Re: Slow new system--how do I check for mechanical performance problem?
- From: "TVeblen" <killtherobots@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 08:59:10 -0500
"ken" <kenk@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gjn2bc$5m5$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
TVeblen wrote:
"ken" <kenk@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in messageNOD32 antivirus runs in the background and there is no problem detected
news:gjj317$105$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I built a system about 4-5 months ago based on an Intel DP35DP mb with 4Have you done the usual OS diagnostics - run antivirus and spyware,
GB RAM and a Core2Duo cpu running Win XP Pro. All seemed to be running
quite well until about 3 weeks ago, when I suddenly developed all kinds
of weird errors, such as trying to launch a program and having an error
message that the file was not a win32 file. The system would reboot at
strange times. Explorer would suddenly stop working and my desktop would
disappear. I went back to a backup from 3 weeks before that and it
solved the problems, but the system, which used to be very fast, seems
much slower. I reinstalled the Intel chipset drivers, checked to be
sure that no programs were running in the background, have done umteen
different scans for viruses, malware, adware, none of which appear to be
present.
Is there a program I could use to test the speed of the system and
compare it to other systems that are similar to see if the speed problem
is real or just a figment of my imagination? Is there another approach
to the problem I should consider?
checked running processes and services, startup progs? Have you installed
any new progs just prior to the behavior? Which ones? OS updates?
when I have run a deep scan, except for two corrupt files that have not
been able to be salvaged by running chkdsk, but I cannot delete them. One
is a .gif file and the other is a file from thunderbird,
msgFilterRules.dat.
I have run ad-aware, spybot, and my XP Pro is up to date with security
releases. I run ZoneAlarm in the background. No new programs preceded
the problem. I have limited my startup programs. Since running ccleaner,
my problem has improved somewhat, although I am not back to the speed I
was at.
I have a complete image backup which has most of my programs and it was
from a few months before the problem began, so I will write that to a disk
that I will swap out with my system hard drive, add the additional
programs, and that will probably solve the problem. I just wanted to
figure out what was causing the problem in the first place. At least I
have all of my data on a separate drive, which makes it a bit easier to
rebuild the OS and programs.
At the moment, all seems stable. The only problem which has developed
even more recently is that after I defrag my disks, chkdsk sets itself to
run, sometimes with just three stages (verifying files, indexes, and
security descriptors) but not infrequently it runs 5 stages, adding file
data and free space. That whole process takes about 2 hours, which is a
PITA. I am not sure how to get around it other than to shut off the
machine, restart, F8 and start with most recent successful profile... I am
not sure why it does that...
I have experienced system slowdowns from two general culprits: file indexing
and trojans. I disable most of XP's indexing "features". I had Acronis True
Image on my computers and it's file indexing had a noticeable slowing effect
on one puter but much less so on the other. I uninstalled it from the
problem box and now just run the prog off the CD and saw immediate
improvement. Nero Scout was another culprit, fortunately Nero 7 and up makes
disabling Scout very simple. My family computer was recently infected by the
Vundo trojan. This is a particularly nasty little piece of evilness that
really slows down the system even after cleanup with AVs. At first I took it
as a personal challenge to remove the offending files and registry keys
manually, as Spybot, AVG, and Defender were ineffective in removing all the
files. The offending files are memory resident, self-replicating, and
redundant so it quickly (If 6 hours is quick) became apparent that a
restored disk image was my only viable option. Works great.
That is my experience with OS causes of slowdowns. My only hardware
experience was a dying hard drive. The only other note would be that an OS
install gets old and slows down naturally. Sometimes a clean install is in
order.
.
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