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Windows lagging..

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by lara_cy

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Hey all,
I've got a strange problem going on my with my notebook - all of a sudden when i restart it not only takes forever to load, but when my desktop is fully loaded if i attempted to run anything (be it Winamp, Ad-aware etc) my laptop *really* lags, for instance typing slows down, when i move my mouse across it's really rigid and compltely lagging behind. I've checked Task Manager and in Processes everything seems to be ok... however when i go to Performance my CPU usage is completely full 98%, 99%. for instance when i ran ad-aware my cpu level was 97% of which ad-aware was taking 90% when i looked at the processes.

I have no idea what's going on, i ran Norton, Ad-ware, Spybot, tried removing network cable and external HHD, and it's still happening. Also, i can't go back to any restore points because my last one was a long long time ago... ( my bad i know)

Any insight would be great..

27 replies

by hal 9000

Start the unit in Safe Mode and run the same scans and see if that improves anything.

If that offers no improvement try a Registry Cleaner. Win Doctor will do if you have Norton's System Works but if you don't than Iolo's System Mechanic has a 30 day trial available at

http://www.iolo.com/sm/6/index.cfm

Of course there is always the use of Defrag that helps fragmented HDD's no end if there is nothing else wrong with the system and you could also check to make sure that all the resources are actually available it's always possible that a stick of RAM has gone bad or something similar.

Col

by hal 9000

You could also run a HDD testing utility to make sure that your HDD isn't on the way out as well.

by lara_cy

Didn't work :( The program did find registry problems and fixed them, but running everything again (ad-ware, spybot) i stil have the lagging problem..

by dugadugdug

RE: Slow logins

Take a look at what is going on behind the "Loading Personal Settings" Window, here is a registry entry to add so the Windows XP Machine tells you what it's doing. Be careful editing the registry.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\POLICIES

Add REG_DWORD
Value Name "verbosestatus"
Value Data 1

Add REG_DWORD
Value Name "disablestatusmessages"
Value Data 0

Once you've added this key, reboot the computer and login as usual. You should see the status of each of the files which are being loaded on the machine and it may point out which file is causing the issue. In one particular case of a colleague, the MSG121.dll took about a minute to load and then the process continued normally. After doing some searching in regards to that particular DLL, he found out this was Spyware that neither Spybot nor AdAware could remove (found another way to remove it). I would also run MSCONFIG to see which services are running as well as what is in the startup and see if there is a service or app running that shouldn't. HTH

by lara_cy

added the new reg key, however when i start up i don't get the status reports, where am i supposed to see that? i do see a new process is running in my background called SMSanslyser or smth, which seems to be that as i checked were that file was coming from and it was from the new reg key.

by sgt_shultz

is cpu running hard due to swapping lots maybe due to bad ram maybe?
other thing if found:
SYMPTOMS
After you install Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or upgrade to Windows XP with SP2, you experience slow computer performance. For example, you experience the following symptoms: ? If you browse the Internet, the performance is slow.
? If you try to download newsgroup e-mail messages, some or all of the messages are not downloaded.
? There is excessive hard disk activity.
? Overall system performance is very slow.

Back to the top

CAUSE
This issue occurs if one of the following conditions is true: ? You have spyware or malware running on the computer.
? You have viruses that are running on the computer.
? You do not have sufficient free space on the hard disk.
? You do not have sufficient random access memory (RAM) installed on the computer.
? You have corrupted or outdated drivers.
? You have too many files in the Recycle Bin or temporary folders.

Back to the top

by lara_cy

Did all these checks, except i don't know if it my ram... i did get new ram (512) for my notebook 3 weeks ago but everything was running smoothly.i sure hope it's not my ram..

by hal 9000

Have you run Defrag regularly?

If everything else is OK then the most obvious thing that could be wrong is a badly frag meted HDD.

To reach the inbuilt Defrag utility click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and Disk Defragmenter and run it a couple of times to make sure that the HDD has its data in sequential order.

If that doesn't help you could start looking for a hardware problem by downloading The Ultimate Boot CD from

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

and run some testing utilities to make sure that there are no hardware problems.

Col

by lara_cy

i got the UBCD, which tests would you recommend to use? i just two of the memory tests which came out fine, and a hardisk drive fitness test, which again seem to be fine...

by zlitocook

Lets start fresh, go to start, all programs, accessories, system tools, disk clean up and run it. Delete all say yes, then use disk defrag from the same place. And then close every thing and right click my computer and then open. And then select properties, then tools. You will then be able to do a scan disk to fix any problems on the hard drive. But it will tell you that it can not do this untill you reboot, select ok and reboot.
Let it do it's thing and reboot when it is done and see how your laptop runs, if it is still slow I have more suggestions, like window washer and BartPe to try.
Please back up and copy all of your settings because most of the things needed to fix or reinstall your laptop will not be saved!

by lara_cy

Started fresh.. still have the CPU levels incredibily high and windows lagging. Let's try your other suggestions.. :)

by hal 9000

OK we'll start with the basics How many Processes are actually running when you open the task Manager? That is just with Windows Desktop running and nothing else. And what is the CPU and Page File Usage then?

