System slows to crawl, CPU not doing anything

[Wowbagger]

What could make my system (XP Pro, Pentium 4 2.4 GHz, 1Gb RAM) slow to a
crawl even while the CPU usage stays low (< 7%)? Opening the start menu can
take as long as a minute to open, closing browser (firefox) windows, closing
Outlook (2007) or Streets & Trips - at times I find that getting the
computer to close a handful of browser windows, Outlook, Streets & Trips and
Word can take as long as 5-7 minutes with the CPU Usage never climbing above
even 10% as reported by Windows Task Manager.

Any thoughts? (antivirus is kept up to date - AVG, system scanned for
spyware/malware using Hijack This!, Spybot and a couple of others)

 

[R. McCarty]

First, I'd check System Event Log:
Click Start, Run (Type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
Check for Red Icons that denote errors. Clicking each entry will
bring up a details box with a Event ID # and a brief description.

Since you've done a good bit of Malware scanning, I'd suspect
the disk volume is in a "Dirty" state ( inconsistencies ). You may
want to do a Chkdsk C: from a Command Prompt window and
see if Windows recommends a Chkdsk with a /F or /R qualifier
that requires a reboot.

*Note: Chkdsk with Fix or Repair can and sometimes does remove
data in the course of fixing issues. Never run Chkdsk in
that mode unless your personal data is backed up or the
system drive is imaged.

 

[Wowbagger]

First, I'd check System Event Log:
Click Start, Run (Type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
Check for Red Icons that denote errors. Clicking each entry will
bring up a details box with a Event ID # and a brief description.

No errors.

Since you've done a good bit of Malware scanning, I'd suspect
the disk volume is in a "Dirty" state ( inconsistencies ).

c:> fsutil dirty query c:
Volume - c: is NOT Dirty

You may want to do a Chkdsk C: from a Command Prompt window and
see if Windows recommends a Chkdsk with a /F or /R qualifier
that requires a reboot.

Run on a somewhat regular basis, no errors found. System is defragged
routinely.

 

[Daave]

What could make my system (XP Pro, Pentium 4 2.4 GHz, 1Gb RAM) slow to
a crawl even while the CPU usage stays low (< 7%)? Opening the start
menu can take as long as a minute to open, closing browser (firefox)
windows, closing Outlook (2007) or Streets & Trips - at times I find
that getting the computer to close a handful of browser windows,
Outlook, Streets & Trips and Word can take as long as 5-7 minutes with
the CPU Usage never climbing above even 10% as reported by Windows
Task Manager.

Any thoughts? (antivirus is kept up to date - AVG, system scanned for
spyware/malware using Hijack This!, Spybot and a couple of others)

How large is your hard drive, and how much free space does it have?

Have you cleaned out all your temp files and defragged?

Is your PC sluggish in Safe Mode, too?

You said you used HijackThis. Have you posted a log anywhere?

 

[Wowbagger]

How large is your hard drive, and how much free space does it have?

75Gb, 25Gb free

Have you cleaned out all your temp files and defragged?

Regular basis

Is your PC sluggish in Safe Mode, too?
No.

You said you used HijackThis. Have you posted a log anywhere?

I could, but I've always had pretty good luck using the automated parsers
and manual review.

The system has moments throughtout the day where it slows down considerably,
but for no apparent reason. (There are times when the reason for the
slowdown is known - when Outlook 2007 is sending/receiving email, for
example). However if I leave Outlook, Firefox and Streets & Trips open all
night I am guaranteed that the system will be at an absolute standstill in
the morning and will take several minutes for the applications to close.

 

[Daave]

75Gb, 25Gb free


Regular basis


I could, but I've always had pretty good luck using the automated
parsers and manual review.

I still would recommend posting a log to http://forums.spywareinfo.com/
..

The system has moments throughtout the day where it slows down
considerably, but for no apparent reason. (There are times when the
reason for the slowdown is known - when Outlook 2007 is
sending/receiving email, for example). However if I leave Outlook,
Firefox and Streets & Trips open all night I am guaranteed that the
system will be at an absolute standstill in the morning and will take
several minutes for the applications to close.

Since Safe Mode is fine, you may want to experiment with a clean boot:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316434

Also you could stop using one of these three programs (Outlook, Firefox
and Streets & Trips), one at a time, to see if any one of them is
responsible.

I'm not familiar with Streets & Tips, but I still believe 1 GB RAM
should be enough. Still, you may want to run XP Page File Monitor:

http://dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

Has this happened gradually or all of a sudden? If the latter, it would
be helpful if you could pinpoint the date and determine if anything you
did around that time (perhaps a Microsoft Windows update) may have
preceded your problem.

Also you may want to try Process Explorer:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx