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XP slow to load programs

S

SK

Flightless Bird
This is one of those questions that I don't think anyone has an answer to.
The programs on my xp machine are very slow to load ie outlook takes 3
minutes. The loading time keep getting longer and longer over time. I did
all the standard stuff, defragged, ran three spyware programs, three
registry cleanup programs, ran windows update, limited the number of startup
programs, ran disk cleanup and etc. I have 2 gig or ram and half of my 200g
hard drive is empty. It just keeps slowing down over the months.

Sadly, I think that this is just standard windows behaviour that we have
come to accept and live with. Is there any real fix that anyone is aware of
that actually works to retstore performance besides reformatting? Thank you.
 
D

db

Flightless Bird
perhaps, you might try
executing safe mode w/
networking and see if there
is any improvement

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>


"SK" <nospam@aol.com> wrote in message
news:ujHn7DimKHA.1212@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> This is one of those questions that I don't think anyone has an answer to.
> The programs on my xp machine are very slow to load ie outlook takes 3
> minutes. The loading time keep getting longer and longer over time. I did
> all the standard stuff, defragged, ran three spyware programs, three
> registry cleanup programs, ran windows update, limited the number of
> startup programs, ran disk cleanup and etc. I have 2 gig or ram and half
> of my 200g hard drive is empty. It just keeps slowing down over the
> months.
>
> Sadly, I think that this is just standard windows behaviour that we have
> come to accept and live with. Is there any real fix that anyone is aware
> of that actually works to retstore performance besides reformatting? Thank
> you.
>
 
H

HeyBub

Flightless Bird
SK wrote:
> This is one of those questions that I don't think anyone has an
> answer to. The programs on my xp machine are very slow to load ie
> outlook takes 3 minutes. The loading time keep getting longer and
> longer over time. I did all the standard stuff, defragged, ran three
> spyware programs, three registry cleanup programs, ran windows
> update, limited the number of startup programs, ran disk cleanup and
> etc. I have 2 gig or ram and half of my 200g hard drive is empty. It
> just keeps slowing down over the months.
> Sadly, I think that this is just standard windows behaviour that we
> have come to accept and live with. Is there any real fix that anyone
> is aware of that actually works to retstore performance besides
> reformatting? Thank you.


It's not standard XP behavior nor is re-installation the appropriate fix.

Your mission is to discover what is taking so long. One example is a process
that is trying to communicate with a non-existent entity. The process tries
and tries before it finally gives up. For example, an application may be
querying a web site looking for updates but the web site no longer exists.


Another possibility is a disk error wherein the OS retries the failing read
thousands of times before it gets it right.

Use MSCONFIG to disable virtually all the start-up processes. Then start
adding them back with accompanying re-boots until you land on the culprit.
 
B

Bob I

Flightless Bird
I'd have stopped at removing the extraneous software you have installed
that is starting up and hogging all the CPU cycles. The three registry
cleaners didn't do any thing useful. The issue may be drive errors have
forced the IDE interface into PIO mode from DMA. I'd suggest checking
that out in Device Manager first.

SK wrote:
> This is one of those questions that I don't think anyone has an answer to.
> The programs on my xp machine are very slow to load ie outlook takes 3
> minutes. The loading time keep getting longer and longer over time. I did
> all the standard stuff, defragged, ran three spyware programs, three
> registry cleanup programs, ran windows update, limited the number of startup
> programs, ran disk cleanup and etc. I have 2 gig or ram and half of my 200g
> hard drive is empty. It just keeps slowing down over the months.
>
> Sadly, I think that this is just standard windows behaviour that we have
> come to accept and live with. Is there any real fix that anyone is aware of
> that actually works to retstore performance besides reformatting? Thank you.
>
>
 
P

PA Bear [MS MVP]

Flightless Bird
Your injudicious use of "registry cleanup programs" may have only made
matters worse! If you ever think your Registry needs to be cleaned,
repaired, boosted, tuned-up, or optimized (it doesn't), read
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099 and draw your own conclusions.

You'd be better of reading...

Help! My computer is slow!
http://miekiemoes.blogspot.com/2008/02/help-my-computer-is-slow.html
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002
www.banthecheck.com


SK wrote:
> This is one of those questions that I don't think anyone has an answer to.
> The programs on my xp machine are very slow to load ie outlook takes 3
> minutes. The loading time keep getting longer and longer over time. I did
> all the standard stuff, defragged, ran three spyware programs, three
> registry cleanup programs, ran windows update, limited the number of
> startup
> programs, ran disk cleanup and etc. I have 2 gig or ram and half of my
> 200g
> hard drive is empty. It just keeps slowing down over the months.
>
> Sadly, I think that this is just standard windows behaviour that we have
> come to accept and live with. Is there any real fix that anyone is aware
> of
> that actually works to retstore performance besides reformatting? Thank
> you.
 
