Slow response when manipulating media files

[norty303]

My PC has become infuriatingly slow when trying to do some actions with files.

I first noticed it when i was trying to play mp3, wav, avi, mpg files in media player. It seems to be the same for all my players (winamp, realplayer) After double clicking it pauses for ages before finally playing. If i open Nero Burning ROM and browse to the same file in the right hand browser window and then click from there it opens properly.

Also, if i want to unzip or unrar any archive it takes a long time from when i right click the file for the context menu to appear. In fact it takes a long time for the context menu to appear for any file.

If i click a file then hit delete it pauses whilst waiting for the confirmation dialogue to appear.

I think this _may_ have started after upgrading to WMP10 but can't be sure.

Some of my folders are pretty large, many over 20gb but this shouldn't really be an issue should it? Could indexing be the cause?

Thanks for your help


WinXPPro SP2, AMD XP2500, 512mb DDR400, GA-7n400l, many Seagate Barracuda.

I'm virus free, run Adaware and Spybot S&D regularly and have a well configured firewall (not SP2)

 

[bcastner]

Try: Start, Run, CMD

regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll
regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll

--- test ---

If no different, reverse the changes:

regsvr32 shimgvw.dll
regsvr32 shmedia.dll

 

[bcastner]

Also, a look with ShellExView would likely help:

http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/slowrightclick.htm

 

[norty303]

None of that has helped i'm afraid. I even went so far as disabling all contexts but no difference. I disabled my network adaptor as per one of the suggestions on the Shellex page but that didn't help either

Accessing folders and subfolders is very quick but actually opening files and right clicking is slow.

 

[bcastner]

You should have reasonable response times on MP3, . etc, the hard ones are .AVI and .MPG

As you are under XP SP2, not for .mpg:

http://forum.aumha.org/viewtopic.php?t=7307&sid=904be0dfc22c8229d2154e2ab08709de

For .AVI, try the registry entries suggested here: thread779-892945

 

[linney]

While I feel this is more related to the problems discussed above, here are a few unusual alternatives if those above don't solve your problem.



Try Safe Mode (Do you have this slowness in Safe Mode?).

FREEZE or Application hang - near 98%
thread779-896179


Temporary Decline in Performance Occurs When You Right-Click a File or Folder in Windows Explorer

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

Right Click on Folders Hangs Explorer
thread779-764870


FAQ779-4784 may help.

windows XP running very slow
thread779-796508

And lastly I would start looking at WMP 10.

http://www.nwlink.com/~zachd/pss/pss.html

 

[norty303]

Ok, the slowness goes away in safe mode.

There's no hit on the processor when i right click and i've now removed WMP10 (which i'd wanted to do for a while anyway)

The system does seem to be 'snappier' now but there's still the lag with a right click and when opening a file

 

[linney]

It may be time to do a bit of Detective work using these articles.

310353 - How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

316434 - HOW TO: Perform Advanced Clean-Boot Troubleshooting in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

310560 - How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310560&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

The above will allow you to eliminate various programs from loading at Startup to see if you can isolate the problem.