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MichiKen
08-29-2009, 02:57 PM
I'm running Windows XP Home Edition.
Lately, I've noticed that after I boot up my pc, many of my applications (IE, Word, Excel) are very slow to launch unless I wait until about 30 minutes after the pc was booted up. If I try to launch the apps within that time, they are painfully slow to launch. Even after the 30 minutes they're not that quick to launch.
When trying to save in Word or Excel, there is a "Save in" drop down box (as I'm sure you know) for me to select where I want to save the file. Well, when I click on that drop down box I keep getting an hourglass and it hangs several seconds before allowing me to select the folder to save in.
I've scanned for worms and viruses and nothing was found.
Any thoughts on what's causing this slow performance and how I can improve it?
JunkMale
08-30-2009, 03:11 AM
Are you an online gamer or run PC based games? If so, you may want to try running them on one machine that is only used for games and nothing else.
Other than that, it sounds to me like you have a virus or spyware on your system even though you have scanned, it does not mean thet your AV has the required signature to detect that virus.
What security and cleaning software do you have?
it would be helpful to describe the hardware running on your PC just to give an idea of how it should be performing. although XP home shouldn't be bottle necked unless the machine is over 4 years old. CPU? RAM? HDD? MOBO?
make sure your PC is clean, an updated AV and spyware (malware bytes maybe)
also Download HJthis and post a log here and maybe we can take a look at it and see whats using up all your resources.
when was the last time you had a fresh copy of windblows installed?
i don't see how gaming is in anyway related to the OP's question!
JunkMale
08-30-2009, 02:35 PM
it would be helpful to describe the hardware running on your PC just to give an idea of how it should be performing. although XP home shouldn't be bottle necked unless the machine is over 4 years old. CPU? RAM? HDD? MOBO?
Rubbish, my PC is 8 years old and no issue with bottlenecks... Who told you that?
make sure your PC is clean, an updated AV and spyware (malware bytes maybe)
also Download HJthis and post a log here and maybe we can take a look at it and see whats using up all your resources.
when was the last time you had a fresh copy of windblows installed?
Installed a fresh copy of windows?!!? Pardon!
That is something that you should not do as you are basically taking your machine back to a copy that has no bug or security fixes, any well seasoned tech would tell you that you are better to fix the copy you have than to wipe it, which should only be a last option to resolve the issue.
i don't see how gaming is in anyway related to the OP's question!
The gamer issue is important because of past experience of various friends who have run PC based games and more so the online versions which all resulted in their machines being compromised as well as taking time to power up and other issues that never existed until they started to use PC based games and the online games servers.
What people fail to understand is these gamers servers are not secure in the way you would expect them to be and anyone who has been around the hack sites will know just how much of a hole you can drive a bus through that these servers are.
As the person is complaining that their system is running slow, it is an indication that the machine was at one time functioning fine.
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@MichiKen - you can try a defrag, if your drive is fairly full, burn off data to disc and empty up the drive. If I had the link to post I would have pointed you to an article I read that states that hard disks are meant to be kept atleast 70% free of files and data to keep them operating at optimal performance, so a fairly full hard drive will slow your system down as will too small a page file.
Theirs lots of things that can slow your PC down and it is easier to eliminate the simplest ones first before getting more technical.
Software that is well known and has a track record of reliability...
Spywareblaster by JavaCool
Spybot Search & destroy - Safernetworking
Adaware - Lavasoft
AVG antivirus - Grisoft
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You have another alternative, create a secondary partition and install Linux to it, something like Ubuntu is very user friendly althogh ATM I am not that impressed with a couple of issues but TBH when compared to XP, Ubuntu goes to the toilet and dumps all over XP...
As a foot note, all the people I have helped with their PC's have moved over to using one machine for their gaming and have a laptop or second PC for everything else. Everyone is now happy and I am not pestered with calls at 2am when their systems lock up in the middle of a game or refuses to boot.
Rubbish, my PC is 8 years old and no issue with bottlenecks... Who told you that?
