Computer Techs Look Here

[FunnyGas]

So I'm a bit of a tech (MCDST Certified, worked for Geek Squad...), but havent done much beyond my personal computers in the past few years...
This is bothering me..
My work computer, performance seems to be ok, but when you try simple tasks the computer (or program) locks. For example, load a folder with images, it bogs right down, the folder damn near locks up for 5 min. Then if you try and scroll.. it will show the next row of pictures then lock up again. This happens elsewhere as well. When I plug in my smartphone and activesync loads, the system is just about unresponsive until its loaded up.
I have scanned for viruses/spyware/adware. I turned off all non microsoft services and removed everything from startup, problem persists. Tried a few registry cleaners, no luck. Ran HijackThis, nothing was out of order there. Fired up process explorer, didnt see anything hogging up system resources. This is the point on my personal computers that I would just format and re-install windows, but with the current setup (software, finicky network, boss wont let me) thats not an option unless the computer wont boot.
Any Suggestions?

[PL_GTR]

Buy a Mac problem solved, lol. Don't you watch those commercials...:hit newb:

[dah_hunter]

Heat related..

Check the Fans/Heat Sinks..

Thats a commen issue on the work stations I manage..

[dah_hunter]

Post up the specs of the PC as well.

[FunnyGas]

Heat related..

Check the Fans/Heat Sinks..

Thats a commen issue on the work stations I manage..

i thought of that.. ill take it down to the shop and blow it all out.. pull everything apart blow every last particle out of every space fan and heatsink...

[Rickieroo]

The only that i know would work for sure would be to backup and format but i guess thats out of the question for you. Maybe try freeing up some space and doing a disk cleanup and deleting old system restore points. Other things to try that may or may not help....Overclock your cpu, check voltages, cleanup and organize the folders that are bogging and freezing. Clean the chips and put a better layer of AS-5 paste with a good grip onto the mobo and perhaps deleting unwanted programs.

Its time you become agent smith and manually delete the exiles because its usually a program doing something it shouldnt be and interfering with other programs. Thats usually why a format helps.

[FunnyGas]

im kicking myself for not keeping a spare backup copy of all my tools from geek squad. (my external backup HDD crapped out while i was doing my last format + re-install). this kind of thing was never a problem with that software...

[FunnyGas]

Specs
Windows: Windows XP5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2
Memory (RAM): 896 MB
CPU Info: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz
Display Adapters: SiS Mirage 3 Graphics
Hard Disks: C: 71.9GB | H: 71.7GB
Hard Disks - Free: C: 56.0GB | H: 70.7GB
Virtual Total: 2048 MB
Virtual Free: 1991 MB
Memory Utilization: 67%
Page Size: 4,096 bytes
Page File Total: 2167 MB
Page File Free: 812 MB

[PopolZ]

(software, finicky network, boss wont let me) thats not an option unless the computer wont boot.
Any Suggestions?

open case, paper clip, turn computer on, short a few things, call IT dept



whenever the computer locks up, does the HD light stays on???

the last time it happened to me on a workstation at work the HD died a couple of weeks after and the MB 3 days after I got my new HD

[BlackAura]

Hey, sounds to me like it could be a driver issue....maybe.

Sounds like your bus is getting overloaded whenever there's lots of disk activity (i.e. loading previews of documents, pictures, etc)....SATA or PATA (IDE) disks?

This can be hard to detect, as programs usually enter a wait state when they're loading data.....then an interrupt is thrown once the data is loaded....so the program asks for the next chunk, and waits for the interrupt again, etc, etc. If you check task manager while this is occuring, CPU usage will be quite low.

As PopolZ mentioned, I've also seen this occur when the HD can't read the data properly, so it takes two or three passes to properly load the data, thus slowing everything down. (Good sign that your HD is about to crap out, and should be replaced.)

Edit: also, might be worth checking, if you have an IDE hard drive, if it's in DMA mode, or PIO mode. DMA = much much faster, very little CPU is used to copy data from HD to memory. PIO = CPU must be used to copy data from IDE interface to RAM, I believe.

[PopolZ]

Edit: also, might be worth checking, if you have an IDE hard drive, if it's in DMA mode, or PIO mode. DMA = much much faster, very little CPU is used to copy data from HD to memory. PIO = CPU must be used to copy data from IDE interface to RAM, I believe.

Forgot about that!!! Had the issue with a DVD drive... whenever I was accessing it everything went to a crawl... might be the issue with your HD settings. I know sometimes it reverted to PIO on its own for my DVD drive.

[dah_hunter]

Edit: also, might be worth checking, if you have an IDE hard drive, if it's in DMA mode, or PIO mode. DMA = much much faster, very little CPU is used to copy data from HD to memory. PIO = CPU must be used to copy data from IDE interface to RAM, I believe.



^^^ Props for that suggestion..

Something many people forget to check..

[FunnyGas]

thats a good one that most forget.. but i checked that before (and again now just to double check) when i set my page file to a set size (same max and min) at double my physical memory..
i also logged into my admin account (the account i use is a network logon) and system performance in there is slower, as well as the problem persisting. stuff like the quick links button on GTRC is slow as molasses in the admin account. the network account i created 2 months ago to get around a network issue we had.

[Tap56]

If he was in PIO mode the system would be slow even during boot. More likely the issue is the HDD giving you warning signs that it's about to go. I had a system in the shop doing the same thing.(I work at Hitech Business Systems in GP as a computer tech) I recommended to the client that the hdd was going but they declined to replace, brought it back the next week and it would not boot anymore.

Took me a week to recover the family photos and family tree files from the drive.
Moral of the story: Don't take chances - back up any important data now just in case.

Also have you tried booting in safe mode? or at least run msconfig and see what is all running.

[FunnyGas]

havent tried safe mode. i tried booting with everything in startup (in msconfig) turned off as well as all non microsoft services shut off. no improvement in system performance. i know this is something software related. this is the reason i have my personal computers setup with a seperate drive for all my files and programs, and nothing but windows on my C drive, so i can format and re-install ever 4-6 months without any downtime (over an hour). i know a format would fix this.. just trying to avoid that... boss wont like a full day of downtime to get it fixed and re-setup...