PF Usage

Hi,
Recently my PC has started to go extremely slow on certain tasks especially during Windows logon and for a few minutes after logon. I have checked Windows task manager and the only unusual thing a high PF Usage (over 400Mb). Can anyone point me to a tutorial on Windows memory handling (i.e. explanation of PF Usage, handles threads and processes, Commit Charge, kernal memory paged and non-paged etc.) I am guessing I am running low on memory. It also may be that I am using a lot of swap file on my HD.....there is always a lot of disk activity when the PC slows down. My disk is also fairly full with about 3Gig free. Any tricks to improve performance?
Thanks
Kevin

 

i've read that your swap file should be equal to the amount of ram for good performance, and you should keep some extra space open on your hd. about 20% free. and the maybe you should defrag.

here's a guide for tweaking games, but it explains xp memory tweaks as well as your question:
http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html

 

I second thesmokingun's recommendation on tweakguides.com - I have found it a very handy Windows XP tweaking guide.

I suggest downloading the Tweaking Companion. It's in PDF format (you will need Acrobat reader 5.0 or above to open it). It has over 170 pages of information concerning Windows XP and how to configure it.

The site also has good info on how to install and setup nVidea and Radeon graphics drivers - not to mention various games and such. Good resource.

 

Most common slow start up's is too many things starting up that you probally dont need, ccleaner here at major geeks has a start up editor made in it, works well. Just check off what you dont need. ed

 

I think a large prob is your HDD is becoming full (3Gb left) can you transfer some of your data? It seems to me your HDD is having to trak its head from one side to the other and thus slowing performance but more importantly when was the last time you did a defrag (your gonna struggle as the MS defrag needs at least 15% free space to work!). Okay here is a defrag app far superior than your onboard one:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207

IMHO your HDD is like a bloke who has been to an all you can eat restaurant and they keep bringing each and every of his favourite dishes and by the end of the night he trys to get up and move but finds he is extremly bloated and movement is significantly impaired. That is your HDD at the moment so move the data and then DEFRAG IT!

 

Thanks guys, good suggestions. I just got a flag saying Windows needs to increase the swap file. I successfully did a defrag recently. I think only having 3 gig left on the HD has a lot to do with it. I need to uninstall some apps.

 

Hi,
An update on this story. I ended up getting a new Dell PC with Vista and decided I would put Linux on my old one to experiment with. Fry's had a sale on hard drives and I picked up a 260Gig drive for about $60 and put it in the old PC (Dell Dimension 4500). I partitioned the drive and put XP on one partition. It goes like a rocket!! I have never had a PC boot so fast (and it is four years old). It's actually way faster than my brand new dual core with Vista (which cost me $1600). So a 1.8Ghz processor with a Gig of RAM and a 7000rpm HD seems to be all I needed. Don't dump those old PC's too quickly.
K