Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows XP > Windows XP General Discussion > Understanding Slow Performance

Understanding Slow Performance

Forum Windows XP : Windows XP General Discussion - Understanding Slow Performance

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Ask the community Add a reply
Word :    Username :           
 
thegooch49   07-31-2009 at 02:11:14 AM

Hello, I am hoping to understand Windows and XP a little more. My machine is having extremely slow performance (launching applications, navigating in windows explorer, etc), where is the first place you all look for the problem? Using task manager or process explorer, it shows that the CPU is about 95% idle. RAM usage is normal, with plenty available. But opening firefox might take 3 minutes. Opening a Photoshop file takes 3 minutes. All way too long. But my processor seems like it's never taxed.

So if my processor isn't in use, and there is plenty of available memory, where else would you look? The computer is virus free, and hasn't had a virus issue on it. I know that this is a very general question, but where else would you all start looking? Drivers? Periferals? Does anyone have a checklist or procedure they use when looking into issues like this?

Thanks for the help.

Add a reply
Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.
sturm   07-31-2009 at 05:50:14 PM

Go into msconfig - start - run - msocnfig. Uncheck all startup programs and see if the problem stops.
If so then recheck 1 or 2 programs at a time with a reboot and then test. When the problem reappears that program is your culprit. Uninstall it. Continue rechecking programs to autostart in msconfig until all are checked or you hit the problem again.
Once things are running correctly you can try reinstalling the offending program.

------------------------------ I ain't signing nothin
 Reply to sturm
Ask the community Add a reply
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows XP > Windows XP General Discussion > Understanding Slow Performance
Go to:

There are 1383 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Forum map
Bestofmedia Forum ©
2000-2009 Bestofmedia Group
Page generated in 0.288 seconds
Sponsored links
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
Related Topics
See all relatives topics
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them
How do I win badges?