Maker Pro
Maker Pro

P-IV computer slowing down

I have a P-IV 1.8 Ghz computer with 256MB RAM and 40GB hard disk. Of
late it has become extremely slow. I have done virus checking and
spyware checking. Nothing comes up in that. What could be the reason
for the slowing down of the computer. If anybody has any solutions
please inform me about that.
 
B

BigTom

Jan 1, 1970
0
If you're running Windows 2000/ME/XP then have a look in
WINDOWS TASK MANAGER, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.
Look under the PROCESSES tab and see if any program is using
too much CPU time.
A good system will show everything with a low CPU reading (00-10)
and SYSTEM IDLE PROCESS reading (99)
If a program is using too much cpu time then do a search in
GOOGLE for it.

Example search:- "iexplore.exe high cpu"
a really good newsgroup for these problems is "24hoursupport.helpdesk"
 
F

FoulDragon

Jan 1, 1970
0
Thoughts:

1- Defragment the hard disc

b- Any software added recently?

c- Can the slowness get isolated to certain work? Loading programmes? Hard
processing?
 
P

ph12

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have a P-IV 1.8 Ghz computer with 256MB RAM and 40GB hard disk. Of
late it has become extremely slow. I have done virus checking and
spyware checking. Nothing comes up in that. What could be the reason
for the slowing down of the computer. If anybody has any solutions
please inform me about that.
Don't rely on just one spyware checker......Adaware and Spybot my find
different things. Also, is there enough free disk space for the swap file?
It's amazing thse days how quickly a 40GB disk becomes full.
 
T

Tom MacIntyre

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have a P-IV 1.8 Ghz computer with 256MB RAM and 40GB hard disk. Of
late it has become extremely slow. I have done virus checking and
spyware checking. Nothing comes up in that. What could be the reason
for the slowing down of the computer. If anybody has any solutions
please inform me about that.

What OS? What is slowing down, exactly? Have you regularly defragged
it?

Tom it
 
L

LASERandDVDfan

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have a P-IV 1.8 Ghz computer with 256MB RAM and 40GB hard disk. Of
late it has become extremely slow. I have done virus checking and
spyware checking. Nothing comes up in that.

Have you done any other kind of housekeeping on your hard drive, like scandisk
and defrag?

Other things to check out is how many programs are running within your computer
at the same time. For instance, if the right hand part of your taskbar is
fully loaded with icons, then maybe you are running too many resident programs
at once. - Reinhart
 
M

merfturtle

Jan 1, 1970
0
If you are running XP, I have always had good luck doing a system
restore. You can set your system back to a date when it was running
properly. Beware, you will lose programs added after the restore date,
so try this as a last resort!
 
R

Roby

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have a P-IV 1.8 Ghz computer with 256MB RAM and 40GB hard disk. Of
late it has become extremely slow. I have done virus checking and
spyware checking. Nothing comes up in that. What could be the reason
for the slowing down of the computer. If anybody has any solutions
please inform me about that.

I have seen hard drives fail slowly, over a period of weeks. As bad sectors
develop, the controller keeps swapping in good ones and the machine runs
slower and slower. Do a surface scan and see if you've got a bunch of bad
spots.

Roby
 
B

Buck Frobisher

Jan 1, 1970
0
Is there enough free space on your hard drive? Swap file can get cranky
sometimes when you're at less than 20% free capacity...

--
"Stay calm. Be brave. Wait for the signs."

regards,

Frank Johansen
Aurora, Ontario
 
J

Jim Adney

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have a P-IV 1.8 Ghz computer with 256MB RAM and 40GB hard disk. Of
late it has become extremely slow. I have done virus checking and
spyware checking. Nothing comes up in that. What could be the reason
for the slowing down of the computer. If anybody has any solutions
please inform me about that.

I would download Spybot and Ad-Aware, then install and run both of
them. They are both free, and you should update their data sets as
soon as you install them. New data sets come out for both regularly.

I think you will be surprised at what they find.

-
 
J

jakdedert

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jim said:
I would download Spybot and Ad-Aware, then install and run both of
them. They are both free, and you should update their data sets as
soon as you install them. New data sets come out for both regularly.

