Solve : Computer going slow.?

1.	Solve : Computer going slow.?
Answer» Hello. For about a week now my computer has been running noticeably slower than usual when starting up. How long it takes seems to vary but it is longer. Also, the computer seems to stutter when I open new programs, although it's hard to detect this it only seems noticeable when I have sound in the background (like a game or windows media player). Speaking of games I've also recently had the computer just shut off and RESTART while playing World of Warcraft. I don't know if it would do this with other games I've not tried any. I've also had some problem with some corrupted files on the hard drive but I'm not sure if that's related. Anyway I've not changed anything recently hardware wise. My computer is a bit old THOUGH (about 5 years now). The specs are: Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Processor 1 Gig ram (2256 and 1512, used this for over a year never had any problems) 160 Gig Hard Drive Ati Radeon x1650 256Mb AGP 8* C-Media AC97 Sound card Windows XP Home Edition (With a disc that came with the computer) With SP2 Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give.it may be overheating. when was the last time you cleaned it?I gave it a decent cleanout about an hour before I posted the message. The fan was a bit dusty, the heatsink even more so, but I cleaned them both off.Run the regular maintenence: Diskclean Defrag All your malware scans Then check on your available free space on that HDD...you may need to free up some room.If its slow whist you're using programs then do ctrl + alt + del click the process TAB and close some of the processes that you recognise under your PC user, don't close any SYSTEM processes unless you know what your doing. But i had this with gaming stuff like this. Xfire and MSN messanger make the computer slower QUOTE from: patio on February 14, 2008, 07:03:04 AM Run the regular maintenence: Diskclean Defrag All your malware scans Then check on your available free space on that HDD...you may need to free up some room. Hi. Believe me I've done all that. I use AVG free edition and Spybot and I've ran them several times since my computer started going slow. I've defragged the hard drive, I've ran several disc checks, I have reasonable room on the HDD (about 30GB). As far as I can tell the computer isn't overheating, the fan is working and it ramps up when the processor works harder (like when I'm playing a game). I just have no idea what's going on... Hmm, to the above poster alos, I used a program called Winpatrol that checks to see what programs are running and if there are any changes in them. Recently me and my brother WENT though a list of start up programs that we were sure weren't needed and got the Winpatrol to stop them from running, I don't know if that could have affected it but we did this about a week or so before the computer started to go slow.Is it slow at booting as well? Or just when you use itQuote from: IneedSomeHelp on February 14, 2008, 08:44:39 AM Is it slow at booting as well? Or just when you use it It's slow when it's booting, that's when it's most noticable (since as I said in my first post the computer is taking a lot longer to boot up). Once everything is loaded up it runs ok, but I can hear it stutter when playing a game or listening to music and trying to load up a new program.Ok, How much of your HDD is used up? I think that its normally because of high CPU usage that its slow, Maybe its a virus, scan your pc Sorry my posts are always unclear :\|Got 20GB free in drive C:, 10 in drive D: (partitioned hard drive), I aslo ran a virus scan today, clean. I don't think it's overheating but I can't be sure...it might be a sign of harddrive failure. in my experience, harddrives tend to slow down alot before COMPLETELY failing. is/are your harddrive(s) making any unusual noises?Umm, when this first started, I think it was making a weird noise, plus I was having problems with corrupted files. It's not made any weird noises since I don't think. Also I don't know if it's relevant but every time my computer has turned off, when it comes back on I get a message telling me that "windows has recovered from a serious error" although it doesn't really tell me what that error was. Would it do that if it was overheating?no, if it was overheating it would be shutting itself down or locking up with no warning. my best advice would be to back up whatever you want to keep onto another harddrive and reformat/reinstall windows. if it still goes slow/stutters on a fresh install then chances are its a failing harddrive.What I ment with the computer turning off is that it turns off while I'm playing.. but how and why seems to be arbitrary although it only seems to happen while playing World of Warcraft, but again it seems random, I can play it fine sometimes, other times it just turns off, but you may be right about the hard drive, you see if the processor was overheating the fan would ramp up to compensate right? But it doesn't, it only ramps up when I push the computer, as it normally has. Anyway I was thinking about reformatting, most of the important things I wanted to keep have been backed up, I was just wanting to leave reformatting as a last resort but I guess it's time to give it a try. Thanks for the advice, I'll reformat tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

Answer»

Hello. For about a week now my computer has been running noticeably slower than usual when starting up. How long it takes seems to vary but it is longer. Also, the computer seems to stutter when I open new programs, although it's hard to detect this it only seems noticeable when I have sound in the background (like a game or windows media player). Speaking of games I've also recently had the computer just shut off and RESTART while playing World of Warcraft. I don't know if it would do this with other games I've not tried any. I've also had some problem with some corrupted files on the hard drive but I'm not sure if that's related.

