[Louise's Dad]

Hello GTG

After the amazing help I got with the dreaded nwframe virus (so good I even donated to you) I wonder whether you can help me. It's my daughter's PC again and the problem is it is so slow to boot up. If I boot up it takes a normal amount of time to get to the desktop and paint the icons on but then for example to click on WORD it take anything up to perhaps 2 minutes to load it. After that it seems to be fine.

It is on a wireless network and I did wonder whether it was the PC trying to find the network which took preference, but having switched the NETGEAR thing off during boot up it made no difference. My son's PC is practically the same model but is much much quicker. Not sure if it relevant but my daughter's PC has the Sims 2 and Sims Pets on it (massive files).

I have downloaded Mike Lin's 'Start-up' software to see what runs at start-up and took off a load of stuff from that but it still runs very slow - as if it is searching for something?

Perhaps it's just a crap PC but it used to be fine.

Many thanks in advance for your help

Best wishes

Louise's Dad

[Advertisements]

Has the hard disk been "defragged" lately? Over time, with installing and uninstalling stuff, files get scattered all over the disk so the free space is also scattered instead of being in one chunk. This only adds to the problem of more files being scattered about next time you install something.

These scattered files (many of which belong to the same program) take longer to find before a program can open. So try running the 'Disk Defragmenter'. Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter.

[pip22]

Has the hard disk been "defragged" lately? Over time, with installing and uninstalling stuff, files get scattered all over the disk so the free space is also scattered instead of being in one chunk. This only adds to the problem of more files being scattered about next time you install something.

These scattered files (many of which belong to the same program) take longer to find before a program can open. So try running the 'Disk Defragmenter'. Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter.

[Louise's Dad]

Sadly I did that not too long ago and to no effect

LD

[1101doc]

I suspect that during the malware removal process the prefetch folder was cleared. If so, after a while things will begin to load more normally. Malware and its removal often take a toll on a system. It would probably be wise to run Check Disc. My Computer>C:\>Properties>Tool tab. Click the "Check Now" button to run checkdisc. Of course, it won't check now - it can only check at boot, so let it reboot and then go make lunch. It will take some time. Once that is accomplished, I also suggest running scannow. See Marc Liron's explanation: http://www.updatexp....cannow-sfc.html Have your XP CD ready. This takes some time as well, and will ensure that your system is missing no required files. I also suggest that you stand-by while it is working in case user input is needed. I find Sysinternals free Process Explorer to be very helpful. It's what Taskmanager wants to be when it grows up. http://www.microsoft...ssExplorer.mspx (download link at bottom of page). Proexp will display the "Services" running under each instance of svchost with a mouse-over. A double click on any process will bring up a window all about it. Have a read about "Services" at: http://www.theelderg...vices_guide.htm Best results will usually be found by making sure that everything is set to default for your edition of XP. Beyond this, it may be necessary to make hardware changes. More RAM will be very beneficial. Crucial company offers a model specific RAM selection tool: http://www.crucial.com/ While it is not necessary to purchase from them, I found that my savings by going elsewhere were minimal. You may discover otherwise. In any event, their tool will reveal the exact specifications required by your machine. For a terrific system information tool, I very much like SIW:http://www.gtopala.com/download.html The personal edition is free and will tell you more about your hardware than you may want to know. It is especially nice that it does not require installation. Just run it from its saved location. Good luck, and please post back with your progress.

[Louise's Dad]

Hi All

Thanks for your comments. I ran check disc and for a moment thought it had cured things but not. Here's an example of what goes wrong. Boot up -seems okay, there is then a perdiod of egg-timer display which I assume is the PC looking for the wireless connection to the router (is it?). Then when that is done click on, for example, WORD and it takes maybe as much as a minute to load - it is appallingly slow.

I notice that AVG is ALWAYS running (is that normal?) and as I said the PC sounds as if it is always trying to run something.

I am really not very good on PCs ( as if you hadn't guessed that already) so need a bit of spoon feeding! I was considering clicking on system restore - is that a good idea or not?

Thanks

Louise's Dad

[The Skeptic]

When you bootup the computer AVG runs, by default, an automatic scan which is quite lengthy and affects computers performance. If, on top of that, you have windows updae scanning automatically for new updates the combination of the two can be a tremendous slowdown of the computer for sometime after startup. (By the way, this automatic scanning by AVG which cannot be cancelled without cancelling automatic updates is so annoying that it made me stop using AVG altogether and change to free Avast which, in my opinion, is a better product in other aespects too).

Please do the following:

Enter task manager (right click task bar > task manager) in Processes look for the last one "system idle process". In the "cpu" coloumn see what value you get. It should be around 95% or so after the computer loaded everything and AVG finished its scan. If it's lower then that please report those processes that consume much CPU %.

In Performance, in task manager, look for Physical Memory and report "total" and "available". Do this when the computer is idling.

[Louise's Dad]

Hi

I must apologise for taking so long to get back to this - it's been difficult to do any PC stuff!

Okay I checked and the CPU is 95-98% at idle and in Physical Memory it's Total is 260080 and available is 98336.

Today was a good example of the problem - boot up and the desktop screen comes on. We have been on holiday for 2 weeks so decided to run AVG on my daughter's and my son's PCs which are pretty much identical. My son's version of AVG loads instantly and runs fine, my daughter's version takes about 2 minutes (or more) from double clicking the icon. Mine is quick too although it is a bit more powerful than theirs. I think all three have AVG and Windows updates turned on.

It is really odd and really annoying!

Regards

Rob aka Louise's Dad