New, painfully slow PC - diagnostics log

  • Thread starter Thread starter mdawson
  • Start date Start date
M

mdawson

Anyone interested in helping find the culprit for a well equipped, but
painfully slow PC purchased from Frys? I've included an Everest program
report that gives a look under the hood (link below).

The issue:
Booting up and starting a simple program like Firefox takes around 5
minutes. Any action that requires a loading data into memory seems to
take forever, even though I have a relatively fast computer and ample
memory.

Computer:
Desktop: Sony Vaio VGC-RA710G
Chip: Intel Pentium 4E (3.2 Ghz)
Video card: nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2
Memory: 1500 MB (2 x 512MB, 2 x 256MB) SDRAM

EVEREST REPORT: http://www.martynlarsen.com/MDawson/pc_report.htm

I've done everything I can think of: defrag, uninstall unnecessary
services, update windows, lets of virus/malware checks, etc. HELP!

Email: mdawson (at) gmail.com

Thanks!
MD
 
Anyone interested in helping find the culprit for a well equipped, but
painfully slow PC purchased from Frys? I've included an Everest program
report that gives a look under the hood (link below).

The issue:
Booting up and starting a simple program like Firefox takes around 5
minutes. Any action that requires a loading data into memory seems to
take forever, even though I have a relatively fast computer and ample
memory.

Computer:
Desktop: Sony Vaio VGC-RA710G
Chip: Intel Pentium 4E (3.2 Ghz)
Video card: nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2
Memory: 1500 MB (2 x 512MB, 2 x 256MB) SDRAM

EVEREST REPORT: http://www.martynlarsen.com/MDawson/pc_report.htm

I've done everything I can think of: defrag, uninstall unnecessary
services, update windows, lets of virus/malware checks, etc. HELP!

Email: mdawson (at) gmail.com

Thanks!
MD
Click to expand...

You don't have anyfthing major going on. I would Unisntall the
Statbar, and the google talk, and google updater stuff. There is also
some stuff that you possibly have no use for, like the TV tuner
software.
 
[email protected] said:
You don't have anyfthing major going on. I would Unisntall the
Statbar, and the google talk, and google updater stuff. There is also
some stuff that you possibly have no use for, like the TV tuner
software.
Click to expand...

In your Everest report, I think I see your L1 cache is disabled.
This could be a problem with Everest, in which case you could find
a later version and try again.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

The second thing you could test, is get a copy of HDTach and
benchmark your drive.

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

And if that is not uncovering a problem, try discpnnecting
the Sony Memory Card Reader.

Paul
 
Thanks Paul, your reply was helpful. Seems like Level 1 cache is the
most likely culprit: Everest 2.2 also reports it's disabled. My CMOS
settings at boot up won't let me alter the settings, so I'm checking
with eSupport for BIOS update to see if that helps. Any other
suggestions, by anyone, readily accepted.

thanks!
Michael
 
Thanks Paul, your reply was helpful. Seems like Level 1 cache is the
most likely culprit: Everest 2.2 also reports it's disabled. My CMOS
settings at boot up won't let me alter the settings, so I'm checking
with eSupport for BIOS update to see if that helps. Any other
suggestions, by anyone, readily accepted.

thanks!
Michael
Click to expand...
If this computer is still under Warrenty, don't. You'll void it if they
catch on. Just take it back. If the warrenty's expired, go ahead.

Don't get a BIOS upgrade from e-Support unless you REALLY have to. Get
one from Sony first. If you HAVE to get it from e-support,
quadruple-check to be sure it's the right one.

Since L1 cache is on the processor, that may be the culpirt. But
changing the processor out will woid the warrenty if it's active.
 
Anyone interested in helping find the culprit for a well equipped, but
painfully slow PC purchased from Frys? I've included an Everest program
report that gives a look under the hood (link below).

The issue:
Booting up and starting a simple program like Firefox takes around 5
minutes. Any action that requires a loading data into memory seems to
take forever, even though I have a relatively fast computer and ample
memory.

Computer:
Desktop: Sony Vaio VGC-RA710G
Chip: Intel Pentium 4E (3.2 Ghz)
Video card: nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2
Memory: 1500 MB (2 x 512MB, 2 x 256MB) SDRAM
Click to expand...

do you really need so much memory i would take out the
2 x 256MB sdram and see if that improves things, if i remember
correctly that windows counts the ram before opening a app
but don't take my word for that i might be wrong!
 
