Slow XP

pjphilli (Peter) · #1 04-05-2010, 12:03 PM

Hi
I have an Intel Pentium 4 800/533/400Mhz running at 3.2Ghz with 750Mhz of RAM (do I need more?). I have recently reformatted and reloaded XP and other required software. My problem is that when I start up XP it is very slow to load required programs although I can see from the hard drive light that the PC is beavering away at some unknown task.
I do the usual clean up things such as kicking out unwanted startups, defragging, Internet Option cleanup etc.
Just what is the operating system doing talking to itself rather than obeying my commands? Others I speak to have a similar problem.
Any suggestions/cures?
Cheers Peter

asimov (John) · #2 04-05-2010, 12:08 PM

Have a look in windows task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) & then click on the performance tab. Have a look at the PF usage guage to see if something is bogging it down.

I had this problem a few weeks ago & it turned out to be yahoo messenger that I had running. I installed a new version of messenger & it's been ok ever since

astroron (Ron) · #3 04-05-2010, 12:23 PM

Hi John,I have the same problems as Peter

it can take as long as ten minutes for me to get on to say iceinspace

I did as you suggested and got these two readings, which by the way I don't know what they mean

CP USAGE 55%

PF USAGE 665MB
Does this tell you anything

Regards

asimov (John) · #4 04-05-2010, 12:50 PM

Unfortunately I'm no authority on the subject Ron but looking at mine while I type this, I'm alternating between 0% to 50% CPU usage with the PF usage at a constant 613MB.

I made an error in my last post: I SHOULD have said "Have a look at the CPU usage guage to see if something is bogging it down"

What I found a few weeks ago was that my CPU usage meter was a constant 100% so I figured something was up!

All I can tell you is if your CPU usage is CONSTANTLY at 55% then I don't think it should be the case!

The hard part is ascertaining which application is stuffing things up!

EDIT: The only way I found out it was yahoo messenger was by chance. While watching the CPU usage guage, I closed things down manually one at a time.

acropolite (Phil) · #5 04-05-2010, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter

750Mhz of RAM

I assume that you mean 750Mb of Ram, for optimal running XP likes to have 1Gb and should (depending on M/B design) run better with 2Gb of Ram. If you do have 750Mb that's rather an odd figure, perhaps 3 modules of 256m, I suggest you check and if your motherboard supports 512mb or better still 1Gb modules, buy a couple and replace your existing RAM. Slow performance can also be caused by lack of hard drive space or too small a setting on the swapfile, right click on my computer select properties, then Advanced, Performance settings, Virtual memory. If you have less 1.5x the available Ram set as the minimum then your swapfile may be too small. If you're down to your last couple of Gb HDD capacity then that may be contributing as well. If all those things are correct start looking for programs that are hogging your resources, including trojans attempting to phone home with the contents of your HDD.

supernova1965 (Warren) · #6 04-05-2010, 01:28 PM

Some of the ram may be being used by onboard graphics but finding out what programs are running is really going to help. One hint I have recently found is to empty the Prefetch folder C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch it can help with computer speed. Try this link it might have some help for you.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/...explorer-.aspx

mithrandir (Andrew) · #7 04-05-2010, 02:24 PM

The two things XP most detests are insufficient memory and full disks.

1GB RAM is a good place to start. 2GB is better. 3GB or 4GB (depending on DIMM configurations but you won't be able to use all 4GB) even better, but don't forget to put the /3 option into the boot.ini setup.

Any disk with less than 30% free space will cause you grief at some time. Get rid of all the accumulated crud. If you have downloaded installers, write them to CD/DVD and delete.

Install the SysInternals utilities. Run pagedfrg at every boot, at least until it says all the files it works on are each in 1 fragment.

Defrag the disk. You might have to do that several times with reboots in between for pagedfrg to finish its cleanup.

I don't regularly clear the prefetch. It should not need it more often than once after each set of windows patches. (OK. That's about once a day anyway.

