Problems with performance

  • Thread starter Thread starter yaro137
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yaro137

I've got XP Pro running on Intel Core Quad CPU and 2GB of RAM.
Straight after it boots and I log in I open Task Manager and start
IE7. It takes 1min 40s for the IE to start and it's not only IE that
has this problem. Almost any application I start straight after
logging on behaves similarly. In the meantime I'm observing the Task
Manager that shows clearly that nothing really happens in that time.
CPU almost on 0% and PF around 400MB so very low as well. For a test I
started perfmon to find out that paging on the system drive is really
high. Run Malwarebytes just for the off chance which found nothing.
When finally IE started and the system started to respond better I was
still observing paging on a very high level. Any way to find out what
causes the problem? Thanks
yaro
 
It takes a while for the system to allocate all of the RAM.

If you look in the Performance Tab of Task Manager you will see (on the
left - physical memory) that the available RAM is slowly being used to fill
up the system cache. The available RAM will eventually stabilize at some
small number. Then the system is clear to use. Until then it may well be
slower that normal.
 
Oops! Sorry. I was thinking of Vista, not Windows XP. Forgot which newsgroup
I was in <grin>
 
Right after you log on and the desktop is painted Windows XP is still
not fully ready to go, what you see is normal behaviour. Does this
delay occur if you wait an additional minute or so before launching
applications?

John
 
Sorry guys but it's definitely not a normal behaviour. By design XP is
supposed to start in 30s and that's from the moment when you press the
power button to the moment when you can actually start using the
system. We all know it happens only on a clean installation and when
the hardware meets the spesc. Anyway the problem here is my
installation used to be really fast. After logging in, the system was
responding to my actions in just a couple of seconds. Now it's almost
2 minutes.... And not that I added any software or made any
modifications since. Also as I pointed out the CPU and PF stays
practically on the same level all the time after the logon with only
short pikes in CPUs when starting applications. The only thing that's
out of normal is the high paging that stays close to maximum level in
perfmon even 10mins after the logon. There must be something causing
it but I've got no idea how to link it to one of the processes.
yaro
 
yaro137 said:
Sorry guys but it's definitely not a normal behaviour. By design XP is
supposed to start in 30s and that's from the moment when you press the
power button to the moment when you can actually start using the
system. We all know it happens only on a clean installation and when
the hardware meets the spesc. Anyway the problem here is my
installation used to be really fast. After logging in, the system was
responding to my actions in just a couple of seconds. Now it's almost
2 minutes.... And not that I added any software or made any
modifications since. Also as I pointed out the CPU and PF stays
practically on the same level all the time after the logon with only
short pikes in CPUs when starting applications. The only thing that's
out of normal is the high paging that stays close to maximum level in
perfmon even 10mins after the logon. There must be something causing
it but I've got no idea how to link it to one of the processes.
yaro
Click to expand...

Are you sure it's paging? To really see what your system is up to,
use Process Monitor. It will display, in real time, all file, registry,
and process activity, including read and write locations. It will
show that there can be up to several hundred transactions a
second, non-stop, with the CPU display at 0% load because the
CPU loading for this is a small fraction of a percent, and some of
the transactions are DMA. It's almost too fast to read, but you
can capture a time slice of the activity, then scroll through it.

Process Monitor:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx
 
Please state your full Windows version (e.g., WinXP SP3) when posting to
this newsgroup.

1. Does the behavior persist if you start IE in No Add-ons mode? To start
IE in No Add-ons mode:

=> Right-click on the blue IE desktop icon and select Start without
Add-ons; or

=> Start | (All) Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Internet
Explorer (No add-ons).

Troubleshooting and Internet Explorer's (No Add-ons) Mode:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/07/25/678113.aspx

2. Does the behavior persist if you Reset IE Advanced settings (RIES)?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923737 <= Read before using!

3. Does the behavior persist if you boot into Safe Mode with Networking?
[Careful! Only remain in Safe Mode just long enough to test!]

4. What anti-virus application or security suite is installed and is your
subscription current? What anti-spyware applications (other than Defender)?
What third-party firewall (if any)?

5. Has a Norton or McAfee application ever been installed on this machine
(e.g., a free-trial version that came preinstalled when you bought it)?

Also see...

Help! My computer is slow!
http://miekiemoes.blogspot.com/2008/02/help-my-computer-is-slow.html
 
Why don't you use msconfig and shut down items that load at bootup to find
the problem?
 
Good call on disabling unnecessary start-up processes. Great
improvement although I just disabled a lot of them like Logitech
Desktop Manager, Nokia PC Suit and such, without trying to find the
one if it is one only that causes the problem.
Thanks
yaro
 
yaro137 said:
I've got XP Pro running on Intel Core Quad CPU and 2GB of RAM.
Straight after it boots and I log in I open Task Manager and start
IE7. It takes 1min 40s for the IE to start and it's not only IE that
has this problem. Almost any application I start straight after
logging on behaves similarly. In the meantime I'm observing the Task
Manager that shows clearly that nothing really happens in that time.
CPU almost on 0% and PF around 400MB so very low as well. For a test I
started perfmon to find out that paging on the system drive is really
high. Run Malwarebytes just for the off chance which found nothing.
When finally IE started and the system started to respond better I was
still observing paging on a very high level. Any way to find out what
causes the problem? Thanks
Click to expand...

Even though you have logged on there is lots of stuff going on in the
background for some minutes after, and your selected application is having
to compete for recources along with everything else. Particularly notorious
in this regard are anti-virus software and (more so) firewalls.

If this is a particular problem to you, you might want to run 'msconfig'
(from Start menu and 'run...'. You can try stopping startup applications
that you feel do not need to start, but be prepared to start them again if
something breaks.
 
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