pc is soo slow even after full virus and adware scan !

When you ran ccleaner, did you also scan for registry issues? If not, give it a go and see if that helps any.

 

Hi spursmad, you must be banging your head against the wall by now. All these suggestions and you still don't seem to be getting anywhere...probaby doesn't help that spurs only drew yesterday

When you removed Norton, are you sure all traces were removed i.e thoroughly cleaned and deleted all relating registry keys and values, got rid of all files and folders and made sure no Services remain in services.msc? I used Norton a couple of years ago and it's a well known fact that removing all traces can be a problem but there are patches and tools out there which are designed to remove all hidden traces if need be.

Also, as i have mentioned services.msc, it may be worthwhile checkingn in there for any unneeded services which run by default, these will not only use resources but can be a bit of security risk if you do not use the service. As an examply, I use Acronis True Image to backup my system drive so I can disable System Restore and not let the service run which frees up both memory and physical space. If you do not use a network, there's about 20 services you can disable without worrying about any problems. Also, a lot of software installations will create a lot of automatic startup services which is pointless as you will still have full use of the software if you change the entries to manual. You can use the following link as a reference guide if need be:

http://www.beemerworld.com/tips/servicesxp.htm

I still recommend you download a trial version of Raxco's Perfect Disk. Once installed, open the program and select to run an Offline/Boot defrag of your system drive. Once completed and you're back in Windows, open the program again and run a 'Smart Placement Defrag' on your system drive. It may take a little time depending on the state of the file system and size of the drive but it will be worthwhile.

Another point to think about is updating your drivers, see if there are new ones available for your hardware and if there are download and install them...but make sure you remove the old ones first!

Can also recommend a brilliant freeware program which is superb at speeding up boot times and general windows usage aswell as benchmarking:

http://www.driverheaven.net/dforce/showdoc.php?doc=txp_download

Read through the help files first as not all the tweaks are suitable to all and if you decide the run the ultra fast booting option, be sure to defrag with Perfect Disk first and reboot

Also, when you run Windows in safe mode, does the performance appear to be any better??

Hope that helps matey

 

Hi nickUK

yes i have been banging my head against the wall for some time now, ESPECIALLY with my team,

as far as i know all traces of norton are gone, i've manually deleted everything i can find after the unistall,

i got raxio perfect disk and done the 2 defrag's you mentioned, the 2nd one took over 10 hours! i started at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon and when i went to bed at 12.40 last night it was still only up to 78% !

unfortunately it doesn't seem to of made any difference though,

although my trial version of panda anti-virus did find a worm that hadn't ever been picked up before this defrag.

anybody with any last suggestions please ......................?

 

Hmmmm...im kinda running out of ideas myself here. Really thought running offline and online defrags would help a bit. But seeing as the defrag took that amount of time does suggest the drive really needed it.

Just read through your original post again and you said you recently upgraded your RAM...has the performance issues only started since then? If yes, are you sure the RAM is 100% compatible? May be worth seeing if there's much difference without the new stick inside. About a year ago, I thought I'd save a few quid by buying some cheap RAM online, as soon as I powered up after installing it, Windows wasn't able to start cos I fried the board (kinda handy in the end though as I then bought a brilliant new pc! ;-)

Only other thing I can suggest again is updating all your hardware drivers.

As a last resort, format and start again. It's not that drastic, will benefit Windows far more than trying to sort it this way.....I think it always helps to format and fresh install a couple of times a year, keeps XP nicely optimized...but remember to backup all your wanted documents, favourites, settings etc to other hard drive or flash drive etc.

