Re: (Diagnosed) Agonizingly Slow File Access

Bruce <parcxman@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:Xns965254EC18Eparcxmannetscapenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

> Rock <rock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
> news:uWV3fPGVFHA.612@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
>
>> Bruce wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> My machine is a Dell Dimension 4550 (4/03) running WinXPHome (SP2,
>>> kept updated, etc), 2.4gHz, 1024MB RAM, 60GB master with 28% free
>>> space, 80GB slave with 55% free space, DVD-ROM, DVD +/- RW. I run a
>>> real-time virus scanner, and check for malware with AdAware, Spybot
>>> S&D, and HijackThis. Occassionally, I run online scanners such as
>>> Trend and Panda. I've never had problems with viruses or malware.
>>> I check my task manager and msconfig start up tab for suspicious
>>> processes. I do general housekeeping, such as defrag and disk
>>> cleanup fairly often.
>>>
>>> My CPU usage is generall low, and is currently 2 to 5%.
>>> Nonetheless, I've got this problem:
>>>
>>> I don't know when this began, or if it's been creeping up on me
>>> slowly and it finally reached the threshhold where I notice it, but
>>> access to many, if not all, file types now takes a long time on my
>>> machine.
>>>
>>> I first noticed it when doing a right click to get the properties of
>>> a file on my desktop. It takes up to eight seconds for the
>>> right-click menu to drop down. Right clicks on other desktop items,
>>> such as program shortcuts, file folders, or system folder icons (My
>>> Computer, Recycle Bin, My Network Places) immediately produce the
>>> right-click menu.
>>>
>>> If I open a desktop folder and do a right click on a file, it's
>>> again slow. The same thing happens with Windows Explorer. Right
>>> clicks on individual files takes a long time to produce the
>>> right-click menu, but right clicks on folders, etc, immediately
>>> produces results.
>>>
>>> If I double left click on an mp3 file to launch and play it with
>>> WMP, it takes eight seconds. This is true even if WMP is already
>>> running.
>>> If I launch WMP by openning WMP itself, WMP opens instantly.
>>>
>>> The same thing happens when I double left click on a jpg to launch
>>> Microsoft Picture It!. It's slow to open, but if I just lauch the
>>> application, it also opens instantly.
>>>
>>> All of this tells me that it's the system taking a long time to
>>> recognize the file's attributes, not programs that are slow to
>>> launch.
>>>
>>> I've got a new 160GB Seagate that's been sitting around for a while,
>>> unopened. Maybe it's time to clean install that as the new master,
>>> move the current master to the slave position to transfer data from.
>>> I'm tempted to do this due to this slowdown that I can't diagnose,
>>> but I'd rather not at this time if I don't have to. Everything else
>>> is fine, and I like the way I'm set up.
>>>
>>> Anyone have any ideas why file access is so slow?
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>> Bruce
>>
>> Slow Right Click
>> http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm
>>
> Rock,
>
> The article in the link above mentioned that the cause could be a
> context menu that points to an application that's located on a
> networked machine.
>
> I decided to disable my NIC, and my right click now functioned
> normally on all files. I could even open jpgs, which were previously
> slow to open, and mpgs, which were slow to load up even if WMP was
> already running. If I enabled the NIC, the problem came back.
>
> I donwloaded RegScanner, and looked in HKCR for anything pointing to
> "\\". I found plenty that pointed to two machines that were wipped
> clean a while ago. I will delete these lines in the registry, and see
> if this helps.
>
> I'm not sure why this happened, as I couldn't log on to these
> machines, since they no longer existed. In addition, I've done clean
> installs on remote machines before, renaming them, and this had not
> happened.
>
> But...let's see what happens when I delete these lines this time.
>
> Thanks,
> Bruce
>

There was a total of three machines no longer on my network (they had been
reparted, clean installed, and renamed a while ago), and I deleted all of
the registry values on this machine that pointed to them. The right click
is now in perfect working order, even when my NIC is enabled.

Thanks to all that responded.

Sincerely,
Bruce
.