Question for you computer gurus

[CrimsonMaiden]

My laptop is now about 4 years old. Over the last several months, it's gotten really slow. I've cleaned it out using CCleaner, but it only helped marginally. It doesn't take all that long to start up or come out of hibernation but it takes FOREVER for any program to start up. It takes at least five minutes for the browser to pop up after I hit the icon and then another couple of minutes for it to do the initial load. Once it's loaded, it runs fine. However, if I try to do anything else (say log onto yahoo messenger) while clicking a link in the browser it causes both things to bog down and takes a few minutes for them to work.

So, my question is... is this a sign that my hardware is failing or does it just mean I need to reformat? (It hasn't been reformatted in the entire 4 years I've had it.)

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

Question: Do you have a LOT of software on there? Do you have lots of photos/music?

 

[epiphany65]

When did you last defrag the C: drive? If it's been a while that could help, but if the drive is really full then defragging it could be difficult, if not futile -- as far as I know. Also, did you use CCleaner's registry tool? I've found that speeds things up by getting rid of useless entries. Something else that's a memory hog is/are the Quick Launch Icons that Windows has next to Start. The more you have, the more memory they use. Good luck.

 

[jomar]

Hit control-alt-delete once and see how many processes you have going on at once. Lots of programs running could bog you down.

Run ad-aware and spybot (free programs).

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Question: Do you have a LOT of software on there? Do you have lots of photos/music?

No, not really. Very little photos (burn them to disc regularly) and not a lot of music.

When did you last defrag the C: drive? If it's been a while that could help, but if the drive is really full then defragging it could be difficult, if not futile -- as far as I know. Also, did you use CCleaner's registry tool? I've found that speeds things up by getting rid of useless entries. Something else that's a memory hog is/are the Quick Launch Icons that Windows has next to Start. The more you have, the more memory they use. Good luck.

It's not been that long since I defragged, and yes, I use the registry cleaner in the CCleaner. Running either doesn't make a lot of difference in the speed of things.

Hit control-alt-delete once and see how many processes you have going on at once. Lots of programs running could bog you down.

Run ad-aware and spybot (free programs).

17 system processes (svchost.exe shows up more than once as system and network.)
12 Owner processes (the usual, yahoo, mozilla, explorer (not ie), graphics driver, touchpad, etc)
5 local or network service processes.

I adware/spybot regularly. They don't turn up much as I only go to a handful of sites.

 

[epiphany65]

Hit control-alt-delete once and see how many processes you have going on at once. Lots of programs running could bog you down.

Run ad-aware and spybot (free programs).

Ad Aware:
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-20...=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5&cdlPid=10844457

Spybot (scroll down to Download):
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Another good free anti-virus program is AVG Free:
http://www.avg.com/?type=ps3925e

 

[Zeb_Carter]

First what Operating System do you have 98, 2000, XP, Vista?

How full is your hard drive?

I have several more Q's but until I know the answer to the first two...

 

[Katyusha]

My first thought would be that you need to defrag it and then see how things run. My second thought would be to run anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-adware programs to see if you've got any of these things and to remove them if you do. My third thought is to see how much space is taken up on the drive; pictures, movies, games, etc., can all take up a lot more space than we think; it may be that you just don't have enough space on your current drive for things to run properly.

You don't want to do a reformat unless it's absolutely necessary. It's a pain in the ass making sure that everything you want backed up is backed up, and that there's nothing on your backup drives that shouldn't be there, particularly if one of your problems is a zillion little programs you don't need. I would save reformatting for when all else fails.

ETA: It took me too long to write this; everything I said in the first paragraph has already been addressed it seems.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Ad Aware:
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-20...=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5&cdlPid=10844457

Spybot (scroll down to Download):
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Another good free anti-virus program is AVG Free:
http://www.avg.com/?type=ps3925e

Yes, I have all three of those plus a couple more to boot. Trust me, spyware, etc is not the issue.

First what Operating System do you have 98, 2000, XP, Vista?