Hope that helps mate

 

Hi Nick,

i can't believe i never thought of that !
although when i put the memory in everything was great for about 2 weeks, but i'll take it out and see anyway.

yes i have all my files backed up, but i never knew i could back up my settings, doe's that mean i don't have to go through all the headache of setting up outlook express inline with my isp again?
now that would be a result.

i'll have a look round and see if theres a "how to " write up on this stuff.

i'm going to check my drivers first though, and i'm so busy this probably won't be attempted till the weekend

cheers mate

 

There is another thing you could check that hasn't been covered yet (leaset i dont think so, am too lazy to read again to check). I want you to check out the following:

1)Open your control panel
2)Go to 'System'
3)Open the hardware tab
4)Click on 'Device Manager'
5)Expand the 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' section
6)Right click your 'Primary IDE Channel' and select properties.
7)Open the 'advanced settings' tab

Here you will find the transfer mode for your drive/s on the primary channel. They should both be set to 'DMA if available', and under each drive you should see the current transfer mode, 'DMA mode 5' for example

Make a note of what your see for your primary IDE channel and then repeat the steps above for your secondary ide channel.

if any of your drives are reporting current transfer mode 'PIO' then please come back and let us know, as this will tell us what needs to be done next.

Good luck.

 

If you took 10 hours to defrag your HDD, it only means that you did not do any defrag for ages or you have too much loose baggage everywhere. I have 4 HDD in my system with a total of 500Gb & 9 partitions but my C drive partition is only 30Gb. I replace my paging file on another partition instead of at 'C' I have more than 15 programs of video editing, photo editing, DVD rippers plus other utilities. I reload my WinXp plus all my programs at least twice a year or when I feel the PC is dragging it's feet. I used Diskeeper to defrag once every week for every partition & do a boot-time defrag for my C drive fortnightly.
A lot of PC manual talking about better performance always suggest the following: 1)Cleanup your desktop - remove all unwanted shortcuts & no folder, pictures or music files should reside on the desktop. 2) Remove your background especially the fanciful animated types. 3) Remove the screensaver. 4) Remove all unneccessary start program in msconfig/Sys Config/Start Prog. 5) Shut down the antivirus & antispyware programs when you are offline or when you are using programs that involve large system resources like DVD production. 6) Defrag the HDD regularly - don't use Windows defrag - totally useless. 7) Remove the quick launch toolbar & all unneccessary shortcut icons in the taskbar - your bootup will be faster.
If all these still don't work, reformat the C drive & start all over again.

 

Hi spursmad,

yep, you can back up all your settings for all your programs. It's been a while since I used Outlook Express but I think they have a similar function to Office Outlook.

Once you have the program running, click File, then Export. Then select the items you want to Export i.e mail, address book etc then browse to the folder you want to export to then 'Bob's your uncle' You can do the same with Internet Explorer/Mozilla/Firefox with Favourites and Settings etc.

Most programs have the ability to back up settings etc though you may need to refer to the help files to find out how it's done for each program....can save hours after formatting

The best thing to do is once you have formatted and applied all your Windows Updates. Spend a few days optimizing your system by defragging, sorting out prefetch etc. Once you are happy with how everything is running, take an image of the drive with software like Acronis TrueImage then if you have any future problems, you can simply put the image back on and be completely optimized without the need for formatting.

Laters

 

[bold] STOP [/bold]

do not do this yet !!!!!

Check the settings i suggested in my post first [skip back 2]. You have already done a lot of clear up work. I still think the answer is with the transfer setting.

 

Mr_Taz_UK
i think you may be onto something,
here's the results from what you told me to check

Primary IDE channel Properties
Device 0
Transfer mode: DMA if availiable
Current Transfer mode: PIO Mode

Device 1
Transfer mode: DMA if availiable
Current Transfer mode: Not applicable

--------------------------------
Secondary IDE Channel Properties
Device 0
Transfer mode: DMA if availiable
Current Transfer mode: Ultra DMA Mode 2

Device 1
Transfer mode: DMA if availiable
Current Transfer mode: Ultra DMA Mode 2


so, none of that makes any sense to me what so ever but i have fingers, toes and everything else possible that you know what it means,
i'll be waiting to hear from you.

p.s i haven't been able to actually connect to outlook express or internet explorer since wednesday, don't know if that has any bearing?
My internet connection would connect, 512mb would come up etc, then when i tried to open outlook or internet explorer nothing, neither would connect, this evening was the same then i just left it for an hour and tried again and it worked?

i dunno, anyway i'll be waiting for your response and thanks again for all your help so far

 

ok were getting somewhere.

