Slow Computer

[RueFang]

One of my computers is running really slowly. Apart from defragging and deleting unwanted files, what else can I do to improve performance? It is painfully slow to open programs, and even internet seems to run slower on this com (or am I imagining that?!). Thanks for your suggestions.

[RKASA]

Lots of things can cause that to happen some maintaining might improve things. Use CCleaner and defrag etc. it takes some time but run check disk to be sure your drives not getting sickly.

[Guest Reimar]

May you start to check it's hardware or software related. Running some benchmark programs for to check Hdd speeds, Memory speed, Video speeds and so on to first. It's just to eliminate that it's hardware related.

Clean the system from Temp Files and Cookies but do it manualy. Uninstall all NOT needed programs.

After that run Advanced Windows Care 2 to first to clean the system. After that run Registry Defrag and at lasy Disk Defrag, the last 2 programs are from Auslogics and can downloaded from TV! All are Freeware.

Cheers.

[RueFang]

Thanks, will do some computer cleaning tomorrow and hope things speed up.

Also, while I'm at it, I downloaded a free trial of Netdog (porn blocker cos I had a naughty teenager using my computer!!) a month ago on this computer and after the month they obviously want you to buy it. I tried to remove it but it is password protected and not accepting the password now it's expired so I can't delete it off my computer. I tried going into safe mode to remove the program but can't get past the blocked password. I am absolutely sure it's the right password but it says it's incorrect. Funny thing is that I could remove it from my other computer but not this one. I emailed the company and they say they can't help trial users! Nice. Any suggestions on how to remove a password protected program?

[I Go With You]

I think you hit the nail on the head. That porn site probably loaded you up with all kinds of things. Run your adaware and check add/remove programs for shit you dont recognize. google "slow computer" for softwares that can help. go for free trials of stuff that might help. Have you run limewire before? they stick gigs of hidden files in your puter that you cant find. I found em but it was tricky. there was over 10 gigs of junk in there

[I Go With You]

of course do a full virus scan with Mcafee. also run the thing in xp to stop autopmatic startups up programs when windows starts. I forgot what this is called but googling slow computer will bring it up

Edited February 7, 2008 by I Go With You

[dsys]

I tried going into safe mode to remove the program but can't get past the blocked password. I am absolutely sure it's the right password but it says it's incorrect. Funny thing is that I could remove it from my other computer but not this one. I emailed the company and they say they can't help trial users! Nice. Any suggestions on how to remove a password protected program?

try this first :

run msconfig from the command prompt. Click the general tab and then select the "diagnostic startup" option. Disconnect from the net and click apply then ok. Reboot when it prompts and try to uninstall. restore the original settings in msconfig and reboot.

EDIT:: While you are in diag mode have a play around and see if the PC is more responsive - if it is you proabably got too many startups/services hogging resources. If its same same then registry probably needs a spring clean.

then if that dont work

Can you give us a bit more info -

What is your OS? guessing windows - what flavour xp?

How are you trying to uninstall? From the control panel add/remove programs?

Tell us more about the password - Where do you enter it, before you start the uninstall or during?

Removed it form another computer - same OS?

Can you search your computer for "unwise.exe" - Is it present?

Can you run the msconfig snapin (command prompt> msconfig.) Have a look at the startup tab and the services tab for any mentions of the netdog program. If they are there can you grab a screenshot ?

Edited February 7, 2008 by dsys

[thaigene2]

Is it possible to just wipe the bloody hard disk and start over? I've read doesn't always work..expert views?

[JetsetBkk]

Is it possible to just wipe the bloody hard disk and start over? I've read doesn't always work..expert views?

I had to do that recently -reinstall from the original "Recovery CDs". The PC runs a lot faster now, probably because of all the junk that used to be in the registry is gone, and I've installed only the software I need. It really isn't such a hard job provided you've got all your utilities and serials safe on external media.

Obviously, this won't help if his problem is hardware based. My first thoughts were RAM - has one of the sticks disappeared from the system?

[dave_boo]

Is it possible to just wipe the bloody hard disk and start over? I've read doesn't always work..expert views?

Often times with Windows that's the quickest and least hair pulling out thing to do. In fact, if possible, dump your whole C:\ drive to another disk and use the files and settings wizard to get all your stuff back.

[dsys]

wipe the hard drive !!! Spoil sports - Wheres the fun in that?

[dave_boo]

wipe the hard drive !!! Spoil sports - Wheres the fun in that?

Dying with a full head of hair?

[dsys]

wipe the hard drive !!! Spoil sports - Wheres the fun in that?

Dying with a full head of hair?

[DamianMavis]

I always format and reinstall windows if there is slow down, fixes it right up.

Damian

[JSixpack]

Is it possible to just wipe the bloody hard disk and start over? I've read doesn't always work..expert views?

Waste of time and you might run into problems w/ the install; they don't always go smoothly. Gotta get all the hardware drivers and install those, plus all the Windows updates. You can't connect to the internet to get SP2 because you'll immediately contract a virus that will shutdown your computer . . . . And you forgot to backup something or your backup is corrupted and so you've lost it.

