Slow Response

[waxace]

Perhaps one or two of you folks can offer some suggestions to an issue I seem to be having...

Lately Windows seems to be very slow responding .. ie: opening a program, opening Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer used to open up within a second or two at the most.
Now it seems to wait about five or even ten seconds before opening...
I have done a few checks.
1. My connection speed is well above average 15,000 kbps
2. A full sweep for Spyware, Trojans and viruses with a few programs.
(Spysweeper, Spybot, McAfee Virus Scan, A2, Ad-Aware, X-Cleaner, Pest Patrol)

I have not installed anything different, and have gone back a few Restore points with the same effect.

Is there anything that I am missing or does anyone have this issue and can suggest a solution??

HELP! It's driving me crazy and it is very fustrating...

[Big Booger]

When was the last time you defragged?
Might want to defrag to see if that improves performance.

How many programs do you have installed?
The more you install the slower your system may become.

Have you tried cleaning out your registry?
There are programs that clean out the registry of dupes, clutter, and irrelevant info. Might help speed things along.

How many programs do you have in your task manager?
The more you have running at a time the slower your PC will seem.

What tweaks have you tried?
There are some tweaks out there that may help.

When was the last time you reformatted and started from scratch?
Sometimes just reformatting makes a huge boost in performance. I did two weeks ago, and I went from turtle to rocket-powered rabbit.

[waxace]

Done Maint no so long ago.
I do not run all the forementioned programs all the time. I use them to "Check and clean" the system weekly...
Perhaps I should let someone analize my Hi-jack this log......
I know that I am clean of crap, something perhaps a setting is slowing this CPU down..

I'll post back with updates but if you think of anything else, please post...

Thanks Again
WAX

[FastGame]

Have you been into the bios to make sure all settings are set right ? Bios have been known to crash and reset to safe mode default (1400 mhz CPU @700 MHZ. & lower FSB, things like that ) which would lead to lower performance.

Post your system spec's and a screen shot of everything in task manager.

[waxace]

Dell 8100 1.4 GHz P4 640 Ram
Win XP Pro SP2

[Big Booger]

Your commit charge is a bit high, for only having 640 megs of ram. You have a lot of processes going to. Mine usually overs at 32-35.

Things I'd remove:
adsub.exe
spysweeper
wwsecure
mclogserv
Hwapi.exe
(use firefox, get some secure extensions like adblocker, noscript etc..) and that will get rid of the majority of the spyware, adware, soft that has to be running on your machine)

Then install Lavasoft, and spybot search and destroy and you should run these programs every week or every other week to remove any malicious spyware or adware.

Then I'd get rid of
ipodservice (you can remove this until you need to sync your ipod, unless it was installed with Itunes and then you can just manually run itunes)
weather (firefox has a wonderful weather extension)
siteadv
stylexp (unless it is crucial to have themes)
dkservice (you can run the diskeeper manually)
MSGTAG (unless you absolutely must be notified the minute you receive email messages... otherwise check your email at your convenience)

And I would ditch all that McAfee stuff. Get the free version of Kaspersky and you should be set.

It sounds like your system is suffering from too much prevention. But in a way that is good. All that stuff you have on your machine helps prevent the nasties from entering the system. However it can affect your system performance.

[FastGame]

Yes you have way too much going on with your PC The only thing that 'needs' to startup with windows is firewall & AV, everything else can be started when you need it and exited when you don't.

[ggand4]

Hi... seems to me we got the same specs of hardware in our PC & I got tons of programs too... here's what I normally do.... check this Microsoft site (& try subscribing with their newsletter.... it helped my PC a lot ).... here one example of their site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3084...d=1173&sid=184.... this is a Help & Support site.... maybe this can speed up a little bit (or even better) your PC.... Good luck!

[waxace]

Just to update you on my issue....

It was in fact McAfee that caused the big slowdown.
I uninstalled it, purged all traces from my registry, and the fast computer was back and running fast.
I went with CA anti-virus and still kept my spysweeper and other helpful programs.
Running like a charm...
Thanks for your input and help.....

One Note: McAfee when they were just virus scan was a real good program and did not hinder the other running programs.
Since they went to a "Security suite" I (Not alone) had nothing but problems.....

[Dehcbad25]

I saw this thread late. I was going to suggest McAfee as the culprit too
2 things you have to deactivate from McAfee are scan remote drives and scan compressed zip files. These 2 settings can slow the machine quite a lot, and are plainly redundant (you will scan the compressed files when you open them, and you scan remote files when you open them as well).
The Security Suite includes Firewall and other things, that can be disabled.
Finally another thing is in Windows Explorer inside the options there a setting for Wait for network drives. That can slow down the PC everytime you go to open or save if you have a couple or more of network drives. I particulary don't use network drives, but instead shortcuts to share drives (mac style)