System slow down

[SRTDodge05]

I dont know what its been lately but my machine has been running so slow. Xp takes awhile to boot up and when i try to open a program like outlook to check my mail my system will like pause and i cant do anything until its fully loaded. Feels like im using a pc with vista thats out of memory.

I only have 34 processes running and only 23% memory usage of 2gb. I was hopping sp3 would help speed things up but it turned out it does nothing.

Quadcore 2.4ghz @ 3ghz
2gb ddr2-6400 @ 850 4-4-3-8

[Anarchi]

What virus scan are you using? The new "Internet Security" programs slow the PC down to a crawl. Its better to install individual apps (separate AV, Spyware scanner, and firewall)

Defrag C: and delete the temporary files and the files in c:\windows\prefetch.

If you havent reinstalled XP for over a year, it may be time to do so. The registry can get bloated by all the programs you've installed and uninstalled.

Run msconfig and disable any programs you dont want to run on bootup.

Upgrade C: Drive to a faster HDD. The average 7200RPM drive reads at about 40-60MB/s. The new perpendicular drives (such as the Western Digital 750GB) reads at 80MB/s.

[yamawho]

I once had a system that was taking longer and longer to boot.
Turned out to be the power supply .. go figure.
However, once booted it worked normally.

Do you think it,s related to SP3 ?

[SRTDodge05]

It Could be sp3 but i noticed my system started to slow down before i installed it. Im using NOD32 for virus. I did a complete virus scan and spyware scan all came up clean. Did a disk clean up and drag. I have disabled all the service and programs from startup that i have no need for. I was thinking maybe its my hard drive slowing down. Its a seagate 320gb SATA II 16mb cache.

[yamawho]

If you have the time do an Acronis TI image restore on another hdd ...

[SRTDodge05]

HD Tach average 66mb

[ctal]

I'd suggest checking the following, if you haven't already:

-- Temperatures (using either SpeedFan, RealTemp, or Coretemp). Perhaps dust buildup or something has degraded your cooling, and the cpu is throttling down.

-- Hard drive health, with HDTune or similar.

-- System clock rates, timings, etc. with CPU-Z. Perhaps the bios settings have gotten changed somehow, without you noticing. Also check the bios settings themselves.

-- Voltages and fan speeds, where possible, with SpeedFan.

Hope that helps,
-- Al

[SRTDodge05]

I just updated the bios to the latest ones and did a default settings. Then i put my oc back and all my other settings. System is running at full speed and all the fans are running and everything is clean inside. Core temp is showing cores are 35c to 40 at idle.

[ctal]

How about trying to isolate whether the problem is due to hardware or software by temporarily installing a new os, in whatever way is most practicable for you that would not destroy your existing installation?

I'm sure lots of ways of doing that would occur to you, but I'm thinking of either swapping in a different hd and installing to that; or creating an image of your existing installation that you could subsequently restore; or setting up a multiboot with the second os on a different partition or a second hd, etc.

-- Al

[SRTDodge05]

Come to think about it, i believe it started when i enabled my onboard sound.

[Anarchi]

Download and run bootvis.exe from Microsoft.
Its a small program that displays a graph of all the processes, driver delays, HDD reads, services, programs, memory usage, etc.. when the machine boots up to identify the problematic item. It can also speed up the boot process.

Another thing you can try is disabling various startup items. Run msconfig and disable half of the items in the "Startup" tab, and reboot. If its still slow, run msconfig again but this time disable the other half and re-enable the items you disabled last time, then reboot and see how that goes. If you see a change in speed, disable them in quarters and so forth until you identify the problematic item.

[sharkmark7]

hey... maybe just try this alternative solution just the first thing you do is just defrag your pc...the next thing is disk clean up.. delete all your temporary internet files... and other temporary files..or scan your pc maybe its a virus that causes your pc to slows down and also the spyware it can also affect the system.. then check the start up items.. uncheck those unessary programs running.. just go to msconfig then startup..

[sharkmark7]

i suggesst also that you install tune up utilities in you Pc

[INVALiD]

Sounds like you need a sound card.
pardon the pun.

Try disabling the onboard sound and see if your system returns to it's
prior functioning, ...if you havn't already done so.