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Can anyone help me sort my Extremely Slow Computer
John P - 19/8/09 at 01:03 PM

I have a Compaq desktop which is probably around 3 to 4 years old and not the best spec (see below) but originally worked fine and was reasonably fast.

Recently however it seems to be getting slower and slower to the extent where even programmes like Word take around 1 minute to load and Internet Explorer either fails to load or crashes regularly.

Also when I close a programme it takes ages to actually close down and when it does all the shortcut icons on the screen also disappear for around 10 seconds before slowly re-appearing.

I am running Windows XP Home with Service Pack 3, there is an AMD Athlon 64 processor and 448MB of ram.

The Page File Size is set to "System Managed"

The Hard Disk appears to be split into a C and D Drive. "C" has a total size of 68.9GB with 28.7GB free but "D" has a total of 5.60GB with only 175MB free.

I am running AVG free with Link Scanner not active as I was told this could have been the problem.

I also have Spybot and AdAware running.

I've scanned with AVG, Spybot and Adaware and there don't seem to be any viruses.

I have also defragmented the drive.

Any ideas?

twybrow - 19/8/09 at 01:07 PM

Format and start again. It is the only real way of fixing a computer on a go slow!

Mr Whippy - 19/8/09 at 01:11 PM

Not a solution if you don't have the installation software disks. My Old computer suffered from this also, utterly chronic yet use to be a fast machine. Using the web is too slow to be usable, almost like dial-up

I'd also like to know what is causing this as I don't want my new Laptop to go the same way

balidey - 19/8/09 at 01:16 PM

Switch to Linux (Ubuntu). Its very forgiving on older machines. And its free.

I switched from windows / microsoft a year or so ago, and not looked back. Even my wife got the hang of it.

tegwin - 19/8/09 at 01:17 PM

Possibly if its 4 years old the memory/hdd is dying.... thus giving really slow I/O ..

Or the OS is full of crap and needs a re-install...

Get windows 7 on there!! Tis good!

beagley - 19/8/09 at 01:34 PM

You can look at what is being loaded into RAM when the computer starts by checking your system tray in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. I've seen people that have like 15 to 20 programs in memory and then wonder why their pc is slow.

Try this link on how to check the start configuration. Most programs automatically add themselves to the start list fighting for your attention and it drives me crazy!

HTH

Beags

maxey74 - 19/8/09 at 02:00 PM

Hi, I'm a server engineer I Don't do too much on the client OS side but the following should help.

Change your pagefile to be 1.5X physical RAM (sounds like yours is 512 with some shared video memory), so set your pagefile to 768MB on C:

Reboot

click start, run
type msconfig
press ok

go to services tab in msconfig, tick box to 'hide all microsoft services'. Now click the button that says 'disable all'.

Check startup tab in msconfig for any/all non essential programs that run at startup, deselect anything that you don't absolutley need - bear in mind that most things in here can/will be started on demand when required. Removing them from here usually just stops their agent type software loading at boot time and draining your system resources. You can always go back in here and put the tick back in the box for anything that breaks. Just do it.

Click ok to quit msconfig.

Reboot.

Defrag hard disk (C: only required).

Download and run pagedefrag (now MS used to be sysinternals). Run program and choose to defrag page file and registry at next reboot.

Reboot and let pagedfrg do it's thing during boot.

Uninstall spybot (especially resident) and adaware (especially adwatch agent) for the purpose of troubleshooting... Once the system is 'quick(er)' again you can install one at a time and see which gives you the big performance hit.

I'd recommend you install javacool spyware blaster, update it and then enable all protection. This doesn't run anything resident in memory so has no negative effect on performance, it just disables activex vulnerabilities and the like in your browser.

If all of this makes no noticeable effect then you really have little choice than to format, reinstall, migrate to Linux or buy a new computer - Sorry!


Max

Mr Whippy - 19/8/09 at 02:07 PM

^ ah ha...I suspect that is the problem, will try tonight

thank you

[Edited on 19/8/09 by Mr Whippy]

maxey74 - 19/8/09 at 02:21 PM

No probs... depending on how old/slow your computer is the defrag of C: could take a very long time, maybe an overnighter... It's an old hat tip but please disable your screensaver while defrag is running and don't use the computer during the process.

If you're suffering disk thrash, another thing for the more technically minded is to bring up taskmgr (start, run, taskmgr - I think only available on XP Pro - not sure). Anyway, go to the processes tab and then select view, select columns. Put a tick in the box next to IO read bytes and IO write bytes.

You can then view the process list in taskmgr and order it by read/write IO by clicking the column header at the top. If your system is disk thrashing constantly this can help you identify which process/program is doing all the reading/writing. Anything that is WAY above everything else is to be viewed with suspicion (AV excluded).

Gotta run

Max

TPG - 19/8/09 at 02:51 PM

Yep,I would go with the msconfig to and stop stuff you don't want starting.Also go on line and get "ccleaner".It's on http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ here.Top right hand side.You'll be amazed how long it 1st takes then how much it removes.Also have it do a registery check.Its a very user friendly program

Mr Whippy - 19/8/09 at 02:51 PM

cheers, very helpful indeed

John P - 19/8/09 at 04:36 PM

I was advised to use ccleaner by the guy in Maplin but when I checked it on-line there were a few reports of it being "too thorough" and loosing essential info.

