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Sudden slowness of major apps.

T

TerryS.

Flightless Bird
I have recently set up a new ASUS EeePC notebook (XP Home OS) with updated
versions of my every-day PC programs.

It has been up and running on and off line for a week with no problems.
In the natural course of the set up some very standard tweaks, user
preference refinements and program updates have been made.

All of a sudden, three of the most used programs have developed overly long
time periods to get themselves together and open up.
Windows Explorer, Outlook Express and Firefox have painfully begun to take
up to a minute or more to get themselves started when I click their short
cuts or their .exes.

Other image and text programs, system folders and Opera all behave as
normal.

Even fully clean rebooting with all start ups (including avast and Commodo)
disabled have no effect on the slow opening of those three programs.

Could there be a disabled service common to these three?
What to try now??

Thanks for looking.
Thanks for any help,
TerryS.
 
T

Tom Willett

Flightless Bird
"In the natural course of the set up some very standard tweaks, user
preference refinements and program updates have been made."

....and those would be?

"TerryS." <maildrop@bigpond.abuse.com> wrote in message
news:-OwSu3UnpKHA.4280@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
:I have recently set up a new ASUS EeePC notebook (XP Home OS) with updated
: versions of my every-day PC programs.
:
: It has been up and running on and off line for a week with no problems.
: In the natural course of the set up some very standard tweaks, user
: preference refinements and program updates have been made.
:
: All of a sudden, three of the most used programs have developed overly
long
: time periods to get themselves together and open up.
: Windows Explorer, Outlook Express and Firefox have painfully begun to take
: up to a minute or more to get themselves started when I click their short
: cuts or their .exes.
:
: Other image and text programs, system folders and Opera all behave as
: normal.
:
: Even fully clean rebooting with all start ups (including avast and
Commodo)
: disabled have no effect on the slow opening of those three programs.
:
: Could there be a disabled service common to these three?
: What to try now??
:
: Thanks for looking.
: Thanks for any help,
: TerryS.
:
:
:
:
:
 
S

SC Tom

Flightless Bird
"TerryS." <maildrop@bigpond.abuse.com> wrote in message
news:-OwSu3UnpKHA.4280@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>I have recently set up a new ASUS EeePC notebook (XP Home OS) with updated
> versions of my every-day PC programs.
>
> It has been up and running on and off line for a week with no problems.
> In the natural course of the set up some very standard tweaks, user
> preference refinements and program updates have been made.
>
> All of a sudden, three of the most used programs have developed overly
> long
> time periods to get themselves together and open up.
> Windows Explorer, Outlook Express and Firefox have painfully begun to take
> up to a minute or more to get themselves started when I click their short
> cuts or their .exes.
>
> Other image and text programs, system folders and Opera all behave as
> normal.
>
> Even fully clean rebooting with all start ups (including avast and
> Commodo)
> disabled have no effect on the slow opening of those three programs.
>
> Could there be a disabled service common to these three?
> What to try now??
>
> Thanks for looking.
> Thanks for any help,
> TerryS.
>

If all was working well, and suddenly isn't, it very well could be malware.
Try installing and running these and see it that helps:
MalwareBytes http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php and
SuperAntiSpyware http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html

If nothing is found, and the problem continues, you could always try a
System Restore to a point before you were having these problems. Be sure to
disable your network connection and any AV and third-party firewall you may
have running (you mentioned Avast and Comodo) before running System Restore.
--
SC Tom
 
S

Stefan Patric

Flightless Bird
On Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:09:14 +1100, TerryS. wrote:

> I have recently set up a new ASUS EeePC notebook (XP Home OS) with
> updated versions of my every-day PC programs.


What model? What specs? RAM? CPU & speed? Hard drive size? Real one
or SSD?

> It has been up and running on and off line for a week with no problems.
> In the natural course of the set up some very standard tweaks, user
> preference refinements and program updates have been made.


What tweeks? What updates, etc.?

> All of a sudden, three of the most used programs have developed overly
> long time periods to get themselves together and open up. Windows
> Explorer, Outlook Express and Firefox have painfully begun to take up to
> a minute or more to get themselves started when I click their short cuts
> or their .exes.


Really all of a sudden? Everything worked fine and the next boot, the
slowness appeared? Or did it slow over a period of time?

Do you load and run these apps (Windows Explorer, Outlook Express,
Firefox) concurrently? Do any other apps load slowly?

Before you assume the worse--virus, malware, etc.--check your Startup
folder. It may be that you're running out of RAM, and the System is
using Virtual Memory to run the app. With Windows when you install most
(but not all) apps, by default, a stub of the app is loaded into RAM when
you boot for faster loading of the whole app when you click its link.
This uses RAM, and if you have limited RAM, this will cause problems.

Also, check how much free space you have on your System drive. If it's
over 90% full, this will slow system performance. Use XP's drive cleaner
utility to remove old, unnecessary and cached files. Empty the Trash,
too.

Check after booting before loading any apps how much free usable RAM you
have left.

If everything seems fine, then follow the advice given by others to do a
virus/malware scan.

> Other image and text programs, system folders and Opera all behave as
> normal.
>
> Even fully clean rebooting with all start ups (including avast and
> Commodo) disabled have no effect on the slow opening of those three
> programs.
>
> Could there be a disabled service common to these three? What to try
> now??


I don't think your problem is related to this.


Stef
 
D

db

Flightless Bird
you can test and analyze all
three programs you mentioned
via safe mode w/networking.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- Microsoft Partner
- @hotmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~"share the nirvana" - dbZen

>
>


"TerryS." <maildrop@bigpond.abuse.com> wrote in message news:-OwSu3UnpKHA.4280@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> I have recently set up a new ASUS EeePC notebook (XP Home OS) with updated
> versions of my every-day PC programs.
>
> It has been up and running on and off line for a week with no problems.
> In the natural course of the set up some very standard tweaks, user
> preference refinements and program updates have been made.
>
> All of a sudden, three of the most used programs have developed overly long
> time periods to get themselves together and open up.
> Windows Explorer, Outlook Express and Firefox have painfully begun to take
> up to a minute or more to get themselves started when I click their short
> cuts or their .exes.
>
> Other image and text programs, system folders and Opera all behave as
> normal.
>
> Even fully clean rebooting with all start ups (including avast and Commodo)
> disabled have no effect on the slow opening of those three programs.
>
> Could there be a disabled service common to these three?
> What to try now??
>
> Thanks for looking.
> Thanks for any help,
> TerryS.
>
>
>
>
>
 
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