slow computer running win xp pro

ok my computer has suddenly just decided to run really slowly once fully booted up....again!
i did have this problem before and it was overheating that was the problem - fixed it!
i know i have a low amount of ram (192mb) but my pc's never run this slowly before, what's up with it??!!!! i tried defragging today when i went out and everything went ok but it's still running really slowly!!!!!

anyone got any suggestions?

 

Perhaps these are overly obvious, but I thought I'd offer them anyway just in case. Have you checked your total number of services/processes/programs etc. running following bootup? Perhaps your RAM is being chewed up in this fashion, causing lots of page writes. Also, file indexing can be a major slow-down source...perhaps an examination in this area will resolve your difficulty? Sorry if this strikes you as a "no-duh" suggestion.

 

How much free space on your hard drive/s? I see you defragged so that rules that out. Is it a particular program that runs slow? When you are on the net? When you are off the net? What browser do you use? How often do you housekeep the stuff you accumulate when on the net? What program/s do you use to get rid of the crap? What firewall, what anti-virus progs? Are they up-to-date? We need more info to help you. Do a search for all instances of index.dat and tell us what sizes they are (more than 1 file with that name, filed in the strangest places) Bazza

PS: Have you tried an on-line Trojan scan?

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wah questions ok ok.
i.e. 6.0.2900, blackice network firewall (my computer connects through another computer which connects directly to the internet) the whole system seems to run slow after about 5 minutes of logging on to my user (i'm the only user of it). What do you mean by "How often do you housekeep the stuff you accumulate when on the net?"? I use AVG free edition which is all up 2 date and i've run all the symantec fixes. i also use adaware 6.0 which is also up to date.

 

also, i'm on a 20 gb h/d with 6.5 gb of free space on 1 partition and 4.3 gb on the one that run's windows. sorry i forgot that, but i am getting a new mobo with a 2.3 ghz athlon, 512mb ram and an 80gb h/d!

 

Sorry, gotta log off now, but will post some stuff for you to download and run tomorrow. Barry

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We ask the questions so we can provide answers to help.

(1) Do a search/find on Index.dat and let us know the sizes of the various ones it finds.

The reason will become apparent later. You must have "view all files" turned on to find Index.dat as it is hidden by default.

(2) Download and try these 3, all free, don't conflict with each other.

Cleanup! http://www.stevengould.org/ Freeware 3.1
EmpTemp http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1575
and CrapCleaner http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4191.html


(3) Run Cleanup! first with the sound up. Close the popup box that opens up when it finishes. Do not re-boot as yet. Write down the number of files it finds, and the size in megs that it reclaims. You will probably be astonished. I once deleted 60,000+ files from a friend's PC.

(4) Run the other 2 programs and reboot

(5) Do a search/find on Index.dat, and let us know the sizes of the various ones it finds.
You should find a big/huge difference in the sizes of Index.dat (1) compared to (5).
Don't worry, index.dat is re-created the next time you boot up Windows.

(6) Run all 3 programs above to get rid of the crap after every session on the net.

Let us know the results. Bazza

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ok windows clean up found 12115 files taking up 270.7mb! also ran crap cleaner and empty temp, but not sure how many files they deleted. i'll reboot now and then do a search for index.dat

thanks for your help so far!

 

ok, once i've found all these index.dat files what am i doing with them, deleting them?

 

anyone??!!!

 

Yep, reboot after running CrapCleaner or Cleanup!
They will delete your Index.dat files. Don't worry about deleting them as Windows recreates them if it doesn't find them, when it boots up.
If you don't delete Index,dat files regularly they just grow and grow. Bazza

PS: I would be interested in the sizes of the various Index.dat files before and after running either of those cleaning programs. Start-->Find-->Files or Folders, type in Index.dat, press enter. Write down the results as "before". Run either of the above, reboot. Do a new find as per above, and compare the results. Let us know. Baz

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