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How To Diagnose a Suddenly Slow Windows Computer?
Ensign Taco writes "I'm sure nearly every one of us has had it happen. All of a sudden your Windows PC slows to a crawl for no apparent reason. Yeah, we all like Linux because it doesn't do annoying things like this, but the Windows desktop still reigns supreme in most managed LAN work environments. I'm running XP with 4G of RAM and a decent CPU, and everything was fine, until one day — it wasn't. I've run spybot, antivirus, and looked at proc explorer — no luck. There is no one offending, obvious process. It seems every process decides to spike at once at random intervals. So I'm wondering if there's a few wizards out there that know what to look at. Could this be a very clever virus that doesn't run as a process? Or could this just be some random application error that's causing bad behavior? I've encountered this a few times with Windows PCs, but the solution has always been to just add more hardware. Has anyone ever successfully diagnosed this kind of issue?" And whether such a problem is related to malware or not, what steps would you take next?
Check that you haven't accidentally installed Microsoft Office on it.
Also, if it's horrendously slow, ensure you didn't accidentally select "Ubuntu" on the boot up screen.
I suspect your computer might have Windows on it. Good luck!
IF you eliminate hardware, the next question is what did you install? Or Modify? Or what was updated?
Did you install a video game which installed StarForce non plug in play DRM drivers? That can slow you down.
Did you install WinZip or Notepad++ or anything else which added explorer enhancements? Those can slow you down when they conflict with each other.
Did you install iTunes and have the Upper/Lower filter drivers modified & conflicting with your Nero or Roxio upper/lower filters?
Did you get a partial zip file downloaded which is causing your antivirus software to go into a loop?
Filemon/Regmon (Procmon) can tell you these things, but you really have to know what you are looking at.
I finally got fed up with these issues and switched to a Mac a bit over a year ago. No more debugging a crappy OS for me. At least not at home.
No you're not. Xp only uses the first 3 GB of RAM.
is there an analog for this on the mac. I keep getting spikes in finder usage and long spinning beach balls when almost nothing is going on.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Why hasn't user's e-mail address been banned? Why hasn't user's accounts been banned?
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"Few people understand the impact of the common pigeon like your average motorcyclist."
Never hit bird, but rode through a herd of Bees once.
Well... it felt like a herd of 'em, they hurt, even through my leathers.
And that short Hail Storm I rode through up in the Santa Cruz Mtns, OUCH!.
There's a guy around here who rides a Yamaha V-Max, and he cut a deer in half one night that jumped out in front of him up Albion Ridge at about 60 MPH.
He survived fairly unscathed, fixed the bike, and I've seen him riding it since.
I'd say his deer trumps your pigeon for a Motorcyclists Sig, eh?
Keep the rubber side down bro.
If it don't GO... chrome it. ~ Frank Banks
Nice is for nice proceses. Those that go all crazy on IO are brutes and should be turned into zombies by shooting in the head (-9)
NO SIG
Some of the moderators are special.
Free Martian Whores!