S L O W computer

I have a PC here that's running so slow it's ridiculous. The specs aren't great (Celeron 1ghz, 256mb, 20gb HD) but there's another PC right next to it with lesser specs (P3 667mhz, 128mb, 20gb HD) that's running WAY better. Both PC's are running XP Home SP2. The P3 had quite a bit of malware in it, but it still is running better than the Celeron. I've scanned the Celeron PC with many anti-malware utils, ran a defrag, did Dial-A-Fix, did sfc /scannow, removed junk/temp files, ran CCleaner clean-up and issues fixer, removed some bloat-ware, turned off some stuff in msconfig.... all of this helped a little bit, but the PC is still too slow. It takes about 45seconds to a mintue for ANY window to open... for example, when Internet Explorer finally opens, I can surf just fine, no lag, it just takes awhile for IE to open... it takes awhile for anything to open, even My Computer or My Documents.... I'm running out of ideas here... HELP!

hopperdave2000

 

you have to remember that a celeron or celery i like to call them they are a lot cheaper and perform realy less then a real pentium that's why your
P3 run better then the celery.....

 

Yeah, I know.... I've already taken that into account. It still shouldn't take up to a minute for any windows to open. And, it seems like the hard drive is constantly being accessed; half the time the HD LED is lit up and flashing like mad. I've gone thru the processes and no red flags there. I think I have to break out FileMon & RegMon and see exactly what's happening here.... Anybody else have any suggestions? I'd really prefer an easy fix versus having to pick thru a bunch of FileMon logs to track down the culprit...
Anybody?

 

Are you getting the "flashlight" on my computer, etc.? If so, try updating the drivers for the video card.

ALSO

Try # 157 ( Prevent Delay Opening My Computer/Explorer ) on the right-hand side here, http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Steve

 

I would also do a search for any Norton or Panda products that may have been installed and run the removal tools.

Steve

 

Whenever I see vintage equipment, working "slower than expected", I check to see if the CD-drive is on a separate IDE ribbon cable. Quite often, the CD is set up as a slave on a shared cable with the OS-system hard drive. You can get a performance boost by having your OS-system hard drive and CD-drive on separate ribbon cables.

 

Try running Process Explorer and see which process is hogging up resources.
Process Explorer
Try turning Windows Update off and setting the service to disabled and see if that makes a difference.

 

The heck with it..... I formatted and reloaded.

End thread.

 

the problem might lie on your hard drive. download speedfan here http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php
it's a small program that can measure the internal temperatures of you computer
you can also find out about your hard drive's health using the program's online analysis
also try this little program called belrac advisor here
http://belarc.com/free_download.html
you can find out all about your computer and the goods and bads
good luck

*** and thank you metacumbie for the great site!

 

Your welcome. Lot of fixes there.

Steve