Re: Computer running very slow

Kathy

Things do look a bit better <G>.

Is your computer a Desktop or a Laptap? Many computers (certainly
desktops) are able to accomodate a second internal hard drive.

In Outlook Express you should empty your Deleted Items Folder! Also you
are most likely storing messages in your Inbox. This is a risky
practice. In Outlook Express create a a new folder by placing the cursor
on Local Folder and select File, Folder, New. Give the folder a name
e.g.AAInbox. Move messages regularly from the Inbox to AAInbox. Then
place the cursor on Local Folders and select File, Work Offline followed
by File, Folder, Compact All. Do not attempt to interupt or stop the
process until it has completed. After compacting you need to run Disk
CleanUp and Disk Defragmenter.

I would not revert to hiding system files. I would also leave the
compress files feature in Disk CleanUp as it is.

The situation with regard to burning to DVD may change given that you
now have so much more free disk space. The problem you were encountering
is that the programs backs up a copy to your hard drive before writing
to the DVD / CD.

Problems with Trend. The solution with this type of problem is to
Uninstall through Add / Remove Programms and Reinstall. Do you have the
means to reinstall? When does your Trend subscription expire? I cannot
say why it is not now working? Nothing I suggested should have caused
that to happen.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





Recycler29 wrote:
you have been so helpful, thank you very much. I tried to follow the
directions you've included in the last email and already the results
are much improved as far as disc space. Here is the copy of the
defrag report and this is before I have even tried to defrag a second
time!
Volume (C:)
Volume size = 228 GB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 34.81 GB
Free space = 193 GB
Percent free space = 84 %

Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 17 %
File fragmentation = 35 %
Free space fragmentation = 0 %

File fragmentation
Total files = 103,034
Average file size = 447 KB
Total fragmented files = 3,211
Total excess fragments = 13,992
Average fragments per file = 1.13

Pagefile fragmentation
Pagefile size = 1.50 GB
Total fragments = 1

Folder fragmentation
Total folders = 10,355
Fragmented folders = 28
Excess folder fragments = 103

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 150 MB
MFT record count = 113,786
Percent MFT in use = 74 %
Total MFT fragments = 3

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fragments File Size Most fragmented files
3,784 3.28 GB \Documents and Settings\All
Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Boston
Legal_WLOS_09_10_2007_22_00_03.dvr-ms 257 16 MB
\Documents and Settings\Bill\Local Settings\Application
Data\Identities\{4E3254D7-522A-412A-9296-3F4767B3A2CB}\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\Deleted Items.dbx
194 1 KB \WINDOWS\system32\config\system.LOG
184 16 MB \Documents and Settings\Bill\Local
Settings\Application
Data\Identities\{4E3254D7-522A-412A-9296-3F4767B3A2CB}\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\Inbox.dbx
183 20 MB \Documents and Settings\Kathy\My
Documents\My Pictures\Recycle rampage\recycle poster 1 07.pdf
153 16 KB \Documents and
Settings\Kathy\ntuser.dat.LOG 152 934 KB
\WINDOWS\Temp\ProductContextC5200.log 143 114 MB
\WINDOWS\Installer\2862df9.msp 138 9 MB
\WINDOWS\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\9040211900063D11C8EF10054038389C\11.0.8173\MSB1ENFR.ITS.FAD473D6_E564_11D3_8F5D_00C04F9CF4AC
138 9 MB \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\TRANSLAT\ENFR\MSB1ENFR.ITS
134 8 MB
\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3\hpzst5ha.dll
123 24 MB \Documents and Settings\All
Users\Application Data\Apple Computer\Installer Cache\iTunes
7.4.3.1\QuickTime.msi
123 24 MB \Documents and
Settings\NetworkService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5\JOWRNNUS\QuickTime[1].msi 116 7 MB
\WINDOWS\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\9040211900063D11C8EF10054038389C\11.0.8173\MSB1FREN.ITS.A8BA8760_E619_11D3_8F5D_00C04F9CF4AC
116 7 MB \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\TRANSLAT\FREN\MSB1FREN.ITS
101 6 MB \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\TRANSLAT\ENES\MSB1ENES.ITS
97 32 KB \WINDOWS\system32\config\software.LOG
94 34 MB \System Volume
Information\_restore{129201FA-B0AC-49B3-96B2-DEB8B91E727B}\RP413\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
90 358 KB \Program Files\Trend Micro\Internet
Security 14\log\20071201.PFG
86 6 MB
\WINDOWS\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\9040211900063D11C8EF10054038389C\11.0.8173\msgr3en.dll_1036.D0DF3458_A845_11D3_8D0A_0050046416B9
86 344 KB \Program Files\Trend Micro\Internet
Security 14\log\20071202.PFG
75 6.36 GB \Documents and Settings\All
Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Nova_WNTV_13_11_2007_19_58_02.dvr-ms
68 4 MB
\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\nls302en.lex 64 4 MB
\Program Files\HP\Digital Imaging\bin\hpqpsapp.exe
62 69 MB \Documents and Settings\All
Users\Application
Data\Microsoft\eHome\EPG\e45a80348ecf4da7986f7781b97ff420.sdf
62 70 MB \Documents and Settings\All
Users\Application
Data\Microsoft\eHome\EPG\59d579b09a16426b96174faffa2fad77.sdf
60 4 MB \Program Files\ArcSoft\Panorama Maker
3\ui\button.800
56 3 MB
\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3\hpzur5ha.dll
53 3 MB
\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3\hpzui5ha.dll
52 22 MB \Documents and
Settings\NetworkService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5\93M432FE\iTunes[1].msi

