XP sluggish performance

[Arnar Thor Jonsson]

Hi,

I hope you can help me. I have performance related issues. My Windows XP
seems to be in some slow mode and I think it might be related to one of my
two processors or some indexation. That cpu always shows more usage than
the other does. When it peaks my system becomes unusable for few seconds.
When I am using the mousepad or the pointing stick my system seems to lock
for a moment and then I am able to continue my work for few moments and then
it locks again and the same story repeats.



This has been an issue for few weeks now but I can't recall when it started
or what I was doing when it happened. It is possible that it has happened
while my son was playing online (he is seven years old and is playing on
sites like Cartoon network and Disney).



I have scanned the computer with Trend Micro and AVG without finding a
virus. I ran Spybot and Ad-Aware also with minimal findings (MRU object,
DoubleClick, disable.MicrosoftSystemRestore and Zedo). I have updated the
system, used Diskeeper, TuneUp Utilities and Ccleaner for tuning up the
system. I ran e.g. defragment and tuned up the registry. I ran CHKDSK /I
/C /F and got following from CHKDSK /c:

CHKDSK is recovering lost files

Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BI

Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows found problems with the file system.

Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.



Specs:
Dell Precision M65 (oct 2007)

T7400, 2.16 GHz

3,25 (4,0) GB RAM, 2.16 GHz

NVIDIA Quadro FX 350M 512M

HD Hitachi 100 GB, 25 GB of used space

Microsoft Windows XP Professional



Thanks in advance,

Arnar

 

[Gerry]

Arnar

TuneUp Utilities? What exactly?

"Tuned up the registry"? This could be making your problem worse!

You have a high spec machine. It should not need tuning!

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?

Do you leave your computer on 24/7?

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, System
Information. Open Components under System Summary and click on Problem
Devices. Is anything listed there?

What is the Current Transfer Mode for your hard drives?
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/howto-05.html

Have a look in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for
Errors and Warnings and post copies here. Don't post any more than 48
hours ago.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

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.

--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[Gerry]

Arnar

You have problems with your drives

Try HD Tune it only gives information and does not fix any
problems.

Download and run it and see what it turns up. You want HD Tune
(freeware) version 2.55 not HD Tune Pro (not Freeware) version 3.00.
http://www.hdtune.com/

Select the Info tabs and place the cursor on the drive under Drive
letter and then double click the two page icon ( copy to Clipboard )
and copy into a further message.

Select the Health tab and then double click the two page icon ( copy to
Clipboard ) and copy into a further message. Make sure you do a full
surface scan with HD Tune.

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.

You have provided a lot of Error Reports. I will try to look at them
tomorrow.

Did you get a copy of the Windows XP CD with the computer?


--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[W****n S***********g]

Arnar

TuneUp Utilities? What exactly?

"Tuned up the registry"? This could be making your problem worse!

You have a high spec machine. It should not need tuning!

WOW!!

Mine must be a freakin rocket ship then.

 

[Gerry]

What a dumb comment!


--



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

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Hi,

I hope you can help me. I have performance related issues. My Windows XP
seems to be in some slow mode and I think it might be related to one of my
two processors or some indexation. That cpu always shows more usage than
the other does. When it peaks my system becomes unusable for few seconds.
When I am using the mousepad or the pointing stick my system seems to lock
for a moment and then I am able to continue my work for few moments and
then it locks again and the same story repeats.



This has been an issue for few weeks now but I can't recall when it
started or what I was doing when it happened. It is possible that it has
happened while my son was playing online (he is seven years old and is
playing on sites like Cartoon network and Disney).



I have scanned the computer with Trend Micro and AVG without finding a
virus. I ran Spybot and Ad-Aware also with minimal findings (MRU object,
DoubleClick, disable.MicrosoftSystemRestore and Zedo). I have updated the
system, used Diskeeper, TuneUp Utilities and Ccleaner for tuning up the
system. I ran e.g. defragment and tuned up the registry. I ran CHKDSK /I
/C /F and got following from CHKDSK /c:

CHKDSK is recovering lost files

Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BI

Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows found problems with the file system.

Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.



Specs:
Dell Precision M65 (oct 2007)

T7400, 2.16 GHz

3,25 (4,0) GB RAM, 2.16 GHz

NVIDIA Quadro FX 350M 512M

HD Hitachi 100 GB, 25 GB of used space

Microsoft Windows XP Professional



Thanks in advance,

Arnar

You appear to have two problems.