Anyone interested in helping find the culprit for a well equipped, but
painfully slow PC purchased from Frys? I've included an Everest program
report that gives a look under the hood (link below).

The issue:
Booting up and starting a simple program like Firefox takes around 5
minutes. Any action that requires a loading data into memory seems to
take forever, even though I have a relatively fast computer and ample
memory.

Computer:
Desktop: Sony Vaio VGC-RA710G
Chip: Intel Pentium 4E (3.2 Ghz)
Video card: nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2
Memory: 1500 MB (2 x 512MB, 2 x 256MB) SDRAM

EVEREST REPORT: http://www.martynlarsen.com/MDawson/pc_report.htm

I've done everything I can think of: defrag, uninstall unnecessary
services, update windows, lets of virus/malware checks, etc. HELP!

Email: mdawson (at) gmail.com

Thanks!
MD
Click to expand...
Three things spring to mind. Your hard disk is close to a sensible
maximum. You might want to remove unused/unwanted stuff, clean out temp
files, cache and cookies. With less than a quarter spare you are pushing
it and I suspect its thrashing about moving stuff in and out of memory.
Secondly, looking at the SMART report section suggests the disk is
getting close to failure anyway at some time not to far into the future.
But this may also simply reflect the thrashing suggested earlier.
Finally, rest your screen display to use less fancy bits (shading,
visibility etc.) as that can slow things down a bit.
 
Anyone interested in helping find the culprit for a well equipped, but
painfully slow PC purchased from Frys? I've included an Everest program
report that gives a look under the hood (link below).

The issue:
Booting up and starting a simple program like Firefox takes around 5
minutes. Any action that requires a loading data into memory seems to
take forever, even though I have a relatively fast computer and ample
memory.

Computer:
Desktop: Sony Vaio VGC-RA710G
Chip: Intel Pentium 4E (3.2 Ghz)
Video card: nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2
Memory: 1500 MB (2 x 512MB, 2 x 256MB) SDRAM

EVEREST REPORT: http://www.martynlarsen.com/MDawson/pc_report.htm

I've done everything I can think of: defrag, uninstall unnecessary
services, update windows, lets of virus/malware checks, etc. HELP!

Email: mdawson (at) gmail.com

Thanks!
MD
Click to expand...

Briefly, you need to benchmark the subsystems such as CPU,
memory, HDD, etc. Find the one that looks off and correct
it. If none do, you may have some malware or just excessive
background apps running that need to be killed.

Often OEM PCs have a ton of unnecessary and buggy crap
installed. Personally I make an image of the OEM install
for backup purposes then wipe the drive and do a clean
standard windows install, adding ONLY the manditory
things... and even then, killing 2/3rds of the crap that
still gets scheduled to load and run in the background. Get
newest drivers and update the bios too while you're at it.
 
Anyone interested in helping find the culprit for a well equipped, but
painfully slow PC purchased from Frys? I've included an Everest program
report that gives a look under the hood (link below).

The issue:
Booting up and starting a simple program like Firefox takes around 5
minutes. Any action that requires a loading data into memory seems to
take forever, even though I have a relatively fast computer and ample
memory.

Computer:
Desktop: Sony Vaio VGC-RA710G
Chip: Intel Pentium 4E (3.2 Ghz)
Video card: nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2
Memory: 1500 MB (2 x 512MB, 2 x 256MB) SDRAM

EVEREST REPORT: http://www.martynlarsen.com/MDawson/pc_report.htm

I've done everything I can think of: defrag, uninstall unnecessary
services, update windows, lets of virus/malware checks, etc. HELP!

Email: mdawson (at) gmail.com

Thanks!
MD
Click to expand...

Your HD is operating at UDMA 0 instead of UDMA 5 as it is capable, and
this is the likely source of the problems you see. See ATA section just
prior to the SMART section for the active UDMA transfer mode. Check
SMART data in BIOS Setup - it is likely that the drive is having
excessive errors and XP is downgrading the DMA mode to control these
errors. Everest might be reporting directly from BIOS, but check this
anyway.

You can check the drive by running chkdsk /r from a command prompt.
This will say it cannot lock the drive, do you want to run on the next
boot, select Y. Chkdsk will report bad sectors, etc. The log is in
Event Viewer.

Frankly, this is a warranty issue and if you are in the return/exchange
window, I'd return it.

Q
 
Back
Top