Now with that accomplished, I was wondering if I need to go back to
the Advanced settings in the control panel and reverse the checked
and unchecked box settings? Or did that happen after I did a reboot?
Another question I have is that during the Disk cleanup, it asks do I
want to compress old files - should I tell it to do that and if I do,
will I have problems finding files if I need them in the future?

I did delete a lot of the recorded TV programs and will follow your
advice to obtain an external hard drive if I want to save them or
burn them to a DVD (although I've tried that and get the message that
there's not enough space). Anyway, the last concern I have is when I
go to the Task Manager, the security software that i have, Trend
Micro, is no longer "running"? Although when I click on the icon and
click scan it will perform a scan. Previously the Trend Micro had
taken up a large percentage of the CPU usage. Did I remove some files
that I shouldn't have?

Again, as you can see from the report, you have already given me 85%
free space and I'm very, very grateful, so thank you for all your
time. Kathy

"Gerry" wrote:

Kathy

You may have other problems but what is immediately obvious is that
you have totally inadequate free disk space. You can run on 15% free
space but really you need around 25%. Your problem is a little
surprising given the size of volume C. Do you have any other drives
or partitions?

I have some suggestions for creating more space, which should help.

Go to Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View, Advanced Settings
and verify that the box before "Show hidden files and folders" is
checked and "Hide protected operating system files " is unchecked.
You may need to scroll down to see the second item. You should also
make certain that the box before "Hide extensions for known file
types" is not checked. Next in Windows Explorer make sure View,
Details is selected and then select View, Choose Details and check
before Name, Type, Total Size, and Free Space.

It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System
Restore on your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce
it to 700 mb. Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and
select System Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select
Settings but this time find the slider and drag it to the left until
it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get to the Settings screen click
on Apply and OK and exit.

The default allocation for the Windows Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive.
5% should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor on your
Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and move the
slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it get too full
as if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it will bypass the
Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.

Another default setting on a large drive which could be wasteful is
that for temporary internet files especially if you do not store
offline copies on disk. The default allocation is 3% of drive.
Depending on your attitude to offline copies you could reduce this to
1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer select Tools, Internet Options,
General, Temporary Internet Files, Settings to make the change. At
the same time look at the number of days history is held.

In the Windows Directory of your C partition you will have some
Uninstall folders in your Windows folder typically:
$NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$ etc. These files
may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed the text of the
folder name appears in blue characters. If not compressed you can
compress them. Right click on each folder and select Properties,
General, Advanced and check the box before Compress contents to save
Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount gained by
deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder compression is only
an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp
to Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

Now let us see what affect that has had on fragmentation of files. It
should look a lot better. Open Disk Defragmenter and click on
Analyse. Select View Report and click on Save As and Save. Now find
VolumeC.txt in your My Documents Folder and post a copy. Given the
size of the files containg the recorded TV shows these may not
easily defragment. You may need to run Disk Defragmenter a number of
times and even then some may remain fragmented.

You have already identified another cause of your problems. The
retention of recorded TV shows on your hard disks. These are taking
up a collossal amount of space. You need to decide whether you are
going to retain them after viewing or delete them at intervals. If
you are to keep them you need somewhere else to put them. You could
add a large second hard drive or backup them up to removable media.
As I said earlier you need to maintain 25% free disk space on your C
volume (partition).

You need not bother with Clean booting and Event Viewer now as we
have identified a major reason why your computer could be running
slowly. Lets see what impact the measures suggested above have on
your system performance.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recycler29 wrote:
Gerry,
I ran the defrag and just as before, it tells me I don't have enough
memory (need at least 15% but I only have 3%) but I told it to go
ahead and run it anyway trying to follow your instructions. Here is
a copy of the results: Volume (C:)
Volume size = 228 GB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 220 GB
Free space = 8.38 GB
Percent free space = 3 %

Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 43 %
File fragmentation = 85 %
Free space fragmentation = 1 %

File fragmentation
Total files = 111,462
Average file size = 3 MB
Total fragmented files = 61
Total excess fragments = 57,237
Average fragments per file = 1.51

Pagefile fragmentation
Pagefile size = 1.50 GB
Total fragments = 1

Folder fragmentation
Total folders = 10,607
Fragmented folders = 1
Excess folder fragments = 0

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 150 MB
MFT record count = 123,402
Percent MFT in use = 80 %
Total MFT fragments = 3

