[~Ron~]

Hello,
Back after many years away and was hoping someone could point me in the right direction. My first thought was to run a registry cleaner but I see that they may do more harm than good.

Here is the issue; My PC used to be faster in all aspects. Recently the performance has degraded considerably. It takes 5 to 7 minutes to fully boot up and shut down. It also takes a good 2 to 3 minutes for FireFox to open. Granted my PC is not the best on the block but it did work better than this.

Where should I start looking to correct this slowness?

Ron

MS Windows XP Pro SP3
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium MB
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 512 VC
2 gig Mem
AMD 4000

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If your are not interested registry cleaner you can do it manually.
first you need to clear cache of your Firefox browser.

Then
Click start, again, then click run.Type, "dfrg.msc" in the text field.Click Defrag to start it.

Perform a disk clean up.
Click start in the bottom left corner, then click run.Type, "cleanmgr.exe" in the text field.Press "okay". This can take a while if you have never done it before

Go to Start, (Settings), Control Panel, System. (This is just like the step above this.)Go to the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button under Performance.Now switch to this Advanced tab, and click on 'Change' under Virtual Memory.You will see the 'Initial Size (MB)' and the Maximum Size (MB)'.Change 'Initial Size' to the same value as 'Maximum Size' then click set.

[pcs365_11]

If your are not interested registry cleaner you can do it manually.
first you need to clear cache of your Firefox browser.

Then
Click start, again, then click run.Type, "dfrg.msc" in the text field.Click Defrag to start it.

Perform a disk clean up.
Click start in the bottom left corner, then click run.Type, "cleanmgr.exe" in the text field.Press "okay". This can take a while if you have never done it before

Go to Start, (Settings), Control Panel, System. (This is just like the step above this.)Go to the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button under Performance.Now switch to this Advanced tab, and click on 'Change' under Virtual Memory.You will see the 'Initial Size (MB)' and the Maximum Size (MB)'.Change 'Initial Size' to the same value as 'Maximum Size' then click set.

[rshaffer61]

Download Autoruns from the link in my signature below:
1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.
2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".
3: Click on the "Everything" tab
4: Remove any entries that mention "File Not Found" by right-clicking the entry and select Delete.
5: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
6: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop.
7: Attach to your next reply.


Download and install Free Everest Home Edition
Open it.
1: In left pane expand Computer folder.
2: Click once on Summary
3: In upper menu, go Report
4: And then to Quick Report-Summary
5: Save it in text file, and paste it in your next post.
Click the + by computer, click on Sensor. Get a screenshot and post it so I can check your temps and voltages...

DO NOT INCLUDE ANYTHING UNDER THE LINE THAT SAYS "DEBUG- PCI"

[~Ron~]

Thanks very much for your help. I really appreciate any guidance you can provide.

Since I created this post, I have done the following:
I followed all instructions as per the "Malware and Spyware Cleaning Guide" up to "Step Four: Rootkit Detection". I also ran a Boot Time Scan using the latest version of Avast. Nothing was found in any of the scans. Reports available if needed. Although just getting rid of the TEMP files seems to have made a little difference. THANKS AGAIN!

~Ron~

I have attached the AutoRun.txt file as instructed.

Screen Shot of temps, etc..


Everest Report:

--------[ EVEREST Home Edition © 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc. ]------------------------------------------------------------

Version EVEREST v2.20.405
Homepage http://www.lavalys.com/
Report Type Quick Report
Computer MASTERPC2 (DadsASUSHOME)
Generator Dad
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
Date 2010-05-27
Time 01:49


--------[ Summary ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 3
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name MASTERPC2 (DadsASUSHOME)
User Name Dad

Motherboard:
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64, 2400 MHz (12 x 200) 4000+
Motherboard Name Asus A8N-SLI Premium (3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x4, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce4 SLI, AMD Hammer
System Memory 2048 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (10/21/05)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT (512 MB)
Monitor SONY SDM-HS95P DVI-D [NoDB] (6380793)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter nVIDIA MCP04 - Audio Codec Interface

