I am experiencing severe troubles with Windows XP. It is becoming slow on me. When I say "slow", I mean, everything starts functioning slow, if at all. Example: I open a program, a few minutes later, it decides to actually open. I maximize an open folder, it miximizes slowly. I know this should not be happening. Here is my Specs:

System Specifications:

AMD Athlon 1700+ Processor
768 Mb DDR Ram
More then sufficient HD Space (200 Gigs)
NVidia GeForce 4 64 Mb Video Card
Windows XP Home Edition

So, My system should easily be able to open folders, etc. without any problems, but it does not. And it seems to get worse the longer that I have my computer on. When I first crank this thing up, it runs pretty good, then folders open/close slower, the Task Bar, which automatically is suppose to Hide, does not hide as fast, etc, etc, etc.

Please help, this is driving me crazy!!! Do i have a Virus (I have run Virus scans like 3 days ago)? I have Norton Antivirus 2004 Firewall, I should be kinda safe. I have only noticed this problem recently, like in the past couple of days.

Two things that come to mind are the size of your swap file (less likely) and when the last time you defraged it was.

Come to think of it, what processes do you have running? That could be part of it. I had a runaway process on my XP Pro system, something to do with indexing. When I shut that process off, my system calmed down.

We use Symantec AV at work, and when it's scanning the computer, the puter tends to run slower. Maybe it's something like that.

So I guess it's more than two things. . .

I'm having the exact same problem! Especially with the task bar which sometimes refuses to hide while an application is running. My specs are a little less than RealGoober's, but I have an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1400Mhz processer and 256 Mb DDR ram. And on top of that I have 100 Gb HD. Could something like this happen due to heavy fragmentation of the HD?

Originally posted by Turner_727
Two things that come to mind are the size of your swap file (less likely) and when the last time you defraged it was.

Come to think of it, what processes do you have running? That could be part of it. I had a runaway process on my XP Pro system, something to do with indexing. When I shut that process off, my system calmed down.

We use Symantec AV at work, and when it's scanning the computer, the puter tends to run slower. Maybe it's something like that.

So I guess it's more than two things. . .

I have no clue what a "swap file" is, but I recently defragged my 160 Gig HD, I will do my 40 soon. The processes are NOT consuming all the Ram, I cannot determine exactly what all the processes are doing, but there are not many that say my name beside them. IIRC, I can only change or alter processes that say my name beside them. Well, the NAV only runs on Friday at 1:00, so it could not be that, because I started using my computer first last night, at about 7:00 (GMT-8, btw). Is there some kinda program that tells you how much Ram is being used? Or some kinda Ram-clearing tool? Or is all my Ram being consumed, is taht the problem?

Originally posted by nixon
I'm having the exact same problem! Especially with the task bar which sometimes refuses to hide while an application is running. My specs are a little less than RealGoober's, but I have an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1400Mhz processer and 256 Mb DDR ram. And on top of that I have 100 Gb HD. Could something like this happen due to heavy fragmentation of the HD?

Isn't this annoying, that stupid Task bar refusing to go up? I had 256 DDR, then I got annoying by this exact same problem, but worse, and shoved in a 512 stick. That solved my problems - until now. I have no idea what this fragmentation stuff is, all I know is that defragmentation is good, apparently.

I'm not so much into that fragmentation stuff, either, but I know that it somehow reorganizes files on the HD and thereby making the processing rate on the HD higher. Anyway, it's likely the source of the problem, as far as I can guess. Because fragmentation is a gradual process, a gradual deterioration of the rate of which the HD communicates with the processor, which explains why the task bar problem etc. didn't appear right away. Somebody correct me if I'm all wrong about this. Anyhow, I haven't found defrag to be as effective as one might hope, so I'm eager to hear other reasons. I can't believe my computer is already too old!! :cry:

Ahem, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! !!. The problem seems to be getting worse every day, it is like XP deteriotes every day, down to the point of forcecd shut down via the button on the tower, which should not be happening. This is driving me even crazier then I was before. I am going to try defragging both HDs, although I doubt that is the problem. When I rpess the Ctrl-Alt-Del thing, I notice that the CPU seems to be completely used up. That cannot be good. Is there any virus that can cause this that I cannot detect? I am getting desperate . . . Please Help!!!!

And ya, my computer seems to be old already, rather pathetic, just a year and a few months old. *Deep sigh* . . .

Do you have a lot of processes running? Firebird really knocked my computer out (CPU usage was 98 or so) until I clsoed it and it went fine. Defragging is also a good thing too, I use Buzzsaw (http://dirms.com).