)

pjphilli (Peter) · #8 04-05-2010, 08:02 PM

Thanks everyone - I am following up all your suggestions.
Say Andrew, where do I find the SysInternals utility?
Cheers Peter

mithrandir (Andrew) · #9 04-05-2010, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pjphilli

Thanks everyone - I am following up all your suggestions.
Say Andrew, where do I find the SysInternals utility?
Cheers Peter

A bit about SysInternals:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...s/default.aspx

M$ liked SysInternals so much they bought the company. The download link is on:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb842062.aspx

Lots of really useful tools for the harried sysadmin.

pjphilli (Peter) · #10 06-05-2010, 12:07 PM

Thanks Andrew

I have run pagedfrg and it has defragged the files.
I have now implemented all the suggestions from this thread and I have ordered 2GB of ram which is quite cheap. By examining computer usage
I think I have found the main cause of my problem. It appears to be my AVG virus detection software. I have been running the free version for some years and it seems effective in protecting my system. However, they advised an upgrade to Version 9 some months ago and as I now recall my troubles seem to start from this time. The problem is that the computer scanner seems to want to run every time I start the computer whereas I would prefer to run this only occasionally. This function in AVG is separate from the AVG anti virus, spyware, email scanner etc which I am of course happy to have running any time I am on the net.

I am now trying to see how I can turn this automatic start of AVG computer scanner off but this is not obvious. When running in the fast mode it mostly uses 100% of the PC usage and even in the slow mode it peaks frequently up to 80%, so I think that this is the main cause of my slow XP.

Perhaps someone who is running AVG can give me advice on this?

Cheers Peter

supernova1965 (Warren) · #11 06-05-2010, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pjphilli

Thanks Andrew

I have run pagedfrg and it has defragged the files.
I have now implemented all the suggestions from this thread and I have ordered 2GB of ram which is quite cheap. By examining computer usage
I think I have found the main cause of my problem. It appears to be my AVG virus detection software. I have been running the free version for some years and it seems effective in protecting my system. However, they advised an upgrade to Version 9 some months ago and as I now recall my troubles seem to start from this time. The problem is that the computer scanner seems to want to run every time I start the computer whereas I would prefer to run this only occasionally. This function in AVG is separate from the AVG anti virus, spyware, email scanner etc which I am of course happy to have running any time I am on the net.

I am now trying to see how I can turn this automatic start of AVG computer scanner off but this is not obvious. When running in the fast mode it mostly uses 100% of the PC usage and even in the slow mode it peaks frequently up to 80%, so I think that this is the main cause of my slow XP.

Perhaps someone who is running AVG can give me advice on this?

Cheers Peter

My advice is to stop using AVG it is well known to slow computers in my experience. Before I started using Microsoft Security Essentials I was using Avast Home Edition but I recommend MSE as it is free and I have had no problems since installing it. Disclaimer I have no connection to Microsoft in fact I have more problems with them then I have good experience with them up untill they released Win7

acropolite (Phil) · #12 06-05-2010, 01:57 PM

I suspect AVG put some code in to deliberately slow the free product, I had similar problems with AVG free, I stopped using it and switched to Avast.

mswhin63 (Malcolm) · #13 06-05-2010, 01:58 PM

I have similar spec with only 1G RAM (slow!) for what I do, I am upgrading my computer now to an i7 I hope. Just waiting for funds.

Dean · #14 06-05-2010, 02:32 PM

You need more RAM (memory) and defrag hard disks at least once a week. There is a good and fast defragger called DefragExpress which really speeds up the defrag process - http://www.disktrix.com/defragexpress_main.htm

I use that one once a week on my partitioned hard drives (about 8 in total) and it works well.

I also have used AVG Free for the last five years and have the latest version 9 free version. Can't say I have noticed it being any slower than previous versions... except of course when it does full system scans, but that is to be expected a bit... I just turn them off or schedule them once a month.

mswhin63 (Malcolm) · #15 06-05-2010, 05:24 PM

I weighed up the pro and cons of continuing use of the computer and decided to get a new one. I know I could have upgraded RAM and my Paging file is high enough but for the amount of imaging i am doing ATM I decided to spend some money on a reasonable i7 although I now need to check on other things before going ahead.

pjphilli (Peter) · #16 07-05-2010, 02:18 PM

Hi Warren
My research into alternate virus checkers than AVG also took me to Avast but I saw a comment that the newest version has become "bloated" similar to AVG. Further investigation has led me to Microsoft Security Essentials and I will give it a try. Also thanks to others who have helped me in this matter.
Cheers Peter

supernova1965 (Warren) · #17 07-05-2010, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pjphilli

Hi Warren
My research into alternate virus checkers than AVG also took me to Avast but I saw a comment that the newest version has become "bloated" similar to AVG. Further investigation has led me to Microsoft Security Essentials and I will give it a try. Also thanks to others who have helped me in this matter.
Cheers Peter

Yeah that's the one I use now so far no problems