Re: PC grinding to a halt - help!


"JoeJoe" <no@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"SteveH" <steve.houghREMOVE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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JoeJoe wrote:
"SteveH" <steve.houghREMOVE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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JoeJoe wrote:
I have a newish desktop Medion PC, spec as follows:

Genuine Windows VistaT Home Premium
Intel® CoreT 2 Duo processor E6400
NVIDIA® GeForce® 7650 GS graphics card
2048 MB DDR2 SDRAM
320 GB S-ATA hard drive x 2
3-in-1 TV tuner, (DVB-T, DVB-S, analogue TV)
18x multiformat CD/DVD burner
16x DVD ROM drive
Integrated WLAN 54Mbit/s IEEE 802.11g 802.11b compatible

The only changes I have made to it since buying it were:

1. Adding another 1GB of RAM - bought from Crucial (now total of
2GB) 2. Adding another 320GB HDD (so now 2 in all) - bought from
Medion/Aldi at the same time and it fits in a dedicated recess
outside the case. 3. Removing Vista and install XP Home - I'll give
MS and other
willing users a couple more years to complete beta testing before I
join them...
XP Home was re-installed (clean install, inc. formating of the
partition) a couple of weeks ago in an attempt to solve the problem,
and is fully up-to-date, including drivers, etc.
The PC in connected to a scanner and a printer using USB, and an
ADSL modem/rounter using a LAN cable.

The problem:

- System is so slow that it is almost impossible to use - opening
any program can take up to a couple of minutes, and them is pretty
much impossible to use as the PC is so slow to respond.

- I have Clean MemXP installed, and noticed that System Resources
never seem to drop to below, say, 75-80%, even immediatelly after
booting (see http://i28.tinypic.com/123rrrt.jpg near the bottom of
the image). This is despite the CPUs appearing to be idle and plenty
of RAM available.
Any thoughts will be much appreciated.


Do scans for spyware, adware etc

Done using latest version of ZoneAlarm- nothing found.

Not enough I'm afraid (personally wouldn't touch the latest version of ZA
with a barge pole). Download and install Adaware and Spybot, then update
and run them.

I just ran SpyBot and it reported nothing.

I stopped every single one of the startup items, booted, and the
System Resources was on 95%...

Is that 95% available? Or is that the system idle process?

Good question... I naturally assumed 95% used, but there is no mention in
the manual. However, looking at it closely whilst running and closing
various programs suggest that my assumption was corrent.

One think I just rememberred that I forgot to mention: I also
installed a dial-up modem (for fax) in the machine. Unfortunately the
only one that I managed to find that worked properly in the machine
was a very old Win Modem. Could this be the cause? I would rather
explore all software possibilities before I have to open the case.

The winmodem could be the cause, but if the Windows diagnostics report it
as working OK, then unlikely.

It is resported as working OK, so I will leave taking it out as a last
resort.

Any more thoughts?

Yes, take the winmodem card out and try it without - only 1 minutes'
work.. <rolls eyes>
My money is on you having a faulty hard disk as Odie (who fixes
them for a living) mentioned. If it's that, only a replacement will
help. Download and run the freely available HD diagnostic from
the manufacturers' site and see it it's fecked.
--
Rob




.

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