Argh! Why's my computer so slow?
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Right now I'm having major problems with the speed of my pc - It's becoming a major pain in the ass. Maybe some of you can suggest why computer is getting so slow. ... Picture this: Intel P4 2.6GHz with a 800MHz FSB 512MB TwinMos Cheapish Memory Radeon 9800 Pro Windows XP now of course when I game my computer kicks major fps ass. So why is it that the rest of windows runs so slowly? The slowness appears to be caused by hard disk paging. Windows take ages to repaint why the hard disk chugs away. But this is stange... I find I get hard-disk-paging like slowness even when the commit charge is less than my volume of physical memory! I just jumped out of my OpenGL screensaver back to the desktop. The windows each took ages to update as the hard disk groaned away! I'm confused... I have a friend who lives opposite me. He has a 2.5GHz with 256Mb ram, but an otherwise similar setup, yet his computer responds immediatly. Always. It's lightening quick. What is most likly to cause slowness? - Running weighty bloated apps like Explorer and Trillian? - Running a HTTP server which doesn't get used much - Running other services? like VNC? - Samba Sharing lots of files? - Running a virus scanner (like AVG free edition?). - Having lots of programs installed? or somthing else? Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
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Right now I'm having major problems with the speed of my pc - It's becoming a major pain in the ass. Maybe some of you can suggest why computer is getting so slow. ... Picture this: Intel P4 2.6GHz with a 800MHz FSB 512MB TwinMos Cheapish Memory Radeon 9800 Pro Windows XP now of course when I game my computer kicks major fps ass. So why is it that the rest of windows runs so slowly? The slowness appears to be caused by hard disk paging. Windows take ages to repaint why the hard disk chugs away. But this is stange... I find I get hard-disk-paging like slowness even when the commit charge is less than my volume of physical memory! I just jumped out of my OpenGL screensaver back to the desktop. The windows each took ages to update as the hard disk groaned away! I'm confused... I have a friend who lives opposite me. He has a 2.5GHz with 256Mb ram, but an otherwise similar setup, yet his computer responds immediatly. Always. It's lightening quick. What is most likly to cause slowness? - Running weighty bloated apps like Explorer and Trillian? - Running a HTTP server which doesn't get used much - Running other services? like VNC? - Samba Sharing lots of files? - Running a virus scanner (like AVG free edition?). - Having lots of programs installed? or somthing else? Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
1st thing that springs to mind is Windows. Even with XP, new installations seem to run faster than old ones. The difference in your friends and yours RAM sizes is probably meaningless unless you are both using it. The same with cycle speeds, Unless I'm compiling, or running a simulator I never get above 50%. Have you checked out your HD specs ? Considered getting a SATA drive? (Unsure if it will help) Regardz Colin J Davies
*** WARNING *
This could be addictive
**The minion's version of "Catch :bob: "It's a real shame that people as stupid as you can work out how to use a computer. said by Christian Graus in the Soapbox
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Right now I'm having major problems with the speed of my pc - It's becoming a major pain in the ass. Maybe some of you can suggest why computer is getting so slow. ... Picture this: Intel P4 2.6GHz with a 800MHz FSB 512MB TwinMos Cheapish Memory Radeon 9800 Pro Windows XP now of course when I game my computer kicks major fps ass. So why is it that the rest of windows runs so slowly? The slowness appears to be caused by hard disk paging. Windows take ages to repaint why the hard disk chugs away. But this is stange... I find I get hard-disk-paging like slowness even when the commit charge is less than my volume of physical memory! I just jumped out of my OpenGL screensaver back to the desktop. The windows each took ages to update as the hard disk groaned away! I'm confused... I have a friend who lives opposite me. He has a 2.5GHz with 256Mb ram, but an otherwise similar setup, yet his computer responds immediatly. Always. It's lightening quick. What is most likly to cause slowness? - Running weighty bloated apps like Explorer and Trillian? - Running a HTTP server which doesn't get used much - Running other services? like VNC? - Samba Sharing lots of files? - Running a virus scanner (like AVG free edition?). - Having lots of programs installed? or somthing else? Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
There's got to be something out there that's causing the paging. Since you mentioned it, does it happen only when the screen saver quits? Does it happen only after a specific game or app has been run? Do any of your applications start services, and then fail to stop them appropriately? I would try shutting things off, one at a time, and try to isolate the problem. If that doesn't show anything, as someone else may have mentioned, a fresh install might be a good idea.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
1st thing that springs to mind is Windows. Even with XP, new installations seem to run faster than old ones. The difference in your friends and yours RAM sizes is probably meaningless unless you are both using it. The same with cycle speeds, Unless I'm compiling, or running a simulator I never get above 50%. Have you checked out your HD specs ? Considered getting a SATA drive? (Unsure if it will help) Regardz Colin J Davies
*** WARNING *
This could be addictive
**The minion's version of "Catch :bob: "It's a real shame that people as stupid as you can work out how to use a computer. said by Christian Graus in the Soapbox
I've already got a SATA drive! Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
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There's got to be something out there that's causing the paging. Since you mentioned it, does it happen only when the screen saver quits? Does it happen only after a specific game or app has been run? Do any of your applications start services, and then fail to stop them appropriately? I would try shutting things off, one at a time, and try to isolate the problem. If that doesn't show anything, as someone else may have mentioned, a fresh install might be a good idea.
