Slow to load programs or do anything the first time

Status
Not open for further replies.

mkt00

Beta member
Messages
4
Location
Boston
My 7 year old Dell XPS with Windows XP has become extremely slow starting up and loading any program or doing any operation (e.g., opening folders) the first time. It's not a matter of having too many programs at startup, since there are not that many and the problem continues long after startup. Every time I do something new, including but not limited to starting a new program, it takes far longer than it should or used to. (The problem started over a year ago when I was installing some software that I don't now recall but have probably removed.) Once I am working in a program the problem disappears and speed is OK. I have run numerous checks and found no problem. Any suggestions much appreciated. Thanks.
 
Download and install CCleaner. run it. Click "Registry" on the left, then put a check in all the boxes and click "Scan for issues". Click to backup the registry. Once it finishes scanning, click "Fix selected issues..." and then "Yes to all". Repeat this a couple of times to make sure it gets everything cleaned up.

Once it is finished, reboot and see if that doesn't help the problem.
 
Thanks for the advice. I had used CCleaner before, and it had helped initially, but the problem soon returned. The same thing happened this time, although the end situation is a bit better than before. It is still much too slow in opening programs and doing anything for the first time within a program. Often what happens is that I get an hourglass immediately, and then it goes away. Sometimes it doesn't come back at all and I have to click again. Sometimes the hourglass comes back intermittently and finally opens the program or performs the operation, and sometimes it comes back after several minutes and does the job. But many things still happen an order of magnitude or more too slow. Running CCleaner again doesn't help, because now, unlike initially, there are no issues in the registry. I use Spyware Doctor and ran Malware Bytes, so it should not be a malware issue. Any other suggestions? Thanks again.
 
XP's defrag sucks majorly, though. Defraggler is good and it is free. I've always been partial to O&O and have used Diskkeeper, too.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I defragged, which I'm sure was a good idea, but it doesn't get at the real problem, which seems to have to do with loading. Once everything is loaded things are fine, but anything that (I assume) requires loading is extremely slow the first time. I also got a message that virtual memory was being increased, but it was already large, so that should not have been necessary. Any suggestions with regard to loading, memory, paging, thrashing or the like, either with regard to detecting or fixing a problem? Thanks.
 
How much RAM are you running?

Are you talking about when you first boot the computer up? If so you may have a boatload of stuff starting up with Windows. Open up CCleaner, click Tools, then click Startup. Go through all the entries listed, Googling them if you don't know what they are. Disable anything you don't HAVE to have start up with Windows. Keep you security enabled, but anything else could go. Once you are finished try rebooting and see if that helps.
 
I have 512 MB of RAM. That should be plenty for what I do. It was until this problem started a year or so ago.
I've previously tried removing anything unnecessary from startup, and it didn't help. I tried it again with CCleaner, and it made no difference. Startup was perhaps marginally quicker, but the real problem is later, when everything runs slowly unless I've done it before, and it didn't help with that at all. It's not anything "peripheral" like cleaning the registry, defragging the drive, or startup. It must be some sort of problem between memory (virtual or RAM) and the CPU. Another recent symptom is failure of any applications to load initially -- I just get wallpaper. When that happens Task Manager shows no applications running but nothing unreasonable in Processes -- no high CPU or memory usage. When I restart, applications load normally (for this computer, not for a normal computer).
Suggestions welcome, because I'm at the point of having to buy a new machine. Thanks.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom