I normally consider myself computer savvy but this has me puzzled.

laptop is Sony Celeron 2.8ghz, 1gig ram.

It has now slowed right down, even to the extent of 10 seconds plus to load a second program. i.e word running, open PSPro and it can take up to 10 secs.

It is then unusable during this time BUT it does log keys or mouse. This is then annoying as when program opens it will go thru the commands quickly. If I've clicked on an area that has a command it will follow it out.

I've run various check programs SiSoft sandra and others report the speed as 736mhz performance(?), memory seems OK but it always runs the fan fulltime ?

Internet is now a chore, it will sometimes sit there with just the fan going flat out then it will complete everything in quick order.
There doesn't seem to be an initial request for a few seconds then it connects to site ok. Speed of line is measured at 4mbit, so not bad.

Any pointers, oh its XP and Explorer 7.

Outlook express completely takes over computer whilst it downloads every few minutes, nothing will work whilst that is in progress. I need it connecting that way, as I receive many mails all day but not hanging computer. I have 3 mail accounts, so it takes a minute or so each one logging in.

Rob

[Edited on 16/11/07 by Rob Lane]

[Edited on 16/11/07 by Rob Lane]

Its probably a re-install job - over time the Windows installation will fill itself with crap and the only way you will get it to speed up again is to delete everything and reinstall Windows and all your programs from scratch.

Sorry - its a pain but that really is the only guaranteed way.

Stoo

If you haven't already it might be worth checking for spyware with something like Spybot. If you haven't in a while it could be full of the stuff and this can significantly affect performance if its all running in the background.

Free download and I use it all the time when looking at peoples laptops that are running very slow!

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Rich

The fan running constantly is your clue here, the fins on the heatsink are probably full of dust causing overheating, and ultimately the slow running and instability you describe. I had the self same thing on a celeron lappie, to the point where I rebuilt it and the install failed at the same point several times, it was full of dust and crap, I cleaned it out and it ran perfect. The celeron chip is desktop derrived and needs efficient cooling, later core duo's run much cooler.
Rgds.
Pete.

[Edited on 16/11/07 by r1_pete]

You've probably tried but opening task manager and checking the processes, sort by cpu/memory use check to see if there's anything odd looking stealing loads of memory?

Is it slow from boot-up? Does a reboot temporarily fix it? Have you check your startup, services and registry to see what is being run at startup?

Ned.

[Edited on 16/11/07 by ned]

Sounds like you have programs (viruses ?) running in the background.
Also if you have any Norton/Symantec software on the computer it could be gobbling up processor time -- Norton AV is effective at stopping malware but bad news as regards operating speed.

First thing I would do is run HijackThis and study the output
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php

Also StartupList from the same source.


if you have any Norton software uninstall it and install Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic
http://www.free-av.com/

Also don't use IE7 or Outlook Express put Firefox and Thunderbird they are generally more secure from malware.
http://www.mozilla.org/

[Edited on 16/11/07 by britishtrident]

[Edited on 16/11/07 by britishtrident]

the fits thing is the speed its running at, its probably set in the power management to run at a slower speed, check that.

when its runnig slow is theer a lot of hard drive activity? download cleanup and reg cleaner, run them and then run a defrag and see how you get on.

does also sound like its getting too hot (may be reason the speed is so low, it can throttle itself if it gets too hot)

A vote for Tune up utilities here.

In addition to the above mentioned points I think that often slowness is caused by the computer looking for stuff that isn't there or has been removed.

The tune up thingy does a registry check for problems and sorts them out - along with various other housekeeping stuff. My computers have definitely benefited from a scan or two with it.

It's a fully functional free trial download so nothing to lose by giving it a try.

HTH

Cheers

mark

1) run something like Spyware S+D

2) use taskmanager to check what programs are using up the CPU

3) use Speedfan to see what temperature the CPU is running @. If it's high you could use something like Throttlewatch to see if the CPU is being throttle to keep it cool.

4) if you're running a big page file its worth making sure the system is defragged.

5) re-install Windows

Chuck it out, buy a mac and run parallels for any remaining PC stuff you really MUST have

Caber

i vote to for the fan option.

the cpu thtrottles itself down until it reaches brakeeaven (temp and speed).

Sow basicly thats what you need to sort out.

if you have 2.8GHZ than sisoft should show that.

thats the biggest gain you can make.

after that spybot/malware and virus checks

Tks

Thanks all,

I've run SpyBot and there is no problem.

I tried the Fanspeed program and it will not report on the fan as it cannot find it.

I tried the throttle program and that shows no throttle when the cpu usage is 100percent. I ran 3 programs to test this but it showed no throttleing. It may be that this program cannot read the fan either, maybe the laptop does not support reading of fan.

I am using Norton Security but the machine has recently slowed down wheareas it always had Norton installed from day one.

I have noticed the large amount of hidden Windows update files in the windows directory. Surely each update should delete the last ?

I also deleted the IE7 temp files but it didn't make any difference. I don't think it will, the machine shows no packet request sent out whilst the fan switches speed and speeds up, then after a few seconds it requests and an immediate response is met from the websites.

I have used compressed air and blown out all the air ports etc so it is quite clean.

I'm really loathe to turn off Norton to test the machine but I may just try it to check a web connection.

make sure sisoft sandro shows 2,8ghz

else you are doing nothing really..

Tks

Sounds like dust to me. I have a great video somewhere on my PC which shows what happens when you take the heatsink off an Intel processor and an AMD one. The Intel will just slow down as not to over heat where the AMD one just burnt out. Take it apart and clean it! Possibly replace the fan as it may be worn.

HTH Jon.

There are several possibilities but I agree with those who indicate dust clogged heatsink causing the CPU to slow to a crawl. Being a laptop it can behard to get clean if you arent confident taking the thing apart and they can be a real paint o put back together the first time you do it.

Before you take it appart I would suggest several things.

1. Have a look through your programs in the start menu and if there are any that you no longer use of use rarely then remove them using the add remove programs from the control panel by clicking start> control panel> add remove programs and then highlighting any progam you want to removeby clicking it once then clicking the remove button.

2. Empty the recycle bin by right clicking and selecting Empty recycle bin then do a full defrag of the harddrive by going to start>all programs>accessories>system tools>Disk Defragmenter.

If that has no effect then it becomes more likely that you have a clogged heatsink but I would still suggest a reinstall before taking the thing apart. this would mean you would lose all your emails and files if you dont back them up so be sure of what you are doing before you do it.

If you have important data and emails that you cannot afford to lose then bite the bullit and take it to a local PC repair shop and let them deal with it but make sure they are trust worthy as there are a lot of idiots who think they know what they are doing with pc's that will just screw things up more.

If you are near or are going to be near Hinckley in Leicestershire then I would be happy to have a look at it. That goes for anyone else who might need help with a PC.

The usual check I do to weed out hardware faults from software faults is boot from a bootable Linux CD.

However I have had an awful lot of PCs brought that have slowed to a crawl and 95 times out of 100 always turns out to be process running in the background hogging CPU time and memory resources. Eventually the computer runs out of resources and starts using the paging file as working memory a grinds almost to a halt.

Norton software seems to slow the computer down more the longer it is on the PC.

Most so called tune up programs actually just run windows own registry clean up tool. Only use utilities off the web that are known be good --- many are actually trojans or hostage ware.

The best tools to look for hidden changes are HijackThis and StartupList .

[Edited on 16/11/07 by britishtrident]

[Edited on 16/11/07 by britishtrident]

Well, that was all interesting. Thanks for suggestions.
I checked and carried out most tasks.

Some performance improvement then I opened file explorer and noticed the hard disk was nearly full !!

Turns out it was partitioned in two equal partitions and with the windows updates it had nearly filled the first partition.

I used Norton to increase the size of the first partition and also moved some stuff to second.

The machine has speeded up quite dramatically now.