testing CPU Speed

What is a good test for actual CPU speed?

 

CPU-Z, gives speed info and so much more!

 

Unfortunately it has the ask toolbar so you have to be careful when you install that to deselect the ask toolbar installation.

 

Lots of freeware these days has the Ask toolbar installer "bundled". It is VERY easy to avoid installing it; every time I have encountered an app with the Ask TB installer, it has always been very apparent that it was there, and has been very easy to opt out of installing it. However, if you "accidentally" do install the toolbar, removing it is also VERY easy via Add/Remove Programs (or Programs & Features in Vista and Win7). The Ask toolbar is fairly harmless (from what I've seen anyway), and it's far from the days of the sneaky toolbar installs that tracked your surfing and delivered tons of ads based on your surfing habits and physical location.

 

dlb i understand your opinion.I simply wanted to bring awareness to that.Even a small "harmless" toolbar should be noted.Users have the right to know.

Many times in the past i clicked too fast and installed such stuff.Now we should train people to be more aware of such things.

Kind regards

 

That's the one program i use too.I didnt remember it had the ask toolbar.I was against ask toolbar in the past because i was infected with spyware and adaware programs that didn't let me uninstall ask toolbar.

Other than that the program seems ok.Maybe we could have a version that does not offer the ask toolbars?

I believe all good software has to be free from toolbars.In our age and times many people click fast in the installation proccess and do not understand much about toolbars or the problems they create.

Kind regards

 

Thanks for the replies.

I think I should have stated what I am having trouble with.

I have an Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00 Ghz with Windows XP Pro with SP3.

When I go to the General tab on the Property page for "My Computer", it shows my speed as 3.06 Ghz. it has always been that.

My computer has been running extremely slow since I did a repair install about a month ago. I was suspecting my CPU but now I think I have a bad registry.

I just noticed that my computer was set up as duo processer, but I have a single processor. I changed that, but the computer is still very slow.

I am going to try CPU-Z but I think I need something more to clean the registry or at least confirm that it is OK.

Are there any other ideas as to what might be the problem for my slowed computer?

 

Maybe I should have tried the CPU-Z program before I made my last post.

I installed it (avoiding the ASK Toolbar) and ran it. Everything is as expected which is a good thing. Since I build the computer about 7 years ago, I know what all the speeds should be.

The bad thing is that I still have no idea what is causing my computer to slow down.

I guess I need to look to the registry. What is good for doing that?

 

You kind of answered your own question... the PC is 7 years old, and you're wondering why it's slow? LOL Just kidding! No, the registry is not likely slowing down your PC. For some reason, the myth of a clean registry being the end-all for PC speed has been blown WAY out of proportion. I strongly suggest that you take a look at this thread and follow the suggestions. Use a process manager to determine which processes/programs are eating up resources (if you run Norton or McAfee, there's a good chance they are partially responsible). If you have WinXP and less than 768mb of RAM, that's part of it; if you have Vista or Win7 and less than 1.5gb of RAM, that's part of it; if your hard drive is over 80% full, that's part of it; if you haven't defragged recently, that's part of it. As mentioned in the thread I linked to, check your startup list and disable any items that don't need to be running all the time. The only stuff that really needs to run all the time is you antivirus/antispyware/antimalware software, and a firewall if you have one. Everything else should be 'on demand' and should only run when you tell it to.

 

Thank you for the link to the other thread. It was very useful.

I have been doing most of what was suggested, but not with the best of tools. I had been using the Disk cleaner and defragger that is comes with Windows.

I clean and defrag the disk every month even though it says it is not needed.

And you were right. Cleaning the registry (with CCleaner) did not help.

I know that I take a performance hit from having only 512 meg of ram, but I am asking about a recent drop in performance. The 3 things that are showing the drop in speed is the following:

1) When I click on My Computer, it takes 2-4 minutes to display my drives. This is a new thing.

2) I play around with programming games with a game making software. With one of my programes, the frame rate is dropping to 15 fps while on another computer which has only 2 Ghz CPU with same memmory and same OS runs at the desired frame rate of 30 fps.

3) This may not be an indicator of performance, but I am starting to believe it is connected. I am recieving "DEP error - generic host process for win32service" on startup. I requested help in another thread, but so far I have not been successful at fixing the error.

The logs in the "event viewer" in the Computer Management are showing some errors. Most notably is the failure of "Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)" to start.

I am somewhat a computer geek, but appearantly not as smart a geek as I thought. I am sure this is probally easily fixed, but I am at a loss.

Where do I look now?

 

Forgot to mention.

For the start up stuff. I don't seem to have any processes that are eating up the CPU. At least nothing that hasn't been there since before the recent drop in performance.

Hopefully, someday, I'll learn to put everything I am thinking into one post.

 

OK, you say a recent drop in performance, can you remember what you did just before that? Install some new software perhaps? Maybe an update? Can you restore to before the drop? Create a new administrator account and see how explorer works then. Just picking at straws ATM trying to avoid a format.

