pc slow

[mobeyone]

my pc has suddenly started to run slow.

Internet browsing is also at an all time slow speed not sure why...

I have defragmented, used spyware software and have at least 50gb free on combined drives - any advice what i can do?

cheers
mobe

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Few thoughts...

Have you installed anything new?

Did the go-slow coincide with scheduled maintenance, eg full system cirus scan?

Have you tried re-booting the PC, and router if you have one? Maybe turn power off at wall for a minute or so before re-booting.

 

[machasm]

Bring up the task scheduler and see where the majority of your CPU time is going.
Kill the process and see if the machine is now responsive.
Also check that you are not exceeding the amount of physical installed RAM.
If you are then the machine is probably doing a lot of paging (a lot of hard disk activity).
Mac.

 

[Ashley]

see hear

 

[pluggers]

I use this from time to time and its speeded mine up no end XP registry cleaner

 

[Ashley]

Remember always to a manual save point in system restore, before messing with the registry.

 

[mobeyone]

cheers guys - got some results, still giveing the drives a clean.

Explorer.exe seems to be taking up quite a bit.... i take it this is the browser? and its not even open!! or is it something else?

Usage is shown at 41968k? and firefox is 22164k?

 

[pammy]

Explorer is your whole desktop so needs to run

Running products like Adaware, Spybot search and destroy and Micrsoft Spware Blaster can also identify gremlins that slow you down. Oddly - I'm doing a full sweep ion my PC at them mo as it's slowing down too

 

[machasm]

Explorer.exe refers to windows explorer not Internet explorer.
50Mb for explorer does seam rather high.
It will vary depending on the number of windows that are open amongst other things.
Explorer on my machine is currently using 20Mb.
More importantly though is the total amount of RAm installed in the machine.
When you bring up the task manager and click the performance tab (assuming you are using XP or 2000) take a look at the amount in the Total row in Physical Memory (K). That figure is the amount of physical RAM installed in your machine.
Right clicking on "My computer" and clicking on properties will also show you the amount of RAM in the machine in the General tab.
Going back to task manager when you click the performance tab what does it say under PF usage? If the amount in PF usage is higher than the amount of RAM in your machine then this is why the machine is running slowly. You need either to increase the amount of RAM in your machine or reduce the number of applications open simultaneously. Thus reducing the demand for RAM.
Mac.

 

[Rumble]

svchost.exe - it is normal to have several instances of this running read here http://www.computerhaven.info/svchost.htm

 

[Ashley]

post a screen shot of your task manager and i am sure that members will help you work out what is slowing you down. Post back if you need to know how to take a screenshot.

 

[jimti]

I have found This site very helpfull when it comes to anything pc related, they have always fixed my problems, including some I didn't even know were problems

 

[mobeyone]

here you go.

a little faster now but still nowhere near as fast as it used to be...

cheers for everyones input so far.

Also, 512mb ram and i think the cpu is using 235mb?

 

[Ashley]

1. Do you use Messenger if not this will kill it once and for all
2. You are useing McAfee Firewall windows will do it just as well and easyer on pc.

in fact you have a lot of running services have a look and see what you have running (start>run>services.msc). I ordered mine by started, my pc works just fine all of the time for me for games, dtp, web building and surfing.

 

[mobeyone]

messenger - yep im afraid. May kill mcafee then... is it recommended then?

 

[Ashley]

if you have an intel chip try this from intel, if the chip does not need it it will not load.

start>control panel>windows firewall

start>control panel>system>advanced "performance" settings & adjust for best performance

EasyCleaner is the best cleaner i have come accross click here to download does so much more then just clean the reg.

 

[Ashley]

if you down load run in this order.

"Start ups", "add remove"

"duplicates", "unnecessary", "shortcuts", run the clean ups twice as cleaning up will mean a more to clean up

it will dump everything in the recycle bin so will need sorting after the work and i always do a manual save point in system restore before useing, Alos it will prob clear your cookies.