Poor system performance

trendie

trendie

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My PC is incredibly slow today.

It is slow consistently across any website ( www.bbc.co.uk tends to be my baseline ), therefore it is my machine that is the problem.

The hard-drive starts whirring away every now and then. much more than the usual amounts.

I have Norton Internet Security installed.
I have firewalls and everything.
I run updates whenever I get Symantec priority emails.
I have pop-up blockers, and have "dont run java-scripts without approval" set )
I use Firefox, not IE-7.
I dont use Outlook Express, preferring blueyonder (now virginmedia), and religiously delete any emails I dont like, and/or have attachments.

I run Adaware regularly.

How can I check that all the processes running from "Windows Task Manager" are legitiamte?
Any thing I can do just to verify my machine is ok?

This is quite scary since I am now looking to trade full-time for next few months, and need confidence in the robustness of my machine.

HELP!
 
mine too. It takes about 5 minutes for that awful ticking sound to stop once I have booted it. :(
I've just got rid of 2gb of music files. Maybe this may help
 
downloaded Windows Defender and ran it: no untoward processes.

seems better now, after re-booting.
have to consider a de-frag soon - see what happens.

is a real concern, as I tend to use this PC specifically for trading, so no excessive downloads, games or superfluous products.

JT: I tend to keep the data separate from any applications. So yes, back-up your music, (or excel, or word doc) to some alternate (back-up) drive. thats more important.
 
trendie said:
downloaded Windows Defender and ran it: no untoward processes.

seems better now, after re-booting.
have to consider a de-frag soon - see what happens.

is a real concern, as I tend to use this PC specifically for trading, so no excessive downloads, games or superfluous products.

JT: I tend to keep the data separate from any applications. So yes, back-up your music, (or excel, or word doc) to some alternate (back-up) drive. thats more important.
Click to expand...

Thanks T, Good idea.

My pc is 4 y.o. now, so i'm suspecting this may be a factor.
But when i first got it, it took under a minute for me to log on and for the egg-time to dissappear, and the same for shutting down.
Now it takes a couple of minutes or more to boot & settle down, and longer to shut down, yet I've only got 20gb of a 76gb C drive in use. :rolleyes:
 
I got rid of Norton software, as I found it takes over the whole machine and in my case slowed my laptop down. When I got rid of it and got new av software my system certainly got faster.
 
My PC was running very slowly with the hard drive worring all the time.
I had 256mb Ram.
Had to convince my other half that i neede more memory, she said no I dont it says minimum needed on all the software was 128 or 256 and even 64mb.
Tried till i was blue in the face.........4 months later upgrade to Faster 1GB of ram and what a difference it makes. Starts and shuts down in about half the time.

I have Norton through BT Broadband which I am going to get rid of and replace it with Zonealarm. Have Windows defender, AVG-Virus,spyware and rootkit.
I always defrag and the most important is to clear temporary files, i did it the other day and cleared 2 GB of these files as never done it before. Made a difference to the spead.
Can you defrag or clear temp files to often?

I have a 5 year P4 2Ghz.
 
My PC was running very slowly with the hard drive worring all the time.
I had 256mb Ram.
Had to convince my other half that i neede more memory, she said no I dont it says minimum needed on all the software was 128 or 256 and even 64mb.
Click to expand...
XP requires a minimum of 128 Meg of RAM just to run the OS properly, add in security software and quite easily you are using much more, my system just after boot has settled is using about 300 Meg b4 any additional applications are open. IMHO 1 gig of RAM is now the new minimum for a reasonable experience.

Norton has always had the reputation of being a nuissance on a system all my systems are Norton and McAfee free zones.
 
ashwoka said:
.........
Can you defrag or clear temp files to often?
Click to expand...

When you analyse the C drive it tells you if you need a defrag. You then defrag when it needs doing.

I clean all temp files from IE7 firefox, etc. etc. in one go with "ccleaner" which i can recommend (freeware).
 