 

Since you still haven't mentioned exactly which version of Windows you have, I'll assume it's WinXP due to the fact that the PC was built 7 years ago. First, have a you tried a System Restore to a date before the slowness started? Second, If you have your XP install CD, boot to it, and enter the Recovery Console. Type chkdsk c: /r and press Enter. This will scan the file system for problems, and will repair and recover where needed. Running chkdsk can take some time (up to 8 hours or more) so maybe start it before going to bed. DO NOT interrupt a chkdsk by restarting the PC or by turning it off. If you notice the percentage indicator going backward, or if it looks like chkdsk has locked up, just leave it alone. It will finish eventually, and the backward percentage indicator is just a weird thing that happens sometimes, just leave it alone until it's done. When it finishes, type exit and press Enter to restart the PC and remove the XP disc from the drive. If you don't have an XP CD you can download an ISO file with the Recovery Console in it from here or from here. Simply burn the ISO file as an image with your favorite burning software (or use the excellent freeware ImgBurn), then boot to the CD. Alternatively, you can get to a command prompt on the slow PC (click Start, click Run, type cmd and press Enter), then type chkdsk c: /r as before, but this time you'll get a prompt saying that it cannot run chkdsk now and would you like to schedule it to run at the next restart, obviously answer Yes. You may also get a prompt about forcing the drive to be unmounted, answer No if this comes up. Then type exit and press Enter to close the Command Prompt window, and restart the PC. Now chkdsk should start automatically upon rebooting. You should also run a full hard drive diagnostic. These diagnostic tests are available as free downloads from your drive manufacturer's web site. Create the bootable (or DOS) version of the test, boot to it, and run the Advanced or Extended tests. This will tell you if the drive is 100% healthy. Sudden PC slowness for no apparent reason is commonly caused by a failing hard drive. Anyway- let us know how all this goes, and GOOD LUCK!!!
:-D

(BTW- there is a space before and after the c: in the chkdsk commands above; if you don't type the spaces, the command either won't work as it should, or simply won't work at all)

 

I posted the following a couple of weeks ago in a different thread. At the time, it was the only proplem I had notice. I still have the DEP error problem, but I only noticed the loss in perfomance about a week ago when I was working on a program and saw a drop in the frame rate. I believe this is the point that my performance dropped.
"A few days ago, while searching for something on the net, I click on what I thought was a link to addition text, but it started a download. Before I had a chance to do anything else, I message box popped up informing me that something was attempting to make changes to my windows files and asked if it should continue. I hit cancel and finished what I was doing. My Avira anti-virus popped up a couple of times with a virus alert soon after that. I closed everything down, updated Malwarebyte's AntiMalware, and ran a scan. It found a malware and a trojan which it then cleaned. After the reboot, Windows XP would not boot up (not even into safe mode). I did a chkdsk /r which found and repaired some errors which came back, tried last known good configuration, and system restore directories, but still could not boot up.

Finally, I booted from the windows CD and did a repair install. Since my Windows CD is Windows XP Pro with SP1, I started doing all the updates. After SP2 was installed, I started noticing some updates had failed. Also, after reboots (needed for the updates), I started getting DEP error messages stating that it had to close "generic host process for win32 services".

I am current on all updates according to the windows update website, and DEP, Data Execution Protection, is a legit windows feature. Also, I was current on windows updates with SP3 and current with my antivirus when this all started."

Sorry if this is not the right way to post this, but I couldn't figure out how to link to another thread.

I am running on Windows XP Pro with SP3 (Mentioned in an earlier post, but maybe not too clearly).

I did the chkdsk c: /r which found and corrected one or more errors. The DEP errors seem to go way after I do chkdsk c: /r, but returns on the next boot up.

I did a full hard drive diagnostic using SeaTools for DOS and passed the short and long tests (no advanced or extended tests were offered). I have a Maxtor 160 Gig partioned into 4 40 Gig drives (C:,D:,E:,F.

I repeated the chkdsk c: /r after the hard drive diagnostic and it again found and corrected one or more errors.

"My Computer" still takes 2 to 4 minutes to display, but all other folders work normally.

What should be my next step? Is it possible that this is due to a virus or malware? Avira scans and MalwareByte Scans are clean but could they both be missing a very stealthy virus?

 

Hmmmm..... this is odd. Are you sure the Seatools test ran on each of the 4 different partitions? By default, I'm pretty sure it scans the entire drive regardless of partitions, but it's something to look in to. If you have an extra hard drive laying around (even an old one of at least 4gb), you could temporarily install it and use it for a clean WinXP installation just to see what happens (or if one of the other partitions can be backed up and wiped for a clean install, you can try that). Also, I strongly suggest that you create a new WinXP install CD with SP3 integrated in to it. This is really easy to do via a process called "slipstreaming". First, copy all the files from your XP CD to a folder on your PC. Then download SP3 from this link. Then download and install nLite from this link. Then use the info in this guide to use nLite to slipstream SP3 into WinXP. You can then create an ISO file to burn to a CD so you'll now have an XP install disc with SP3 instead of SP1. You can also use nLite to add drivers, updates, to your CD. You can download an update pack from the link at the bottom of this page. However, this is a bit off topic, but it could be that performing a repair install to an up-to-date Windows XP SP3 install using an SP1 disc could be causing problems.....

