[yoursangoma]

I had been having a problem with my computer running very slow. I only had 256 mb of ram so I just installed another stick of ram at 512 mb. The computer ran very well at first, but after it has been on for a while, it starts to really slow down. Do you have any ideas or suggestions on what I can do to increase my computers performance?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Edited by yoursangoma, 07 March 2007 - 12:00 PM.

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Using the Disk Defragmenter may help if it's not been done for a while:
Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter.
Disable as many system-tray items as you can before running it, essentially the on-access antivirus if nothing else, otherwise the defragmenter will just keep re-starting and never complete.

[pip22]

Using the Disk Defragmenter may help if it's not been done for a while:
Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter.
Disable as many system-tray items as you can before running it, essentially the on-access antivirus if nothing else, otherwise the defragmenter will just keep re-starting and never complete.

[The Skeptic]

This is my standard approch when encoutering a problem like you have, before going any further:

1: Download and run ccleaner from here. Run the cleaner few times until nothing is left to be cleaned. Run "Issues" until no issues are left to be removed.

2: Run antimalware scan. My personal preferences are Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware SE and AVG antispyware. All free. As antivirus I use Avast. Also free.

3: Defragement all the partitions on your hard disk.

If performance doesn't improve please enter Task Manager, Performance, and report:

CPU usage when the computer is idling
Total Physical memory
Available physical memory

[yoursangoma]

This is my standard approch when encoutering a problem like you have, before going any further:

1: Download and run ccleaner from here. Run the cleaner few times until nothing is left to be cleaned. Run "Issues" until no issues are left to be removed.

2: Run antimalware scan. My personal preferences are Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware SE and AVG antispyware. All free. As antivirus I use Avast. Also free.

3: Defragement all the partitions on your hard disk.

If performance doesn't improve please enter Task Manager, Performance, and report:

CPU usage when the computer is idling
Total Physical memory
Available physical memory

I have done all of your suggestions. Everything seems to be running good now, but it usually does for a while then slows down. I will watch it and see what happens.

[The Skeptic]

Thanks for letting us know. Please repeat the previously mentioned procedures once in a while (once a week or so) to maintain your computer in good shape. I would like to suggest another, excellent, maintanance tool, called PageDefrag. It defrags page and system files during starup. This defragmantation cannot be performed by the ususal defrag command. I set it to work every time I boot my computer, it takes only seconds and keep it in top condition. You can download it from microsoft at this site.

[happyrock]

what kind of activities do you use your computer for ...IE...if your adding and removing lots of things regularly then you would have to defrag more frequently ...also if your saving videos and/or lots of music files to your computer you may want to add a second hard drive and save those to the second drive...those types of file don't defrag well..

[yoursangoma]

what kind of activities do you use your computer for ...IE...if your adding and removing lots of things regularly then you would have to defrag more frequently ...also if your saving videos and/or lots of music files to your computer you may want to add a second hard drive and save those to the second drive...those types of file don't defrag well..

We just use it mostly for the internet, our digital camera, and microsoft office applications. We do have an Ipod, but the computer was having these problems before we got our Ipod.

[happyrock]

go to start..run...type in... msconfig...press ..enter..uncheck . cftmon.exe or cftmon...these belong to MS office and in fact everything except your firewall and anti virus if this is a desktop....if it a a laptop you will have to be more selective otherwise your touchpad may not work..

back up your registry first before doing these tweaks

If you don't extensively use the search feature in XP, this next tweak is for you. By extensively, I mean like 10 or 15 times everyday. Windows XP has this "feature" called "Indexing". It's supposed to speed up searches by keeping all the files on your computer tied to memory. By tying up these files to memory, it can really slow things down. Disabling this service will remove this files from memory, in turn giving your applications and files faster response times. You will still be able to search with the Indexing turned off, but the searching will just take a little longer to perform. To turn off Indexing:

1. Open up "My Computer"
2. Right-click on your hard drive (usually "C:") and choose "Properties"
3. Uncheck the box at the bottom that reads "Allow Indexing Service to..."
4. Click OK then the files will be removed from memory. This removal may take a few minutes to complete, but it's worth it.

