very slow response to keyboard commands

[Steve and Tami Pedersen]

I need help diagnosing a problem: I can't even decide if it's hardware or
software. Computer is slow to boot up, very slow to respond to keyboard (can
take up to 1 minute for program to launch after double-click on desktop
icon), locks up frequently. Problem is random, sometimes everything works OK
for a while, then slows up. When it's malfunctioning, reboot doesn't solve
anything, it just takes a while to reboot, then won't respond to commands
once everything comes up. System tray loads successfully, everything "looks"
normal, just doesn't work well. I've done the below so far to try and figure
it out:
1. ran CHKDSK: no errors on volume discovered
2. updated virus files and ran Norton Antivirus: no viruses (I check for
Norton updates daily)
3. ran Defrag
4. uninstalled and reinstalled a couple of recently installed programs
5. BIOS and other drivers are up to date

Where do I go from here? Computer is 18 mo. old, 40GB hard drive, 1.6Ghz
Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, Intel motherboard D845BG

 

[Guest]

Hi,

First, run any anti spywares softwares to cleanup spywares. Adaware 6.0 from lavasoftusa.com is a good choice.
Secondly, run disk clean up to clear temp files and clear internet cache files.
Thirdly, check the page files (virtual memory) to ensure they are not corrupted or too fragmented.
(When you run disk defragment, the un-removal files are page files, see the analyst report to ascertain that it is not too fragmented)

Peter


----- Steve and Tami Pedersen wrote: -----

I need help diagnosing a problem: I can't even decide if it's hardware or
software. Computer is slow to boot up, very slow to respond to keyboard (can
take up to 1 minute for program to launch after double-click on desktop
icon), locks up frequently. Problem is random, sometimes everything works OK
for a while, then slows up. When it's malfunctioning, reboot doesn't solve
anything, it just takes a while to reboot, then won't respond to commands
once everything comes up. System tray loads successfully, everything "looks"
normal, just doesn't work well. I've done the below so far to try and figure
it out:
1. ran CHKDSK: no errors on volume discovered
2. updated virus files and ran Norton Antivirus: no viruses (I check for
Norton updates daily)
3. ran Defrag
4. uninstalled and reinstalled a couple of recently installed programs
5. BIOS and other drivers are up to date

Where do I go from here? Computer is 18 mo. old, 40GB hard drive, 1.6Ghz
Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, Intel motherboard D845BG

 

[Guest]

Peter,

Thanks for your suggestions. I last ran Adaware a month or so ago. I downloaded and installed the latest ref.list file, ran Adaware and removed 24 "tracking cookies". Ran disk cleanup on my C: drive. Went to the Defrag memu and had it "analyse" the hard drive, then saved the info as a text file and opened it up to read it:

Volume (C File fragmentation
Volume size = 37.26 GB Total files = 64,456
Cluster size = 4 KB Average file size = 346 KB
Used space = 17.68 GB Total fragmented files = 337
Free space = 19.58 GB Total excess fragments = 5,494
Percent free space = 52 % Average fragments per file = 1.08

Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 0 %
File fragmentation = 0 %
Free space fragmentation = 0 %

Pagefile fragmentation
Pagefile size = 768 MB
Total fragments = 1

Folder fragmentation
Total folders = 4,175
Fragmented folders = 5
Excess folder fragments = 14

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 146 MB
MFT record count = 68,798
Percent MFT in use = 46 %
Total MFT fragments = 3

Sorry for all the detail, wasn't sure if any of this would be of use to someone reading this. I'm a computer novice here, not sure what else to check?? Since the page file is not fragmented, does that mean it also is not corrupted? I'm not sure how to confirm what is or is not working properly. Any more suggestions?

Steve
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