Slow Machine after use

[nkrst1]

After several hours of use or just being turned on (maybe about 3 or 4 hours), my system slows down so much that the clock is actually effected and all of my programs are running so slow it's painful to watch it try and open another browser window. It also often times hangs for 10 min or so before it comes back to functioning again. It's almost as if it's slowly hanging from the start of the computer, and that hang time increases with more use. What is causing this? Is this a software or a hardware problem? I ran scan disk and it cleaned up some errors. I also tried to run the defragmenter, but it stays at 0% for too long (I think it's restarting and just looping forever). Will an upgrade to XP or 2000 help with this issue, or do I have to look inside for a hardware problem?
Any help will be appreciated!

-n-

 

[nkrst1]

btw, I am using:

Compaq 5700T series
PIII 500
128 MB RAM

 

[cdogg]

You're running low on resources. This causes the system to become very unresponsive over time as you described - assuming you're running Win95 or 98. Just out of curiosity, do you use Mcafee Virusscan? If so, what version (right-click the V-shield and go to about to find out). Post back with the scan engine version as well. 4.1.50 is a known to cause these problems.

If you don't use Mcafee software, then you need to try the basics first. See my post in thread615-192525

 

[TeriJo]

Mcafee can definately slow you down. My favorite utility is a little freeware program called "RAMBOOSTER" .. it allows you to free up memory that isn't REALLY being used without having to restart Windows.

 

[jmatt]

Run defrag in Safe mode 1st , then download ME defrag .

Toggle F8 or press Ctrl key during bootup , choose
safe-mode .

----------------------------------

Windows ME defrag ( free ) , very fast . I don't need to close
( ctrl/alt/delete ) anything down to run defrag , no restarts .
Get it from here .

W9X-Me-Defrag

http://ozcountry.tripod.com/winmedefrag.zip

This is the best version , puts Defrag in the correct place etc .

http://members.home.net/scotterpops/enhancements/enhancements9c.html

http://surecool.com/download.htm

Download it right into your Windows directory. Rename your
current version of Defrag to Defrag.OLD, then rename
winme_DEFRAG.EXE to Defrag ( or whatever the old defrag
was named )

=================================

To put the defrag in it's correct place .
Open Windows explorer , go down to Windows , left click on the yellow
folder , this opens the right hand panel .
Scroll down to defrag & write down the exact name . Next , right
click on defrag , scroll down to rename & click on it . Now left
click at the end of defrag & add the word old . So if you had the
word defrag , it now becomes defragold .
Now rename MEdefrag to whatever you wrote down , drag & drop it on
the yellow Windows folder or anywhere in the right hand side .
Both achive the same thing & Windows will after you close , put it
alphabetically . That's it .

=================================

Also , to make ME Defrag even Faster for it's 1st run , from
Windows Explorer , Delete all the files ( except the read only file )
in Windows / Applog . Taskmon will rebuild the Applog file .

To view Applog , do this .
Windows Explorer > View > Folder Options > View , click on Show all files . Click OK .

 

[cdogg]

Make sure you clean up your hard drive first before you defrag. Just defragging won't release the resources that are consumed by .tmp files during bootup. Always defrag on a regular basis as well (at least once a month).

 

[reghakr]

An upgrade itself is bad enough, never upgrade untill the present problems are fixed. Here we go again, I've got to write a FAQ:

Sorry if I've duplicayted any previous responses:

If it's running that poorly, right-click on My Computer, click the Performance tab and verify the File System and Virtual Memory are 32-bit.

Click the Virtual Memory button and make sure that Windows is managing the virtual memory. Move your swapfile to a partition with more space, if possible.

If those are OK, try these steps to eliminate unecessary program running:

The things that make the computer slow are the many unecessary items that automatically startup when Windows starts. Compaqs are notorious for these.

Right-click on the icons in the tray area, open each, go through the options to turn off the "tray" or "run at startup" feature.

For the others, go to Start>Run, type msconfig. Leave systray, scan registry, Load Power Profile (both), your virus scanner and firewall if you have one.

Go to Start>Run, type sysedit. Look over the autoexec.bat for unneccessary lines, click the win.ini and check for programs loading here:
[windows]
load=
run=

Open Explorer and navigate to c:\windows\temp and delete all files here. Empty the Recycle Bin.

Open Internet Explorer, go to Tools>InternetOptions, click the Delete Files and Clear History buttons. Click the Settings button, then set a reasoble size for the temporary internet files cache. I'd suggest 40MB for a 56K connection, as little as 10MB for a cable or DSL connection. If you have more than 4 folders under this key:

C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5

If you're familiar with DOS, you can do this:
It will totally clean everything.

Click Start, click Shut Down, click Restart In MS-DOS Mode, and then click OK.

At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command, and pressing Y if you are prompted to confirm folder deletion:

cd\windows
smartdrv
deltree cookies
deltree history
deltree tempor~1
exit

The neccessary files and folders will be rebuilt at startup

Right-click on the desktop, make sure Active Desktop is turned off, then click properties and click the Effects tab. turn off Animate windows, menus, and lists.

Close all tray applications and hit Alt_Ctl_Del and end task on all items except for explorer and systray, disable your screensaver, then run scandisk, then defrag.

If you don't know what an entry is or what it does, post back.

If you're using Microsoft Office, look up this Knowledge Base article to kill the Find Fast Indexer

In Internet Explorer, go to Help>Online Support, choose the Microsoft Knowledge Base, then check the box that says specify an article ID number, then paste Q158705 into the search box. I'ts titled "How to Disable the Find Fast Indexer"

reghakr

 

[nkrst1]

I am using Mcafee virus scan version 4.0.2

I'm working on removing these things from start up.

Everything's running on 32 bit

more to come while i work on it.

Thanks so much for your help with this issue.

-n-

 

[cdogg]

nkrst1,

When you go to the Mcafee About screen, there are two sets of numbers you need to be concerned about:

- Mcafee VirusScan version # (in your case 4.0.2)
- Scan Engine version # (4.0.50 or 4.1.20, etc.)


What's the scan engine version? Do you own the cd and/or license for this version? If so, I suggest uninstalling it along with cleaning up your hard drive and see if the problem persists. My guess is that it's a combination of the two.

If it goes away, then you need to upgrade the scan engine and preferably the entire VirusScan application...

 

[grygst76]

I your system starts off fast and then slowly starts to run poorly you may have what is called memory leaks. These happen when programs you run fail to release memory allocations and I.E is notorious for it. whenever your system starts to run slow remember what you have closed recently and check your running tasks. This you can do by pressing crtl-alt-del and checking what is still stuck running. if you see something in there still running or not responding, highlight and end it BUT do not end things like systray or explorer. This might lead you closer to catching the memory thief. Hope this helped.