[Vaillant]

For the last month and a half now, my computer has been experiencing lag. For the last month and a half, I've been uninstalling, testing, checking, reinstalling, nearly every program that usually is always running. And I still have no solution, a month and a half later.

I am extremely fuming with this right now. Another problem cropped up. When I activate my printer, a Canon MP130 USB printer-scanner, and try to access the scanner via my computer, or anything in my computer while the printer is on, the entire console freezes. My computer, and any other explorer.exe freezes. Desktop and taskbar dont, if you're wondering.

The entire explorer.exe doesn't officialy "freeze" , as it's still responsive ( 10 seconds after you perform an action )

But here's the main issue. Over the last month and a half, my computer has become increasingly less responsive. Whenever I change windows, wether it be between IE, and MSN, my computer, anything... The newly selected window takes upto 4 seconds now to respond. That's really REALLY annoying while chatting on MSN and you have to retype half your sentance because the [bleep] window hadn't responded yet. Furthermore, the problem has been increasing in frequency and intensity. What started as a bit of lag, is now extreme lag, nearly all the time.

Despite my best efforts, the problem persists. I can however provide you with a few informations right now that you will find usefull.

1- I've run every scan on malware all the way to an anti-rootkit scan. My system is irrevocably clean.
2- I run NOD32 antivirus system
3- No actual firewall, seeing how my Sygate caused me problems 2 months ago, I never really had time to reinstall another one
4- Broadband internet connection, 6mbps. Always connected ( cable )

I keep meticulous care of the system with CCleaner, TuneUP, Ad-aware, spybot and spyware blaster..
I defrag all harddrive partitions nearly every week, I've even acquired a professional defrag program last week to try and fix this, to no avail. ( nice program though, diskeeper )

I keep backups using Norton Ghost. My only problem is that I change the images every 2 weeks, or month. I've deleted the backup I had of a time prior to this lag, because at the time I hadnt noticed that much of a slow-down

SYSTEM SPECS:

http://vaillant.t35.com/GAAR.zip

Immediate help would be much appreciated. I tried my best and still failed.

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Hi Vaillant...

What happens when you do a selective startup? Is the lag present with the minimal boot?

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi Vaillant...

What happens when you do a selective startup? Is the lag present with the minimal boot?

wannabe1

[Vaillant]

Yes, I've fiddled with all bootup programs. I dont mean it lags on bootup, I mean ALL the time.

I tried more than once running with only antivirus on, and the lag was still present.

[Vaillant]

In all fairness though... The lag did diminish, but it had never dissapeared. Even with NOD32 uninstalled, the system seemingly running nothing in the background that I was aware of, the lag was still present. My programs perhaps only amplify the problem. But it's there, and its real. And I need help fixing it

There's no logical reason why a computer would decide to slow down like this. Especially with the RAM upgrade i put in in january, 1 gig is more than ample to run Win XP home.

something has been bothering my mind though. In the recent months my use of the comptuer has changed drastically. first off now I have broadband. I've also started an always open policy. Computer's set to reboot at 4AM, but otherwise always on now. HDD Space has remained relatively simliar to what it used to be before.

The only thing I could possibly explain is that XP home cant cope with what I make it do now, and is starting to fall apart slowly.

Edited by Vaillant, 03 April 2006 - 11:05 PM.

[wannabe1]

Click Start, then Run, type msconfig, and click"Ok".

Under the "General" tab, choose "Selective Startup" and click "Apply" then "Ok". Reboot.

Ignore the Selective Startup dialog box that opens on restarting for the moment (click "Ok").

Does the lag diminish more or stay the same?

[Vaillant]

Maybe its just me who's tired ( 1.20AM and had a long day )

wasnt selective startup always supposed to appear and give a warning prompt, upon reboot?

I go back into MSCONFIG and it still says normal startup, and this is the second time i told it to use selective..

Anyway, I re-disabled most of my programs, leaving only nod32 and msn on bootup.

Can't say it didn't hurt the lag..

