XP Insane slowdowns - Any ideas?

[Hodgkinson]

I've experienced this in the past, but just recently it’s started to become both more frequent and rather annoying. After, say, extracting a big zip file, or maybe handling photos, or a whole variety of other tasks, the system almost, within a matter of seconds, grinds to a virtual halt. For instance, it takes about 30 seconds after clicking the start menu for the menu to appear, and the only way around this is to reboot, after which the systems perks up again.

Looking in the system logs, during this time there’s whole rows of "avgntflt" timeout errors on all the background processes, including explorer.exe. (AntiVir Avira antivirus, no virus detected on full system scans)

The system is a 1Ghz PIII, 768MB RAM, XP SP2 (No internet access, so no other patches).

Now I bet our miggys don’t suffer from this problem ;-) And rebooting should be certainly easier :-)

Ideas?

Thanks,
Hodgkinson.

[bloodline]

Hodgkinson wrote:
I've experienced this in the past, but just recently it’s started to become both more frequent and rather annoying. After, say, extracting a big zip file, or maybe handling photos, or a whole variety of other tasks, the system almost, within a matter of seconds, grinds to a virtual halt. For instance, it takes about 30 seconds after clicking the start menu for the menu to appear, and the only way around this is to reboot, after which the systems perks up again.

Looking in the system logs, during this time there’s whole rows of "avgntflt" timeout errors on all the background processes, including explorer.exe. (AntiVir Avira antivirus, no virus detected on full system scans)

The system is a 1Ghz PIII, 768MB RAM, XP SP2 (No internet access, so no other patches).

Now I bet our miggys don’t suffer from this problem ;-) And rebooting should be certainly easier :-)

Ideas?

Thanks,
Hodgkinson.

If it's been twelve month since your last reinstall... then I'm sorry to say, it's time to back everything up and reinstall windows. 'Tis the way of Windows.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Hodgkinson wrote:
I've experienced this in the past, but just recently it’s started to become both more frequent and rather annoying. After, say, extracting a big zip file, or maybe handling photos, or a whole variety of other tasks, the system almost, within a matter of seconds, grinds to a virtual halt. For instance, it takes about 30 seconds after clicking the start menu for the menu to appear, and the only way around this is to reboot, after which the systems perks up again.

Looking in the system logs, during this time there’s whole rows of "avgntflt" timeout errors on all the background processes, including explorer.exe. (AntiVir Avira antivirus, no virus detected on full system scans)

The system is a 1Ghz PIII, 768MB RAM, XP SP2 (No internet access, so no other patches).

Now I bet our miggys don’t suffer from this problem ;-) And rebooting should be certainly easier :-)

Ideas?

Thanks,
Hodgkinson.

Dunno whether the antivirus program you use, also detects adware. Maybe it's worth looking at that. Also, you might want to look at the system processes by hitting "ctrl-alt-del" and look under the tab "Processes". If there's a process which takes a lot of percentages of cpu power, you might look that program up on the internet, whether other persons have similar problems or not. Or you might want to uninstall it.
If you can't find anything, you might want to look at the services which are running. This can be done like this: Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. You might want to stop every service which is not directly necessary to run the system, and, if your system has become, search for the bad service by restarting every service one by one.
You might also want to look at the performance logs, which also can be found under Administrative tools.
And besides that, let scandisk scan your diskdrive, and also defrag your harddisk (this can take very long, and requires a fair amount of free disk space).

[Hodgkinson]

Sounds 'bout normal :-D

I forgot to mention that even task manager slows down, and despite that the CPU readout looks as if its not doing much. Yeah. Hmmm.

EDIT: The system's defraged and scandisk'd on a regular basis now. I use Diskeeper Lite for the defrag, which is pretty good.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

bloodline wrote:
If it's been twelve month since your last reinstall... then I'm sorry to say, it's time to back everything up and reinstall windows. 'Tis the way of Windows.