My main concern is that I don't necessarily have the original disks for all my software and may not know all the passwords I've used in the past.

Is it safe to use ccleaner under these circumstances?

John.

pbura - 19/8/09 at 05:05 PM

I am wary of Ccleaner destroying things that I may want to use sometime, but it is safe to use the registry cleaner function.

Re: antivirus software, I recently switched to Avira Antivir and am well pleased with the speed of it.

TPG - 19/8/09 at 07:12 PM

ccleaner hasn't managed to lose anything of mine yet....
I have found it a very useful tool.

JoelP - 19/8/09 at 08:32 PM

very useful thread this, i could've posted the same question myself - 3 year old compaq thats just as OP describes. Will try the advice, thanks!

I have 32 apps starting on startup, does this sound a bit high?!

[Edited on 19/8/09 by JoelP]

beagley - 19/8/09 at 08:37 PM

What ends up happening to us "computer" people is a neighbor or family member asks you a question that you are able to fix and from that point on EVERYBODY in your family and neighborhood comes to you for computer trouble.

It's nice to help somebody out though, makes you all warm and fuzzy. Cheers

flak monkey - 19/8/09 at 08:40 PM

Bear in mind the D partition is the recovery partition with all the drivers and OS stuff on should you do a reformat....

A quick google will soon turn up how to use it.

beagley - 19/8/09 at 08:44 PM

quote:
Originally posted by JoelP
I have 32 apps starting on startup, does this sound a bit high?!

[Edited on 19/8/09 by JoelP]


Well, not necessarily. A lot of them are typical windows operation stuff, networking and the like. The ones you want to watch out for (at least those that I detest) are iTunes, Quicktime, msmsg (microsoft messenger), real player, office, adobe, stuff like that. Loading these into memory aren't all that important to running the application, they just speed up the time from when you click on their respective icons to when the program opens.

Good trick to make people think your software is faster. Totally unecessary, much like the "destination" fee when buying a car.

JoelP - 19/8/09 at 08:55 PM

ive turned all except msn off, but still have 30 odd programs running on ctr-alt-del.

maxey74 - 19/8/09 at 09:24 PM

quote:
Originally posted by JoelP

I have 32 apps starting on startup, does this sound a bit high?!



Maybe... depends where you are getting the list from - msconfig? To be honest I'd just disable them all, as I mentioned earlier you can go back in and enable anything that breaks.

For example, I think itunes requires a couple of apps/services to be running when it starts or it bitches and some things don't work as they should... Printer software on the other hand, is notorious for adding agents that run at startup... These are the great things that popup and try to sell you ink every 10 minutes. They are rarely required for your printer to work, the driver (a seperate tiny file) does that, but you may need the agent in order to 'see' your ink levels on screen etc. Like tuning an engine, it's all about compromise!

For those 'race tuners' there are some pretty good guides out there for paring the OS down to an absolute minimum which will again increase speed, at the price of convenience.

As for 'cleaners'... I think they are good for tidying up browsers and temp files etc. I would however recommend against running anything that says it will 'optimise' or alter your registry in any way. If you are going to do this, please do a quick google on what the registry is/does before you decide you're going to run an automated tool against it. Problems in your registry can screw your system in a colossal way... I'm sure 99% of the time they work fine and some people seem to have good results... Unless you have error messages popping up all over your screen when you try to start programs or open files, changing anything in the registry is unlikely to make any noticeable difference to you.


Cheers

Max

P.S Anyone got any tips for remote mounting an oil pressure sender?

maxey74 - 19/8/09 at 09:25 PM

is that 30 showing up in 'applications' or 'processes'?

Mr Whippy - 20/8/09 at 12:11 PM

did that MSCONFIG thing to the old dying home computer last night

blimey their were heaps running. Switched them off and its like new, even getting on the web is instant now

THANKS

beagley - 20/8/09 at 01:08 PM

Glad we were able to help out.

maxey74 - 20/8/09 at 07:57 PM

jolly good show

Ninehigh - 21/8/09 at 01:29 AM

Just as an extra one do you know how hot it's running? Might be worth opening up and sucking the dust out, especially from the cpu and fan.

Sped up my laptop quite a bit, except for shutting down which takes nearly 3 minutes!

beagley - 21/8/09 at 10:57 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
Just as an extra one do you know how hot it's running? Might be worth opening up and sucking the dust out, especially from the cpu and fan.


If you're using compressed air to blow it out..... from experience, do it outside!

Ninehigh - 27/8/09 at 11:56 PM

quote:
Originally posted by beagley
quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
Just as an extra one do you know how hot it's running? Might be worth opening up and sucking the dust out, especially from the cpu and fan.


If you're using compressed air to blow it out..... from experience, do it outside!



Nah, high powered vacuum cleaner, just be careful not to suck up anything important (like the screws that hold the fan down!)

I managed to suck windows off the drive doing that once though lol

Steve Lovelock - 10/10/09 at 09:02 AM

Where do I find:

The Page File Size is set to "System Managed"

Also, I try to change the MSCONFIG settings but I am told that I need to use a admin account. I thought I was using the admin account and there is no obvious admin accout on the system. Any ideas?