17 minute boot times and extremely slow system.

[tpspoons]

Hi.
Well recently my computer was acting up, it slowing quite a bit, and the boot times were getting unbarable. So I backed the stuff I needed, formated and reinstalled windows. And ever since it has been slower than I have ever had it in the past, even before I installed anything I had enough time to make myself some cerial and finish it before it had finished booting. So I tried formatting again and re-installing windows but it still continued. Now That Ive installed all the drivers, and programs I needed (like opera and flash and a firewall and stuff like that), its has become unbarable to use this computer.

The boot times isn't the worst bit though, every 30 seconds or so the whole thing freezes for another about 20 seconds. Also it freezes whenever I open a program, or sometimes evern rightclick! It happens whenever I open a new page in opera, its just getting rediculous. Ive done 2 virus and spyware scans, disabled every item that loads when windows starts exept the firewall. But its still too slow to use.

Its an OK pc, with 1gb of ram and 2.5GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor, so I really don't understand whats doing this. BTW the temparature tends to stay within a 37-40.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

I restarted and timed how long the boot time was....

17 Minutes and 15 seconds

 

[talldude123]

So...this is a clean install?

Have you tried opening the case and dusting it out a little, or trying different RAM?

 

[Dr.Gootch]

Your hardrive must be going bad or something, try a new one... 17 min boot is rediculous... Swap out HDDS!!!!

 

[tpspoons]

Well It was dusted and cleaned about a month ago when I got my fan replaced with a new one. Il do that now in the hope that that would do anything...

As for a new Hardrive, well I'm in no financial position to buy a new HDD, but I'l test it with one of my old ones to see if it is a HDD problem.

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

Edit: talldude123: I havn't got one to swap it with

 

[dcc]

When was the last time you defragged the hdd?

Next time you go to reinstall you OS wipe your hdd first, that way you will truly get a clean installation.

Go the manufacturers site of your hdd and see if they provide a downloadable test for your hdd. Most of these will download to a floppy which you boot from.

What are you using for your anti virus and spyware? If you are only using two programs to look for infections you may be missing something. I would also suggest that you try Adaware, Ewido security suit, Ccleaner, Asquared. These are all free.

 

[STATus h2O]

Go into the command prompt and type "chkdsk /r". My guess is it will come up with a massive amount of bad sectors. Sounds like your computer might be overheating, or your hard drive has gone to total crap. That fan that your friend installed, have you checked to make sure its spinning? Don't worry about defragmenting the hard drive, I doubt you'll be able to do that since you can't even right click on My Computer.

 

[tpspoons]

Thanks for the comments

I'm using Zonealarm pro for anti-spyware and firewall. And I'm using NOD32 for anti-virus.

dcc, isn't formatting the hdd exacly the same as wiping it? Because thats what I did both the times Ive re-installed xp.

Il go to the manufacturers site in after I try everything else.

Il try "chkdsk /r" chkdsk was one of the first things I did after my computer went all slow, but Il try again.

As for the fan, it wasn't installed by a friend of mine, I took the pc to a professional because I had some problems (not relevant to this), the main problem was the graphics card, but he also repaced the fan, And I can hear it spinning.

Ye a windows defrag is out of the question, but I know tuneup utilities offers a defragging thing, which I think will probably work. Il try that after chkdsk.

Thanks.

 

[tpspoons]

Well I started the chkdsk, but it seems to be stuck on "verifying file data" (stage 4 of 5). Its been on 0% for about 15 mins. I don't want to restart, just because I'm not sure what that will do. I dont mind waiting, but if its frozen theres not much point of waiting. What should i do?

thanks.

 

[bmxfreakrider]

harddrive is definetly bad. and wat u mean no financial position to buy one? if u can get 50 bux, go down to the local walmart, and get a western digital 80gb se. their realy quiet, but, as a side affect of being quiet, theyre a lil hot, but wat u expect, its 50 bux, 8mb cbache, 80gb, ata100, low power, quiet, 7300 rpm or whatever.

 

[tpspoons]

I live in the Uk. I can scramble a bit together to get a 80gb one of ebay or something like that. Unfortunately at the moment I have -2p balance on my papal account, so I can't buy anything. Ive put some money in it but it takes 7-9 working days. So I guess Il have to live with this till then...