How full is your hard drive?

I have several more Q's but until I know the answer to the first two...

XP, hard drive is about 50% full.

 

[past_perfect]

It might be a good idea to look at the second tab of the task manager and see how CPU and memory resources are being used by which process. It sounds like a resource hog is slowing your system down, rather than your hard disc (defragging is not really so much of an issue with current hard-drives, and four years old is fairly current). Allocating a larger amount of virtual memory manually might also be helpful, if you see that it is paging to the disc a lot.

One of the usual suspects would be a newer version of Nero, which has the unfortunate habit of grabbing resources to do some indexing in the background and releasing them only if kicked manually (end process tree). The process would be called NMIndexStoreSvr.exe or something like that. Some anti-virus programs and internet security packages are also notorious resource hogs, such as Norton Internet Security for instance. The free AVG program mentioned here earlier is a good alternative.

Another possibility would be that a previous installation of a program has messed up some windows .dlls - in that case it is very difficult to resolve without a fresh install.

 

[Liar]

What are your specs? (processor, RAM memory)

from the sound of it, you have your house in order when it some to the obvious. Not an over filled hard drive, no viruses and spyware, no insane processes running...

How about new hardware or software? Have a new camera, printer, graphics card, dvd player, that needed a driver update? Installed anout new major software?

It sounds like your computer is behaving like mine did when I had an HP inkjet printer installed. It came with software built on .Net framework, and that's a pain in the ass if you don't have enough RAM memory. A Java engine running in the background might also have the same effect.

 

[jomar]

17 system processes (svchost.exe shows up more than once as system and network.)
12 Owner processes (the usual, yahoo, mozilla, explorer (not ie), graphics driver, touchpad, etc)
5 local or network service processes.

Huh. Well then, if no resource hog, maybe it's just tired.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

It might be a good idea to look at the second tab of the task manager and see how CPU and memory resources are being used by which process. It sounds like a resource hog is slowing your system down, rather than your hard disc (defragging is not really so much of an issue with current hard-drives, and four years old is fairly current). Allocating a larger amount of virtual memory manually might also be helpful, if you see that it is paging to the disc a lot.

One of the usual suspects would be a newer version of Nero, which has the unfortunate habit of grabbing resources to do some indexing in the background and releasing them only if kicked manually (end process tree). The process would be called NMIndexStoreSvr.exe or something like that. Some anti-virus programs and internet security packages are also notorious resource hogs, such as Norton Internet Security for instance. The free AVG program mentioned here earlier is a good alternative.

Another possibility would be that a previous installation of a program has messed up some windows .dlls - in that case it is very difficult to resolve without a fresh install.

CPU Usage is generally staying between 3-6% with an occasional spike to 11%. Page file usage is 631MB. I've had that message few times lately about upping the allocated usage for virtual memory.

I don't have Nero or Norton.

What are your specs? (processor, RAM memory)

How about new hardware or software? Have a new camera, printer, graphics card, dvd player, that needed a driver update? Installed anout new major software?

It sounds like your computer is behaving like mine did when I had an HP inkjet printer installed. It came with software built on .Net framework, and that's a pain in the ass if you don't have enough RAM memory. A Java engine running in the background might also have the same effect.

I have a P4 3gig processor (though it shows up twice in the device manager list. I have no idea why.) It says I have 384 MB of ram. I don't have anything new installed, but I do have an HP printer installed on it. Not sure if the problem started before or after that.

 

[past_perfect]

Yeah, it could be a driver issue also. There are a few tools that check your current drivers and update them if necessary, like this one:

Driver Detective I found that some of those are resource hogs also, so i usually uninstall them after using them for a few updates.

384 MB RAM is not a lot for current software, so a lot of paging will occur - RAM is ridiculously cheap nowadays, it might be an investment you would want to consider. For a reasonably fast processor like that, I would recommend at least 512 MB, better 1 GB.

