Herbshirt Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 My system keeps slowing down! I'm running XP Pro. I use Adobe Creative Suite, Office Pro, Macromedia MX suite, and a few other bits. I have 1G Ram, 1.8 G CPU. I use Adaware, Ewido & Norton Antivirus regularly. I do defrag, error check etc. I uninstall stuff I don't use, I go MSCONFIG > STARTUP > ... and switch off anything that looks unnecessary.How come when I get it reformatted, it's running like lightning but then once I load up the app's it's not long bfr it slows down again. Now it even has trouble running screensaver.Can anyone let me in on the Windows tricks to streamline the system? (In laymans terms pls)Thankyou.Brad.PS. any thoughts on 'LitePC?' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 No comments on LitePC, but can you describe slow? Do you mean things take a long time to load? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Hello, and welcome to the Windows Forum!There are many things you can do - the most important making sure that no malware gets on your system. Two antispyware and one antivirus software seems adequate to me. Make sure they are always up to date.Removing useless stuff from Windows startup is also a very good idea. However, MSCONFIG does not list much - there is a lot more being loaded than shown by MSCONFIG. Startup Inspector is an easy-to-use tool that detects more than MSCONFIG.Defragmenting is very important; unfortunately the built-in Windows defragger is a bit lame. Slow, yes, and it doesn't defrag all that can be done. A professional tool such as Diskeeper can do a lot more, including defragging of the page file, master file table, and folders file.Keeping useless stuff from the hard disk does not necessarily make Windows faster, but it helps to keep your HD clutter-free. Ccleaner is an excellent free tool to accomplish that.There are tools that can compact your Windows registry - that may also help: NTREGOPT is one of such tools.Running a registry cleaner before compacting the registry may be useful; Ccleaner has such a feature (Issues cleaner), or RegScrubXP.There are many more options, such as uninstalling hidden, unused device drivers. But that will get a little bit technical. See this topic if you want to give it a try.Before you start making big changes to your system, be sure to have a full system backup for the case that something breaks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 How big is your hard drive and how much of it is being used?I work on the premise that a hard drive should never be more than half full - Windows needs varying amounts of drive space to be able to work and if it doesn't have this, things will slow down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Also, how large is your page file? (System Properties, tab Advanced, Performance Settings, tab Advanced, Virtual memory)And how much is actually used during peak or slowdown times? (Task Manager, tab Performance) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herbshirt Posted March 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Wow. Saw this site recommended in PC User as a great resource, and that it certainly is is! Thankyou for such a rapid, detailed response guys!Now, where was I...When I say slow I mean - ususally with that much Ram I can just have quite demanding programs all running at once and be able to click around to my hearts content with zero stalling, and when I start up the computer it starts up quickly. This is not currently the case.I checked out the 'page file' and 1536mb was the result. Is that good??? Task Manager said: CPU averaged 5-10% and spiked at around 80% when opening images in Photoshop. PF = 524 . Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Outlook 2003 and Firefox open.And Pat - I'll spend the evening checking out all those tools. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herbshirt Posted March 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 My H/D is 80G. Really?? Only use up half the H/D?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagwoood Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 My H/D is 80G. Really?? Only use up half the H/D??Pops advice is the recommended rule, if your H/D is over 50% full, then you should be looking to get a larger drive. In addition to everyone's advice, Norton Anti-virus can be resource hog and is the cause of some peoples systems slowing down. It may be the case with your system, so if all else fails, you could try another anti-virus product(there are plenty of good free ones you could try, AVG, AntiVir and Avast are among the best), even if it's just to take the Norton issue out of the equation.HTH, dagwoood.EDIT: I meant to add, if you do install another anti-virus solution, uninstall Norton first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 ...I checked out the 'page file' and 1536mb was the result. Is that good??? Task Manager said: CPU averaged 5-10% and spiked at around 80% when opening images in Photoshop. PF = 524 . Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Outlook 2003 and Firefox open.And Pat - I'll spend the evening checking out all those tools. Thanks!1GB RAM + 1536MB page file = perfect! This is exactly the recommended default setting: page file size = RAM size * 1.5Of course if you have many large applications running, there may be a need for a larger page file. However, in your case it seems comfortably enough.Now let's wait and see if you can make some improvement with our little tips. (We may find more if needed :) ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 My H/D is 80G. Really?? Only use up half the H/D??That is for the "C" drive i.e. the one that does all the work. Other drives you may use for storage of data can be filled to a much higher level.Windows (even XP) is very untidy in the way it works and needs lots of space available when manipulating files and data. It can also leave bits of data anywhere on a drive (thus the need to defragment periodically), reducing its efficiency and slowing things down. If you restrict the space available for data manipulation by over-filling as well then the efficiency is further reduced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herbshirt Posted April 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Between work and changing nappies I haven't yet had a chance to trial all the resources mentioned below but I have been watching this topic with enthusiasm and I think we're onto something. I'm currently downloading AVG so I'll keep you posted on that one BUT...I have a 80G H/D partitioned into 2. The © program drive (20G) 14G used and 6G remaining. Sounds like this may be a problem. (Good excuse to get that complete new system I've been mentioning to my partner, he he, might as well get a whole new computer if I need a new H/D eh)2nd partition (D) - 31G used 24G remaining.Thanks again guys, you're help has been invaluable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Be VERY careful that you don't have Norton and AVG running (or even installed) at the same time - this could create big-time problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herbshirt Posted April 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Ran Startup Inspector and Diskeeper and things are already running much smoother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagwoood Posted April 2, 2006 Report Share Posted April 2, 2006 Glad to hear that Herbshirt . Have you stuck with AVG and tried any of the other suggestions in this thread? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted April 2, 2006 Report Share Posted April 2, 2006 And, since you are a bit short on HD space, be sure to give Ccleaner a try. If you have cookies that you want to keep, uncheck the cookies option on all browsers until you have configured the cookies you want to keep (Options, Cookies).You will be surprised how much this thing can clear from your disk(s) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herbshirt Posted April 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2006 Yep, Since I'm on a roll I continued with the other suggestions. Tried CCleaner, again more improvement, it reckons it removed over 3 Gig!! Swapped from Norton to AVG.It really seems like Startup Inspector and Diskeeper were the ultimate answers to my problem this time round but it's also obvious the other tools are making a difference (besides the bonus subconscious feeling of cleanliness )No longer have the justification for the new system . I've heard Linux freaks speaking of Windows as Fatware, I think I know what they mean now.It seems to me after this experience that there's a niche for an application that includes all of the above functions in one package. A 'Windows Optimiser'. So has anyone had any experience with LitePC?Thanks again everyone Brad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted April 3, 2006 Report Share Posted April 3, 2006 So has anyone had any experience with LitePC?Sorry, never heard of it.SThanks again everyone Brad.You are very welcome. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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