Desktop slowing down - why?

[zcacogp]

Chaps,

I am running a Shuttle something-or-another PC, with a 2.5gig chip and 1gig ram. (Was massive spec when I built it about 3 years ago, but is nothing more than average now ... )

However, it seems to be slowing down. IN the last week or so, on occasion, it really chugs. The mouse is reluctant to move (wireless mouse, PS2 plug), and the response on other things is slow. It seems to be a transient problem; it will be slow for 15-20 seconds, but then seems to speed up a little.

Nothing has changed (as in, no new software loaded recently.) I am running Win2000, Office, Firefox for browsing and nothing much else.

I have AVG installed, always up to date, and it found nothing when I scanned the machine yesterday. trend.com didn't find anything either. And I run crapcleaner at least every week.

The processor graph in Task Manager does sometimes seem to go up to 100% for no apparent reason.

It hasn't been re-built since I first built it - would this make a difference, and why?

Anyone any ideas?


Oli.

[pdV6]

Could be any number of things, but I usually find my machines run like dogs if network drives aren't available.

[zcacogp]

The machine in question doesn't connect to any network drives. (A couple of its drives are available to other machines on the network, but not vice versa. I am guessing that this wouldn't affect it.)

What other things?


Oli.

[pdV6]

Oh I dunno - spyware, fragged disk, Windows Update, cr4ppy AV software etc etc take your pick.

In Task Manager, when it hits 100% CPU, switch the view to process list and order by the CPU % column to see which process is having a headache.

[egomeister]

pdV6 said:

Could be any number of things, but I usually find my machines run like dogs if network drives aren't available.

Interesting. I recently installed a NAS which has been giving me a bit of trouble (currently not being recognised which will really piss me off if I can't get the data back again). I've noticed my PC struggling a lot more since then so you may be onto something there.

Back to the original topic - beyond the usual suspects of defragged disc/no spyware or virus/clean registry (i also use RegCleaner) I'm not sure what could be causing it. Does the peformance decrease co-incide with installing any software - I have had stuff which has put files in the pc startup which have impacted performance before.

[aldi]

Go to start/run, type 'eventvwr', OK. Make sure your system log isn't full of disk errors.

Also second what everyone else says!

[zcacogp]

Disk is not fragmented - tried that one as well.

AV software? Nothing has changed, to my knowledge.

Clean registry? What is regcleaner? I'll do a google ...

Thanks for your help.


Oli.

[zcacogp]

aldi said:

Go to start/run, type 'eventvwr', OK. Make sure your system log isn't full of disk errors.

Also second what everyone else says!

Interesting - it was full of "Error - Remote Access" messages. The it said "mmc.exe has generated errors and will be closed by windows", and disappeared.

Is this relevant?


Oli.

[aldi]

Difficult to say, if you double click on one of the errors it should give you some more information about them.

[zcacogp]

aldi said:

Difficult to say, if you double click on one of the errors it should give you some more information about them.

Thanks - didn't know that.

If I do this, it says "The Remote Access Server could not reset lana 14 (the error code is the data) and will not be active on it." (Sometimes it says Lana 0, sometimes Lana 14, sometimes Lana15).

It also says it is error code 20082.

Any ideas?

HOWEVER, interesting as this is, the entries seem to occur fairly infrequently (the time stamps are not close together, and the newest one is quite old), and don't co-incide with the slow-running of the PC.

Thanks again for your input.


Oli.

[aldi]

zcacogp said:

If I do this, it says "The Remote Access Server could not reset lana 14 (the error code is the data) and will not be active on it." (Sometimes it says Lana 0, sometimes Lana 14, sometimes Lana15).

OH NO, NOT *THAT* ERROR! run for your life....

[zcacogp]

aldi said:

OH NO, NOT *THAT* ERROR! run for your life....

Thanks. Next you'll be telling me my RMS has gone. (Sorry, only funny for those who frequent the Porsche forums and own very expensive 911's.)


Oli.

[zcacogp]

... bit of an update, chaps.

I think the problem may be linked with Firefox (browser). It only seems to happen when I use firefox, and often the problem is linked with closing down a firefox window.

Has anyone else experienced this? I have the latest update (according to the "Search for updates" command.) I don't really want to go back to using IE ... I use that at work, and eevery time I open it I realise how much better firefox is (particularly the 'tabs' feature.)


Oli.

[pdV6]

How odd. Try backing up your bookmarks file and re-installing FF?

[zcacogp]

pdV6 said:

How odd. Try backing up your bookmarks file and re-installing FF?

Good idea. I'll try it.

Where is the bookmarks file?


Oli.

[Trooper2]

Open Firefox, click Bookmarks (text not icon)> manage bookmarks> file> export, then save to the file or folder of your choice.

Sometimes when you update Firefox a theme or extension that you have added isn't compatable with the new version of Firefox and that could cause your problems....food for thought.