 

[past_perfect]

Almost forgot - have you recently installed service pack 3? I heard that is causing a few problems also.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Almost forgot - have you recently installed service pack 3? I heard that is causing a few problems also.

No, I haven't. A friend advised me not to since he had also heard that HP computers were having issues with it.

Oh and how do you upgrade memory in a laptop? I don't even have any idea what kind it is. Actually, it has 512 mb. I guess maybe the 384 is what's left over after system processes?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

CRIMSON

Lots of good advice!

Something else I do is routinely repair the registry, fix-delete broken shortcuts, and delete trash files. I do this once every week. I notice that my speed increases enough that I see a big difference. My start-up menu is bare-bones....MSN, WORD, ACROBAT-PDF, and my WEBCAM.

I recently discovered that when I surf GOOGLE BOOK SEARCH, their files overwhelm me if I look at too many of them. My puter comes to a halt.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

CRIMSON

Lots of good advice!

Something else I do is routinely repair the registry, fix-delete broken shortcuts, and delete trash files. I do this once every week. I notice that my speed increases enough that I see a big difference. My start-up menu is bare-bones....MSN, WORD, ACROBAT-PDF, and my WEBCAM.

Yeah, that's what CCleaner does and I run it once a week. I also have my startup at bare bones. I know the usual tricks.

 

[past_perfect]

If there are any other issues, they are usually noted in the event log. If you don't find many or no errors in there, it might really just be a memory thing.

Here is a link of how to use the event log:

XP Event Log

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

The only errors I found were pretty much all the same and all from Service Control Manager.

 

[Liar]

I have a P4 3gig processor (though it shows up twice in the device manager list. I have no idea why.) It says I have 384 MB of ram. I don't have anything new installed, but I do have an HP printer installed on it. Not sure if the problem started before or after that.

With some of their printers, HP installs a veritable crapload of dead-weight with their drivers. And it could bag your system down.

Try uninstalling the printer and it's software and see if the problem ceases.

It's a long shot, but it might be your problem.

 

[past_perfect]

Hm, unless someone else has another good idea what it could be then, I'd say it might be a lack of physical memory. I just checked my task manager, firefox alone takes up 76 MB already, and I just have a few tabs open.

Since it is a laptop though, it could be overheating, in which case cleaning the cooling vents might help.

This is a freeware program with which you could check that:

Everest

 

[Dreamthiev]

No, I haven't. A friend advised me not to since he had also heard that HP computers were having issues with it.

Oh and how do you upgrade memory in a laptop? I don't even have any idea what kind it is. Actually, it has 512 mb. I guess maybe the 384 is what's left over after system processes?

Usually there's a little flap on the underside of the computer that houses the memory. Most laptops have 2 memory slots, some only have one. Either way, yours should be upgradable to at least a gig, and I'd recommend doing that.

At a guess, I would say that you have 512 MB of ram installed, and 128 of that is devoted to video memory, leaving you only 384 for system processes. Increasing the virtual ram (I'd just make the size system managed, really) will help some. I'd still upgrade it, though.

Newer programs, and newer versions of programs, tend to use a lot more memory. Everything is being designed to be 'pretty' and all those graphics, animations, and graphical buttons use up more of your ram.

Reformating will almost certainly help, if you ok with doing it. There's just stuff that CCcleaner doesn't get to, so a fresh install is always going to run better. A fresh install always runs quicker.

I would also go through and make a list of the programs you regularly use and see if there's a better program out there that uses less resources. There's a lot of small footprint programs out there that do their jobs very well.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

CRIMSON

I feel your pain.

I bought a Microsoft webcam that wouldnt work on my computer. So I went to Microsoft for a fix and was told no fix existed, and I was fucked. Yes, they knew about the problem. It sux to be me. Then I went to an obscure Microsoft download site, used their software in lieu of the CD, and it works dandy.

My point is, your problem might be almost any god-damned thng, and everything has to be checked....especially the shit you know is good.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Okay, looks like it is a memory problem. I used that Everest program and it says I'm using 93% of my memory.