fast computer running slow-

[breezie]

I have a customer with a p4 2.6, 1gb pc3200, and a 9800pro on his system-

every once in a while, certain windows operations take a long time to load (for instance, right clicking on the desktop and going to properties might have a longer delay for loading) - then sometimes it doesnt lag like that.

he's replaced the motherboard and formatted the harddrive several times to troubleshoot this but no go-

i'm here trying to figure out what's wrong with it but i dont have a cpu or memory to swap it out with... so i'm trying to see if any of you guys have any input on what might be causing this problem. Oh i've started by running memtest86 and doing a disk chek with the western digital diag tools---


*edit* ran test again-- one of the harddrives didnt pass =P

oh well, hopefully that solved the mystery for me ^_^

 

[Tweakfiend]

Try start/run/msconfig........to see what runs when he starts up.
Possible spyware .....try "Adaware" on the lavasoft website.
Presaumably the antivirus signatures are up to date.

 

[LeeJend]

A computer periodicaly slowing down is not a hardware problem.

1). Check power management settings. If the HD is spinning down to reduce power it takes time to spin up when data is requested from the HD or from the pagefile on it.

2). As above run adaware and spybot search and destroy. (They catch more junk if both used).

3). See how much crap he is running in background. Even 1 meg of ram can be filled up by mismanagement and if the cpu has to go to the pagefile for data instead of ram response time just dropped by a factor of 100,000.

4). Look for background applications like Kazaa, netchat, FTP, music player, viewing video, etc.

5). If the slow down is getting progressively worse run a disk defragment. This is routine maintenance and should be done at least monthly depending on how much changes on the HD.

Note - it is perfectly normal for a system to take longer to do a given task sometimes. It depends on what is going on when the call to the task is made.

 

[breezie]

actually it was a hardware problem... i would agree if the computer ran fast and after a while of usage, it got slow from spyware and installed things but this computer had random times of literal lag after a total format and reinstallation of windows xp. after i took out the bad hard drive and reinstalled xp once again on his good hard drive, the lag went away ^_^

 

[Lee]

Can always move the hardware acceleration bar down a notch or two, see if that helps.

Sounds like a bad configuration and a few corrupt drivers.

 

[Vetrius]

hmmm happens to me sometimes on others computers... mostly spyware for them, but if it happens again, it could be an incompatible video card (sounds odd, but i've heard it happen)