Very slow application starting and subsequent operations in XP Prof SP3

[beemer]

My XP prof SP3 with all updates has been running satisfactorily in a Sony
Viao laptop. This is despite the laptop only having 512MB of memory.
There is 15GB free on the 40GB harddisk. I do not use hibernation.
However recently for no reason I can determine applications are slow to open
and during this time my hard disc is thrashing. I have carried the
following without improvement:

defrag
Windows drive cleanup of temp files and IE history and cache
Anti virus full scan all files - no virus of any kind found
Ad Aware full scan - only cookies found
closed unnecessary programs

Paging file set to Let Windows Handle and presently it is at 800MB. (There
was a message today saying that Windows was increasing the paging file from
770MB)

I am at a loss to understand why it can take 30 seconds for windows explorer
to open and similar delays for other programs e.g. Outlook 2007 to open
windows.

During the time that the hourglass is present the harddrive is constantly
reading (writing?) but using task manager I cannot tell which program or
process is causing the hard drive thrashing or active program to be in wait
state.

Have I missed something to check?

regards,

Beemer

 

[Leonard Grey]

Open Task Manager to the Processes tab and park it in a corner of your
monitor. You can display the processes in decreasing order of CPU usage
by double-clicking on the CPU column.

Next time you experience what you have described, look at Task Manager
and see what processes(es) are taking up the majority of the CPU
resources. That's your clue.
---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

"A Day in the Life of a Web 2.0 Hacker" - PC Magazine
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2330952,00.asp

 

[Gerry]

What is your anti-virus programme?

Check the System log of Event Viewer for Error and Warning Reports.

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the
System log in Event Viewer for the last boot. No Information Reports or
Duplicates please. Indicate which also appear in a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer.

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right click on
the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties,
Hardware,Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?
Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?

I would be interested in seeing a Disk Defragmenter report . Open Disk
Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and click on Save
As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents Folder and post a
copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it is more
informative.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~