Anyway I've not changed anything recently hardware wise. My computer is a bit old THOUGH (about 5 years now). The specs are:

Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Processor
1 Gig ram (2*256 and 1*512, used this for over a year never had any problems)
160 Gig Hard Drive
Ati Radeon x1650 256Mb AGP 8*
C-Media AC97 Sound card
Windows XP Home Edition (With a disc that came with the computer) With SP2

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give.it may be overheating. when was the last time you cleaned it?I gave it a decent cleanout about an hour before I posted the message. The fan was a bit dusty, the heatsink even more so, but I cleaned them both off.Run the regular maintenence:
Diskclean
Defrag
All your malware scans

Then check on your available free space on that HDD...you may need to free up some room.If its slow whist you're using programs then do ctrl + alt + del
click the process TAB and close some of the processes that you recognise under your PC user, don't close any SYSTEM processes unless you know what your doing. But i had this with gaming stuff like this. Xfire and MSN messanger make the computer slower QUOTE from: patio on February 14, 2008, 07:03:04 AM

Run the regular maintenence:
Diskclean
Defrag
All your malware scans

Then check on your available free space on that HDD...you may need to free up some room.

Hi.

Believe me I've done all that. I use AVG free edition and Spybot and I've ran them several times since my computer started going slow. I've defragged the hard drive, I've ran several disc checks, I have reasonable room on the HDD (about 30GB). As far as I can tell the computer isn't overheating, the fan is working and it ramps up when the processor works harder (like when I'm playing a game). I just have no idea what's going on...

Hmm, to the above poster alos, I used a program called Winpatrol that checks to see what programs are running and if there are any changes in them. Recently me and my brother WENT though a list of start up programs that we were sure weren't needed and got the Winpatrol to stop them from running, I don't know if that could have affected it but we did this about a week or so before the computer started to go slow.Is it slow at booting as well? Or just when you use itQuote from: IneedSomeHelp on February 14, 2008, 08:44:39 AM

Is it slow at booting as well? Or just when you use it

It's slow when it's booting, that's when it's most noticable (since as I said in my first post the computer is taking a lot longer to boot up). Once everything is loaded up it runs ok, but I can hear it stutter when playing a game or listening to music and trying to load up a new program.Ok, How much of your HDD is used up? I think that its normally because of high CPU usage that its slow, Maybe its a virus, scan your pc

Sorry my posts are always unclear :|Got 20GB free in drive C:, 10 in drive D: (partitioned hard drive), I aslo ran a virus scan today, clean.

I don't think it's overheating but I can't be sure...it might be a sign of harddrive failure. in my experience, harddrives tend to slow down alot before COMPLETELY failing. is/are your harddrive(s) making any unusual noises?Umm, when this first started, I think it was making a weird noise, plus I was having problems with corrupted files. It's not made any weird noises since I don't think.

Also I don't know if it's relevant but every time my computer has turned off, when it comes back on I get a message telling me that "windows has recovered from a serious error" although it doesn't really tell me what that error was. Would it do that if it was overheating?no, if it was overheating it would be shutting itself down or locking up with no warning. my best advice would be to back up whatever you want to keep onto another harddrive and reformat/reinstall windows. if it still goes slow/stutters on a fresh install then chances are its a failing harddrive.What I ment with the computer turning off is that it turns off while I'm playing.. but how and why seems to be arbitrary although it only seems to happen while playing World of Warcraft, but again it seems random, I can play it fine sometimes, other times it just turns off, but you may be right about the hard drive, you see if the processor was overheating the fan would ramp up to compensate right? But it doesn't, it only ramps up when I push the computer, as it normally has.

Anyway I was thinking about reformatting, most of the important things I wanted to keep have been backed up, I was just wanting to leave reformatting as a last resort but I guess it's time to give it a try.

Thanks for the advice, I'll reformat tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

Solve : Computer going slow.?

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