Very Slow PC

Hi,

I've been having problems with my new computer. This is what it has:

- Biostar TFORCE 6100-939 mobo which supports dual channel ddr
- SATA
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz / 512KB Cache / 1000MHz FSB / Venice / Hyper-Transport / OEM / Socket 939 / Processor
- 2 twin sticks of Kingston 512MB RAM
- 2 twin sticks of 1G RAM
- Corsair 620W PSU
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 320-GB Hard Drive
- Windows XP X64

The computer runs slower than my old PATA computer which was 5 years old and had "Slot '0' has 256 MB Slot '1' has 512 MB" (Belarc Report). I installed the 4 sticks of RAM in every configuration but it didn't help.

This may be of importance. Shortly after I had the pc up and running, I installed a SATA card. I connected 2 SATA ext hdds to it, turned them on and my computer fizzled and died. I had to buy a new PSU and floppy drive. I don't know if anything on the mobo was damaged but the 4 red lights are lit, I don't remember their names, but they show that everything is working.

When I move a large file, about 750M, from my C drive, it takes about a minute or more to move to an ext hdd. When I copy the same file to another ext hdd for back-up, it takes about 10-15 seconds. My ext hdds are connected using a USB 2.0 cable.

I keep my computer as well-tuned as possible. I defrag once or twice a week, I run Disk Cleanup every day, and I go into Internet Explorer > Tools > Internet Options > Delete > and delete internet history, cookies and temporary internet files.

I also run AdAware, Spybot S&D and Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool once a week. Today, Spybot S&D found

I had Spybot S&D delete the file but it had come up under another run of SpyBot S&D about a week ago and I deleted it then too.

I ran an Avast scan last week and it found some packed bombs which I was assured are probably nothing but I'll get the info on them when I run the scan tonight in Safe Mode.

A screenshot of Task Manager (I hope this works): it shows 00 for everything except 99% for Process Idle Tasks, even though I'm here:

http://s177.photobucket.com/albums/w239/Denise_M1/?action=view&current=TaskManager061707.jpg# or

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w239/Denise_M1/TaskManager061707.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

I run Dial-a-Fix everyday and I flush DNS, purge SFC and I run Process Idle Tasks.

If you need additional info, I'll be glad to supply it. If you have any suggestions as to what may be wrong and how to fix it, I'd be forever in your debt.

Denise

P.S. I reformatted my hard drive about a month ago because it was running so slow. It didn't help the speed.

 

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

Start here, to be certain you are clean.

Also, don't run Process Idle Tasks daily. Windows XP will do that by itself over time.

Does it happen in Safe Mode? Does it happen under a cleanboot?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

 

Hi Adrynalyne,

I checked out the 2 links that you gave me. I don't want to go through the 2 days of running programs to look for trojans, viruses, etc. I just reformatted it and installed clean files about a month ago and it was slow right off the bat, when all I did was install the software for the mobo and Windows XP X64. If worse comes to worse, I'll run all the programs, but I'm going to save that as a last resort at this point. I've gone into Safe Mode and ran the full version of Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool, SpyBot S&D and AdAware and nothing was found. I was going to go into Safe Mode with Networking and run Panda and TrendMicro but something happened and I didn't get back to it. I ran the RAM stress test and the report said that it was fine.

I'm going to set up my computer for a clean boot. Right now, I'm moving about 150G of files from one ext hdd to another and I don't want to interrupt it.

I forgot to mention some ways in which the computer if very slow. Right now, as I said, I'm moving some files from one drive to another. If I try to rename a folder in one of the drives that isn't being used, it takes about 10 to 15 seconds after I've right-clicked on it to be able to change the name. If I want to empty my recycler that has a few Mb of files in it, it also takes about 10 to 15 seconds to start and about 10 to 15 seconds to empty it. In order to open a Microsoft document, it takes about 30 to 45 seconds. Two things can't be done on the computer at the same time. It doesn't take so long just when I'm moving files, but also if I'm playing a DVD and opening my email accounts, Google searches, and other things that I can't think of off the top of my head.

I don't know if my computer is slow in Safe Mode because I've never done anything in Safe Mode except starting anti-virus/torjan, etc, programs and they didn't seem slow.

I'll let you know how the clean boot works out.

Denise

 

It sound like you really have some knowledge for computers. I would suggest these 2 things.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/ProcessLibrary.Com_Quick_Access_InfoBar_d5037.html It will open a browser window to show whats running and such. That could help.

If you feel ok with it. Hijackthis then go to.. hijackthis.de Do a copy paste and see if you see anything. If your not ok with it or doubt yourself. Please dont delete anything. I trust that site. Used it for over a year. Never failed me.

 

Process Library is available here at Major Geeks also.

