XP slowdown

**hotmale** · May 3rd, 2006, 06:49 AM

I consider myself intermediate to advanced when it comes to dealing with XP, but I can't seem to figure out why it has been so slow since the last Windows re-installation. Tried defrag, registry cleanup, disabling services and unwanted apps but it's still unbearable; small apps like WordWeb take 15-20 seconds to start, even Notepad takes 10 seconds. I've got 2.4GHz and 0.5GB RAM, so any suggestions? BTW, I thought ZoneAlarm SS or Azureus could be the culprits, but turning them off doesn't solve my problem.

**FastGame** · May 3rd, 2006, 20:31 PM

Check in bios and make sure everything is set right, I've had a fault before that set bios to safemode...CPU @900mhz instead of 2000mhz

Device manager, make sure IDE/SATA controllers initiated drives to UDMA, not PIO mode.

What security software are you using ?

**hotmale** · May 4th, 2006, 15:28 PM

Thanks for the suggestions.

Unfortunately, I checked and couldn't find problems with BIOS or Device Manager.

I'm using ZoneAlarm Security Suite which I guess can be a little demanding sometimes. But I tried turning it off or switching to Kaspersky (crap BTW). So I don't think it's ZA's fault.

**rik** · May 4th, 2006, 15:38 PM

How about in safe mode? Are they slow to open there?

**hotmale** · May 26th, 2006, 20:33 PM

Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't try that yet actually. I'll see.

**Nosferatu3211** · May 30th, 2006, 05:03 AM

get more ram

**hotmale** · June 18th, 2006, 22:22 PM

rik, sorry for the late reply. It works fine in safe mode. It's also fast in normal mode right after booting. But after a few minutes, it becomes very slow again. I know a slight slow down is normal, but this is too much; like I said opening regular apps like MS Word, Hearts, WordWeb... takes up to 20 seconds. And if I use keyboard shortcuts to start programs, it's even slower.

I look at CPU and memory usage and most of it is unused

Apart from the needed Windows services, all I have running most of the time is ZoneAlarm Security Suite, a couple browser windows and perhaps one P2P client.