system gradually runs slower...and.....slower........a.n..d..........

  • Thread starter Thread starter ~Aart
  • Start date Start date
A

~Aart

Hi,

AMD 1.8, XP Pro, SP1, nVidia 4X AGP, 256 ram, Broadband router, it ran fine
for 6 months or so.

A couple of weeks ago it started bogging down. Did routine things, clearing
cookies, temp files, etc., defragging.

The longer it runs the worse it gets. After reboot works fine, but by a
half hour later it takes 15 seconds for the menu to come up after clicking
on the start icon.

Any ideas short of format reinstall would be much appreciated!

Art
 
~Aart said:
Hi,

AMD 1.8, XP Pro, SP1, nVidia 4X AGP, 256 ram, Broadband router, it ran fine
for 6 months or so.

A couple of weeks ago it started bogging down. Did routine things, clearing
cookies, temp files, etc., defragging.

The longer it runs the worse it gets. After reboot works fine, but by a
half hour later it takes 15 seconds for the menu to come up after clicking
on the start icon.

Any ideas short of format reinstall would be much appreciated!

Art
Click to expand...

You've got a memory leak somewhere. You've got to think back carefully to
when the problem started. Just before that, did you install or upgrade any
software including hardware drivers? In other words, if you added a sound
card or something, the -software- for that could be the problem. Another
possibility is a virus has invaded your system and is gradually ramping
itself up to use all of your system resources for nefarious purposes. A
format and reinstall shouldn't be necessary.

Start by running a thorough virus scan using a virus scanner that was
updated online TODAY.
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php (good free one here)

After that, look at ALL programs that start when your computer starts. Shut
them all down one at a time and reboot after each one. To find what is
running, do a start, run, msconfig and go to startup tab. If you don't
recognize a program that is running at startup, run the program name through
google to see what it is. If it isn't needed, NUKE IT. :) But do this one
program at a time. That way, if you fix the problem, you will know what
fixed it, and thus what NOT to reinstall . . . ever. -Dave
 
I'll mention spyware as well - download Adaware from www.lavasoftsa.com and
run that (upate it first). I fixed a laptop a few weeks ago where the user
was complaining that it was running very slowly - after I got rid of over
500 spyware objects (including 37 running spyware processes) it was fine !!
 
When you ALT-CTRL-TAB into task manager, is there a process using up the CPU
and or lots of memory? If so what is it?
Graham
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the tips, but I used them already, except for the one about how
much memory is in use.

I ran spybot search and destroy, and adaware many times, I always run AVG
which was updated this morning, so that' stuffs not an issue,
but that's turned off now, too.

I turned off everything in startup via msconfig a few days ago.

I used my oldest restore point this morning, too, and it seemed to help a
little, but not much.

The biggest thing using memory is winword.exe using 32 megs.

I didn't change anything except for the critical upgrade alerts microsoft
recommends every once in a while. It was just after one of those that it
got worse then ever, so that's when I tried a restore point from a few weeks
ago. No help, the oldest one didn't fix it either.

Do you think a corrupted video driver could be causing this?

Art
 
~A_Sammy said:
I didn't change anything except for the critical upgrade alerts microsoft
recommends every once in a while. It was just after one of those that it
got worse then ever, so that's when I tried a restore point from a few weeks
ago. No help, the oldest one didn't fix it either.
Click to expand...

Presumably you used Windows Update to get patches directly from the
microsoft site and not in response to an email (Sven worm).
 
GTS said:
When you ALT-CTRL-TAB into task manager, is there a process using up the CPU
and or lots of memory? If so what is it?
Click to expand...

<CTRL - SHIFT - ESC> is what does it for me.

Jon
 
~Aart said:
Hi,

AMD 1.8, XP Pro, SP1, nVidia 4X AGP, 256 ram, Broadband router, it ran fine
for 6 months or so.

A couple of weeks ago it started bogging down. Did routine things, clearing
cookies, temp files, etc., defragging.

The longer it runs the worse it gets. After reboot works fine, but by a
half hour later it takes 15 seconds for the menu to come up after clicking
on the start icon.

Any ideas short of format reinstall would be much appreciated!

Art
Click to expand...

run memtest86
 
Do you have a wireless card in the system, with software to run it?
Click to expand...

The computer connects to the router with a cat5 cable.
The laptop uses a wifi card in the pcicia port. D-link AirPlus.
No problems on the laptop front.

I'm on the laptop now. Yesterday I disconnected the cat 5 cable from
the desktop, but that didn't change anything either. Whatever is causing
this is independent of the router.

Tonight I'll try an online virus scan just in case AVG is missing something.
 
Dave said:
You've got a memory leak somewhere. You've got to think back
carefully to when the problem started. Just before that, did you
install or upgrade any software including hardware drivers? In other
words, if you added a sound card or something, the -software- for
that could be the problem. Another possibility is a virus has
invaded your system and is gradually ramping itself up to use all of
your system resources for nefarious purposes. A format and reinstall
shouldn't be necessary.

Start by running a thorough virus scan using a virus scanner that was
updated online TODAY.
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php (good free one here)

After that, look at ALL programs that start when your computer
starts. Shut them all down one at a time and reboot after each one.
To find what is running, do a start, run, msconfig and go to startup
tab. If you don't recognize a program that is running at startup,
run the program name through google to see what it is. If it isn't
needed, NUKE IT. :) But do this one program at a time. That way,
if you fix the problem, you will know what fixed it, and thus what
NOT to reinstall . . . ever. -Dave
Click to expand...

also, try updating your verisign root certificate. fixed some *very* odd
slowdowns on a lot of machines as the original had expired...
 
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