Windows degrading in speed over time - is it true?

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Guest

Hi All,

I have 5 PCs running different versions of Windows, from XP to Me to 2000.
The slowest one is 1GHz. They are all getting ridiculously slow. I forever
sweep for viruses, malware and spyware, I defrag the HDD and the registry,
I've tried every system cleaner I can find, I've removed most of the software
I don't use, I've prayed to Buddah, Allah, Jehova and all the other greats
and I've seen no increase in speed. The Task MAnager says there's 99% CPU
time free. If that's true, why does it run so painfully slow? Even Benchmark
utilities say I'm up to snuff, but when it takes several seconds for the
"START" button to respond, and many more seconds for programs to invoke,
somethign's wrong.

I've heard tha tWindowa degreads over time and the only way out is a fresh
install. Any ideas anyone?
 
Upgrade the RAM to at least 512MB.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Hi All,
|
| I have 5 PCs running different versions of Windows, from XP to Me to 2000.
| The slowest one is 1GHz. They are all getting ridiculously slow. I forever
| sweep for viruses, malware and spyware, I defrag the HDD and the registry,
| I've tried every system cleaner I can find, I've removed most of the software
| I don't use, I've prayed to Buddah, Allah, Jehova and all the other greats
| and I've seen no increase in speed. The Task MAnager says there's 99% CPU
| time free. If that's true, why does it run so painfully slow? Even Benchmark
| utilities say I'm up to snuff, but when it takes several seconds for the
| "START" button to respond, and many more seconds for programs to invoke,
| somethign's wrong.
|
| I've heard tha tWindowa degreads over time and the only way out is a fresh
| install. Any ideas anyone?


---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0519-0, 05/09/2005
Tested on: 5/9/2005 3:37:53 PM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com
 
If all is up to typical standards,ram,video card,etc...Then one area
overlooked
is actually to remove the ram,video card and clean the contacts,take a #2
eraser,clean with that.You can also use simple metal polish with q-tips also.
In the course of 1 year,they get build up.Also,clean the fans with q-tips and
Isopropyl Alcohol,same ingredient used in cleaning tape heads,cds,dvds,a
bottle
runs about .70 cents.
 
HI Carey,
Thanks for the quick reply. I have 512MB in my current (W2k) machine, and
more than that in my XP machine. I forgot to put that in my orginal post,
sorry.

Wally
 
Wally said:
I have 5 PCs running different versions of Windows, from XP to Me to 2000.
The slowest one is 1GHz. They are all getting ridiculously slow. I forever
sweep for viruses, malware and spyware, I defrag the HDD and the registry,
I've tried every system cleaner I can find, I've removed most of the software
I don't use....

Isn't there an issue with Winxp and the number of entries located in
the My Documents folder? If that folder is getting fairly large, you
might try making some subfolders under My Documents and sort the
contents into these subfolders. For now, you could make a new folder
somewhere and move everything from My Documents into that folder, then
see if it runs any faster. If not, just move is all back.
 
Wally said:
I have 5 PCs running different versions of Windows, from XP to Me to 2000.
The slowest one is 1GHz. They are all getting ridiculously slow. I forever
sweep for viruses, malware and spyware, I defrag the HDD and the registry,
I've tried every system cleaner I can find, I've removed most of the software
I don't use, I've prayed to Buddah, Allah, Jehova and all the other greats
and I've seen no increase in speed. The Task MAnager says there's 99% CPU
time free. If that's true, why does it run so painfully slow? Even Benchmark
utilities say I'm up to snuff, but when it takes several seconds for the
"START" button to respond, and many more seconds for programs to invoke,
somethign's wrong.

Open task manager again. Click on the performance tab. Compare "Total"
under "Physical Memory (k)" with "Total" under "Commit Charge (k)." If the
commit charge is near or above the total physical memory, your computer will
slow down. If so, free up memory by closing programs you are not using.
You may also try shutting down processes and services you don't need, but
don't do it unless you know exactly what you are doing.

If inadequate RAM isn't your problem, another possible cause is disk errors.
Run chkdsk while enabling the options to fix errors automatically and to
scan your hard drive for bad sectors. Doing so will require a reboot and may
take awhile, depending on the size of your hard drive.

How much have you attempted to "tweak" XP, or run third party system
utilities, to squeeze additional performance from your computer? My long
experience with XP is that the more you mess with how Microsoft designed XP
to run, the worse it actually runs. Whenever you can, use the native
utilities and resist the temptation to use such tweaks and third party
software. Performance is about 95% a function of your CPU and RAM, i.e. a
function of your hardware. The rest is attributable to the health of your
hard drive. XP already has the tools you need to maintain and optimize your
hard drive (chkdsk, Disk Cleanup, and Disk Defragmenter).
I've heard that Windows degrades over time and the only way out is a fresh
install. Any ideas anyone?

This statement is half correct. A clean install is always the surest way to
restore XP to peak operating condition. But Windows XP itself doesn't
degrade over time. Usually, slowdowns are for other reasons, such as
malware, disk errors, registry errors, failure to clean junk files, multiple
installs and uninstalls of software, and other things of that kind. Also, if
you installed an intrusive third-party system utility, such as Norton’s
Systemworks, your computer will never recover fully.

Ken
 
Hi Andrew,

Thanks for taking the time to answer. I agree with you that cleaning the
contacts can clean things up electrically, yet it seems odd to me that 5
machines would all have the same solution as this....

Wally
 
Hi There,

I can try that, though I only have 150MB in that folder which doesn't seem
like a lot, but I'll try it.

Wally
 
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