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Thread ID: 81408	2007-07-27 01:34:00	Slow running PC	johcar (6283)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
573078	2007-07-27 01:34:00	HP A1555A - P4 3.0 GHz, 1 GB RAM, running XP Media Centre. Up until a couple of weeks ago this PC was running fine. Came home from the hospital to find it was taking 20 minutes to do a ZA update, locking up the PC completely during this time. Turned that off (until I found that this was a symptom, rather than a cause). Outlook (2003) takes 5 + minutes to open, as does just about every other application, although once open the apps seem to run OK. Rebooting takes longer than normal too, but only by a factor of about 1.5... I have done a HijackThis and found nothing out of the ordinary. Ditto with Spybot. Ran the HP Diagnostics tool - everything seems to return a "Pass". Is it possible that RAM can be faulty without showing up in a diagnostics test? It appears to me as if the machine is running on almost no RAM... I have also turned off Automatic Updates on this machine - since the problem showed up. On my laptop I always have this turned off - I have been using the PC to passively 'test' the M$ patches, before I install them on the laptop.... Don't really want to take it back to "Hardly Normal" (Harvey Norman - it's still under warranty), because I know their stock answer will be to reset to factory settings, which has NEVER resolved an issue for me - the problem always comes back when you reinstall everything else. Any ideas, guys and girls?	johcar (6283)
573079	2007-07-27 01:36:00	PS. Task Manager does not show 100% CPU usage when it is running slow....	johcar (6283)
573080	2007-07-27 02:14:00	Slow disk access?. Do a little test by coping file between folder and or drives/cd etc......	SolMiester (139)
573081	2007-07-27 02:30:00	Slow disk access? . Do a little test by coping file between folder and or drives/cd etc . . . . . . This is where I originally discovered the issue - saving a game install file from the PC World DVD to disk to then run the install . OK, it was a file that was over a gig, but it shouldn't take 30 minutes + . . . . Do you think I have a HDD problem??? Diagnostics didn't show anything . . .	johcar (6283)
573082	2007-07-27 03:43:00	This is where I originally discovered the issue - saving a game install file from the PC World DVD to disk to then run the install . OK, it was a file that was over a gig, but it shouldn't take 30 minutes + . . . . Do you think I have a HDD problem??? Diagnostics didn't show anything . . . I take it you not see delay writes etc . . . . . . 30min for a 1gb file transfer is very slow . . . . Do you have a flash drive, can you transfer a file to that from a CD, measure the speed .	SolMiester (139)
573083	2007-07-28 04:05:00	Did some more testing - looks like the original slow write speed may have been a symptom of something else . Used a 670MB file from the latest PC World DVD . To HDD: 1 . 5 mins; to flash drive: 11 . 5 mins - which looks to be as expected . When the file was saving (to both drives), the CPU peaked at around 95%, but for the most part, sat around 55% . . . . The browser was displaying as "Not Responding" in the Task Manager for the whole save period . So I guess the main symptom is veerrrry slooow application start times - irrespective of the application . . . Family is starting to get very frustrated, since they use the PC (as am I - but at least I still have my laptop) . . .	johcar (6283)
573084	2007-07-28 10:46:00	Any ideas, guys and girls? Turn off System Restore. Run CCleaner. Create a new user and log on with that - faster? Then clutter. Get a Hive reorganizer thing and run that too. Failing all that cleaning out, reinstall WIndows. And make an image once everything is reinstalled and set up to how you want it, so you can put it back like that later.	pctek (84)
573085	2007-07-28 11:19:00	I have found that a PC left off for a week or longer is slow for a week or so afterwards... :2cents: EDIT what does Task Manager show as total RAM and free RAM?	The_End_Of_Reality (334)
573086	2007-07-28 11:40:00	Tried CCleaner already - no effect. Will try the new user scenario, but this was a new PC at the beginning of the year, so there hasn't been much time to build up clutter... "Hive reorganiser thing?" - intrigued - what's this? Reinstall is an option, but only when all other possibilities have been explored - because that would make the third rebuild since January!!! This PC is left on 24/7 - although it goes to sleep after 5 hours of non-use. I'll check out the RAM displayed in Task Mangler in the morning...	johcar (6283)
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