Problams with the computer

[uri]

A year ago my friend bought the following system:
E6400
Asus P5B-V
WD Raptor 150GB
2*1GB Kingston DDR2 667
7300 GT (on the main PCI-E)
Nvidia Quadro NVS 440 (on the secondery PCI-E)

No OC was done.

He uses this set-up for TradeStation (some on-line trading program) with 6 monitors.
For the last week he started getting lags. The program received data but it took a lot of time to display it. Also Starting the computer take a long time (After the memory check the computer just freezes for some time and then starts windows).

He didn't changed anything. I've run memtest, WD diagnostic and Prime95 and all was good. Cores and system temps are about 40C (even less), HDD temp is around 50C (is that dangerous?), and the AUX sensor shows about a 100 though I couldn't find where is the sensor sience nothing seems to be that hot.

Any thoughts? What else can I do?

Thanks
Uri

 

[g-paw]

Has he cleaned out the computer recently, e.g., run CClean, Windows Disk Clean, as well as defrag? Also if he hasn't done so he should run his antivirus and anti spyware programs.

 

[uri]

Thanks,

I've cleaned the computer and ran defrag. Also he checks for viruses a lot.

Do you have any other idea?

 

[Mousemonkey]

The HDD temp does seem a little high, I have 8 HDD's in my rig and the hottest is @43c.

 

[Zorg]

Possibly check Task Manager Processes, set it to stay on top and see if there is any correlation with CPU usage and the lags. Also look for a program that is hogging memory. Also, you may want to kill all running applications that aren't needed, or even temporarily uncheck them in msconfig startup. Also you could try killing antivirus services and any other non windows services that are not needed temporarily. type Services.msc in- start -> run. Severely limit web access when these services are turned off, obviously.

 

[g-paw]

Also could run the diagnostic/repair software from the hdd mfg site.

 

[spuddyt]

if worst comes to worst try wiping the whole computer (windows needs it periodically imo, assuming you have windows)

 

[coldmast]

if the HDD full?
it seems to be having trouble finding the windows startup files,
6 monitors?{what resolutions, wow that some serious real estate has he tried with just 4 or 2?

try memtest? {grab the ultimate boot disk}

 

[uri]

couldn't find anything on the task manager.

and I've already run a diagnostic tool from WD and it said everything is O.K

HDD is almost empty. TradeStation is about the only thing on this computer.

Tried memtest, no error were found.

All the monitors are LCD connected with regular connector (not DVI) @ 1280x1024 (that's the native resolution)
He worked with 4 on the old computer but claimed it isn't enough...

 

[geofelt]

Spyware can often be the culprit. Try running several different anti-spyware programs. It seems that no one program can find them all.

You could have a shortage of main memory. All those monitors may be causing a shortage. Turn on the performance monitor and see if you see any unusual activity on paging, I/O or CPU when he tries various tasks.

What has changed since he first bought it and it ran well?

 

[uri]

Thanks all, We've found a script in the program that slowed everything down. I think it's a bit strange that this was too much for that computer, but what can we do....
I've told him to check if the bottle neck is CPU or memory, because adding more memory is easy...

Any thoughts about the slow start up. it can stay after the memory check for more than a minuet - nothing happens during that time and than it continues for a normal start up... it happened when he bought the computer but he thinks it's much worst now, anyway I don't see any reason for that to happen.