Sluggish performance

[Guy Ming]

For the past few months my Windows XP Pro system has been
getting slower and slower. At first it took 5 trips for
the bar to start windows, now it takes something like 16
(The blue bar that goes back and forth indicating that
windows is booting.) times for it to book. My system used
to go straight to windows after clicking my user name
(afte about 5-10 seconds) now it takes anywhere from a
minute to three. And just today selecting icons started
to slow and and when I right click to bring up options,
it fades in over the course of 5-6 seconds.(Or when I go
to the start menu) Rather than doing it in an instant as
it once did.

I have a 3ghz Alienware with the best of the best of
everything of yesteryear - 256 Radeon, 1gig DDR, fast
harddrive, etc. Things went so well in the beginning.
What could be the problem?

 

[Guest]

What can one guess.

Spyware, trojan, virus one of which can hurt:
Run Spyware checkers - Adaware, Spybot Search and Destory and others are free.

General Registry bloat - multiple listings for devices or applications that have been upgraded or reinstalled.

Hard Disk clutter - solved by defrag

SWAP File can be tuned:
On its own, Windows places your "swapfile" or "paging file" (a portion of your hard drive that's used as a kind of pseudo-RAM) on your C: drive, and sets it up so it can grow and shrink as needed. On installation of XP it is set at 150% size of your RAM.

However, you may be able to do better. For example, if you have more than one physical disk in your system, you may get better performance from either placing the swapfile on the lesser-used disk (assuming it's the same speed as the primary disk) or by splitting the swapfile across two disks. You also may see modest improvements in responsiveness if you set the swapfile to a fixed size, so Windows won't waste time growing and shrinking the file on demand.

Swapfile management has been somewhat of a black art in previous versions of Windows, but the XP Help System actually has good information on the subject (a first for Windows!). Select Help And Support from the Start menu, and do a search for "virtual memory." Be sure to check out the "related topics" delivered by the search for additional good information.

Too many applications or processes runnning unnecessarily - remove unwanted items from Start Up:
A "Startup Monitor" is a tool that notifies you when new software has inserted itself into your PC's startup sequence. If the software is something that should run at startup, you can allow the change. But if the software is setting itself up surreptitiously--some browser hijackers do this, for example--you can disallow the change, and thus protect your system.

Perhaps the best known such tool is simply called StartupMonitor, from Mike Lin. He describes it as "a small utility that runs transparently (it doesn't even use a tray icon) and notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. It prevents those utterly useless tray applications from registering themselves behind your back, and it acts as a security tool against Trojans like BackOrifice or Netbus.... StartupMonitor watches the Start Menu's Startup folders and the Run entries in the registry."

StartupMonitor is free, and available for download here:
http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml

Clean up with a fresh installation:
Use Files and Settings Transfer Wizard [FAST]: create a folder on another Partition or Drive and store the data there.
Reinstrall Windows, deleteing the original installation Partition and write over everything.
Reinstall all the Apps and Items you really use, not the other stuff you installed and don't cre for anymore.
Reinstall peripherals [printers, scanners cameras etc]
Run FAST to import all you data and persoanl settings.

You'll now have a clean and fast system again. Plus all your files and internet settings etc will be just as you had them before.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Poor system performance can be the result of a single problem or a
combination of factors. Listed
below are issues, which you may wish to examine if you are experiencing poor
performance after
the boot process has completed. Some items may help with slow starting of
Windows XP but the
list has not been prepared for tackling that problem. Work through the list
until you achieve an
acceptable result.

Regular and effective housekeeping is essential. What you do and how often
you do it will depend
on how you use your computer. A suggested routine may include:
1. In Outlook Express empty your Deleted Items folder.
2. In Outlook Express run File, Folder, Compact All whilst OFFLINE.
3. Run Disk Cleanup. Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
Cleanup with
Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web Pages (optional), System Restore (
more Options tab )
and Recycle Bin selected for deletion. If you have more than one drive /
partition you may
need to do this operation for each drive / partition.
4. Remove Cookies. Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, General, Delete
Cookies.
5. Run Disk Defragmenter.

Check whether you could reduce the number of days the History of sites
visited is retained. Start,
Control Panel, Internet Options, General, History.

Spyware causes many problems. If not installed download Adaware and / or
update Reference file
from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ and use it to remove
parasites. If Spyware
persists as a problem try a Hosts file.
http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html
Slow performance resulting from insufficient memory, causing over reliance
on virtual memory,
may be especially noticed by those upgrading to Windows XP from an earlier
version of Windows.
Windows XP will run with 64 MB of RAM memory. However, a minimum of 256 MB
is
recommended and many users will recommend 512 MB. You may check on pagefile
(virtual
memory) usage with Page File Monitor for XP:
http://www.dougknox.com/

Check how much free space you have on the hard drive / partition where your
pagefile is located.
You need a minimum of 15% but 20% or more is better.

Check your setting for the Indexing Service. Start, Administrative Tools,
Services, Indexing
Service. The default setting is Manual. Check that it is not running. More
information here:
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm#Indexing_Service

You can have too many programmes running in the background. Close
programmes/windows after
use. Check whether all the programmes loading when Windows is started are
really necessary.
http://aumha.org/a/loads.htm

Check whether you can identify slow performance with a particular programme.
Look in Google to
see whether others have encountered the same problem and found a solution.
http://groups.google.com/

Are there any error messages in Event Viewer? You can access Event Viewer by
selecting Start,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the
error, information
regarding Event ID: and Source Description is important.
HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&Product=winxp

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Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
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