I think you will be surprised at what they find.
....and at what they don't. I got a particularly bad spyware infestation
which neither of them took care of. When I downloaded a trial version of
System Mechanic, the included AV software found even more spyware problems,
but didn't find some of the ones which Spybot and Ad-Aware found.

What's more, none of those programs did a thorough job of cleaning out all
references to the infection in either the registry or elsewhere.

When your spyware checker finds a particular infestation, after rebooting
run regedit and search for the name of the program in the registry. Likely
you will find it many places.

jak
 
N

NSM

Jan 1, 1970
0
| ...and at what they don't. I got a particularly bad spyware infestation
| which neither of them took care of. When I downloaded a trial version of
| System Mechanic, the included AV software found even more spyware
problems,
| but didn't find some of the ones which Spybot and Ad-Aware found.
|
| What's more, none of those programs did a thorough job of cleaning out all
| references to the infection in either the registry or elsewhere.
|
| When your spyware checker finds a particular infestation, after rebooting
| run regedit and search for the name of the program in the registry.
Likely
| you will find it many places.

I had one computer where the user had added some evil toolbar that generated
massive popups for some anti popup software that shut the computer down for
lack of memory. According to what I read, even if you paid for this POS it
didn't work and it wouldn't stop the popups. Trying to remove it with
AdAware etc just caused the computer to lockup. I had to use Giant Spyware
Remover to get rid of it - took me over 2 hours all told.

N
 
B

BWL

Jan 1, 1970
0
Also open case and check for proper fan operation; vacuum out any dust. CPU's
will go into "slow mode" when running hot...
 
D

Daremo

Jan 1, 1970
0
If you're savvy enough, Hijack this will get rid of many spywares.

Daremo


jakdedert said:
Jim said:
I would download Spybot and Ad-Aware, then install and run both of
them. They are both free, and you should update their data sets as
soon as you install them. New data sets come out for both regularly.

I think you will be surprised at what they find.
...and at what they don't. I got a particularly bad spyware infestation
which neither of them took care of. When I downloaded a trial version of
System Mechanic, the included AV software found even more spyware problems,
but didn't find some of the ones which Spybot and Ad-Aware found.

What's more, none of those programs did a thorough job of cleaning out all
references to the infection in either the registry or elsewhere.

When your spyware checker finds a particular infestation, after rebooting
run regedit and search for the name of the program in the registry. Likely
you will find it many places.

jak
 
D

Daremo

Jan 1, 1970
0
Sorry, that's Hijackthis (one word).

Daremo



Daremo said:
If you're savvy enough, Hijack this will get rid of many spywares.

Daremo
 
J

jakdedert

Jan 1, 1970
0
Daremo said:
If you're savvy enough, Hijack this will get rid of many spywares.

Daremo
That's part of the problem. Many (most?) packages will get rid of a variety
of infestations. Apparently, none of them will get rid of *all* of them.
Even when they do, something usually gets left behind...often that
'something' hooks up to the mothership and downloads the whole mess again.

jak
 
N

NSM

Jan 1, 1970
0
| That's part of the problem. Many (most?) packages will get rid of a
variety
| of infestations. Apparently, none of them will get rid of *all* of them.
| Even when they do, something usually gets left behind...often that
| 'something' hooks up to the mothership and downloads the whole mess again.

Check out Spybot - Search & Destroy and Resident TeaTimer which locks your
registry and warns you of attempted changes.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/

N
 
C

Chaos Master

Jan 1, 1970
0
jakdedert stated:
That's part of the problem. Many (most?) packages will get rid of a variety
of infestations. Apparently, none of them will get rid of *all* of them.
Even when they do, something usually gets left behind...often that
'something' hooks up to the mothership and downloads the whole mess again.

When you get everything clean, dump IE and use Mozilla, Firefox,
Netscape or Opera for web browsing - they're less prone to those
"browser hijack" programs. I have used the four and the best ones are
Firefox (freeware - Open Source) and Opera (adware).

[]s
--
Chaos Master®, posting from Canoas, Brazil - 29.55° S / 51.11° W

"People told me I can't dress like a fairy.
I say, I'm in a rock band and I can do what the hell I want!"
-- Amy Lee
 
B

BWL

Jan 1, 1970
0
Also check that CPU fan is working CPU will slow down drastically when over
heated
 
Top