Software Zen:
delete this;It seems to happen a lot - any time a whole bunch of windows have to repaint themselves it gets worst Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
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Right now I'm having major problems with the speed of my pc - It's becoming a major pain in the ass. Maybe some of you can suggest why computer is getting so slow. ... Picture this: Intel P4 2.6GHz with a 800MHz FSB 512MB TwinMos Cheapish Memory Radeon 9800 Pro Windows XP now of course when I game my computer kicks major fps ass. So why is it that the rest of windows runs so slowly? The slowness appears to be caused by hard disk paging. Windows take ages to repaint why the hard disk chugs away. But this is stange... I find I get hard-disk-paging like slowness even when the commit charge is less than my volume of physical memory! I just jumped out of my OpenGL screensaver back to the desktop. The windows each took ages to update as the hard disk groaned away! I'm confused... I have a friend who lives opposite me. He has a 2.5GHz with 256Mb ram, but an otherwise similar setup, yet his computer responds immediatly. Always. It's lightening quick. What is most likly to cause slowness? - Running weighty bloated apps like Explorer and Trillian? - Running a HTTP server which doesn't get used much - Running other services? like VNC? - Samba Sharing lots of files? - Running a virus scanner (like AVG free edition?). - Having lots of programs installed? or somthing else? Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
Joel Holdsworth wrote: - Running weighty bloated apps like Explorer and Trillian? Probably not, Just checked min and explorer is only using 24 meg. Now if you have a bunch of them running, yes. Joel Holdsworth wrote: Running a HTTP server which doesn't get used much Again Probably not. So go to the service manager and set it for manual. Turn it on when you need it. I have my home machine set that way. Joel Holdsworth wrote: Running other services? like VNC? Depends on if there is still communications going on and how it may be configured. My vote is still to come. Joel Holdsworth wrote: Samba Sharing lots of files? Only if you are serving them out while you see the problem. Joel Holdsworth wrote: Running a virus scanner (like AVG free edition?). My guess is here. How does it scan? does it do a check each time you open up anything? and is it constantly doing a check on your hard disk when you have ideal clock time. They had set up my PC at work that way (it was McAfee so the free part is not the player.) Each time you logged in it checked the entire disk. So the first 2 hours each day was 95% virus scan and 5% real work. To check disconnect from the network and turn off the virus program. What happens? Joel Holdsworth wrote: Having lots of programs installed? No - only if they are running. I do not mind getting old. It beats all the other options that can think of.
