System Slow Down

[Bill Lane]

Hi All:

My system has become really slow, I've Defragged and ran all my anti virus / Malware software, no problems found.

When I colse a program, my desktop icons reload really slow, one at a time, takes about 20 sec. to load.

When I'm on line, quite often for no reason IE Explorer quits and I'm back to the Desktop and have to start all over. I do most of my searching with Google. This never happens while I'm searching with Google, only when I open some web sites, not all web sites.

Below is my information ...

Software:
Defrag, RegClean, CCleaner, Spybot S&D, MalwareBytes, History Eraser, Cleanup and AVG, all up to date.

The Ultimate Troubleshooter AKA TUT, not sure if I'm using it right, just trying to follow their instructions.

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System Info:
WinXP Pro, Version 2002, Service Pack 3, Pentium 4 CPU 2.40GHz / 2.39GHz
512MB RAM, Chaintech 64MB GeForce2 Pro AGP Video Card, Chaintech S845PE Socket 478 ATX MB W/Sound, LAN.
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Hard Drive Info:
Volume Layout Type File Sys Status Capacity Free Space % Free Fault Tol. Overhead
HD1Pics (E) Partition Basic NTFS Healthy 17.93 GB 14.28 GB 79 No 0
HD1Store (G) Partition Basic NTFS Healthy 20.73 GB 3.20 GB 15 No 0
HD1Tools (F) Partition Basic NTFS Healthy 17.93 GB 12.36 GB 68 No 0
HD1Util (D) Partition Basic NTFS Healthy 17.93 GB 7.72 GB 43 No 0
HD2Bkup (J) Partition Basic NTFS Healthy (Active) 74.53 GB 61.53 GB 82 No 0 = External USB
WinXP (C) Partition Basic NTFS Healthy (System) 74.53 GB 61.79 GB 82 No 0

HD3BKup (?) That I can power on if I need it, External USB. Normally Off.
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Accessories:
Lite-On DVD, Lite-On DVDRW, Rosewill RHUB-300 USB 2.0 7 Port Powered, Kodak USB Camera Dock,
PrimeFilm 1800U USB Film Scanner,Samsung CLP 300 USB 2.0 Color Laser Printer, Artec e+48U Ver.1.4.2 USB Scanner,
Logitech Quick Cam IM USB, Linksys WRT54GL Wireless-G Broadband Router,

I ran HijackThis this morning if you need to see the results.

Hope you can help me get this computer up to speed, and thanks ahead of time.

Bill, hard to tell from your post what exactly would cause a slow down and you've run malware scans so that appears to be ok. First thing I would suggest is to throw 2 gigs of ram into the system. Ram is cheap right now and I'd get 2, 1 gig sticks, the extra ram will give your system a boost.

[Bill Lane]

Hi usnavyretired:

I just ordered two sticks of Ram (1024DDR2700ECC-SAM-R -- Samsung 1GB DDR RAM PC-2700 ECC)

It will be here in a few days, I'll install it and let you know how it works.

Thanks

[glc]

WHOA - cancel that order.

Does my computer support ECC memory?

A: No.

Your system does not support ECC.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listpar...x?model=S845PE

Get the PC3200.

[Bill Lane]

Thanks glc:

I'll order the correct ram and return the first order.

[Bill Lane]

glc:

I ordered CDN333D1D8C3-1G -- CenDyne 1GB DDR RAM PC-2700 184-Pin , two sticks.

[glc]

The 845PE chipset can be fussy with cheap offbrand ram. Did you confirm that this ram is compatible using a configurator? Why didn't you buy PC3200 as I suggested?

[Bill Lane]

Hi glc:

The ram I ordered says ...

1 GB DDR (Double Data Rate) RAM
PC - 2700
333 MHz
CAS Latency 3
184 Pin DIMM

Regulatory Approval
UL
WEEE
RoHS

I hope they work okay, I'm going to have to try them, I don't want to go through getting another RMA number to return these too.

I don't know how I overlooked your suggestion of PC3200, but I did, I guess I'm getting old.

I had PC2700 on my mind for some reason.

Being on a limited budget I was just trying to save a buck, I sometimes get in trouble doing that :-(

Anyway, I hope these work.

[glc]

They should work as long as they do not have high density chips. The cheapos are frequently high density, which don't work on all chipsets. If you put them in and only report 1/2 the ram you think you should have, that's what causes it.

[Bill Lane]

Hi glc:

Well I lucked out this time, my system shows that I now have 2.00GB RAM.

That's the maximum that I can install on this motherboard.

I could see right away a marked improvement, everything loads much faster !! and so far no problem with my mouse freezing.

I want to thank everyone for their help, it's very much appreciated !!!