You will also need to disable the indexing service here too:

1. Go to "Start", then "Run"
2. Type "services.msc" and press enter
3. Scroll-down to "Indexing Service" and double-click it
4. If the service status is "Running", then stop it by pressing the "Stop" button
5. To make sure this service doesn't run again, under "Startup Type:", choose "Disabled"
==============


Whenever XP reads a file, it stamps the file with the date and time of the access. This feature has its place but is not required for normal use unless you rely on the date of last access for backup purposes, which is a rare requirement for most backups. Putting a timestamp a file that has just been read means that a write access has to be made to disk, so every time a read is executed, a corresponding write is also executed.
click START...RUN...type in ...cmd ...then enter or OK
At the command prompt, enter the following then reboot;

FSUTIL behavior set disablelastaccess 1

To turn timestamps back on, repeat the command but replace the 1 with 0.
=================

Start then clink Control Panel the System then the Advanced tab, then theSettings button under Performance next the Advanced tab then the Change button under Virtual Memory
Once here select "custom size" and set the "Initial size (MB)" to what you decided that it needs to be (In the first example we need 1.5gb so I would type 1500 because it is in megabytes) then set the "Maximum size (MB)" to the same size , this will prevent it from growing (which it dose not need to do it you set it to the right size) and if did grow it gets fragmented it to many parts with is not fast as when it is all in one spot on the hard drive. Now press the "set" button then OK then OK again and then OK again and then restart your computer. You will now have a page file set for speed

Edited by happyrck, 08 March 2007 - 05:33 PM.

[Whiskeyman]

happyrck I believe you mean msconfig. It would be disastrous for him to uncheck everything but the firewall and antivirus in services.msc.

go to start..run...type in... services.msc..press ..enter..uncheck . cftmon.exe or cftmon...these belong to MS office and in fact everything except your firewall and anti virus if this is a desktop....if it a a laptop you will have to be more selective otherwise your touchpad may not work.

Edited by Whiskeyman, 08 March 2007 - 05:26 PM.

[happyrock]

yes...thats what I meant ... thanks for catching that Whiskeyman..hopefully nobody did that with services...although they would have had to spend about 2 hours trying to disable everything..
I've edited my post to msconfig...

[Whiskeyman]

yes...thats what I meant ... thanks for catching that Whiskeyman..hopefully nobody did that with services...although they would have had to spend about 2 hours trying to disable everything..
I've edited my post to msconfig...

I've straightened out one of those messes. Client thought BlackViper's tips were so good he could expound on them.

[happyrock]

[quote name='Whiskeyman'

I've straightened out one of those messes. Client thought BlackViper's tips were so good he could expound on them.
[/quote]
there were also several "safe " settings using BlackViper's lists that could cause problems

[Whiskeyman]

So true.

[yoursangoma]

One other thing that is curious about this is when I startup my computer, everything comes up pretty quick. But after all the startup programs have come up, in the processes of task manager, svchost.exe runs with 99 for about 5 minutes. Any ideas on why it does this? It makes it very difficult to run any programs until this has stopped.

[1101doc]

Yoursangoma- For solid information about svchost/Services I refer to: http://www.theelderg...vices_guide.htm Unfortunately, there is malwre that disguises itself as 'Svchost'. I have noted recently in other forums several threads about unusual activity of svchost in relation to recent Windows updates. From those discussions I have bookmarked this Miscrosoft article: http://support.micro...b;EN-US;Q927891 It may apply to your situation if you have automatic updates enabled. If so, this thread may be of assistance:
http://forums.micros...e...29&SiteID=2
For what I have learned about controlling background\startup processes with links to useful tools and informational sites, see my post: http://doc1101.vox.com/ (Scroll down a bit,it's the second post) To visit the links, copy and paste to your browser address box in a new tab.

Happyrck- Unfortunately, if a user has updated to IE7, simply unchecking ctfmon in msconfig won't stop the rascal from starting automatically at next boot. For some reason IE7 enables the full-time advanced language support feature of ctfmon, and to get it back to it's normal Office self it is necessary to navigate: Control Panel>Regional and Language Options>Languages>Details>Advanced,
and check the box that says "Turn off advanced text services." Microsoft article: http://support.micro...spx?kbid=282599

Thanks for the Read/Write tip!