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fragments File Size Files that cannot be defragmented
416 1.51 GB \Documents and Settings\All
Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Rules of
Engagement_WSPA_12_11_2007_21_31_02.dvr-ms
291 1.56 GB \Documents and Settings\All
Users\Documents\Recorded TV\'Til
Death_WHNS_26_09_2007_20_30_02.dvr-ms 213 1.72 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Two and a
Half Men_WSPA_12_11_2007_20_58_02.dvr-ms 74 1.77 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Samantha
Who-_WLOS_15_10_2007_21_31_02.dvr-ms 1,125 3.12 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Burn
Notice_USA_13_09_2007_17_00_02.dvr-ms 3,921 3.12 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Burn
Notice_USA_13_09_2007_13_00_02.dvr-ms 182 3.13 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\The
Closer_TNT_15_10_2007_22_00_02.dvr-ms 2,912 3.13 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\The
Closer_TNT_22_10_2007_22_00_02.dvr-ms 1,882 3.13 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\The
Closer_TNT_12_11_2007_22_00_02.dvr-ms 119 3.13 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\The
Closer_TNT_05_11_2007_22_00_02.dvr-ms 94 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Burn
Notice_USA_14_09_2007_23_00_02.dvr-ms 391 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded
TV\Monk_USA_23_09_2007_20_00_02.dvr-ms 40 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Boston
Legal_WLOS_23_10_2007_22_00_03.dvr-ms 19,015 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\The
Closer_TNT_27_11_2007_22_00_02.dvr-ms 41 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Boston
Legal_WLOS_09_10_2007_22_00_03.dvr-ms 12,242 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Boston
Legal_WLOS_13_11_2007_22_00_02.dvr-ms 41 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Saving
Grace_TNT_22_10_2007_23_00_02.dvr-ms 168 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Boston
Legal_WLOS_06_11_2007_22_00_02.dvr-ms 1,383 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Saving
Grace_TNT_15_10_2007_23_00_02.dvr-ms 201 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Saving
Grace_TNT_05_11_2007_23_00_02.dvr-ms 582 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Saving
Grace_TNT_12_11_2007_23_00_02.dvr-ms 397 3.28 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Boston
Legal_WLOS_02_10_2007_22_00_02.dvr-ms 141 3.29 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Private
Practice_WLOS_26_09_2007_20_58_02.dvr-ms 132 3.38 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Burn
Notice_USA_15_09_2007_16_58_02.dvr-ms 437 3.39 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\The
Closer_TNT_08_10_2007_21_58_02.dvr-ms 44 3.59 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded
TV\Monk_USA_20_11_2007_21_58_02.dvr-ms 49 3.64 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded
TV\Monk_USA_30_10_2007_21_58_04.dvr-ms 75 6.36 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded
TV\Nova_WNTV_13_11_2007_19_58_02.dvr-ms 9,342 6.50 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Burn
Notice_USA_20_09_2007_20_58_04.dvr-ms 596 6.50 GB
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\Burn
Notice_USA_22_09_2007_16_58_02.dvr-ms

I see in the list of files that cannot be defragmented, that they
appear to be the TV shows that I have programmed to record.

Other than that, I went to Task Manager, Performance Tab, Commit
Charge and the Total=566848; Limit=2517452; Peak=595388.

I went to the article about the "clean boot" but I don't understand
what
that is going to tell me and I'm a beginner and am basically afraid
I'll screw something up! I understand the article and that I can get
guided help, but I don't understand what it is that I will gain from
doing this. Should I always start my computer in a selective startup
or if errors occur, go back to the normal startup? And the events
manager that you mentioned is way over my head and I really didn't
understand much about that. So, hopefully this information will give
you some insight into my computer and perhaps you will think I
should just take it to a computer repair place?!?! Thanks for all
your time, Kathy

"Gerry" wrote:

Kathy

What are your anti-virus and anti-spyware arrangements?

Open Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report
and click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My
Documents Folder and post a copy.

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the
Performance Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit
and the Peak?

Have you tried this approach?
How to configure Windows XP to start in a "clean boot" state
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/en-us

Also look for Error Reports in the System log in Event Viewer.
Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in
the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for the last boot.
No Information Reports or Duplicates please. Indicate which also
appear in a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the
meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and
Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you
should double click for further information. You can copy using
copy and paste. Often the link will, however, say there is no
further information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and
double click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which
appears is a button resembling two pages. Click the button and
close Event Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste
into the body of the message. Make sure this is the first paste
after exiting from Event Viewer.

Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right click
on the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties,
Hardware,Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Recycler29 wrote:
I have a Dell XPS 400 with Windows XP Media edition Professional
5.1.2600. The main memory installed is RAM 1024MB. There is an
Intel Pentium dual processor CPU 2.8GHz. Processor speed 2.73
GHz. NVIDIA Geforce 7300LE video card. I am not a total beginner
but can understand some things concerning the computer. The
computer runs extremely slow with the fastest available cable
internet connection. Ever on booting the computer, it takes more
and more time each day. I have run spybot and ad-aware
constantly. The computer came with Trend Micro PC-cillin security
software that is up to date.

I was told to look at what was running in the background by doing
a ctrl-alt-delete and found that I have 55 processes running and
only 2-3% CPU usage. I don't know what this means and was hoping
someone could tell me what I need to do to speed this up a bit.
the compute ris not but 1 yr. old. Should I buy more memory?
Thanks for any guidance or advice! Kathy


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