If the CPU is pegging at 100%, try and see what process is using most all of it. A handy way to do it is to click on the CPU header column, that'll sort it in order of CPU utilization. A virus is a possibility, let us know what the process is.

A few suggestions:

Firstly, install and run adaware and spybot: search and destroy. Look in the thread that XIII stickied at the top of this forum, and in it there is a link to Jeratains post about spyware. That has all the info you need. Spyware can seriously steal resources and slow down your PC.

Secondly: Go to the control panel. Double-click on System, and choose the 'advanced' tab. Click on 'performance options' and look at the virtual memory (paging file). Make sure that it is set to a minimum figure of AT LEAST 1.5 times the amount of RAM you have, and I would recommend that you set the minimum to be twice what your RAM is.

Originally posted by IglooDude
If the CPU is pegging at 100%, try and see what process is using most all of it. A handy way to do it is to click on the CPU header column, that'll sort it in order of CPU utilization. A virus is a possibility, let us know what the process is.

I am currently experiencing the "slow down", and I have found out that "explorer.exe" seems to be using 90-99% of the CPU, and various other programs the remaining % to make 100%. I will run AdAware, Spybot, do a Virus Scan with Norton, defrag both drives, then report back. I am thinking this may be some kinda virus that slowly takes up more and more of the CPU as it does along. VERY annoying. Thanks for all these suggestions, you guys are great. Ohh, I have just plain Mozilla, I am too lazy to upgrade to Firefox . . .

it's more likely to crash, but do you have defective RAM?

Originally posted by bobgote
it's more likely to crash, but do you have defective RAM?

Not that I know of . . . would my computer crash if I did? How can I check? And I just tried something that seemed effective. Since "explorer.exe" was taking up all my CPU, I just shut it down. Lo and behold, your computer can run without "explorer.exe". Then I pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del, logged off my user, relogged on, and things are working fine!!! But this seems like a temperory solution . . .

Note I am still working on what I previously posted . . .

it is a temporary solution, as explorer will load up each time. although your problem could well be related to explorer being crap :)

i was thinking it might be hardware, but yeah usually a memory problem would bluescreen on you or freeze the computer. you'd get a nasty error anyway. (but a low memory problem could have explained your slow down so i thought i'd mention it). It's really irritating when your problems turn out to be hardware.

Originally posted by bobgote
it is a temporary solution, as explorer will load up each time. although your problem could well be related to explorer being crap :)

i was thinking it might be hardware, but yeah usually a memory problem would bluescreen on you or freeze the computer. you'd get a nasty error anyway. (but a low memory problem could have explained your slow down so i thought i'd mention it). It's really irritating when your problems turn out to be hardware.

Temporary is right. And yes, Explorer is crap. Seems to be getting unstable for me, recently . . .

BSOD!!! (Blue Screen Of Death), and I haven't gotten a single one with XP, yet . . . My RAM is still recognized, so I think the problem is with "explorer.exe" eating up all my CPU speed, or whatever . . .

And ya, some stupid little cord might not be fully plugged in all the way, but unless anybody else has any reason to blame this on something else, I shall blame it fully on "explorer.exe" eating up my CPU because of some glitch, or virus, or something . . .

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/ttryos1.gif

I got a bluescreen with XP a couple of times. :(
it was because i used all my hard drive space and then tried to play warcraft 3 :(

Originally posted by Jeratain
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/ttryos1.gif
hehe, how did i know that was coming?

anyway it could well be the solution for you, goober :) if explorer is buggered, this would fix it...and anything else.

Originally posted by RealGoober
How can I check?

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

I am NOT gonna re-install XP - at least until I have made sure that I cannot fix the problem via other means. Thanks for the RAM chekc Duke of M, I will try it!!!

defrag
free up more space and increase size of swapfile
do away with unwanted programs
scan for trojans, viruses and spyware
check your registry closely and purge it (VERY IMPORTANT!)
reinstall XP (what do you have to lose?)

Also if you think some process is jacking all the juice I highly suggest you use Taskinfo2003 to locate the perp. Windows task manager is totally useless. If you post a screenshot of Taskinfo then I can locate the problem if you want.

http://www.iarsn.com/taskinfo.html

Also make sure you have XP on a separate smaller partition from the rest of your stuff. Also stop running Norton or any other virus monitoring garbage in the background, this is will slow yer system down. Use a good firewall and check for viruses once a day instead.

Instead of reinstalling XP, you can boot off the installation CD and choose 'repair and existing installation'. That might do it.

But I really suspect its spyware etc, if you've never run adaware of spybot.

No, because I'm experiencing the same problems and I run ad-aware and others on a regular basis. It's always that damn explorer.exe that hijacks it all!

Btw, is it safe to mess with the size of the swapfile and so on?

