Loading problem

[Pentium]

Hey guys,

I've had a problem for ages now and i always say that i'm going to do something about it but never do,but now i've had enough lol.

I've got XP home edition.

The problem is loading times of most applications.I'm not very computer orientated so i'll try to explain the best i can and hope someone can help.

Most times that i go to open a new IE window it will take a good 30sec to a minute sometimes for it to open.The computer will just be growling as if it's finding it hard to locate the shortcut or whatever.It also happens with a lot of other things like MS word,when i try to copy a file or move a file in MY documents,when i try to shut down my computer it takes ages for the "shutdown window to come up,and a lot of other applications.

It also happens when i double click a video,the player will take a while before it comes up.It just seems everything is slow and it has been pretty much like that for months alothough some times better then others.

Anyone know what could be causing this,and how do i go about fixing it,thanks?

[hobey19]

i would first run a virus scan and run ad-aware and/or Spybot Search and destroy. these tools will notify you and remove any file that could be causing problems. if these don't render any results, post back, but that would be the best bet. hope that helps

craig

[james8547]

Hobey beat me to it I second his suggestions. Plus, I'd also d/l the latest patch / fixes / upgrades from the microsoft site

[hobey19]

sorry james, sometimes you just gotta have that typing edge (lol), but yeah, i agree with him, and i would also run windows update.

craig

[james8547]

I forgot to include that you should also check the HD for errors (might as well do a surface scan) and defrag the system. If you don't have a firewall and d/l items from the net on a regular basis, I suggest running swat-it also to check for trojans. If those doesn't work, you can also try running a registry cleaner. I haven't used a reg cleaner before so I can't recommend which one to use.

How old is the system? Please post the system specs if you can.

[cdnref]

I would go to iMesh/Kazaa and download Pest Patrol. It'll get rig of all of the adware and spyware in your pc.It's great and free (well it kinda free)

[Pentium]

Thanks for the replies.

I usually don't have time for system maintanence or anything like that but have in the past many times run adaware and done a full scan,never really finds much.

I will do another scan tonight cause it takes a couple hours with my HD,it's 80gb and i've used about 20.

My comp is a HP pentiun4 2.0ghz,256ram.

I know that my computer should not be this slow when it comes to such small operations like opening new windows and items etc.

james8547,I'm not to sure about the different scans,defrag etc you are talking about.I'm more a plug in play type and not very computer tech,please explain a bit more,thanks.

[Pentium]

I forgot to add that i've recieved many updates for my computer(like for IE6,XP etc)but haven't really installed any.Should i install all of them and trust everything that comes form there?

[james8547]

for a surface scan:
go to my computer > right click on C: drive > Property > "Tools" tab > click "Check now." Make sure that you have auto fix and scan for bad sectors.
This tests for system file errors and the surface integrity of the HD.

for a defrag:
same process as the surface scan but instead of "check now," you select defragment. This organizes the files in your HD so that you can access your files faster. Typically, you'd want to do a surface scan 1st before the defrag

Swat it is a free trojan remover. I run it on a regular basis along with NAV, adaware, and spybot. Check www.swatit.org for more info.

[Pentium]

Thanks james8547,i found what you are talking about.I have a lot of info in my documents that i haven't backed up yet,is there any risk of some of them being deleted or moved if i run either one of those 2 applications?

I'm going to download that swat program now.What do you think about all the windows updates i have recieved,should i install all of them,thanks?

[james8547]

The defrag and scan disk shouldn't delete any files. I never heard of them deleting a file. I surface scan at least once a month and defrag at least once a week. I never encountered any problems. It's a good practice to close any unnecessary programs when defragging. Defrag leaves any file alone that is being used.

I am not sure about the windows update. I only updated my Win XP Pro SP1 once since the 2 months I have it. But generally, I'd install of them.

My gut feeling is that your system is infected by a worm or virus. My old WinME PC slowed down considerably due to a virus. It had similar symptoms to your system; it had the biggest impact on IE.

There are some free and updated online virus scans. Do a search on the forums and you can't miss it.

[mark70]

Still running win me and do not know much about xp but to those of you who do is 256 meg of ram enough to run xp??? Could this be slowing his system down??

[james8547]

256 can run XP. But you'll run into system resources problems when you run multiple progs or open a memory hog.

[Markoman01027]

Defrag does not delete any files. It simply moves them around, for quicker access when you open them.

How many programs are you running in the background?

What size is your SWAP file set on?

[Pentium]

james8547,i ran that Swat program and it found only 1 exe file,i put it in quarantine cause i wasn't sure what it was and didn't want to delete it but no major worm or virus.The swat program you have,is it the full one or the free one?

I'm going to do the surface scan tonight cause it will take at least an hour if not more.As for the virus scan,i have norton i'll do a full scan again later.


Markoman01027,

Where do i see a list of all the programs i'm running in the background,i know i have a lot and what is "SWAP file"?

Don't mean too sound like a complete moron with all these questions but i don't spend too much time learning about these things,i should start though.

[james8547]

I have the freeware swat it. I am too poor to afford the other one

Surface scans generally take more than an hour. My ME PC with 20gb HD takes 2.5 hrs. I don't know how long my XP with 160gb takes to scan since I leave it to run overnight.

You can see all your running programs by ctrl + alt + del. The Win Task Manager should pop up. Go to the "processes" tab. It lists all progs that are running. Currently, I have 48 processes with 100% cpu usage

[Pentium]

Thanks for the reply.

Seeing as it will take that long for a scan i will leave it on all night today or tomorrow and see what it brings up.

As for the programs,i'm running at the moment 35 and the CPU usage fluctuates from about 5% to 20%,what does that mean?

[james8547]

Originally posted by Pentium As for the programs,i'm running at the moment 35 and the CPU usage fluctuates from about 5% to 20%,what does that mean?

It means that there are 35 progs running at the moment. the cpu usage fluctuations are fine. It's supposed to do that. the cpu usage shows how much work it's doing now. 100% usage means that the cpu is under full load. Running alot of programs can cause this. If the cpu is near 0%, it means that it's idle (currently doing nothing).

The "processes" tab is a good place to see which programs give the cpu the most work.

[scalifash]

As for memory concerns it certainly is that. I run 256MB PC2100 on my 1.7GHz Compaq that I've had for over a year and a half. I very rarely run into memory errors and I usually run 40 processes all the time. Sounds like a virus or some big memory hog.

Here's something to see some of the things that automatically launch when you boot up the machine and to possibly disable the unneccessary ones.

1. Open the "Run" dialogue box from the start menu.
2. Type in and open "msconfig"
3. Click on the "Startup" tab
4. Drag the right separater thingy on the "Command" collumn to the far right so you can see the program path, making it a little easier to see what you're doing.
5. Scroll through that list and see what things aren't important (don't disable anything that has to do with your antivirus or printer/display drivers etc.)
6. Uncheck things that don't look like they're very important (don't worry you can't really screw yourself up too badly from the startup tab, if you really mess something up you can just boot to safe mode and reenable them)

Some things you may have which can be turned off:
-qttask
-aim
-aol
-TaskPanl
-anything with "winamp" or the "winamp agent" in the name
-anything to do with "winzip"
-other stuff i can't remember right now

Anyways, give that a shot and see what you've got in there. It usually works for me when I have slow downs to go in and disable some stuff.

[Pentium]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

It seems a little better now after removing some of the programs i always have running and cleaning up my system.I still feel it shouldn't take as long as it does every now and then to open new browser windows and other stuff but i have run into another problem which is a bit more important and gives me a much larger headache.I will post a new item on it and see if you guys can help me with it,thanks.