computer quite slow

[bigdan]

my computer's been performing very slowly for the last few months and i really dont know why. it was much faster about 4 months ago.

this is a desktop, P4, 2.66 GHz, 2 GB RAM. Running XP.
C: 16.5 GB free out of 149 GB.
E: 13.4 GB free out of 232 GB

My disks are indeed a bit full but the C drive isnt that full that it should be this slow.

Right now although I'm not feeling the effects of slowness, when I goto task manager / performance, its at 100% processing. This 100% has been reached a lot recently, while months ago it was never at that level. I'm running Firefox with 6 tabs, one notepad file, and one avi file right now. It really shouldn't be that high at the moment.

If I look at the memory usage, FFX is 310 MB, plugin-container is second at 53 MB. What is this plugin, I'm seeing it quite often.

Also if I goto performance, under Physical Memory, I see Total 2095K, Available 1061K, System Cache 1142K. What do these figures mean? If I'm at 100% processing wouldnt available RAM be 0?


Can anyone advise?

Best,
Dan

 

[Hayden13]

Run a virus scan. Avast! anti-virus is good. Also the ram isn't involved with processing, that's the processor. I would say that it's either a virus or your memory usage on your :C and :E drives.

Best of Luck.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

In Task Manager, what's using your cpu cycles most? You said it's at 100%, which programs are taking so much?
I'd suggest cleaning up your C drive as well as doing a defrag.
Download CCleaner and run that on your C drive, do the registry clean included in it too. Link here
Then download defraggler and run that, link here

Hopefully all that should help

 

[swalchko]

You may also want to look at what services are running in your task manager. A lot times, unnecessary services can really bog down your system. Another thing to consider is natural wear and tear of hardware, I've experienced a slow down on my computer because the hardware is just breaking down.

 

[bigdan]

i have avast and have done virus scans. i can do another one today but i'm pretty sure my system is clean.

i've run ccleaner before recently. defraggler looks familiar but i dont remember it specifically, maybe it looks like ccleaner and that's why familiar. will give it a try.

i tried a defrag some weeks ago i believe i was told my drive is too full to do it on. maybe that was just me E tho.

in task manager which is more relevant in the processes tab, the CPU or the memory usage? i've been looking at memorgy usage all this time.

at the moment my cpu usage is again at 100% (slowed significantly since i started defraggler a minute ago). the highest memory users are firefox at 244MB and Defraggler at 110MB, both of which are showing 00 for CPU. the highest CPU values are System Idle Process at 83 and Firefox at 17 (ffx was 0 a few seconds ago).

would reinstalling windows help? i've considered that but i'd have to back up all my stuff and odnt have much hard disk space. I guess I could just buy a new drive but would it not be a huge pain to transfer stuff from my drives to my new one? i mean i already have two drives, without opening the system is there any way of knowing if it can use more drives or not? assuming i cant, i'd have to remove the current E, put in the new TB drive, move the current C to the new TB, then somehow connect the old E to the system and put the old E onto the TB. is there some simpler way??

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Upgrade to the latest version of FF (version 5). It's got some performance improvements that should help with the amount of resources it's using.

 

[bigdan]

that might help but that's not the problem. ive had issues with other browsers as well.

also going through my pictures directory is a real pain, even scrolling thru thumbnails is so slow. a couple days ago i opened a few pix on my laptop which i believe isnt as strong and that was near instant.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Post up a screenshot of your running processes.

 

[bigdan]

attached here. first is ordered by CPU usage, next by RAM

 

[bigdan]

oh btw, i am indeed on FF5