Slow computer

Ken Williams · Post by **Ken Williams** » 16 Nov 2006 3:25 pm

Are there any simple procedures(tips) that would help speed up the operation of my computer. It just seems to get slower and slower with each day. I did a defragmentation several days ago and it seemed to help for a few days. Actually after the computer has been booted up for a half hour or so, it's only moderately slow. I was trying to type something with Word perfect a while ago. It was about 10 minutes after the boot up. The cursor that normally blinks about twice a second was blinking about once ever 10 seconds. I've looked at the startup menu and don't notice anything out of the ordinary, but I'm not an expert.

Any help would be appreciated.

Ken

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 16 Nov 2006 3:32 pm

Control-Alt-Delete will bring up the Winodws Task Manager.
If you click the "Processes" tab, it should show everything that is running.

The CPU column shows what perecentage of the CPU's resources are being consumed by each process. You can sort the column by clicking on "CPU" at the top, which should show you which processes are hogging you computer, maybe.

David Wright · Post by **David Wright** » 16 Nov 2006 3:36 pm

System idle process shows 99 on mine...all the otheres show 0 taskmgr shows 1 to 0

so what does all that mean???[This message was edited by David Wright on 16 November 2006 at 03:37 PM.]

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 16 Nov 2006 3:59 pm

System Idle Process 99 means that your CPU is 99% idle, waiting for something to do. That is a good thing. It means you have plenty of power left over for when you need it.

ray qualls · Post by **ray qualls** » 16 Nov 2006 4:06 pm

Ken, sent you an e-mail. Ray

------------------
Ray Qualls
President(KSGA) www.rayqualls.com

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 16 Nov 2006 4:23 pm

Something is eating up your CPU, or RAM. Does the Task Manager show a process, other than Idle, which is consuming a lot of CPU?

You can also use Task Manager to see how much RAM is in use, and how much is available. Use Control + Alt + Del to open the Task Manager, then click on the Performance tab. Read the RAM details under "Physical Memory."

Spyware, email relays, backdoors and desktop hijackers will also cause the computer to slow way down. Have you scanned for threats?

------------------
Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services,
or my Webmaster Services webpage. Get Firefox Here.
Learn about current computer virus and security threats here.
Read Wiz's Blog for security news and update notices. Learn about using a Limited User account to protect your PC. Read my FAQs.

David Wright · Post by **David Wright** » 16 Nov 2006 4:59 pm

wiz mine says 531 good or bad??

Ken Williams · Post by **Ken Williams** » 16 Nov 2006 8:38 pm

I shut down the internet and went to task manager. The system idle was hanging around 91 to 98. Most of the time it was closer to 98. The task manager was between 0 and 2. There would be a 2 pop in there on services.exe from time to time. All others were 0. I looked up services.exe on the process library and it said that it was a necessary windows file. Under physical memory, the numbers were changing but it roughly said:
Total 260592
Available 78596
System Cache 130748
Do I need to check the task manager closer to when the computer is booting up, as that seems to be where much of the problem is?

Ray I haven't had a chance to check out the site yet, but I will. Thanks.

Ken

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 17 Nov 2006 2:33 am

What Operating System do you have? Win98, WinME or WinXP?

Also what is loading at startup. many programs want to put a "quick start" on the Sys Tray (lower right) and most are not needed. That will cause slow bootup. Also, if you have Norton or McAfee they are both "bloatware" and can cause a long delay in startup.

Finally, things can get slow and "clogged up" and the only way to really "fix" it is to reformat the hard drive and reinstall. I know it's a hassle but you will be amazed at how fast your old computer is with the clean install.

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 17 Nov 2006 5:59 am

Yet another reason to have backups of your system. Install Windows and make a backup. Then install programs and make a backup.

When your computer slows down, it takes about 10 minutes to reinstall everything back to brand new (and fast).

I used DriveImage for a white but now I use Norton SystemWorks.

------------------
Gary Shepherd

Carter D-10

www.16tracks.com

Ed Meadway · Post by **Ed Meadway** » 17 Nov 2006 8:30 am

I agree with Gary. Do a backup soon a possible. My recent slowdown problem was a failing HD. I thought that was the problems so I backed up everything I wanted to save. That session was the last time I was able to open windows.

Ken Williams · Post by **Ken Williams** » 17 Nov 2006 4:58 pm

I looked at the task manager 7 or 8 minutes into the boot up. It appeared that McAfee and AVG was taking a reasonable portion of the CPU. The McAfee is out of date almost a year and I have no plans on renewing it. Is it a safe bet that program is useless as it is? I've had thoughts of uninstalling it before. But, it's kinda like that screw you find the floorboard of the car. You don't know where it goes but you don't dare throw it away.

I have AVG, Spybot, and Adaware.

Gary when you speak of back up, do you mean just backing up files like pictures, text and such or are you talking about system files,operating system files, etc? I'm running XP. If you are talking about more than just personal files, how do you make and save a backup? Stupid question, I know.
My main problem is that it takes a long time for the computer to stabilize or get up to speed after bootup. After it's been booted up for an hour, it's slower than it once was a few years ago, but not completely unuseable.
Uninstalling the McAfee would help some I'm sure, or at least I hope.

Wiz, how's everything around Little Rock?

Ken

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 17 Nov 2006 11:11 pm

Ken;
Little Rock's a blast! I just alternated sets with Robert Jones, a great steel player, in Ward, Ar. Plus, I found a gig in Morrilton for Sat night.

Regarding your problem, you should uninstall McAfee if it has expired. Once it is out of date you are not protected against new threats. AVG is just fine; I use it exclusively. Be sure to update to the new version of AVG, then update the definitions.

Come to think of it, McAfee might be trying to find updates that are no longer available for that old version and that might be causing your slowdowns.

------------------
Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services,
or my Webmaster Services webpage. Get Firefox Here.
Learn about current computer virus and security threats here.
Read Wiz's Blog for security news and update notices. Learn about using a Limited User account to protect your PC. Read my FAQs.

jay thompson · Post by **jay thompson** » 21 Nov 2006 3:55 am

In checking CPU consumption, I find Winword.exe is consuming +-50 at idle.
user is HP Administrator. What is happening and what to do to reduce this number?
Regards,
Jay Thompson

Dave Potter · Post by **Dave Potter** » 21 Nov 2006 7:26 am

If an app is set to try to access the web for any reason, and is prevented by the firewall or some such, you can see that happen.