Computer is terminally slow.

[Globalti]

We have a family desktop that's about 5 years old and is running Windows XP Home. Recently we had everything removed from it and reloaded but now it runs so slowly that it takes many seconds to respond to any command and windows and web pages close down so slowly that they actually close down from the top like a blind going down. It's loaded up with all the usual virus protections.

Anybody got any suggestions?

 

[S_t_e_v_e]

Reinstalling the OS usually makes an older system respond better...

I would check that the device drivers are up to date, then I would open up Windows task manager and see if any processes are stuck at 100%

 

[ian turner]

I'm assuming from the description that your data was backed up, the OS reinstalled and the data copied back.
I'd go for two possibilities on the speed problem.
1 The graphics drivers - I've sometimes updated mine and had the slow update effect then picked a fight with them to get rid of them and install an earlier version but they may equally be too old. Right click My Computer, select hardware tab then device manager and right click the video adapter select properties and try update
2 The disk drives - at that age they may very well still be old IDE devices rather than SATA (ribbon cable rather than narrow cylindrical variety. Go into device manager as explained in one. Right click IDE ATA/ATAPI adapters and select properties or possibly expand that entry and do properties on a sub entry as you're looking for a tab with two possible devices listed. The harddrive should be set as UDMA 5 and the optical drive as UDMA 2. If the disk drive is PIO then it will run very slowly.
If the OS was reinstalled from a normal OS cd rather than a machine specific restore cd then odds on all the mainboard chipset drivers are missing and it's just generic windows ones are installed.
What make and model pc is it and who did the reinstall ?

 

[Globalti]

I'm assuming from the description that your data was backed up, the OS reinstalled and the data copied back.
I'd go for two possibilities on the speed problem.
1 The graphics drivers - I've sometimes updated mine and had the slow update effect then picked a fight with them to get rid of them and install an earlier version but they may equally be too old. Right click My Computer, select hardware tab then device manager and right click the video adapter select properties and try update
2 The disk drives - at that age they may very well still be old IDE devices rather than SATA (ribbon cable rather than narrow cylindrical variety. Go into device manager as explained in one. Right click IDE ATA/ATAPI adapters and select properties or possibly expand that entry and do properties on a sub entry as you're looking for a tab with two possible devices listed. The harddrive should be set as UDMA 5 and the optical drive as UDMA 2. If the disk drive is PIO then it will run very slowly.
If the OS was reinstalled from a normal OS cd rather than a machine specific restore cd then odds on all the mainboard chipset drivers are missing and it's just generic windows ones are installed.
What make and model pc is it and who did the reinstall ?

Thanks. We have been able to do some of this but with no conclusion.

The computer is an own-brand from PC World and recently we took it to a local "specialist" (ha ha) who wiped everything (losing a lot of precious family pictures) then reinstalled from some old CD he probably had lying around, so what you write sounds about right.

How do we go about finding a decent local computer specialist who isn't just a couple of Asians in an old shop who think they know how to fix computers?

 

[ColinJ]

'The usual virus protections' might be part of the problem.

My a/v protection expired and I thought I'd save money by installing a free one (Avast). Since then my computer has been extremely sluggish when I first switch it on. I've turned the priority of the a/v down to its lowest so other programmes should get a chance to run, but sometimes it can still take 5 minutes to open my web browser.

If I leave the PC to do its thing while I have my breakfast it is usually okayish after that.

I think lack of memory might be part of my problem (512 MB, with onboard graphics grabbing 32 MB of that). I reckon my machine is thrashing, an idea supported by the fact that I got a message saying that my swap file wasn't big enough and was being expanded. It's the only time in 10 years that I've seen that message.

 

[beanzontoast]

The best way of finding a person who knows about fixing pcs (IME) is word of mouth. A bit like any trade really.