Installed a fresh copy of windows?!!? Pardon!
That is something that you should not do as you are basically taking your machine back to a copy that has no bug or security fixes, any well seasoned tech would tell you that you are better to fix the copy you have than to wipe it, which should only be a last option to resolve the issu
..........now happy and I am not pestered with calls at 2am when their systems lock up in the middle of a game or refuses to boot.
What a troll...! i can see where your user name comes from; utter junk!
now stop making false assumptions and counter arguing them with moot points... and no sir you do not seem like a season tech by any means as you seem to not want to extract the necessary information for troubleshooting the problem
i didn't recommend a fresh install however was only checking how long its been running furthermore i shall refrain from responding do your snark misplaced comments as i'm here to help out the OP not YOUR ability to maintain an 8 your old PC for all you know he could be running on a old lappie
ohh and maybe think of an upgrade and turn that PC into a HTPC or NAS or sthg.. since your so concerned with gaming
JunkMale
08-31-2009, 03:04 PM
I am not about to be draw in to a flame / troll war with you.
How ever, you should review your own answer and see that your asking all the wrong questions, especially when its down to a machine thats running slower, CPU speed is irrelavent in all cases as the end user who is pointing out that their machine is running slower indicates by the very comment that the issue is going to be in the OS and won't be a hardware issue.
Pipe & Smoke it pal.
Ciao.
GrizzlyTiger
09-05-2009, 02:49 PM
I am not about to be draw in to a flame / troll war with you.
How ever, you should review your own answer and see that your asking all the wrong questions, especially when its down to a machine thats running slower, CPU speed is irrelavent in all cases as the end user who is pointing out that their machine is running slower indicates by the very comment that the issue is going to be in the OS and won't be a hardware issue.
Pipe & Smoke it pal.
Ciao.
Not necessarily, he might not have enough RAM for the desired program/appilication, and in my experience that has been the case.
And MichiKen have you disabled the unused background programs from running at start up? as that causes your programs to take extra time to load.
JunkMale
09-11-2009, 05:12 AM
Again... The users remarks clearly indicate that the machine was functioning, why else are they complaining about apps running slower?
This could be anything, if a virus, it may not yet be known about or detectable, it could be a Subvert running XP as a Virtual Machine which could account for the machines impeded performance, and a trojan virus as said could be the issue.
It could be a simple case of a drive by download... Has the OP been to any sites lately that are not on your regular visit list? Been downloading any warez or using peer to peer software?
For example, LimeWire is a big no no, of all the people who I have advised not to run it only to be told by other friends that I am talking out my rear, end up asking me how to uninstall the software that is clearly the point of entry.
Bit Torrent, the original peer to peer torrent client has a vulnerability which incidentally I tried to take up with FRION in his forum only to be told by the prat that I didn't know what I was talking about and 2 years on... It as it transpired, someone discovered the issue that I had reported to the developers 2 years earlier...
You also have spyware removers that are spyware installers, these may remove spyware but what they do not tell you is that they are installing their own spyware!
It could be a hardware issue, a slow boot up can also indicate a pending drive failure.
I suggest you grab a Linux Distro that can run as a liveCD, run it as a liveCD and see if your machine is running faster, you will notice a bit of lag while the programs your going to run are loaded in to the workspace that the liveCD creates in order to run.
If you find a big improvement, this will most likely due to XP being infected with something.
The other questions that come to mind are recent installs, a friend recently installed another registry cleaner after it was found that Gleary released a virus riddled program (worm that attacks Delphi installs), which has been fixed by them. This latest software CCleaner he says he has noticed that his machine takes about 20 minutes to boot and his issues only appeared after installing it.
So cast your mind back to programs you have recently installed, web sites you visited and any strange emails and attachments or code that may have executed because of the preview panel is visible, this for outlook is a problem as some spammers & phishers take advantage of the ability to auto run code in it.
The list of issues we can discuss all day. So unless this original thread starter responds to these comments, this thread should be considered dead.