Re: laptop is suddenly running very slowly
- From: "cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)" <cquirkenews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2005 09:50:41 +0200
On Fri, 23 Dec 2005 06:44:01 -0800, "CD"
>Install and run AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy.
One of many good things to do; could be a lucky guess, except
commercial malware's slowdown effect is rarely extreme without being
accompanied by broken functionality, such as lost 'net access.
>"Jackie D" wrote:
>> I have a laptop with 11 GB of hd space and 35% free. I'm running XP home and
>> I haven't loaded any new programmes on to it but it is suddenly running VERY
>> slowly. Programmes are taking upwards of half an hour to open and the desktop
>> icons keep refreshing at a very slow rate.
Severe slowdowns, without stability impact, include...
- slow processing due to thermal protection (overheating CPU)
- slow processing due to disabled L1/L2 cache, or (old) "Turbo Off"
- failing HD retries, with "stuck" mouse, HD LED on (dangerous!)
- CPU hogging background task (see Ctl+Alt+Del task list)
- waiting for peripheral (try with external devices disconnected)
- local resources used by network visitors (try with LAN disabled)
- other malware and "live" intrusions, such as via WiFi (kill WiFi)
....and prolly others that I can't think of right now.
>> I've checked the defrag option but it doesn't need to be defragged.
Fragged file system won't usually have that profound an effect, unless
you are low on free HD space, or you have long subdirectory chains
(due to "too many" entries) on a frequently-used FATxx file system,
e.g. %Temp%, TIF, Windows base dir (those dumb-ass FFFF*.* files
spawned by wretched MDM.exe) or root (malware).
The fact that refreshing the desktop is slow, makes me wonder about
intrusions or garbage in the shell. As it is, there's far too much
junk tapped into the process of simply displaying a list of icons in a
folder or on desktop IMO, and I see this trend getting worse.
To test this, download NirSoft's Shell Extension Viewer and use that
to reversably disable the trash that leeches into the shell. A
classic case would be processing of .ZIP files to show you how many
files are contained in each (as if you care); if you have saved a few
huge .ZIP to the desktop, and the contents of all of these has to be
waded through every time the desktop refreshes... guess the rest.
>> Does anyone know what I can do to speed things up?
Formal virus check, scan for commercial malware, and download and use
HD Tune to ensure the HD is not failing. Then post back, and we'll
start to think some more... but if it is one of those big three
(especially bad HD, which can kill your installation and data) then
you want to fix that before wasting time on thinking on specifics.
>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
First, the good news: Customer feedback has
been clear and unambiguous.
>--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
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