Better just to learn how to maintain your computer in the first place, and this is a good time to begin. So you download, install, and run CCleaner, Ad-Aware, Spybot, anti-vir (AVG?) and defrag. Then you download, install, and run Autoruns from Sysinternals (free) and go over all your startup programs and BHOs (Browser Helper Objects in the Internet Explorer). Doing this takes much less time and trouble than re-installing. You do it regularly and you're trouble-free and your computer runs good as new.

[nikster]

May you start to check it's hardware or software related. Running some benchmark programs for to check Hdd speeds, Memory speed, Video speeds and so on to first. It's just to eliminate that it's hardware related.

Clean the system from Temp Files and Cookies but do it manualy. Uninstall all NOT needed programs.

After that run Advanced Windows Care 2 to first to clean the system. After that run Registry Defrag and at lasy Disk Defrag, the last 2 programs are from Auslogics and can downloaded from TV! All are Freeware.

Cheers.

I thought I would attach to this thread because I have the same problem, my Windows XP laptop is unbelievably slow, definitely a lot slower than it was 2 years ago when I bought it.

It seems to be disk-related - accessing the hard drive takes forever. It's constantly rummaging on the HD. Tasks that don't use the HD are normal fast.

I did everything you said above - I ran CCleaner, accidentally cleaned a bit too thoroughly as all cookies, browsing history are gone and a few programs stopped working . However - things are clean now. I used Auslogic disk defrag - great program BTW.

I checked my disk for errors (none) and ran HDBench - 14MB/s - 48MB/s seems pretty OK, it's a 160GB 2.5" drive.

I also checked whether it's in UDMA mode, and it is - UDMA mode 5. Makes sense considering that HD bench things the disk is speedy.

The only remaining thing is that the disk has 4 partitions, two of them Windows. C:\ is Window XP and has 13GB free, d:\ is for data and also has a Windows Vista Ultimate install on it, only 6GB free, so this one is pretty packed. The other two are ubuntu and linux swap, both are small.

Can installing Vista slow XP performance to a crawl? It seems unlikely since Vista is on the other drive and should not affect XP in the least. Any windows disk cache settings I might have screwed up? Hmm.. maybe virtual memory?! I think I turned that off at some point since XP can't even use the 2GB RAM I have. Maybe that's the reason...

[dave_boo]

May you start to check it's hardware or software related. Running some benchmark programs for to check Hdd speeds, Memory speed, Video speeds and so on to first. It's just to eliminate that it's hardware related.

Clean the system from Temp Files and Cookies but do it manualy. Uninstall all NOT needed programs.

After that run Advanced Windows Care 2 to first to clean the system. After that run Registry Defrag and at lasy Disk Defrag, the last 2 programs are from Auslogics and can downloaded from TV! All are Freeware.

Cheers.

I thought I would attach to this thread because I have the same problem, my Windows XP laptop is unbelievably slow, definitely a lot slower than it was 2 years ago when I bought it.

It seems to be disk-related - accessing the hard drive takes forever. It's constantly rummaging on the HD. Tasks that don't use the HD are normal fast.

I did everything you said above - I ran CCleaner, accidentally cleaned a bit too thoroughly as all cookies, browsing history are gone and a few programs stopped working . However - things are clean now. I used Auslogic disk defrag - great program BTW.

I checked my disk for errors (none) and ran HDBench - 14MB/s - 48MB/s seems pretty OK, it's a 160GB 2.5" drive.

I also checked whether it's in UDMA mode, and it is - UDMA mode 5. Makes sense considering that HD bench things the disk is speedy.

The only remaining thing is that the disk has 4 partitions, two of them Windows. C:\ is Window XP and has 13GB free, d:\ is for data and also has a Windows Vista Ultimate install on it, only 6GB free, so this one is pretty packed. The other two are ubuntu and linux swap, both are small.

Can installing Vista slow XP performance to a crawl? It seems unlikely since Vista is on the other drive and should not affect XP in the least. Any windows disk cache settings I might have screwed up? Hmm.. maybe virtual memory?! I think I turned that off at some point since XP can't even use the 2GB RAM I have. Maybe that's the reason...

I doubt that installing Vista would slow down your 'puter. Do you have indexing services turned off on the partitions that the respective operating systems can not use? I.E., is your XP partition not being indexed by Vista and vice-versa? That could really slow things down.

Don't try and be smarter than Windows programmers. There's a reason there's a swap file! Even if you set it for 512 min/max, you'll see quite a fewer problems.

[nikster]

I doubt that installing Vista would slow down your 'puter. Do you have indexing services turned off on the partitions that the respective operating systems can not use? I.E., is your XP partition not being indexed by Vista and vice-versa? That could really slow things down.

Don't try and be smarter than Windows programmers. There's a reason there's a swap file! Even if you set it for 512 min/max, you'll see quite a fewer problems.

Yeah you are right. I had set VM to the minimum, 128M. That wasn't so good. Now it's set to automatically handle VM, Windows set it to 2GB, and everything seems to be fine again. Much faster. Indexing is off.

As a bonus, I managed to speed up file transfers over USB by over 2x... it had been really slow, 3-5 MB/s. I ended up installing new chipset drivers from Intel, and now it's back in the usual USB range, 10-12 MB/s. It's a bit of a procedure finding the drivers on the Intel website, but was well worth it.

Edited February 16, 2008 by nikster