Topic awaiting preservation: Win Machine Runs Slow - Possibly Needs More RAM

My sister has been having a lot of trouble with her computer. Last break after I looked at it, I decided to reformat the HD, re-install Windows XP, download and install all upgrades, and installed Norton Antivirus 2005. She asked me to look at it again today and it runs beyond slow. After the computer fully loads, it takes an unbareable amount of time to perform any task. Without exaggeration it takes about 2 minutes after right mouse clicking for the menu to come up on the desktop. The computer isn't a speed demon but it should be adaquate for her needs. My question is, if I upgrade the RAM while I'm home, will this solve the problem or is this another issue? I'd upgrade it to 512 MBs.


Computer Specs:
Intel Pentium 4 Processor 1.4 GHz
400 MHz Front Side Bus
128 MB PC-800 RDRAM (expandable to 512)
40 GB Ultra ATA/100
NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX 32 MB VRAM

Notable Software:
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (Service Pack 2 and all updates) / Originally came with Microsoft Office Me
Microsoft Office 2000
Norton AntiVirus 2005
Americal Online

Windows XP takes up much of the 256 MB of RAM on my old laptop. With other stuff running in the background, it doesn't surprise me that it's unbearably slow with only 128 MB. My experience with this sort of thing is limited, but I'd say you correctly diagnosed the problem. 512 MB should make it pretty smooth.


 

though even with the little bit of ram, windows shouldn't run 'beyond slow'. Just slow.
So I suggest you check for viruses and spyware first (search the faq. I usually try http://housecall.antivirus.com for a quick online virus scan (in ie).
Found my little sister's machine chrunching for the Indian nuclear program once...

I agree with Tyberius Prime here, it certainly seems like there's some sort of software (malware) on your machine that's slowing it down.

You mention that it takes a full 2 minutes to load the menu when the machine has already started. this could be due to many background tasks and programs still starting up. Check your startup programs and background tasks you have more than you need, check your drivers for any hardware are correct, check you haven't got any malware on your machine, norton won't protect you from some of this.

Finally if you still have problems it may be faulty hardware, how old is the machine?

Having said all that, I would recommend upgrading to 512MB, it will make a huge amount of difference.

Cheers, and good luck!

^Jah - definitely some sort of malware ravaging the system. I had gotten hit *immediately* after reformatting once by MSBlaster and I had all the symptoms you described.

RAM doesn't suddenly operate slower - that's not how it works.

"Nothin' like a pro-stabbin' from a pro." -Weadah

Don't forget blackviper.com He takes you through every last 'service' that's running, explains what each does, gives you a couple of options of which services can be set to 'manual - disabled - or left on 'autostart.' And it's not just a matter of going into control panel and making the changes from there.
You have to follow the instructions.

He claims you can free up to 70 megs of ram depending on what changes you make. And I freed nearly that much... something like 65 or 68 megs. Made quite a difference.

You should of course make notes on what you change. Even if you don't make any changes just reading about the various service is interesting. Well to me at least. =) Have a look it's worth it.

I'd like to second what Synax mentioned above, to emphasise the likley-hood of catching malware.

I also recently re-formatted and re-installed everything on my machine using a fresh vanilla XP professional installation, within 10 minutes, WITHIN 10 MINUTES, I had the blaster worm virus and a few other virusses/malware installed on my machine, Note, I was on dial-up account.

I can tell you trying to download a patch from the Microsoft website in less than 5 minutes on a dial-up with the Blaster Worm isn't a lot of fun, it's a bit like Russian roulette!

I'm using Norton Antivirus 2005, and Trend Micro's AV to scan for viruses, as well as Adaware. All scans show nothing out of the ordinary. I didn't think the RAM suddenly stopped working, but I thought it might have slowed down because of the AV I had installed on her computer.

Is there anything else I can do to check for these viruses?

well, a good hard look into taskmanager could shed some light.

I'm not at my sister's but what should I be looking for TP?

basically anything that looks 'strange'. Processes you don't recognize (ask google about 'em, if in doubt), things taking up 100% cpu time.

quote:

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Blaise said:

it certainly seems like there's some sort of software (malware) on your machine that's slowing it down.

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Heh heh... yeah... Windows


Justice 4 Pat Richard

Also go to your C:\windows\Prefetch folder and delete all files in there.
The prefetch acts as a cache for any programs that are loaded so the next time you run them the program starts faster but after time you get so many programs loaded which will cause XP to load extremely slow and any programs also. I've run XP on 128 with no problems as far as slow loads, you could also try disabling all of XP's pretty effects and themes.

-=BmF=- Clan

I may well be completley off the mark here Jestah but I find this helps with my system (which is similar to the one you described)
I have 120gig on two hardrives so I installed XPHome on the faster drive in a 20gig partition. That way I can keep all progs essential to the XPinstallation well defragged once or twice a month. When defragging I set the virtual memory as low as possible,zero I think. Then when the defrag is done, I go back into virtual memory settings and set the recomended level as minimum and half again as maximum.
This I find really helped boot up to go quicker (along with the other suggestions above).
Also when checking for nasties on my XP installation (as long as everything else seems to be running OK) I turn off system restore before running Norton and AdAware. That really helps clean the system I've been told.
I also get a nice psychosomatic warm glow sitting next to my finely tuned and virus free machine purring gently by me