Trendie,

slow performance can be attributable to lots of things, but the most common problems tend to be attributable to some process that causes a bottleneck - ie: something accessing your HD (ie: virus scan, automated defrag or too big virtual memory), or hogging CPU time.

how much RAM do you have? if its below 1GB then maybe windows is creating virtual memory files which will be a real drag on performance.

I'd also suggest you dump Norton. its a notorious resource hog and causes lots of conflicts too. Check out Kaspersky - its very slim code virus checker and consistently comes out top of the league tables for anti-virus effectiveness.

Also, familiarize yourself with the processes list in task manager that your windows runs in the background after a clean boot. you'd be surprised what crap windows loads up in case you ever need to use some long forgotten program or file type. With a bit of diligence and cancelling various never-used services in control panel, you can slim your total processes running down to about 22 which means less CPU/HD use and more free resources.
 
I have just uninstalled all of my norton products. Free with BT.
Processes are fewer now. System does seem a bit faster, but that might just be me wanting to notice it.
I had Zonealarm before and just went to install it again and came up with a True vector problem, took a little while to sort that out but now all installed and running fine.

Are there any other good firewalls out there, I have always used zonealarm.

Anyone know how to get my XP theme back, Have tried everything to get it back.....looking in the display and fiddling around changing this and that.
Any help would be great.

Cheers
 
ashwoka said:
Can you defrag or clear temp files to often?

I have a 5 year P4 2Ghz.
Click to expand...

No not really, do it 'till ur hearts content, I "CClean" everyday at close of play and defrag once a month, but the defrag is generally not required, just a habit.
 
I've made some definate improvements.....

http://pcpitstop.com/

Running a full scan at PC pitstop revealed the following -

I had my C drive using over 9GB for previous system restore points. They recommend allocating around 1gb.

I had IE7 set to use 781mb for temporary internet files. They recommend 100mb.

I have made these changes, and now only 11.1gb of my 76gb hard drive is in use. I have just removed about 9gb by performing these two simple steps.

Upon starting/re-starting my PC, it is now loading quickly, much more like it use to do when it was new. It is much quicker to get to the login screen. Once logged in it is also much quicker to settle down and for the egg timer to dissappear.

This test & the resulting changes are highly recommended by me, as they have made significant improvements to my PC's performance! :D

The other improvement that i should make is to increase my memory capacity. I currently have 512mb via 2 * 256mb. I have a third slot available. The total memory capacity of my motherboard is over 3gb. Therefore running XP home, i am thinking about adding 512mb or 1gb.
Running a full scan via PC Pitstop, and following the links from the memory results that it provided to the crucial memory system scanner, has given me detailed info regarding what type of memory i can add - basically most types of DDR RAM using 184 pin dimm slots, as although my system uses PC2700, DDR is backwards(?) compatable, and i can use PC3200 or PC4000.....

More memory info - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM
 
Last edited:
1 Gb Ram

Hi JTrader

Tried the PC Pitstop and had so many thing wrong with my pc I dont know where to start.

Any site do this without charging?

Upgrade to 2 Gig if you can and the faster the better. Try the crucial memory system scan.

Karl
 
Last edited:
ashwoka said:
Hi JTrader

Tried the PC Pitstop and had so many thing wrong with my pc I dont know where to start.

Any site do this without charging?

Upgrade to 2 Gig if you can and the faster the better. Try the crucial memory system scan.

Karl
Click to expand...

Hi
my motherboard will support -
- DDR 266/200 Max. 3GB
- DDR 333 Max. 2GB
- DDR 400 Max. 1GB

My current 512mb is DDR 333 / PC2700.
512mb of this costs around £18 on ebay, 1gb costs around £25 (including delivery).
I can now add a 1gb memory stick to my one remaining available slot, and be under my 2gb limit for this current memory type.
 
You defrag because things get misplaced, not good, if you forget to regularly defrag, things get very misplaced, very not good, your pc performance goes woefull.

I use Ashampoo Magical Defrag, NOT a hair product, works in the background always putting things away neatly, NEVER need to run a defrag again, keeps my laptop wizzing along.

Also removing the cat's fur ball from the cpu helped!
 
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