Slow machine :(

[Arlington750]

I built my machine Summer-ish 2003. I've had to replace and upgrade here or there since then but it's been in its surrent configuration for about a year. I have never had any trouble from it, not just random slowness, anyway. Probably 2 months ago, start-up started taking much, much longer. Also, it takes longer to open even simple programs, like Internet Explorer. If I'm playing media, often the video or audio will drag for anywhere from a second to 5 seconds, until the program gets up and running. I've scanned for both viruses and spyware and I'm clean. A guy I know told me that hard drives on Windows start to lag a lot when they hit 50% capacity and that's right around where I'm at but it seems odd to me that the change was so drastic and instant. My hardware is still sufficient for what I'm running. Ideas?

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XP Pro with SP2.
VIA K7VT6 mobo
AMD Barton 2700+
1 gig PC 2700 DDR
nVidia BFG 6800 Ati 8x
Seagate 160gig HD

Let me know if any more information would be helpful.

 

[Nitestick]

when was the last time you ran a defrag? check out O&O defragmenter, it's great. perhaps a clean install of windows is in order if you feel like it.

 

[RhythmMgmnt]

Yeah get the junk out of there. I would recommend CCleaner, Spybot, Adaware, then run from Windows Util. Disk Cleanup (for whatever's left) and then Defrag as nitestick suggested.

RM

 

[fredy ramjet]

Similar problem..

Hi Arlington750,

Sounds very similar to the situation I had recently. Self-built machine around 4 years old. I kept the system pretty clean and the HD defragged, but it was getting slow. Then about 3 weeks ago the HD finally gave up on me. I got a faster bigger new one for less than I paid for the original ! What a difference and well worth the money.

 

[Arlington750]

I have defragged in the past 2-3 months (the one that comes with Windows). The HD hasn't made any of the symptomatic whirring and grinding associated with a drive that's about to die but I don't guess it would have to. I do need to do a fresh install of XP, so I guess I'll try that first.

 

[gmanych]

Get "Tune Up Utilities" from www.download.com

very good program It will speed it up a bit. Promise

 

[Trotter]

The Windows defragger is a joke. Check out O&O:

Free: http://www.majorgeeks.com/O&O_Defrag_2000_Freeware_Edition_d4545.html

Pro (has 30-day trial): http://www.majorgeeks.com/O&O_Defrag_Professional_Edition_d809.html
The Pro ain't free, but it is worth the cost.

Also, get CCleaner and use it to clean up your registry:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4191

And then use RegCompact to tighten it up:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/RegCompact_d465.html