Slow PC - Tried Everything?

[ashburnham]

There is a PC at my office that got very slow very quickly (if that makes sense). I will run through the state of events as I cannot work it out...

• Basic PC (P4 2.66GHz, 20GB HD, 1GB RAM) running Windows 2000 for 2+ years
• Formatted HD and then installed fresh, authentic version of Windows XP Pro SP3
• PC is then connected to internal server and appropriate software for our work purposes is installed by a 3rd party company inc. Office and McAfee SecurityCenter
• Nothing else is then done to the PC, it is simply used as a terminal on the work network
• Two weeks of bliss and super quick, clean computer then a sudden decrease in performance (logging onto windows has increased from about 2mins to about 10/15mins - opening Word has increased from 10secs to about 1/2mins)

Now due to nothing being installed in between it working fine and the sudden change, this sounds like a hardware issue? The only thing is, I have tried lots of hardware/software tests but can't find a single problem. Here's what I've done thus far...

• Run McAfee, AdAware, SpywareBlaster, Spybot and CCleaner Scans - no problems
• Run HDD Regenerator - no problems found but the 1st 90% of HD took 4hrs to scan and the last 10% of HD took 24hrs to scan?!
• Run memtest86+ for 3 hours - 4 passes - 0 errors
• Checked temperatures of CPU, RAM, HD, etc. - nothing out of the ordinary
• Performed Torture Test on Prime95 for 4 hours - no problems

At this point I decided to do a Windows Repair Re-Installation using the original disk. This all seemed to go ok but then when it finished and rebooted, the Windows Please Wait... screen appeared and froze. Had to hard reset the PC which then booted up normally (not the Please Wait... screen this time) but said I needed to validate windows before I could logon. Said 'Yes' to this but nothing happened (blank screen but could move mouse), reset and said 'No' and takes me back to login screen.

Managed to solve this by going into 'Safe Mode', uninstalling IE8 of all things and then rebooting into normal mode (found in another thread). Still asked me to validate Windows but this time it allowed me to go through the process.

I am now back to where I started with a very slow PC. My only option appears to be another full format and re-installation of windows but I am reluctant to do this as the 3rd party that installs our work software will charge us again and who's to say this problem will not occur again. I am sure this is a hardware problem and the HDD Regenerator speed toward the end of the drive suggests maybe the HD???

Any help appreciated.

 

[-RockMan-]

Hey, I just read your post just now and I find it kind of odd your pc is acting like a old p2 450 pc...
Lets try some things:

If you can start by taking out the ddr memory from your pc and trying another one that works, maybe a new one.
DDR-RAM on newegg.com is becoming rare these days but they still sell them at dirt cheap prices.

Also look into trying another Antivirus program and making a bootable dos floppy disk or usb drive that it will make and have it scan your current HDD to see if anything is infected. this sounds like the main problem.
I recommend you try NOD32 first, never gave me any problems except for demanding a new license after 6 months.

Last try another HDD and see what happens.

 

[kmote]

I'm thinking replace the HDD.

 

[philbar71]

yep sounds like the HDD is probably going.

 

[TaBryan09]

dido, I believe you have a HDD issue or its going bad, run a check disc and see if have bad sectors if so thats your issue, find you HDD manufacture Diagnostics tool and run the extended/long test, this will map the bad sectors and prevent the hdd from writing to them again


HDD Diag Tools

If that doesnt sound like your cup of tea then i would suggest buying a new one from NewEgg

Note: Some older HDD's need Older Diag tools to work properly

 

[ashburnham]

dido, I believe you have a HDD issue or its going bad, run a check disc and see if have bad sectors if so thats your issue, find you HDD manufacture Diagnostics tool and run the extended/long test, this will map the bad sectors and prevent the hdd from writing to them again

I did run a full scan on HDD Regenerator which does the same thing but didn't find any bad sectors. As mentioned though, it did crawl through the final 10% of the drive.

The HD is a Seagate and I also ran a Seagate quick test with no errors. I will run a Seagate full test now to fully confirm although I prob won't be able to report back until next week!!!

With regards to the replacement of RAM, I do not have any spare so will have to purchase some to do this. Quite reluctant though as the memtest86+ did not detect any errors which suggests all is fine.

 

[kmote]

By the sounds of it, it will be quicker to just replace the HDD and do a reinstall than to run another test on the current one. Worst case scenario HDD's not the problem and you wasted a bit of your time.

 

[ashburnham]

got to 82% on seagate long test and then scan failed saying something like there was no power to hd? think we can safely say it definitely a hd problem then.

the seagate scan gave no option to repair and just aborted the test. as i mentioned before, i tried hdd regenerator and found no bad sectors so is this a dying hd that cannot be repaired or is there another program i can use that maybe to help?

 

[carnageX]

Can try running SpinRite to see if that brings your HDD back; I've used it and its a very nice tool (not free however).

 

[TaBryan09]

since your HDD is only 20GB's and that's all you need I would just suggest getting a new HDD

Seatools / (any Manufacturer Diag Test) is automatically set to do repairs to the HDD for bad sectors

but its interesting that the error was caused by loss of power to the HDD

PSU Maybe?