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I've already got a SATA drive! Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
Joel Holdsworth wrote: I've already got a SATA drive! At least we have eliminated that. :-) Regardz Colin J Davies
*** WARNING *
This could be addictive
**The minion's version of "Catch :bob: "It's a real shame that people as stupid as you can work out how to use a computer. said by Christian Graus in the Soapbox
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It seems to happen a lot - any time a whole bunch of windows have to repaint themselves it gets worst Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
Joel Holdsworth wrote: It seems to happen a lot - any time a whole bunch of windows have to repaint themselves it gets worst Maybe the memory or something on your video card is shot. Try switching cards, even to a lower spec one and see what happens. (Unless its a built in card) Regardz Colin J Davies
*** WARNING *
This could be addictive
**The minion's version of "Catch :bob: "It's a real shame that people as stupid as you can work out how to use a computer. said by Christian Graus in the Soapbox
-
Right now I'm having major problems with the speed of my pc - It's becoming a major pain in the ass. Maybe some of you can suggest why computer is getting so slow. ... Picture this: Intel P4 2.6GHz with a 800MHz FSB 512MB TwinMos Cheapish Memory Radeon 9800 Pro Windows XP now of course when I game my computer kicks major fps ass. So why is it that the rest of windows runs so slowly? The slowness appears to be caused by hard disk paging. Windows take ages to repaint why the hard disk chugs away. But this is stange... I find I get hard-disk-paging like slowness even when the commit charge is less than my volume of physical memory! I just jumped out of my OpenGL screensaver back to the desktop. The windows each took ages to update as the hard disk groaned away! I'm confused... I have a friend who lives opposite me. He has a 2.5GHz with 256Mb ram, but an otherwise similar setup, yet his computer responds immediatly. Always. It's lightening quick. What is most likly to cause slowness? - Running weighty bloated apps like Explorer and Trillian? - Running a HTTP server which doesn't get used much - Running other services? like VNC? - Samba Sharing lots of files? - Running a virus scanner (like AVG free edition?). - Having lots of programs installed? or somthing else? Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
Check for spyware, background processes, etc. Also, defrag system volumes (and extras) and disable the virtual memory (just for testing). Then reboot. If problems go away then quasi-defrag pagefile.sys by setting it down to the lowest possible size (like 2-4MB). Then reboot, defrag, and set it back to its normal size and reboot again. If those two don't help, then you may have some serious hardware issues going on. Check your drivers and make sure the system isn't overheating. Jeremy Falcon
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It seems to happen a lot - any time a whole bunch of windows have to repaint themselves it gets worst Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
Do you have any 'unusual' video features turned on? How about the latest version of your video drivers? DirectX? You might try reverting to a plain vanilla (VGA) driver, and see if the problem recurs. Another check is to look at the mix of applications running when it happens. Does it happen if you just run a bunch of instances of explorer, or does it take some mix of apps to cause it? Speaking of explorer, I've noticed it will thrash if you've got some kinds of removable media present. The old Iomega Jaz drives were infamous for causing this.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Check for spyware, background processes, etc. Also, defrag system volumes (and extras) and disable the virtual memory (just for testing). Then reboot. If problems go away then quasi-defrag pagefile.sys by setting it down to the lowest possible size (like 2-4MB). Then reboot, defrag, and set it back to its normal size and reboot again. If those two don't help, then you may have some serious hardware issues going on. Check your drivers and make sure the system isn't overheating. Jeremy Falcon
Yeah it's gotaa be more subtle than spyware. The pagefile thing might well help... it seems to be slowness made completly out of seek times. So I'll try that Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
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Joel Holdsworth wrote: It seems to happen a lot - any time a whole bunch of windows have to repaint themselves it gets worst Maybe the memory or something on your video card is shot. Try switching cards, even to a lower spec one and see what happens. (Unless its a built in card) Regardz Colin J Davies
*** WARNING *
This could be addictive
**The minion's version of "Catch :bob: "It's a real shame that people as stupid as you can work out how to use a computer. said by Christian Graus in the Soapbox
Maybe, but this seems very much like pagefile activity - even though my page file shouldn't be in use given my amount of memory! The wait is not for the graphics card to come to life - it's more like a wait for applications to load out of virtual memory Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
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Right now I'm having major problems with the speed of my pc - It's becoming a major pain in the ass. Maybe some of you can suggest why computer is getting so slow. ... Picture this: Intel P4 2.6GHz with a 800MHz FSB 512MB TwinMos Cheapish Memory Radeon 9800 Pro Windows XP now of course when I game my computer kicks major fps ass. So why is it that the rest of windows runs so slowly? The slowness appears to be caused by hard disk paging. Windows take ages to repaint why the hard disk chugs away. But this is stange... I find I get hard-disk-paging like slowness even when the commit charge is less than my volume of physical memory! I just jumped out of my OpenGL screensaver back to the desktop. The windows each took ages to update as the hard disk groaned away! I'm confused... I have a friend who lives opposite me. He has a 2.5GHz with 256Mb ram, but an otherwise similar setup, yet his computer responds immediatly. Always. It's lightening quick. What is most likly to cause slowness? - Running weighty bloated apps like Explorer and Trillian? - Running a HTTP server which doesn't get used much - Running other services? like VNC? - Samba Sharing lots of files? - Running a virus scanner (like AVG free edition?). - Having lots of programs installed? or somthing else? Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