Your hard drive may well be failing, and you should get the hard drive
manufacturer test utility from the manufacturer website at your earliest
convenience and run it. Ensure that you run the extended tests, not the
short ones..

Running stuff like 'TuneUp Utilities 2009' is not a good idea. This type of
program will generally cause more problems than it fixes..

 

[Gerry]

Mike

I found this KB Article when I latched onto PIO mode earlier today. It
is a complicated Article to take in. I have to find time to study the
whole host of Event Viewer reports and see if they connect to the KB
Article
IDE ATA and ATAPI disks use PIO mode after multiple time-out or CRC
errors occur
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472

--
Regards.

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

 

[Arnar]

Hi Gerry,

It took more than 16 hours to complete that test. Results are pasted below:

HD Tune: Hitachi HTS721010G9S Information

Firmware version : MCZOC10H
Serial number : MPCZN7Y0HV70TL
Capacity : 93.2 GB (~100.0 GB)
Buffer size : 7538 KB
Standard : ATA/ATAPI-0 - SATA I
Supported mode : UDMA Mode 5 (Ultra ATA/100)
Current mode : UDMA Mode 5 (Ultra ATA/100)

S.M.A.R.T : yes
48-bit Address : yes
Read Look-Ahead : yes
Write Cache : yes
Host Protected Area : yes
Device Configuration Overlay : yes
Automatic Acoustic Management: yes
Power Management : yes
Advanced Power Management : yes
Power-up in Standby : yes
Security Mode : yes
Firmware Upgradable : yes

Partition : 1
Drive letter : C:\
Label :
Capacity : 93197 MB
Usage : 27.79%
Type : NTFS
Bootable : Yes

Partition : 2
Drive letter : D:\
Label : NEW VOLUME
Capacity : 2196 MB
Usage : 0.05%
Type : Int13
Bootable : No



HD Tune: Hitachi HTS721010G9S Health

ID Current Worst ThresholdData Status
(01) Raw Read Error Rate 100 100 62 0 Ok
(02) Throughput Performance 100 100 0 1029 Ok
(03) Spin Up Time 233 233 33 1 Ok
(04) Start/Stop Count 100 100 0 521 Ok
(05) Reallocated Sector Count 100 100 5 0 Ok
(07) Seek Error Rate 100 100 0 0 Ok
(08) Seek Time Performance 100 100 0 0 Ok
(09) Power On Hours Count 88 88 0 5437 Ok
(0A) Spin Retry Count 100 100 0 0 Ok
(0C) Power Cycle Count 100 100 0 520 Ok
(BF) G-sense Error Rate 100 100 0 0 Ok
(C0) Power Off Retract Count 100 100 0 17 Ok
(C1) Load Cycle Count 98 98 0 25886 Ok
(C2) Temperature 144 144 0 262182 Ok
(C4) Reallocated Event Count 97 97 0 459 Ok
(C5) Current Pending Sector 100 100 0 25 Ok
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable 100 100 0 0 Ok
(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 200 253 0 0 Ok

Power On Time : 5437
Health Status : Ok


HD Tune: Hitachi HTS721010G9S Error Scan

Scanned data : 95358 MB
Damaged Blocks : 0.0 %
Elapsed Time : 976:34

I have already included the defragment report
(L27745_(C)_analysis_JobReport.txt

Unfortunately I did not get a XP CD with the computer.

I called to the distributor maintenance service, they told me according to
my description it was likely that something was wrong with my HD or RAM and
they asked me to hand in my computer. I will probably do so later today or
tomorrow.

Best regards,
Arnar

 

[Gerry]

Arnar

Was the computer previously used in a banking environment? Iceland
possibly?

I would think there is no problem with the hard drive. I cannot say
about the memory. The Event Viewer suggests the computer was networked
and that many links are broken.

If you had a Windows XP CD. I would suggest formatting the disk and
doing a clean install. You would of course need other disks for the
programmes you would like to use. You might improve the situation by
investigating the software in Start, Control Panel, Add / Remove
Programs and remove the programmes no longer relevant to it's use as a
home computer.

You could also remove any remaining start up item remaining from it's
former use using Autoruns.

A useful programme is Autoruns.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx

With Autoruns you can uncheck an item, which disables it from starting,
or you can right click an item and then delete it. If you uncheck
you can recheck to re-enable the item. It is a much safer approach than
editing the Registry. Another useful feature of the programme is that
you can right click an item and select Search Online to get information
about the item selected.


--



Hope this helps.

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