S

sgopus

Flightless Bird
With the generic info you gave, not much of a response can be given.
What specific three spyware programs did you run?
registry clean up programs are really not needed.
if you have an antivirus program, what is it and what are it's settings
the long loading times sometimes, are due to antivirus scanning whats
loading into memory.

Are you using a security suite with a firewall, or just windows firewall,
with a antivirus?


"SK" wrote:

> This is one of those questions that I don't think anyone has an answer to.
> The programs on my xp machine are very slow to load ie outlook takes 3
> minutes. The loading time keep getting longer and longer over time. I did
> all the standard stuff, defragged, ran three spyware programs, three
> registry cleanup programs, ran windows update, limited the number of startup
> programs, ran disk cleanup and etc. I have 2 gig or ram and half of my 200g
> hard drive is empty. It just keeps slowing down over the months.
>
> Sadly, I think that this is just standard windows behaviour that we have
> come to accept and live with. Is there any real fix that anyone is aware of
> that actually works to retstore performance besides reformatting? Thank you.
>
>
> .
>
 
S

SK

Flightless Bird
Ad Aware, SpyBot, Malwarebytes are the three spyware programs I ran. I am
running trend micro internet security as my firewall and antivirus. I even
turned it off temporarily but it made no difference in program startup
times. Thanks for responding.

"sgopus" <sgopus@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A9D3ED24-B301-4E5D-A6BE-6ABEAD728534@microsoft.com...
> With the generic info you gave, not much of a response can be given.
> What specific three spyware programs did you run?
> registry clean up programs are really not needed.
> if you have an antivirus program, what is it and what are it's settings
> the long loading times sometimes, are due to antivirus scanning whats
> loading into memory.
>
> Are you using a security suite with a firewall, or just windows firewall,
> with a antivirus?
>
>
> "SK" wrote:
>
>> This is one of those questions that I don't think anyone has an answer
>> to.
>> The programs on my xp machine are very slow to load ie outlook takes 3
>> minutes. The loading time keep getting longer and longer over time. I did
>> all the standard stuff, defragged, ran three spyware programs, three
>> registry cleanup programs, ran windows update, limited the number of
>> startup
>> programs, ran disk cleanup and etc. I have 2 gig or ram and half of my
>> 200g
>> hard drive is empty. It just keeps slowing down over the months.
>>
>> Sadly, I think that this is just standard windows behaviour that we have
>> come to accept and live with. Is there any real fix that anyone is aware
>> of
>> that actually works to retstore performance besides reformatting? Thank
>> you.
>>
>>
>> .
>>
 
D

Daave

Flightless Bird
SK wrote:
> This is one of those questions that I don't think anyone has an
> answer to. The programs on my xp machine are very slow to load ie
> outlook takes 3 minutes. The loading time keep getting longer and
> longer over time. I did all the standard stuff, defragged, ran three
> spyware programs, three registry cleanup programs, ran windows
> update, limited the number of startup programs, ran disk cleanup and
> etc. I have 2 gig or ram and half of my 200g hard drive is empty. It
> just keeps slowing down over the months.
> Sadly, I think that this is just standard windows behaviour that we
> have come to accept and live with. Is there any real fix that anyone
> is aware of that actually works to retstore performance besides
> reformatting? Thank you.


Here are the usual causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This
page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Viruses_Malware

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many programs
that run in the background have trivial consequences.)

To determine every program and process you are currently running, use
the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You should
be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good ideas which
ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down the names of
all the processes for future detective work (or take a snapshot and
print it out).

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way:

Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter (or
OK)

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/

___________________________________________________

I did notice your other post, SK. Assuming you have no malware (but it
still needs to be definitively ruled out!), I would start off with
Number 5. It's possible the hard drive's access mode changed to the
slower PIO mode. If that checks out, configure a Clean Boot:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Hopefully this will temporarily end your sluggishness. Then you can
systematically add back programs/processes until you can determine which
one is responsible for your sluggishness.

As others said, what you are experiencing is not typical. There is an
exception, though. Is your problem only occurring when you first boot
up? If so, how long does it take until all your programs are "loaded"?
That is, once your booting is complete and everything is finished
"settling down," what is your performance like? If it never improves,
definitely try out my advice. Otherwise, just assume your anitivirus
program is updating and scanning. If it's five minutes, you can live
with that. If you'r rather not live with that, either change its
settings or use another AV program. :)
 
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