It could be that you have a lot of applications running in the background with minimal RAM available which could be causing the problem so the System Information would be a help here. [b]CPU Speed Amount of RAM HDD Size and Page File Size.[/b]

Are you getting any error messages at all? If you are what are they?

As far as the Ultimate Boot CD Goes you have run the easy tests and have passed them so if the above doesn't point to anything you'll need to run some of the open end tests like the CPU Torture Test and M'Board test but these are open ended and you can leave them running for days if you want actually the longer the better but you should have some reasonable results after 18 + hours.

Lets know how you get on and I'll come back with some other suggestions once you give me the system responses.

Col

by hal 9000

The CPU type as well would help and you can add a comment and I'll reply to your comments.

by hal 9000

With a Page File of a little over 1 GIG I take it that you have somewhere around 712 MEG of RAM Right?

If the unit is shutting down when you are running Defrag then you defiantly have an infection of the Temp Sensors are set way too low and are shutting down the unit to save the Monitored units.

Do you have a Monitoring Utility installed on the system?

You could try entering BIOS and changing the Temp Settings and the actions when certain Temps are reached, you could for instance change the CPU to Throttle Back to 75% instead of Shut Down.

But if you have a monitoring Utility I would have it running while you perform a Defrag just to see what happens. I'm not into Logs to find errors as after today I've wasted several hundred sheets of paper just to prove that a piece of software was not running. But the Logs where totally correct they just didn't pickup when the program failed to work correctly.

by lara_cy

ran defrag and it didn't shut down this time round, but hasn't made any difference...

by lara_cy

UPdate: i ran Defrag twice, and twice my computer shut down when doing it. Regarding other details, they are below:

28 Processors running in background,

CPU & Page file usage between 2 - 20% jumping every second when nothing else is running in backgroud.

Commit Charge: 220M/1873M

by lara_cy

Extra info :

CPU SPEED : 2GHZ
HHD SIZE: 30 gigs ( External HHD 250gigs)
PAGE FILE SIZE: 1149MB

by lara_cy

Yes 712MB RAM total.
I don't have a monitoring utility, do you know where i can get/use one?
Entered BIOS but i couldn't find where to change TEMP Settings.

by hal 9000

Lets know the maker of the BIOS and I'll be able to tell you where to look if it's possible.

As for monitoring utilities they should come with the M'Board or from the maker there might be one available on the makers Web Site but you need to use the one designed for the system that you have as another one will not necessarily work correctly.

Col

by hal 9000

When you initially boot a NB you should see a makers splash screen telling you the Make and oat the bottom generally there should be a Press E2, Delete key or some similar message to enter the BIOS.

When you are in BIOS there will be a makers name on the top of the screen something like Award, Phoenix AMI.

Col

by hal 9000

The good old Award BIOS.

The problem here is that the Temp Alarms are deeply buried in the setup options so you'll need to go digging.

There should be a heading called something like PC Health and in there there will be a subheading of CPU which you have to press Enter to get at. Then you should be able to set the Duty Cycle of the CPU which generally the default value is Off when it reaches a certain Temp. In here you can adjust that Temp and what the CPU will actually do. You can change it from Off to throttle back to 75% or less as you want but with NB the CPU's tend to run hotter as there isn't as much airflow available so up the temp to the Max setting and it should be fairly safe to Throttle back to 75% when the temp reaches the Max Value, which should be somewhere around 80 C + it really depends here on the M'Board and the BIOS version some have an upper limit of 75C and others will go up to 90C.

by lara_cy

Thanks for that info. I reinstalled windows XP, and norton finally decided it find a virus/trojan. told me i had to get Fxgaobot removal tool to get rid of it. used it, said it didn't find any trace of the worn. then Norton picked up a download.trojan in my system32 file, called .pff i've tried deleting it, but it keeps reappearing, and Norton can't delete it. Any ideas what i can do?

by hal 9000

Run the Scans in [b]Safe Mode[/b] and that should pick up any infections. As for the reappearing pff file there are other files entrenched in your system so they are just recreating this file whenever you remove it.

As you are using Semantic Products the best idea would be to do a search of their Web Site for this file and see what it is connected with. That will tell you what you are facing and how to remove the problem.

Col

by lara_cy

I managed to remove the .pff file it seems in Safe mood, along with another virus norton picked up. my system seems to be back to normal, well almost i'd say 80-90%, but definitely no more big time lagging. Thanks for all your help and patience :)

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