Lets keep it in the MG family :drink :guitar

http://www.majorgeeks.com/ProcessLibrary.Com_Quick_Access_InfoBar_d5037.html

 

Hi,

If I seem to know a little about computers, it's because I bought a kit. It's was a good purchase with pretty good parts. You encouraged me to build my own tym, and I bought the kit, an os and RAM and I let it sit in my closet for 8 months, too afraid to start guilding it, lol. But when my old pc started to act up really badly, I knew it was time to start building the new one. From the first, it was a very difficult build. The good people here at MG helped me an awful lot . . . they must be bald from pulling their hair out when I couldn't see what was right in front of me. But they perservered and it got built. We nicknamed it Damien because it had the most unexplainable and strange opstacles to overcome, i.e., the back plate had to be hammered out in order to put the right back plate in. Someone fell upon that bit of info somewhere.

So it was built, rebuilt, formatted, Windows was reinstalled, reformatted, reformatted again and reformatted again because of the PATA cleaning programs running on a SATA system. PC onPoint and Max Registry Cleaner are two of the best programs that I found for a PATA system but the scan results recommended deleting needed files for SATA, even though I got the SATA updates for them, and my computer wouldn't work after that, which is what caused the need to reinstall Windows and reformat the hdd a few times.

Everything went along smoothly until my SATA 4 port card came in the mail. I was in heaven! I connected the SATA card, plugged in the SATA drives, turned them on, and very shortly thereafter, my computer died . . . not a spark, not a sound. I disconnected the SATA drives and removed the SATA card and since no power was getting to the mobo, it was the concensus of opinion in the Hardware Forum that I needed a new PSU. So I bought a Corsair 620W and it did the trick. I connected the SATA card but I didn't connect the ext hdds to it for a few days. Then I connected one and turned on the power and nothing happened. My Computer didn't recognize it. I tried the other one and the same thing happened. I don't know if the card got damaged or if the port got damaged. My floppy drive got damaged so I bought a new one along with a system fan.

To make a very long story short, I did a clean boot just a short while ago and my computer runs great now. I can have extremely large folders copying to an ext hdd from my c drive and have files running from another drive, and another drive, etc, and I can open files, rename folders and files and navigate to anywhere in my internal and external hdds very quickly, the way it should be. I never thought something as simple as a clean boot would fix something that was so bad.

It's so nice to be able to open folders and empty my recycle bin at the same time . . . I'm in heaven

I'm still going to run Avast in Safe Mode during the night. If it finds something, I'll be able to straighten out some things that I don't realize are wrong. I'll get back to you on the results of the scan tomorrow. . . I bet you can't wait, lol. Where would I be without MajorGeeks?!? :grouphug

Denise

P.S. Were you able to open the page with my Task Manager screenshot?

 

Hi,

I ran Avast and Microsoft Malicious Software last night. Microsoft found no problems. Avast found about 30 object and I put them in a chest. There wasn't a way to copy the names of the files so these are a sample of the Avast results:

C:\SPYBOT-S&D\RECOVERY\ELITUMELITE\POKAPOKA.ZIP\irsetup.exe
also the same for \sbrecovery.ini, \irsetup.exe and \sbrecovery.ini

C:\DownloadedFileS\Security Programs\Ad-Aware\aawepersonal.exe\%MAINDIR%\Skins\Ad-Aware Se default.ask\bck1.bmp and also for SE Default.skn

C:\DownloadedFiles\Video\net framework dotnetvx 090505.exe\[Embedded#000ee12]\msi.dll

Could they be malware?

Denise

 

I ran all the programs in the Read and Run First in the Malware forum and found that there is no malware in my pc. I ran a chkdsk but it came up with nothing. I did the stress test for my RAM but it said that it was good, no problems. I did a clean boot and my pc ran great, but slowly but surely it went back to being very sluggish within a few days. By sluggish, I mean extremely sluggish, where I can't change the name of a file if another file is being copied or moved to another drive. I get the message "is not responding" many times. About a month ago, I re-formatted my pc and the more programs that I installed, the slower my pc became. These programs consisted of the mobo software, Windows, Avast, Microsoft Office, printer software, picture and video programs, codecs, other malware programs such as AdAware and Microsoft Malicioius Spyware Removal Tool, Dial-A-Fix, MGI Photo Suite III SE, Nero, Dantz for my Maxtor ext hdds, and other programs that run on demand. I ran the Process Bar and I have to say that it didn't help me because I didn't know what to look for. Everything seemed fine.

Are there any other programs that I could use to find the reason for the extreme sluggishness?

 

Is there anything available to find the problem?

 

Unless I misunderstood, clean boot performance was good?

Msconfig was designed for this specifically. Its a matter of devide and conquer; re-enable a few things at a time in an effort to find out what exactly is causing the performance issue.

 

I never re-enabled anything. I left it the way it was (if it ain't broke, don't fix it). I performed another clean boot but found no speed change.

 

Is there anything else I can do so that my computer will remain running quickly?