Not necessarily, I've had my laptop not being reinstalled for more than a year, until I installed Visual Studio 2008 on it (got it for a low price, special student offer). Visual Studio 2008 really screwed up my system. I didn't have to pay much for it, but to think of paying the full price for such a disastrous product which IMHO couldn't even be in Alpha stage :pissed:

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Hodgkinson wrote:
I use Diskeeper Lite for the defrag, which is pretty good.

Are you sure this very program couldn't be the cause of this mess?

[Hodgkinson]

It's part of the "Microsoft Back Office" tools range...Having said that, if its made by Microsoft... :crazy:

We've used it for some years on various different systems and never experienced these problems before.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Hodgkinson wrote:
It's part of the "Microsoft Back Office" tools range...Having said that, if its made by Microsoft... :crazy:

We've used it for some years on various different systems and never experienced these problems before.

I have used Visual Studio 2005 too without problems, until microsoft added new 'cool features' in 2008. :pissed:
So you might have just gotten a very wrong update.

[Hodgkinson]

'cool features' > Ah ha. Microsoft? The mind reels.

Technically the "Lite" edition is in fact a demo version, just without all the "set and forget" large scale admin stuff. I'll see if I can find a newer version some time.

[bloodline]

I have never had an XP system in constant use that has lasted more than about a year before it needed a reinstall... After the reinstall everything worked perfectly again!

[twizzle]

i have xp pro, i use JKDfrag it doesnt need any disc space to work, and does a better job than microsoft`s defrag.
i also use tuneup utilitys & windows registry repair.

but after about 6months or so i still have to do a re-install? as things start to mess up/slowdown/hang/crash

[bloodline]

twizzle wrote:
i have xp pro, i use JKDfrag it doesnt need any disc space to work, and does a better job than microsoft`s defrag.
i also use tuneup utilitys & windows registry repair.

but after about 6months or so i still have to do a re-install? as things start to mess up/slowdown/hang/crash

Yes my experience also. Though I do usually get more than 6 months :-)

[Hodgkinson]

Well, for me the systems at least 2 years old now, so by those standards im doing pretty well...

[Holmes]

I use spybot to get rid of some spyware (not one program will do all)
and this will also check your registry(yuk).
usually if I download or install a new program/update, I defrag.

These two methods usually keep my pc(yuk) running responsively.

After time as gone by I also right click the system disk for properties and
do a disk clean(without compressing to save space) and also
get rid of all but one of my restores.

Also if you clean out your prefetch drawer this can help
(Spybot I think does this also).

I have gone previously about 5 years without a re install
and think spyware and fragmentation  is the cause of slowdowns,
also registry rouge entries through faulty unistall/install
 scripts can {bleep} up a good pc.


Ps This is my very first post sent via AWEB on the Amiga
(usually I use my PC)

[Hodgkinson]

>Ps This is my very first post sent via AWEB on the Amiga

Good for you! (Advising on how to fix a XP PC from an Amiga…That’s just legendary)

When I do a disk clean (Often after a defrag) I use chkdsk from command prompt, that way I can turn all the checking features and get at least some sort of report of the systems condition.

Deleting past restore points? I've never thought of that one...Don't they drop off manually after a certain time?

Re your (And other) posts, I've had a look at ad-aware on the web, but im cautious about installing more scanning software. AntiVirus is a must, due to the amount of photos/personal work on there and the malicious nature of viruses/RootKits, but im worried that installing other scanners may end up in the system slowing down more (Over a long time scale) as a result and provide little additional protection since the system is not internet-connected.

Invariably files/USB Sticks are scanned with AVG on the "Internet PC", then by AntiVir (Manually updated) on my “Work PC” before being accessed. I try to avoid using the network, especially when the internet is fired up (Heh, h*a_c_k_e_r*s, try to get around that one :-D )

Apart from viruses, what other malware is likely to cause an appreciable threat/slowdowns on a non-internet PC? Any suggestions on a *safe* registry cleaner?

Thoughts (And comments) appreciated,
Hodgkinson.