Very slow PC

  • Thread starter Thread starter D
  • Start date Start date
D

D

I am running XP HOME and recently had to re-install it because a system file
was missing.

I have noticed that after a couple of hours or so, the PC slows down any
task that I want to open ranging from browsing the internet to even opening
up the CONTROL PANEL.

Any way around this or configuring etc the PC?
 
have you updated the PC with security patches and installed any up to date
security software?


if not, you may have been attacked. Otherwise, your pc has something
failing/ conflicting devices
 
I have all updates from Microsoft and have installed anti-virus, firewall,
adware and spyware programs installed which are all up to date. I have also
run Windows Live One Care Full Service.

According to My Computer/Properties/Hardware/Device Manager there are no
conflicts.
 
In D had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
I have all updates from Microsoft and have installed anti-virus,
firewall, adware and spyware programs installed which are all up to
date. I have also run Windows Live One Care Full Service.

According to My Computer/Properties/Hardware/Device Manager there are
no conflicts.
Click to expand...


CTRL + ALT + DEL and check to see (second tab over) what processes are
eating your resources.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"At present I am, as you know, fairly busy, but I propose to devote my
declining years to the composition of a textbook which shall focus the
whole art of detection into one volume." - Sherlock Holmes
 
The Processes all appear legitimate (no idea is some/all are using morer
resource than supposed to do).

What I cannot understand is why after a period of time should the PC slow
down, even selecting CONTROL PANEL takes a lot longer than it should.
 
In D had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
The Processes all appear legitimate (no idea is some/all are using
morer resource than supposed to do).

What I cannot understand is why after a period of time should the PC
slow down, even selecting CONTROL PANEL takes a lot longer than it
should.
Click to expand...

Memory leaks... The longer some applications are open the more memory they
take. Unfortunately I just rebooted this PC today due to having had to
install IE7 to keep up with the masses and so I've only been running for an
hour or so or I'd take a screen shot and show you one of the processes
having eaten far more than it started with.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"At present I am, as you know, fairly busy, but I propose to devote my
declining years to the composition of a textbook which shall focus the
whole art of detection into one volume." - Sherlock Holmes
 
Is there a way of stopping/getting around/mitigating memory leaks or is it a
case of shutting down your browser and reloading it?
 
D voiced his/her/it's humble opinion in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage on Sat 21 Oct 2006
03:46:21a:
Is there a way of stopping/getting around/mitigating memory leaks or
is it a case of shutting down your browser and reloading it?
Click to expand...



You could get a hold of a program like RamCleaner. Many other memory
cleaners out there. Some are free.

Google is your friend.


Later......

LabRat...... |:^{)
 
In D had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
Is there a way of stopping/getting around/mitigating memory leaks or
is it a case of shutting down your browser and reloading it?
Click to expand...

Not really, when things get too funky stop and shut the program down and
re-open it. Using a RAM cleaner is, in my humble opinion, not very effective
as it just eats more RAM as it idles in memory and then during its
"cleaning" process it only frees up unused memory as opposed to doing
anything about programs that are using loads of memory.

Just closing - Outlook Express loves to eat up resources - the application
out and opening it again is a reasonable solution. If you have a mission
critical application that can't be closed and re-opened then, well, it's a
mission critical application and the people designing it should fix their
code. (In an ideal world even non-critical applications would be fine.)

Sorry for the delay in answering but we had a rather huge storm that took
out power, phone lines, etc.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and
its solution is its own reward." - Sherlock Holmes
 
I am running XP HOME and recently had to re-install it because a
system file was missing.

I have noticed that after a couple of hours or so, the PC slows down
any task that I want to open ranging from browsing the internet to
even opening up the CONTROL PANEL.

Any way around this or configuring etc the PC?
Click to expand...

Sounds like my Emachines T6520 (XP Pro SP2, AMD 64 Athelon). It gets so
slow you can't type a message!

Download Process Explorer from sysinternals.com and install it. Leave it
running all the time so you can watch ALL the programs and services, not
just the ones MS lets you see as you are too stupid. My Emachines
problem is creeping hardware interrupts. Sometimes it'll run 5 days
before it happens. Other times 2 hours and it's draggin'. Process
Explorer shows you hardware interrupts on the 2nd line of its list, right
under idle process (what the CPU does when it's doing nothing). My
creeps up to over 50-60% of this massive mainframe CPUs time, bringing
everything else on the system to its knees.

No resolution from Emachines/Gateway....no clue. It's not hardware
related because a simply restart instantly cures the problem back to 1%
and the cycle repeats from hours to days. Watching the interrupts and
using Process Explorer to force-dump everything from the bottom up
(programs then services until it crashes) produces not one iota of
difference, once the interrupts go berserk.

There's a bug somewhere someone hasn't discovered in the thousand miles
of spaghetti code. The Gateway notebook, same OS, AMD Turion 64, never
exhibits this malady. Interrupts never creep up to a problem. I've
purposely left it running for a month and it ran just fine, albeit a
little warm!...(c;

While you're at sysinternals, get TCPView so you can see what/who's
connected to your box. Take the check off unconnected points so you only
see what's connected outside the box, not inside. Right click and pick
END CONNECTION and TCPView will let you dump 'em yourself.

Use both these programs with caution. Don't do anything just because
there's an unguarded icon or ungreyed out text. Both of them can just
crash it really easy....

Larry....
 
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