Format and reload your machine every six months, if your a developer it's kind of essential. You get all that HDD space back, don't reinstall those little things you were just having a look at, and your machine will be faster for about.. err 6 months. Just a thought, do you have lots of files? If so have you turned off ... damn i've forgotten what it's called! That annoying file indexer that runs in the background. That often accounts for my machine using 99% CPU when I'm not doing much. Definitely a PEBCAK! (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair)
My First ASP.Net site is now up :) RedRavenRPG -
Right now I'm having major problems with the speed of my pc - It's becoming a major pain in the ass. Maybe some of you can suggest why computer is getting so slow. ... Picture this: Intel P4 2.6GHz with a 800MHz FSB 512MB TwinMos Cheapish Memory Radeon 9800 Pro Windows XP now of course when I game my computer kicks major fps ass. So why is it that the rest of windows runs so slowly? The slowness appears to be caused by hard disk paging. Windows take ages to repaint why the hard disk chugs away. But this is stange... I find I get hard-disk-paging like slowness even when the commit charge is less than my volume of physical memory! I just jumped out of my OpenGL screensaver back to the desktop. The windows each took ages to update as the hard disk groaned away! I'm confused... I have a friend who lives opposite me. He has a 2.5GHz with 256Mb ram, but an otherwise similar setup, yet his computer responds immediatly. Always. It's lightening quick. What is most likly to cause slowness? - Running weighty bloated apps like Explorer and Trillian? - Running a HTTP server which doesn't get used much - Running other services? like VNC? - Samba Sharing lots of files? - Running a virus scanner (like AVG free edition?). - Having lots of programs installed? or somthing else? Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
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Yes I do have that running... will switching it off help? Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
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Format and reload your machine every six months, if your a developer it's kind of essential. You get all that HDD space back, don't reinstall those little things you were just having a look at, and your machine will be faster for about.. err 6 months. Just a thought, do you have lots of files? If so have you turned off ... damn i've forgotten what it's called! That annoying file indexer that runs in the background. That often accounts for my machine using 99% CPU when I'm not doing much. Definitely a PEBCAK! (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair)
My First ASP.Net site is now up :) RedRavenRPGYeah I could reformat - but there surly must be a way to keep a computer going without doing that? Anyway, What's the quickest way to switch the indexer then? Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
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Joel Holdsworth wrote: - Running weighty bloated apps like Explorer and Trillian? Probably not, Just checked min and explorer is only using 24 meg. Now if you have a bunch of them running, yes. Joel Holdsworth wrote: Running a HTTP server which doesn't get used much Again Probably not. So go to the service manager and set it for manual. Turn it on when you need it. I have my home machine set that way. Joel Holdsworth wrote: Running other services? like VNC? Depends on if there is still communications going on and how it may be configured. My vote is still to come. Joel Holdsworth wrote: Samba Sharing lots of files? Only if you are serving them out while you see the problem. Joel Holdsworth wrote: Running a virus scanner (like AVG free edition?). My guess is here. How does it scan? does it do a check each time you open up anything? and is it constantly doing a check on your hard disk when you have ideal clock time. They had set up my PC at work that way (it was McAfee so the free part is not the player.) Each time you logged in it checked the entire disk. So the first 2 hours each day was 95% virus scan and 5% real work. To check disconnect from the network and turn off the virus program. What happens? Joel Holdsworth wrote: Having lots of programs installed? No - only if they are running. I do not mind getting old. It beats all the other options that can think of.
Yeah that's kinda what I thought! I am usually serving large files out of my pc, but that should burden it badly on a 10Mbps network. Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
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Yes I do have that running... will switching it off help? Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
kill it then hunt down the person who wrote it and kill slap them then the company they worked for etc etc u get the idea? :) it gradually eats up all ur disk space and cpu power trying to index files its retarded turn it off and then in the properties of ur drives un-check the "allow indexing service blah blah" reboot and see the difference :)
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Yeah I could reformat - but there surly must be a way to keep a computer going without doing that? Anyway, What's the quickest way to switch the indexer then? Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
Right click on the C Drive and uncheck "Use indexing service". Say all subfolders. I reformat out of habit now, save all data to D: drive, backup My Documents, cookies and mail to CD. Then format. My machine is always quicker and lots of strange problems dissapear Definitely a PEBCAK! (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair)
My First ASP.Net site is now up :) RedRavenRPG -
Yeah that's kinda what I thought! I am usually serving large files out of my pc, but that should burden it badly on a 10Mbps network. Joel Holdsworth Wanna give me a job over the summer? View my online CV and Job Application[^]
Joel Holdsworth wrote: I am usually serving large files out of my pc, but that should burden it badly on a 10Mbps network. When acting as a fileserver Windows uses most of the avaliable ram for file caching, and then the computer acts exactly as you say, when you try to do something else... - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!" ShotKeeper, my Photo Album / Organizer Application [^]