Another thing is that I don't understand why something called "System Idle Process" of around 20 kb (!) can use up 97% of the CPU!

Originally posted by nixon
Another thing is that I don't understand why something called "System Idle Process" of around 20 kb (!) can use up 97% of the CPU!

I am fairly sure the System Idle thingie is harmless, that is, it doesn't cause your computer to horribly slow up like "explorer.exe" thingie will, when it uses 90-98% of your CPU.

Originally posted by nixon
Another thing is that I don't understand why something called "System Idle Process" of around 20 kb (!) can use up 97% of the CPU!

It only does that so that it's usage numbers can add up to 100%. It's not actually 'using' the CPU, just accounting for it. If you have 97% shown as idle, then only 3% of your CPU is being used elsewhere.

As a random thought - do you have the indexing service turned on? that might account for the slowdown, especially on a fragmented hard-drive. :hmm:

Other options: Go to my computer, right-click on teh hard-drive, select tools and use disk clean-up.

Have you installed SP2? If so, did you then uninstall it? (saw a reference to that).

Woah, a lot of suggestions pouring in. I just defragged my smaller HD that I have most of my stuff in. My larger, 160 Gig should not be a problem because it has hardly anything in it, and I defragged it recently. I have no clue what the "indexing service" is ainwood, please explain. I have SP2 installed. I will do the disk clean up, run RegSeeker, AdAware, am running SpyBot right now. Virus scan by Norton turned nothing up. I am considering getting a second firewall, is that advisable? What would you guys suggest. I am not experiencing the massive slow down this today, i came home after leaving the computer on for about 9 hours, and everything works decently. Thanks Duke of M, that helps a lot, now I finally know what that does.

Wow, a lot of things to do. Well, at least by the end of this, I wil have less SpyWare, etc. I suspect I am still cleaning up from what Imesh left behind. I have since uninstalled Imeash, and gotten WinMX. oh, Duke of M, I will run that Ram check thing you suggested as well.

Thanks everybody!!!

You have Service Pack 2 installed? I was unaware that they had already released a final version.

I know it's in Beta, but there's a final version available for download? First I've heard of this.

Service pack 2 is Beta garbage and will cause you much grief if it is the integrated version. Reformat now or suffer the consequences. Just friendly advice.

Re the 'indexing service': I believe its turned off by default. You can look at the details by doing a search in Help for "Indexing". What it basicaly does is make a hash table of every file on your PC, to (in theory) speed-up file searches. However, the references I've seen to it tell me that it in fact slows the PC down (and is the main reason why your PC hard-drive bursts into action when you're (supposedly) not doing anything).

I have a great annoucement: I found a temporary solution!!! I just go to the Windows Task Manager, and whenever "explorer.exe" is taking up all my CPU, I just turn it off, then go back to Task Manager, and turn it back on!!! It is so simple, yet effective. Now, it is temporary, and I am still going through all the suggestions that I am seeing here, but it works, and it is effective, and fast!!! I have defragged, run SpyBot, done a virus scan, and I am still having this problem. But I like my solution, mainly cause I find it very interesting that you do not need "explorer.exe" to keep your system running, amazingly enough, all you need is Windows Task Manager. How does that work, btw?

Forget about Windows. Buy a mac. or a linux.

Originally posted by Ankka
Forget about Windows. Buy a mac. or a linux.

I would, but then I would not be able to play as many of my games on it. I am planning to get linux, but then I would not be able to run all those M$ programs that everyone uses, like Word, Excel, etc. Unless the Linux equivalents are compatable . . .

Dang Linux and Mac not being able to play games like M$ can . . .

Originally posted by RealGoober

I am planning to get linux, but then I would not be able to run all those M$ programs that everyone uses, like Word, Excel, etc. Unless the Linux equivalents are compatable . . .

Dang Linux and Mac not being able to play games like M$ can . . .

as long as those office files don't use vba, openoffice is pretty compatible to ms-office.

but then you still got the gameing probem, though nowadays many games run with WineX (I once tried Civ3 and it ran just fine) :(

Are you fully updated with all the hot fixes from www.windowsupdate.com ?

Also, try this ....

Work around: Go to: Control Panel > Display > Appearance Tab > Effects Button and *disable* (uncheck) the transition effects

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;819101

The only time I have had a similar problem is when the hard drive that has my OS installed on it was near capacity or some adware apps were hogging my resources.

Yes, I am fully updated, and I have tried many of the things that have been previously mentioned - nothing has solved it yet. I will try the most recent suggestion, though. I am still getting the problrm, although the solution is so easy, I just close "explorer.exe", and restart it, all from the Windows Task Manager screen. Works like a charm, everytime!!!