Ketchupisyourfriend

I've been running XP for over a year now and I haven't had too many problems with it other than what is to be expected in that amount of time. In the last few days I've noticed a big slowdown in performance on my machine. I checked the processes tab in task manager to check what was taking up most of the mem usage. I found that instead of the usual 3,000 to 6,000k that explorer usually takes it was at 35,000. I killed the process and started it again and then watched a movie. When I was done with the movie everything was just barely moving it was so slow and explorer was not taking up 150,000k of mem usage. I haven't really changed anything hardware or software recently that would do something like this. Does anybody know what I can do to fix it? Do you just reccomend a repair installation? Any help is appreciated, thanks. Oh, I've got an AMD Athlon 1600+ and 256mb ddr ram. I need more ram but I don't think that is the problem here.

Krux

you prolly have a virus run a check for that first then I would try swapping the ram for another piece see what happens then.

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egghead

hi:

i would run ad-aware and see if the web spies have hijacked your browser and are now re-routing your internet traffic to further their commercial needs
hehe

goto
www.lavasoftusa.com

download adaware and delete everything it finds

all bad stuff

post how many you find here and let me know if ie is still crapped out
we will try something different

cheers
egghead

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Octopus

this is normal mine takes 21K and more.. there is another reason for the slowdown in your machine...firewalls slowdown PCs like ZA.
run MSCONFIG and go to startup tab.and check out event viewer,too.do you have programs like windows blinds?those IGU programs take alot usage of memory.

Ketchupisyourfriend

I ran adaware, only 8 new files were found. I deleted them and we'll see if anything changes but for now I'm still looking for any other suggestions.

Yes I run a lot of little programs like zone alarm and style xp but I have been running them for over a year now, they wouldn't be the cause of sudden slow down, especially not that much. I can also deal with explorer taking 21k plus but not 150k.

I guess I may try a different piece of ram next. Keep the ideas coming.

Krux

Did you scan for a virus?

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Ketchupisyourfriend

yea, forgot to mention that. no viruses found maybe i need to update the definitions though..... i'll do that and let you know if anything changes.

Ketchupisyourfriend

ok i checked, definitions were already up to date.

Ketchupisyourfriend

I really think this thing could be a virus that for some reason norton isn't catching. It seems to be getting worse. I'm getting problems where I'll open up an explorer window for moving files or whatever and then it won't be able to close without explorer crashing. When I actually get to move files they dissapear from one window but don't show up in the other until explorer has crashed and been restarted. Any more ideas on what to try?

Krux

might be a trojan get a program to detect those and tell us what u find try "The Cleaner"

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Ketchupisyourfriend

do you have a link for "the cleaner"?

Ketchupisyourfriend

ok I ran the cleaner and it found no trojans. It said it had a problem accessing hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys. Any ideas on what to try next?

Banned

Ummm... Have you tried a defrag? I mean a good defrag, that defrags your swap file also? Believe it or not, that can slow down your puter a bit.

People running around screaming "Virus! Virus!", the world isn't such a malicious place you know.


ahohohohoho

Think like me, and you might be Banned.

Krux

well it should be able to get into those so theres a problem right there. Finding out what is doing it is hmmmmmm hard...

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Ketchupisyourfriend

well the log thing said that anti-virus software could prevent access so I shut down norton and tried it. That didn't help, so then I tried closing explorer.exe and running the cleaner again but it still can't access those files.

Banned

Allrighty, let's break out the X-files theme song...

hiberfil.sys : Hiberfil.sys is the Hibernation file used to store the state of the PC when it last went into hibernation. I can understand how a virus could effectivly use this file. Chances are, if you have hibernation enabled, it's in use and protected. XP protects certian system files.

pagefile.sys : The page file, also known as the swap file, is one of the most important
files on the Windows NT system. Without the page file, the system would
still boot, but it would appear to be standing still instead of running. Also in use, and not acceptable. linxX0r

Use the force, luke. Trust in it. If your virus scanner and trojan scanner didnt find anything, then believe it. Try a defrag, shut down any unnecessary programs running in teh background. Try a reboot even. Meh.


Think like me, and you might be Banned.

Ketchupisyourfriend

well I don't have any kind of hibernation settings enabled. I guess I'll try a defrag. It may take a while to do all 250gb lol. Thanks for the help guys.

Banned

250GB?? Is this all in one partition?? Jesus. Well, if it is, yeah. Defrag. If it isnt, make sure your C: drive is large enough to support XP and a swap file. Good luck.

Ketchupisyourfriend

No its not on one partition lol. I've got a 30gb drive w/ 2 15gb partitions, a 100gb drive w/ one partition, and a 120gb drive w/ one partition.

Banned

Heh, wasnt sure with the way they are thowing out larger HDD's nowadays. Let us know how the defrag goes.