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Very slow networked PCs -memory problem?

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by lee_colmer Jan 8, 2004 last reply Jan 20, 2004

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Our PC's on a small office network run very slowly, even with only 1 application running. If I open task manager, the memory usage seems to be very high, even when CPU usage is very low.
Our PCs run Win2000 with NT4 on the server.
After restarting the PC, with no applications running, the CPU usage is 2-3% but the memory usage is around 116600K of 215784K. There are 29 processes listed, but their memory usage doesn't add up to anywhere near the total.
Is this normal for Win2000? I can add more memory to the PCs, but there must be some other problem??

any help greatly apreciated!!
Lee

9 replies

by w2ktechman Jan 8, 2004

First, yes Win2k and XP use most of 128 Mb of RAM, 112-118Mb seem to be normal. Also, it uses quite a bit of the swap file. So check the free space, and the page file to see if it needs to be bigger. If there isnt too much free space, then either make it, replace the drives for bigger ones, or dont do anything.
Defrag the systems (sometimes 2 or 3 times) to get the best from it.
If these dont help, it may be a slow network. This usually puts windows at a crawl for many tasks.

by lee_colmer Jan 20, 2004

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by hb_bc Jan 8, 2004

Even though there in applications running there is yet a lot of servies running in the back ground that is eating up a lot of memory that can be disabled. You can go to http://www.blackviper.com/WIN2K/servicecfg.htm there you will find a list of the services running on your Win2000 system that you need and some that you don't need. After disabling the that you don't need you should notice a difference.

by lee_colmer Jan 20, 2004

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by csmith Jan 9, 2004

If about half of the memory is used, and the CPU usage is not that high , and the PC is slow;
There is a process runing that is not documented, or one of the processes is screwed up.

Translation: Hidden process = Virus
Screwed up process = Corrupt System File, or Corrupt System Setting

Since the whole system is affected, the most likely suspect is the Virus.

The next most likely is that a bad setting is generating excessive network traffic.

The next most likely, is that somebody hacked in, and used remote administration to screw up the system settings. (Have you fired anybody recently?)

The least likely (5%), is that a/the setting(s) in MemoryManager, or CacheManager in Windows is corrupt. The test for this is easy.
Download Cacheman form www.cnet.com (Cnet is the parent of TechRepublic)
Check that the disk cache setting is twice the hardware cache on the hard disk.
Your PCs Hard Disks probably have 4Meg, so, 8Meg Max and 2Meg Min should be the settings.
(Do not do this to the Server. Server cache is determined by RAM installed.)

Regards, Chris