recent comp slowdows, memory leak?

[podank]

so i come back home to my dad's comp and it runs like crap (ran fine like two weeks ago). so far i've updated all the drivers, done a full scan using pc-cillin, done a full defrag, dumped junk files, and repaired my registry using regcure (detected and fixed about a 1,000 errors!).

still runs like crap.

i have amd athlon 64 on an integrated ati xpress 200 and it used to run games fine. it doesn't any more and i think it's a memory issue. i ran some windows tests on memory and everything passed so i'm thinking it's not a problem with the memory itself, but just a distribution issue.

the specs on taskmaster while guild wars is running is attached below.

i don't know why i only have like 64 mb left of my 1 gig ram when the only major process i'm running is guild wars. also, gw is taking up 250 mb of VM? isn't the ram supposed to be used first? i'm not quite a comp expert but i sure wish gw would be using my ram instead of using the VM.

the only other things i can think of is the anti-virus taking up too much, but i tried running a few programs with it completely off and it was still slow. also, this might help diagnose, because even firefox takes a long time to load, but only on the first time it needs to run. after that it's pretty fast when i want to run it, so i think it's the memory and not the processor.

does anything look really suspicious on taskmanager, or does anyone have a suggestion on what the problem might be? if there's a memory leak i don't really know what to do.

[specmike]

If you had to do that much registry repair, I'd suggest you back up critical data and reinstall the OS.

[SRTDodge05]

I would try to disable some services and stop some programs from running at startup.

[SpeedDMN]

Originally Posted by specmike

If you had to do that much registry repair, I'd suggest you back up critical data and reinstall the OS.

Yup.. I personally do not trust any registry "repair" programs. They often cause more problems then they fix.

[podank]

disabled most of what looked unnecessary on startup, which seemed to help the booting speed a lot. running most programs afterwards still has the same slowness, though.

do the readings on my task manager seem pretty normal in regards to memory usage? if they do then i guess i'll go ahead and do the OS re-install.

[SpeedDMN]

At the time of the screen shot it seems you were running "Guild Wars" (Gw.exe). You should check memory usage when nothing is running in the background.

[podank]

okay here is the same thing with supposedly no background processes. there were a couple extreme spikes in the cpu history from loading and exiting paint to save my print screens.

seems i'm only getting ~380mb of my 1 gig ram.

[SpeedDMN]

It does still look like a lot of memory usage. I would go ahead with the format and leave the registry cleaners alone. Wish I could offer an easier solution.

[specmike]

With Windows, when in doubt, reboot or reinstall. Also, you could do an XP repair install and see if that helps. Backup first of course.

[iMogal]

To me, it seems you have quite a bit of processes running!!!
I may have about 20 processes after a reboot.
You've got 63 in the first pic post, and 49 processes in the second.
Stuff like your google toolbar can go imho, and whats with the AOL software?
I don't think CCC.exe needs to be run, just helps load the control center faster on the first run.
There are others you can disable, you'll have to sift through what you use and don't use.

Also, try cleaning out the prefetch folder under the windows dir.
(do so at own risk)

Hope this helps.

[SpeedDMN]

Definitely worth trying before a radical format, but I think the troubles run a little deeper then that. I wish I could be more specific. 20 processes? I am used to running Vista now and currently have 66 going. The machine is still snappy though with 60% free memory. Sometimes the windows code just get so corrupt that it's hard to tell what to fix. I don't think a fresh install hurts every now and then anyway. Radical solution, but I am with specmike in that I think it will fix the woes..

[SRTDodge05]

Your programs seem to be using way more memory then normal. I would just backup the stuff you need and format.

[wallijonn]

Or the processor is dying. (I find that older AMDs would slow down before they died. Intel 2.6 and 2.8s would stop the video from displaying.)

[SpeedDMN]

Originally Posted by wallijonn

Or the processor is dying. (I find that older AMDs would slow down before they died. Intel 2.6 and 2.8s would stop the video from displaying.)

Possible I suppose, but I would say unlikely with the unexplained memory usage. This does not ring of hardware to me. I still think a fresh install will do wonders. Lord knows I have been wrong before though

[podank]

i looked to do a repair installation of xp but it wouldn't let me do it, so i just went ahead, backed up my data and formatted. it runs like a charm now, so luckily the processor was alright and there was just some corrupt files or something.

thanks for all the help.