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Topic: Awful Computer Performance |
Jon Light (deceased)
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 29 Jun 2006 12:09 pm |
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Recently my system has been performing miserably. I have a little system readout on my desktop and any time I click on anything or open any program it reads 100% CPU and the system freezes for anywhere from 5-30 seconds. The mouse can move the cursor but the icon doesn't go "active" over links and I can't scroll the screen until whatever is happening finishes up. It is chronic. I also had to wait 30 seconds for a 15K email to open in OE. And programs take that long to load. It's as if my system was way, way maxed out. But I've got over a gig of RAM and I've cleared the Firefox and IE cache.
I have 4 adware/spyware/trojan scanning programs and antivirus, all up-to-date and I scan frequently.
This is a P4 WinXP system.
It's driving me nuts! It's like I'm back in my old dial-up W95 rig with entry level RAM. But even that worked better. |
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Dave Potter
From:
Texas
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Posted 29 Jun 2006 2:55 pm
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Unfortunately, there are soooo many things that can and do go wrong, I bet no one will offer the magic "silver bullet" cure.
If you're not getting anything from your anti-virus and anti-malware scans, all that's left is hardware and software conflicts. Not knowing what stuff you're running, I surely can't speculate on what's causing the problem, but, generically, I'd just suggest firing the system up in safe mode and see if anything changes. I'd also suggest de-selecting everything you can get away with in msconfig to check if things improve. Lastly, you can pull all your PCI cards but your video card out of the mobo and see if performance restores, and replace them one by one, to see if the cuprit surfaces.
Good Luck.[This message was edited by Dave Potter on 29 June 2006 at 03:56 PM.] |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 29 Jun 2006 7:24 pm
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| Quote: |
| This is a P4 WinXP system. |
Jon;
I have worked on several P4 systems that have a plastic cradle screwed to the motherboard, surrounding the CPU, with four "arms" on the sides, with rectangular holes near the top of each arm. The heatsink hold-down clamps hook into these holes and I have seen these holes break away due to heat fatigue, over time. When this occurs the clamps exert more pressure on one side of the CPU than the other, allowing the heatsink to lift slightly off the surface of the CPU. This leads to overheating of the CPU, which manifests itself as system slowdowns, freezes, and/or sudden power-off shutdowns.
What I'm saying is you should look over the heatsink mounting system really closely to see if this has happened to your computer.
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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.
Learn about current computer virus and security threats here.
Read Wiz's Blog for security news and update notices
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Gary Shepherd
From:
Fox, Oklahoma, USA
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Richard Shatz
From:
St. Louis
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Posted 30 Jun 2006 7:51 am
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I had the same problem.
Running four antispyware programs?
Is Webroot spysweeper one of them?
That program is a major memory hog when left in the active mode. Try leaving it in the inactive mode if your are using it.
That fixed similar problems for me.
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Jon Light (deceased)
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 30 Jun 2006 8:04 am
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Wiz--I'll check that out, soon as I have a few minutes. Richard--no i'm not using that but I wonder if one of the others has similar traits---AdAware, Spybot S&D, SpywareBlaster, SpywareGuard, plus AVG antivirus and ZoneAlarm.
Task Manager doesn't show huge resource allocations except to Firefox. |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 30 Jun 2006 9:12 am
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Jon;
There are a few utilities that enumerate the processes that are running in memory. One is Process Explorer, from http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html . another is HijackThis, available from http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html
By running these utilities you will get a good idea about what is going on that you may not be aware of. Process Explorer is fairly advanced, and was created by Mark Russinovich, the same person who discovered the Sony Rootkit fiasco.
These programs show the full path to the various .dll's and .exe's that are loaded into memory. Process Explorer also shows their dependencies, which may lead to the actual program that is draining your resources.
All of this is moot if your heatsink has come loose from the top of the CPU.
All your CPU are belong to us!
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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.
Learn about current computer virus and security threats here.
Read Wiz's Blog for security news and update notices
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Jon Light (deceased)
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 30 Jun 2006 9:48 am
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No, I'm seeing nothing around the heat sink that fits your description--there's a hinged fan cowling that swings away to reveal an all metal heat sink-a-ma-bob.
Although I'm not eager to try to pretend to learn the kind of stuff your links go to, I will check it out and see if I can gain any insights. Thanks. |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 30 Jun 2006 12:52 pm
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Jon;
Let's eliminate user-level causes. Goto Control Panel, then to Users and Password and create a new user account, with limited privileges. Give it a password. Now log off your main account and log onto the new account. Use your Start menu to open programs and accessories. See if that account is bogged down from the get-go.
If it is bogged down from the start you problem is at the system level, or is hardware/heat related. Otherwise, if things run smoothly from the new account your problem is localized in your other user account.
This gives you a springboard from which to conduct your investigation.
You may want to scan for vermine by rebooting into Safe Mode. Run all scans that will run in Safe Mode and let us know if any bad-guys are found.
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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.
Learn about current computer virus and security threats here.
Read Wiz's Blog for security news and update notices
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