(if you decide to go forward with the slipstreaming of SP3 and creating a new XP CD, I've done it MANY times and will be happy to answer any questions)

 

While Avira and MalwareBytes are two of the very best (I run the full paid MalwareBytes and the free Avira on my home PC), yes, there is a chance that something very sneaky has entrenched itself. But if you have no other symptoms of an infection (like random redirects when surfing the web, or constant nags from an "antivirus" program saying you need to pay to remove 100s of infections, or simply no web access at all), then it is not likely a virus, but it is possible. You should check out the 'official' MajorGeeks Guide To Malware Removal at this link, and post the appropriate logs in the Malware Removal Forum. Those guys are freekin' brilliant and can tell you if an infection is responsible. It's probably a good idea to reference this thread with a link in your first post..... GOOD LUCK!!! Let us know how things go!

 

Thanks for all the great advice.

I think I will try to make the new XP with SP3 cd. I have been thinking about redoing the repair install. That might make it more succesful.

I have a couple of questions? Can I slipstream SP3 onto SP1? Or do I need to get SP1a first? According to the Microsoft websit, SP1 can't be updated to SP3 directly.

Can I format a partition without formatting the whole drive? While looking for a drive to wipe clean, I found some folders that I can't access or delete. :cry From looking at some of the files that were also on the drive, I believe that these folders are left over from when I had a bad virus infection cleaned off my computer (couldn't clean by myself - computer only had a few minutes at a time of operation - not enough time to get to this site for help). The person who did the cleaning had done a repair install for me and then upgraded me to SP3 manually. The person who did the upgrade is not available as he has finished school and took a job in another city. I am thinking that these folders might be the cause of my chkdsk errors that keep coming back (and maybe other problems as well).

I am really hoping to not have to format the whole drive. Mainly, I have a lot pictures to backup (I know, I should do that anyway, but I have been doing it little at a time). The main reason is that I have an old nvidia card (GeForce FX 5700) that was hard to find the update for (the update had an update feature that made getting newer updates easier).

Again, thanks for all the great help.

 

I guess I am getting paranoid. Once you get nailed bad by a virus, you start suspecting everything is caused by viruses.

But, you do bring up good points. I have not been seeing any signs of infections. So I will try some of your other options first. Except for the three things I have mentioned, everything else is running fine. All the programs that I try to run have been running well (some kid games for my 5 yr old and microsoft word and excel - so nothing that is CPU heavy) and the internet use has been normal.

But how do I create a link in a post to another thread if I end up needing to go that route?

 

This is a link to your previous thread http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=221403
To find it, I went into your profile and clicked on "Find all threads started by SeanKG66".
If you need to find a thread you started, click the search button at the top. Click Advanced Search. Search by your username and limit the date to the last month. You can also limit the forum to Software, provided that is where the thread was started.

 

I believe I have successfully created a new WinXP with SP3 CD with nLite.

I also rechecked the hard drive with SeaTools for DOS and it does check the whole drive.

I have been trying to remove the files and folders (some of which are empty) from my e: partition but with no luck. I can't remove the read-only attribute.

I was hoping the remove those files and folders before trying another repair install using the new WinXP with SP3 CD.

I guess I am a little unsure as to how to proceed.

Should I go ahead with the repair install? Or should I take care of the E: partition first? Or should I start treating this as a virus and post in that forum?

 

I was able to delete the files and folders from the E: partition. It turned out to be a permission issue. I probally should have figured that out earlier. So, I am back to thinking this is not a virus problem.

I don't know if this means anything, but while I was in safe mode (taking care of the E: partition), I noticed that when I went to "My Computer", it didn't lag at all. It was displayed immediately.

I am not able to do a repair install with the WinXP with SP3 CD created with nLite. I think I am doing something wrong. When I get to the screen with the options of pressing <Enter> to setup Windows XP, or 'R' to do a repair,or something else - I forget what the third thing is, I press 'R' which takes me to the recovery console. From there I have two options: one is to log into the current installation or to exit. Both basically just boots up the computer.

Can the New WinXP CD do a repair install?

 

I did the repair install with the slipstreamed CD. It was not effective. The trouble still remains. Also, the install did not go smoothly. It got hung up on the reboot where the screen is black with the text please wait... under the windows logo. I had to reboot the computer. When it came up. It got to the logon screen and stated that it was applying the changes to the computer. After that I was able to log on, but my internet is not working right. I can only get to my home page (I had to set majorgeeks.com as my home page in the internet options on the control panel) and I cat get to my email on aol, but I am unable to go to any other websites.

Also, I am getting the following message when I attempt to go to another website:
"The requested lookup key was not found in any active activation context."

Am I at the point where a format and a clean install is my only options? :cry