Storage:
IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Parallel ATA Controller
IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controller
IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller Silicon Image SiI 3114 SoftRaid 5 Controller
Disk Drive ST3320620AS (298 GB, IDE)
Disk Drive Maxtor 4R120L0 (120 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Disk Drive ST3300822AS (279 GB, IDE)
Optical Drive PLEXTOR DVDR PX-760A
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 305234 MB (118103 MB free)
E: (NTFS) 117239 MB (66473 MB free)
F: (NTFS) 286157 MB (97586 MB free)
Total Size 692.0 GB (275.5 GB free)

Input:
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Mouse HID-compliant mouse
Mouse Logitech HID-compliant G5 Laser Mouse

Network:
Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (192.168.1.133)

Peripherals:
Printer \\MASTERPC\Acrobat Distiller
Printer \\SUSAN-PC\Epson Stylus Photo R320 (M)
Printer Acrobat Distiller
Printer Acrobat PDFWriter
Printer hp deskjet 990c
Printer Microsoft XPS Document Writer
Printer WebEx Document Loader
USB1 Controller nVIDIA MCP04 - OHCI USB Controller
USB2 Controller nVIDIA MCP04 - EHCI USB 2.0 Controller
USB Device Generic USB Hub
USB Device USB Composite Device
USB Device USB Composite Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Human Interface Device

Attached Files

•  AutoRuns.txt   129.33KB   129 downloads

[rshaffer61]

Open Autoruns, click on "Logon" tab, and UN-check:

+ "Adobe ARM"
+ "Adobe Reader Speed Launcher"
+ "QuickTime Task"
+ "SunJavaUpdateSched"




When done restart computer and then:



Download TFC by OldTimer to your desktop

• Please double-click TFC.exe to run it. (Note: If you are running on Vista, right-click on the file and choose Run As Administrator).
• It will close all programs when run, so make sure you have saved all your work before you begin.
• Click the Start button to begin the process. Depending on how often you clean temp files, execution time should be anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two. Let it run uninterrupted to completion.
• Once it's finished it should reboot your machine. If it does not, please manually reboot the machine yourself to ensure a complete clean.

Download Auslogics Defrag from the link in my signature below. Auslogics Defrag in my opinion is better because:
It does a more comprehensive job at Defragging
It will actually show you what it is doing
At the end of working it will show you how much speed you picked up
You can view a online log of the files that Auslogics defragged

Let me know how the system is running when done.

[Aero A95]

how many updates did u download and install? cuz the updates u install sloooooow!! computes down so u have to buy a new pc ex i have a compaq. use to have windows vista. i installed over 200 updates i couldent move the mouse. then i did a new get rid of everything install. tru boot up. the pc is so mnch faster (remember no upates only video cipset updates)





ps i know sombody here is going to critasize my reply.

[~Ron~]

I can't say enough how much I appreciate your help! I really like the new little programs you have recommended as well. Thanks

OK, I've completed the above steps and have noticed a slight improvement! yippy!
The system is still slow to completely load. It seems to shut down better though. Even starting FireFox seems to be better. All still slower than in the past but better. I suspect I just have too much crap loading on start up or way too many processes running.

I ran the "Auslogics Defrag", which by the way is awesome, and noticed in the Registry tab that it reported 27 errors. I have installed and uninstalled tons of programs on this system so I suspect this may be why??? I know that registry cleaners are frowned upon but is there something I can do to clean this up?

Again , I have noticed an improvement in operation but it's still not where it was before.

Anything else I can do? I use this system for Web Development and Graphics so I do have a ton of programs on it.

Thanks

~Ron~

[rshaffer61]

Lets see what you have in your startup and see what we can do without

Please click on
Start and then to Run
Type in msconfig and press Enter
Now click on Startups
Then uncheck everything and restart.
IMPORTANT! In case of laptop, make sure, you do NOT disable any keyboard, or touchpad entries.
If system boots correctly and is running smoothly and faster then we have a startup problem
Try going back into msconfig and check one item and reboot
Keep doing that till you have found the problem or all are finally checked.
Post back with the results