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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Hodgkinson]

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

[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.

[Hodgkinson]

 :crazy:  :lol:

Yup (Mine's currently got at least two apps in the "Ignore" list)

[Hodgkinson]

> Norton or McAfee

Hello...Muhahaha...(Norton in particular).
The free stuff usually works without too many problems. Fork out for Norton and it does just about as much damage to your system as the viruses :crazy:

[Hodgkinson]

Ah, (Re a Packard-Bell PC) then there's the demos that come pre-installed, and the in-built registration reminders that flash up over whatever it is you're working on.

Build a PC yourself anyday I say...Then at least you've got all the driver disks for any re-installs (Heh, as mentioned).

[Hodgkinson]

Hmmm. Might have a look at ThreatFire (Depends on how it updates - Does it have a "Manual" update feature?)

So even AVG isn't that good with system resources, then?

[Hodgkinson]

Thanks for all the posts!

ATM Im just trying to get an Avira bootable CD-ROM virus checker to work. Unfortunately (As I've mentioned on their support forum) the thing stops abruptly with a "DEMO" mode, which it shouldn't.

For the last week or so I haven't hardly any slowdowns. Odd (Well, Windows is odd…)

Regards,
Hodgkinson.

[Hodgkinson]

According to one of the support team on the Avira website, they can't duplicate the problem that I have experienced, and they suggest that I burn another CD, this time from the online ISO file using a burner program of my own.
One problem - Now I haven't got any cheap-and-nasty disks left to try it with :crazy:

Anyway, Im almost certain that the slowdowns are caused by (But not limited to) Windows search. Almost every time I run a search (From start to end) through the substantial 12GB of "My Documents" the system takes a good half a minute to display basic folders and display the Start menu; even after closing the search utility. From past experience (With buggy games) could this be due to a RAM leak?
Anyone know of a Microsoft peel off self-adhesive patch?

[Hodgkinson]

Any tips of the trade for keeping XP going? (Eg, apart from AVscanning/Defrag/Scandisk)

[Hodgkinson]

Ah, that might be a point. At the moment every setting under the sun is turned up full in the AV - If I think on I'll try a search (Next time I need to find something) with and without the on-access scanner and see what happens ;-)

Hodgkinson.

[Hodgkinson]

What do you use to clean up your registry?