Rather than re-write all the stuff about DMA and PIO im gonna give you this link

http://www.michna.com/kb/WxDMA.htm

However after you have worked through the suggestions in that article, should your drive quickly return to PIO mode then this would suggest that the drive is failing and should be replaced soon.

Your system event log should give you some clues if this is the case.

Control Panel / Admin Tools / Event Viewer / System section

Look for delayed write failures.

Well thats all for now, have a look through the article I linked to and let us know how you get on.

T

 

HAHAHAAAAAAAA

MR_TAZ-UK YOU THE MAN !

I FOLLOWED YOUR INSTRUCTIONS,
AND LIKE MAGIC ALL IS WELL WITH THE PC THAT VERY NEARLY GOT LAUNCHED OUT THE WINDOW A COUPLE OF TIMES TO SPEND A MISERABLE LIFE IN THE GARDEN !

IT WAS MY TRANSFER MODE HAD GONE TO PIO FROM DMA,
I UNDERSTAND IT COULD BE A DRIVE PROBLEM BUT I RECENTLY WENT THROUGH A LOAD OF OLD BACK UP DISKS, MOST OF WHICH DIDN'T WORK, WHICH PROBABLY CAUSED WINDOWS TO GO INTO PIO MODE AFTER 7 FAILIURES.

WELL THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

I'LL BE MAKING A DONATION ON THAT PAGE TODAY FOR DEFINATE

CHEERS TO EVERYONE WHO OFFERED THEIR TIME AND SUGGESTIONS

I NOW LEAVE A VERY HAPPY CUSTOMER

DAN

 

You are very welcome. glad I could help.



ps. donation not really required, The PIO/DMA information is widely available on the net. but you can do one thing for me. Spread the word about our chat room (link in my Sig)

 

wow that was a real struggle, Mr_Taz_UK realy saved your ass.

Nice one mate

 

norton slows your computer down.... well norton system works ne way. i use symantec anti-virus 10.0, ad-aware se, ccleaner, and spybot. dont have ne problems

 

yeh he dumped norton and got panda instead, norton IS is a resource hog.

 

he dumped norton because everyone here convinced him that it was norton that was slowing his computer down. instead, it was a hardware problem. it doesn't matter if something is true or not. if enough people repeat something often enough, it becomes true. i have been using norton systemworks 2005 on my pc for almost a year now. i never have any speed or resource issues.

 

Norton internet secuirty DOES slow slow your comp down LOL, if you didnt know that then you are not in the position to stick up for norton, dumping Norton IS for Panda IS was a wise choice

 

any virus protection product with realtime auto-protection will slow down your computer some. the alternative is to turn off the realtime virus protection or install a product that only scans files when you tell it to. not much protection imho.

panda has not passed the virus bulletin vb100% testing. symantec has.

 

Sorry mr Symantec...but...ITS A WASTE OF TIME RESOURCE HOG AND I WONT INSTALL IT AGGAIN, but hey if its working for you go ahead and use it, IS suites are better for beginers realy as everything comes in a tidy and neat easy to use package with all you need.

But..if you want a IS use Zone alarms, Trend Micros or Pandas..I will tell you straight up nortons a pile of crap(my opinion)waste of time, when i dumped it for AVG pro i found 4 trojans that where lying there, i havent got a clue why people like yourself love it so much, bloatware if you ask me.

well at the end of the day use what ever you want, thats the whole fun of it if Nortons worked for you keep using it, it depends on what your happiest using realy.

as you can see im anti-norton, i have had bad experieces with it