
failures often involves swapping out suspected parts with known-good
parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are uncomfortable
opening your computer, take the machine to a good local computer repair
shop (not a CompUSA or Best Buy type of store).

Malke