Lagging computer

[natedogg351406]

I have tryed everything on my computer. I have tryed disk cleanup and defragmenting, deleted all my file that I didnt need. I still have 83% of free space so i know thats not the problem. I have a virus protection and spyware and update them everyday. My computer just started lagging a couple days ago. I cant play a song with out it skipping. Its acting like its trying to do something but, it even does it when no programs ar running. Does anybody have any suggestions?

[Cricket]

Complete system specs please. List the parts by brand and model.

Also tell us if this is a home built or name brand computer.

What OS are you using and how much physical RAM do you have installed?

Do you remember if you did anything specific right before this problem started? Did you install anything (hardware or software)?

What anti-virus program and you using?

Do you have a lot of icons in the system tray (by the clock)?

You may want to try running the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility on the hard drive to see if anything is wrong with it.

And if you have a spare hard drive data cable (IDE or SATA) you might want to try replacing it with the original one.

[TallTravel]

I don't know if the cause of your slow computer is the same as the cause on mine, but it may be interesting for you to read about my experiences with my slow computer here:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=167448

I literally cannot believe the speed improvement in making these changes yesterday. It is amazing.

[thefultonhow]

Check that your hard drive is running in DMA mode. Go into Device Manager, expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, open the properties for Primary IDE Channel (or whatever channel your hard drive is on), and go to Advanced Settings. Current Transfer Mode should be "Ultra DMA Mode X" where X is some number. For me it's Ultra DMA Mode 5. If it's in PIO mode, then delete all IDE controllers from Device Manager (you can safely uninstall them; they will be redetected on the next startup) and reboot.

I had this same problem for about a month; finally I did a Google search and came up with some pages saying to check for PIO mode, and sure enough, that's what it was.