Wild thought that just crossed my mind though. Would running a background picture format of PNG lag a computer? PNG's are pretty high quality..

I've been using a PNG as my background for the last 3 weeks... and unless I'm really mistaken ( again, im tired )... thats when it really started showing the lag.

[wannabe1]

That is a possibility...try changing to one of Windows default backgrounds and try it for a while.

You might also try a Diagnostic Startup from msconfig to see if a service may be the culprit.

[Vaillant]

Ok, so here's what happened. Used selective startup with only the first 2 items checked ( so system services and startup programs were disabled )

While the lag did diminish, when I tried to reset the settings, to transfer with only the startup items disabled, but still in selective, my shutdown stalled all of the 3 times I tried to do so.

Finally restored the system by telling it to go back to NORMAL startup, rebooted and everything, seemed normal.

Bootup itself was impossibly slow, and then the My Computer now takes 10 seconds to open.

Awaiting instructions.

[Vaillant]

Scratch that... Rebooted and now the My Computer works appropriately.

This whole thing is really starting to fume me.

The lag is still present however.
And when I turn on the printer-scanner, it still lags out the My Computer console.

Edited by Vaillant, 04 April 2006 - 02:20 PM.

[Vaillant]

So, lil update. I'm currently running with only the basics. Startup's totally blank.

Services that are running : what you need for internet + sound service.

Uninstalled and reinstalled the printer's driver, but it didnt help.
Lag is alot less worse, but the desktop keeps lagging still. Like when I go to close a window, I cant select anything on the desktop for 5 seconds. Desktop is entirely blank right now. -- that is to say the background. Icons are fine

I'm at a loss for what to do, so I'm waiting now for your next thoughts.

Thanks, and keep thinking!!

Edited by Vaillant, 04 April 2006 - 05:36 PM.

[Vaillant]

( I hate to make so many posts after myself but I'm trying to work throught the problem myself still... I want to be sure you have all the info before you formulate a plan )

I've been working through my daily actions, seeing what I usually do, etc.

I've finally come to a realization. It's INTERNET EXPLORER which lags my desktop and explorer.

Thinking back, and testing, time and again, everytime I close an IE window, the entire desktop momentarily freezes, including all windows. Now there's an interesting fact, isnt it?

The printer I havent touched yet. I'm still at a loss.

Patience and perseverence:) we'll get it

[wannabe1]

Wow...you've been busy.

How's about we see if we can repair Internet Explorer. I'm assuming you are running IE6...not the 7 Beta.

Navigate to C:\Windows\Inf (this is a hidden folder) and locate the file ie.inf...right click on it and choose "Install". Once the file copying is complete, reboot. Is there any improvement?

wannabe1

[Vaillant]

Got a problem here. It's asking for my windows SP2 CD, but my CD is SP1

Upgraded to SP2 after install ( My disc is 2 and a half years old, came with this comp )

Any ideas..?

--Scratch my last, I've got another disc here with a modified SP2 build. Dont need to worry about this.

Edited by Vaillant, 04 April 2006 - 09:05 PM.

[Vaillant]

Well, IE is reinstalled. I unfortunately was mistaken. While it did happen most often with IE, the lag still persists.

This time, the most noticable time is when I change the background image. even if I put it blank. after I click apply that window goes grey for 10 seconds before the background changes. once I close that window, the desktop itself doesnt respond for 5 seconds.

[wannabe1]

When was the last time you ran a thorough chkdsk on this machine?

Click Start, then Run, type cmd, and click "OK". At the prompt in the Command window, type the following commands, pressing "Enter" after each one: (Please note the spaces in the following commands.)

• chkntfs /d ..... (This will reset autocheck options to default)
• chkdsk /f /r c: ..... (To manually run a full chkdsk operation)
• Y ..... (To accept having it run on the next boot)

This should take you through 5 stages of the scan and will check for and try to recover any damaged files and clusters on the drive. Be patient...this is a very thorough check and will take quite a while.

Let me know how this goes...