[Wheelyjohn]

This laptop was originally vista and was re-loaded with XP. It has run well for several years but has now got very very slow. It is slow to boot, also slow in safe mode and when booted with startup programs stopped and non Microsoft services stopped.
I don't think it is an infection problem, I have scanned and only found a few tracking cookies. CPU use sits at a healthy 95%-98% idle
I tried booting with another disk with a new copy of windows and that was fine, the original disk also checks ok on another machine, so I don't think it is hardware
I'm now out of ideas and would appreciate any suggestions as to what is making this machine so slow
Wheelyjohn

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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: Click the Options at the top of the Window. In the new little window click the box that states Hide Microsoft Services
5: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
6: Save the file as AutoRuns.txt file instead of the default .arn to a known location like your Desktop.
7: Attach to your next reply.
8: DO NOT do anything till we have had a chance to study the log and reply with suggestions as to what to remove.

[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: Click the Options at the top of the Window. In the new little window click the box that states Hide Microsoft Services
5: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
6: Save the file as AutoRuns.txt file instead of the default .arn to a known location like your Desktop.
7: Attach to your next reply.
8: DO NOT do anything till we have had a chance to study the log and reply with suggestions as to what to remove.

[Wheelyjohn]

Thanks for your help. Autoruns.txt is attached

Attached Files

•  AutoRuns.txt   76.11KB   218 downloads

[rshaffer61]

OK here we go.


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

+ "Adobe ARM"
+ "Adobe Reader Speed Launcher"
+ "HP Software Update"
+ "iTunesHelper"
+ "QuickTime Task"
+ "TkBellExe"






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
Please do not run any other Auslogics programs other then this one as they may cause unwanted results.



Lets take a look at the hard drive and see what you have.

Go to

1: Start
2: My Computer
3: Right Click on "C" drive
4: Click on Properties
5: In this field it will tell you total drive space and also free space

Please include results in your next reply

[Wheelyjohn]

I have run your tfd and defrag programs, although I had defragged previosly. I think it is a more serious problem than defragging as the system has long pauses. For example when I right clicked the C: drive, it took 54 seconds to open the options window. It then reacted fairly quickly to give the disk properties
Capacity 68.3GB
Used space 53.7 GB
Free space 14.6GB

Thanks Wheelyjohn

Edited by Wheelyjohn, 17 June 2013 - 03:39 AM.

[rshaffer61]

Did you uncheck the autorun entries reboot and then run TFC and Defrag reboot and check the speed?
Download Speedfan (The download link is to the right), and install it. Once it's installed, run the program and post here the information it shows.
The information I want you to post is the stuff that is circled in the example picture I have attached.
To make sure we are getting all the correct information it would help us if you were to attach a screenshot like the one below of your Speedfan results.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard.

• It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
• Now go to Start and then to All Programs
• Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
• In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
• Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
• Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop
• Attach it to your next reply

Please download and run Hardware Monitor
Installation (setup version only)
HWMonitor is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, fans speed.
The program handles the most common sensor chips, like ITE® IT87 series, most Winbond® ICs, and others. In addition, it can read modern CPUs on-die core thermal sensors, as well has hard drives temperature via S.M.A.R.T, and video card GPU temperature. Please get a screenshot of the sensors window and post it in your next reply.

[Wheelyjohn]

2 screen captures are attached

Attached Thumbnails

• 
• 

[rshaffer61]

OK not bad on those so I'll move on to the next step.

I want to check the disk integrity so please do the following and let me know the results.

Go to

Start and then to Run
Type in Chkdsk /r Note the space between k and /
Click Enter ...It will probably ask if you want to do this on the next reboot...click Y
If the window doesn't shutdown on its own then reboot the system manually. On reboot the system will start the chkdsk operation
This one will take longer then chkdsk /f

Note... there are 5 stages...
It may appear to hang at a certain percent for a hour or more or even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...
DO NOT SHUT YOUR COMPUTER DOWN WHILE CHKDSK IS RUNNING OR YOU CAN HAVE SEVERE PROBLEMS
This can take several hours to complete.
When completed it will boot the system back into windows.

