Help! S-l-o-w computer !

[CrusaderX]

My system is a 2.66 Pentium IV with a 1 GB RAM and a 120 GB hard drive, running XP Home. It's always been a very speedy machine for me, but lately I've encountered a noticable slowdown when using it.

Even after running AdAware, Spyboy S&D, and McAfee VirusScan (which found no viruses), all with the latest updates, the machine is still slow. I've also downloaded the latest Windows patches and fixes, but I did not install Windows Service Pack 2 yet.

I mainly notice the slowdown when trying to open new programs, or when switching between multiple programs.

Booting up the machine also seems to take a little longer than normal. And the Windows boot up theme music sometimes skips now, or sounds garbled. Songs in WinAmp and movies in Windows Media Player somtimes skip as well.

The only thing that I can think of that may be causing this problem would be less free hard drive space. My 120 GB HD seems to have a 111 GB capacity. Right now, 56.2 GB is used, and 55.4 GB is free. I've never filled up half of this drive before, and the problems seemed to start around the time the drive got half full.

I've downloaded alot of stuff lately (music, movies, comics), so could it just be a case of my HD getting full? Yet I still have nearly half of it free, so I'm not sure why things are slowing down now.

Also, this computer has been used for a little over 2 years now. During that time, the hard drive hadn't been defragged regularly - maybe a few times at most. But I since defragged it over the weekend, which seemed to help a bit at first, but now it's back to being sluggish now and then.

Any help would be appreciated as to what's causing the slowdown.

 

[drothgery]

The only thing that I can think of that may be causing this problem would be less free hard drive space. My 120 GB HD seems to have a 111 GB capacity.

Just as an FYI here -- this is because hard drive makers claim that 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes, while all programmers know that 1 GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes (2^30), so the disk size Windows will report is going to be about 93% of what the hard drive maker will report.

 

[Enforcer]

I had this problem on my Dell laptop before it died (don't buy Dell). I noticed a definite speed improvement once I got the HD capacity to less than 50% full. Go and delete some games you aren't playing .

 

[MarauderX]

I had this problem on my Dell laptop before it died (don't buy Dell). I noticed a definite speed improvement once I got the HD capacity to less than 50% full. Go and delete some games you aren't playing .

HD space shouldn't be an issue at all, though many of those files that are downloaded might need cleaning up. How about run disk cleanup to get rid of any excess files?

Did a program turn off the Virtual Memory? You can increase the virtual memory to help speed up memory-hog programs. Many of the freebie programs work great, but might have memory 'leaks' that chew up more memory than it needs, even after you close it.

The reason I buy Dell is that their customer service could help with this problem and they will replace ANYTHING on the machine if it's defective, usually in 72 hours, and restores HDs too.

 

[CrusaderX]

HD space shouldn't be an issue at all, though many of those files that are downloaded might need cleaning up. How about run disk cleanup to get rid of any excess files?

Tried that, with no noticible results.

Did a program turn off the Virtual Memory? You can increase the virtual memory to help speed up memory-hog programs. Many of the freebie programs work great, but might have memory 'leaks' that chew up more memory than it needs, even after you close it.

How would I increase my virtual memory? I'd like to try that.

The reason I buy Dell is that their customer service could help with this problem and they will replace ANYTHING on the machine if it's defective, usually in 72 hours, and restores HDs too.

The computer is a Dell. I'll be calling their tech support later tonight.

 

[LightPhoenix]

This sounds like a paging issue. Clearing up hard drive space will have some effect, since IIRC Windows will use it when there isn't enough system memory to run something.

The first thing I would do, keeping in mind I am not a tech of the electronic kind, is to check and see what programs are running on your computer in the background. It's possible one of them is being a memory hog, or even leaking memory. If you're comfortable using the Windows Task Manager, that's the best place to look. If you're not, you can still look, but don't close anything from there, since quite a few of the those Windows needs to operate.

If there isn't anything obviously wrong program-wise, the second thing I would do would be to check the RAM in the computer physically. It's possible (though I'm not sure how likely) that one or more RAM chips have either been jostled a bit loose, or even gone bad on you.

 

[Enforcer]

HD space shouldn't be an issue at all, though many of those files that are downloaded might need cleaning up. How about run disk cleanup to get rid of any excess files?

That very well may be true. All I can provide is my success story from deleting a few gigs worth of games. And, when I did call Dell Tech Support about the slowdown they did ask if my HD was over 50% full.

The reason I buy Dell is that their customer service could help with this problem and they will replace ANYTHING on the machine if it's defective, usually in 72 hours, and restores HDs too.

Not if you're me. Two motherboard failures in less than 14 months. The first time was under warranty and relatively hassle-free (if hassle-free is not having your computer for 72 hours when you use it daily to take notes in law school). The second time I was told I couldn't get a new motherboard for at least a month, apparantly because they fail pretty often in the Inspiron 5150 and the nice people at Dell can't keep 'em in stock. I ordered the motherboard (~$400, but I did decide not to get anything beyond the standard 1 year warranty, shame on me), but just so I could eventually pawn the laptop off on some poor bastard via ebay. I also went to the Apple Store on Michigan Ave. and got an ibook the same week. I don't know how fast Apple replaces defective motherboards because mine hasn't died yet .

Anyways, sorry about the rant. Good luck with your computer, CrusaderX!

 

[Darth K'Trava]

How would I increase my virtual memory? I'd like to try that.

It's better to have more physical memory than virtual memory. Virtual memory hogs a certain part of your hard drive for windows (a memory hog, being an understatement) to use for it's use.

 

[Rackhir]

He does have a gig of ram, so I really don't think it's that he's running out of memory. Unless he is regularly running some real hogs of programs - Photoshop, 3D Rendering/Modeling software, large database crunching...

If it is a lack of memory, then he should be seeing and hearing a lot of hard disk activity. Especially during the slowdowns. Is that the case?

One thing that I can recomend is re-installing your OS. Windows does not tend to age well, especially if you install and uninstall a lot of software. Your registry can get loaded down with all sorts of little records and values as well as the system software having lots of left over bits from programs stuck in odd places. I know a fair number of people recomend that you re-install windows at least once a year for these and other reasons. It should also help if it is some spyware that your programs are missing.

Last thought would be, maybe it is just getting to be a slow computer for current software. My old work computer was a 933 and it was good for about three years, then I found that it was taking half an hour to run this one macro. After I upgraded to a 3.4 ghz machine it litterally took 30 seconds to run. If you have been using another computer else where that was much faster that could also be affecting your perceptions of things.

 

[CrusaderX]

Ok, after some more research, I found out what the problem was. My hard drive apparently had some errors on it, which were recorded in my System Log. These errors caused the Primary IDE Current Transfer Mode (found under Device Manager) to go from DMA mode to PIO mode. PIO is apparently more stable, and when XP encounters certain errors it reverts the drive to this mode. But while PIO mode is more stable, it's also much slower than DMA. To revert back to DMA mode, I had to boot my machine into Safe Mode, then uninstall my Primary IDE channel. When I then booted up normally, XP recognized the new hardware and automatically put the IDE channel back into the default Ultra DMA Mode 5, and my computer is now running nice and speedy again.

However, my HD still generated those errors in the first place, so I still need to haggle with Dell to see if I can maybe get a new drive, even though my current one is working...for now.

But I appreciate the help and suggestions offered above. Thanks guys!