It may be worth asking PC World for information about getting hold of a restore disk specific to the machine they sold you. Persevere with this. You need to speak to the right person and tell them you expect help with a product they sold you. 5 years really isn't that long (many people would have you believe differently in terms of it's not an up-to-date state-of-the-art machine, but that's not the whole story; manufacturers often have resources available for purchase / free download for older models of machines). With the correct restore disk, as long as you back up all your data first, you can stand a far better chance of giving your pc the correct drivers it needs and reverting it to the state it was when you first purchased it.

This assumes you haven't modified the hardware too much in the intervening years. Also, if you do go down the restore disk route, be prepared for Windows Update wanting to download Service Pack 3 for XP and a bunch of other stuff after you do!

 

[Globalti]

Thanks all. We will try PC World.

 

[woohoo]

Good luck. I overheard (not difficult) a heated conversation in PC World last week where a guy was complaining that he had used the restore function on his Vista machine and it had restored an XP instead of Vista partition (some would see this as a positive). The response he got was that although they sold the machine, it was working as the manufactured intended so his beef was therefore with the manufacturer and nothing to do with them and, in any case, they had no access to restore disks.

 

[amasidlover]

'all the usual virus protections' - these have frequently caused slow downs on my machines; I don't use Microsoft Windows anymore so can't offer current recommendations, but would disable and remove them and replace them with something that is current and known to be good for performance.

In terms of help, I've found most computer retailers don't employ staff who actually have a clue (particularly PC World) and that most of the skilled people are working in non-retail; so I'd try yellow pages or similar for computer help.

I've also found Asians to be just as skilled as non-asians.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

We have a family desktop that's about 5 years old and is running Windows XP Home. Recently we had everything removed from it and reloaded but now it runs so slowly that it takes many seconds to respond to any command and windows and web pages close down so slowly that they actually close down from the top like a blind going down. It's loaded up with all the usual virus protections.

Anybody got any suggestions?

You need to find out what's chewing up your system resources. Start task manager (either cntrl-alt-del or right click on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and select task manager) and see if anything is chewing up lots of CPU cycles and/or RAM. RAM - just a stupidly huge number; CPU cycles (more likely suspect) will either be stationary at some high number (more than 10 is suspect) or fluctuating wildly.

Post the name of the process here.

Things that chew cycles are usually antivirus scans, updates, or a badly installed program hanging.

Also have a look at what's starting when you turn the PC on - I recommend CCleaner for this; most of the crud that starts when you start the PC is completely unnecessary. Especially Adobe 'fast start' for your PDF reader!

 

[ColinJ]

You need to find out what's chewing up your system resources. Start task manager (either cntrl-alt-del or right click on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and select task manager) and see if anything is chewing up lots of CPU cycles and/or RAM. RAM - just a stupidly huge number; CPU cycles (more likely suspect) will either be stationary at some high number (more than 10 is suspect) or fluctuating wildly.

That was the first thing I tried on my machine. I couldn't actually identify the resource hog that way, which surprised me. At one point, the idle process was at 90+% but the PC was still crawling - strange!

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

it could be as simple as, some of the RAM has gone down.

edit: some of the best pc engineers around here are asian, try 3b computers in nelson, very good, very cheap.

 

[cisamcgu]

Check that the page file is big enough and that the system disk is not full. My C: drive was filled up by iTunes music a few weeks ago, by accident, and the PC dropped to an absolute crawl until I freed some space.

 

[Globalti]

Check that the page file is big enough and that the system disk is not full. My C: drive was filled up by iTunes music a few weeks ago, by accident, and the PC dropped to an absolute crawl until I freed some space.

Ah! That's a possibility. Will check.

 

[Shaun]

Also, check your video drivers are the correct ones for your video card (or onboard video chipset) as the wrong ones could be slowing down the on-screen rendering process, and therefore giving the appearance of the CPU being slow.

Have you tried booting your PC in Safe Mode to see if it's equally slow? Start-up the PC and whilst it's booting press the F8 key at half-second intervals. After the BIOS and device detection/reporting screen display, you should get a menu of Windows boot options. Chose Safe Mode with Networking and see if the PC is just as slow when running in this mode?

Cheers,
Shaun