Reboot after your done running chkdsk /r...
then Go to Start...Run and type: eventvwr.msc press Enter
When Event Viewer opens, click on Applications... then scroll down to Winlogon and double-click on it. This is the log created after running Checkdisk...copy and paste the log back here


We will advise after studying the log.

[Wheelyjohn]

I ran chkdsk /r, it took ages and so I left it overnight and by the morning it had shut down, when I restarted it, it ran chkdsk again. I let this complete (it took around 14 hours) looking at winlogon, the first time it appears to have crashed:-

The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft....ink/events.asp.

The second time was as follows:-

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

71681998 KB total disk space.
55904540 KB in 371296 files.
138544 KB in 8592 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
483218 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
15155696 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
17920499 total allocation units on disk.
3788924 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
e0 27 06 00 fc cb 05 00 0d 94 07 00 00 00 00 00 .'..............
5e 66 00 00 00 00 00 00 15 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 ^f..............
4e a3 f2 b1 00 00 00 00 9e 55 ff a6 01 00 00 00 N........U......
d0 5f 00 c0 00 00 00 00 f6 28 26 d1 57 00 00 00 ._.......(&.W...
52 8d f8 cb 01 00 00 00 f4 d7 6a df 5c 00 00 00 R.........j.\...
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 a8 39 07 00 60 aa 05 00 ..6......9..`...
00 00 00 00 00 70 24 54 0d 00 00 00 90 21 00 00 .....p$T.....!..

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft....ink/events.asp.

Regards Wheelyjohn

[rshaffer61]

OK good disk integrity seems good so now lets check system files to make sure nothing is missing or corrupt.

SFC /Scannow Fix Windows

Go Start and then to Run ("Start Search" in Vista),
Type in: sfc /scannow
Click OK (Enter in Vista).
Have Windows CD/DVD handy.
If System File Checker (sfc) finds any errors, it may ask you for the CD/DVD.
If sfc does not find any errors in Windows XP, it will simply quit, without any message.
In Vista you will receive the following message: "Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations".

For Vista users ONLY: Navigate to C:\Windows\Logs\CBS folder. You'll see CBS.log file.
Usually, it's pretty big file, so upload it to Flyupload, and post download link.


If you don't have Windows CD....
This applies mostly to Windows XP, since Vista rarely requires use of its DVD while running "sfc"
Note This method will not necessarily work as well, as when using Windows CD, because not always ALL system files are backed up on your hard drive. Also, backed up files may be corrupted as well.

Go Start and then Run
type in regedit and click OK


Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

You will see various entries Values on the right hand side.

The one we want is called: SourcePath

It probably has an entry pointing to your CD-ROM drive, usually D and that is why it is asking for the XP CD.
All we need to do is change it to: C:
Now, double click the SourcePatch setting and a new box will pop up.
Change the drive letter from your CD drive to your root drive, usually C:
Close Registry Editor.

Now restart your computer and try sfc /scannow again!


Thanks to Broni for the instructions

[Wheelyjohn]

This is an XP system
SFC asked for a disk which I inserted. It finally finished after about 4 hours. No error messages or log and performance does not seem to have improved noticeably.

Wheelyjohn

[rshaffer61]

OK since this is a laptop have you checked the vents to make sure they are clear?
The hardware looks to be in good working order but we can check the HD physically and the memory.
Though I do not suspect either will show anything out of the ordinary with the system.
I want to see something though.



Go to Start then to Run
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On left side click on Disk Management
On right side you will see you hard drive.
Male sure the window is open all the way on the top right so I can see all the info it has.
Now I need you to take a screenshot and attach it to your next reply. Do the following to take a screenshot while the above is open and showing on your desktop.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard. It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
Now go to Start and then to All Programs
Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
Save as file type JPEG or PNG and save it to your Desktop
Make sure the window is open all the way so I can see everything on the top right window.


Attach it to your next reply

[Wheelyjohn]

Screen dump attached

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[rshaffer61]

Just a question for you. That 24.8 gig partition seems to have nothing on it. Did you set it up that way?
There is no recovery partition so I assume the system was formatted at one point and the recovery partition was deleted?

[Wheelyjohn]

The system was originally vista and was loaded with XP several years ago as Vists was causing so many problems. I assume the small partition was there from the beginning