Slowing PC

[pixel]

I am running windows XP and anytime it occassionally starts to run slow (when running a few programs at once, or ripping DVD's to hard drive).

You can see my comp. specs, everything is new apart from my capture drive 80GB and DVD writer.

I keep my hard drive's regularly defragmented. (I have a partition on the 60GB but when I rip DVD's I copy to my 80GB)

If anyone can help me out, any help will be appreciated.

TIA, pixel

[funkguy4]

Maybe a system service is tying up your I/O and CPU?

[Solarjetman]

Well, sytem specs are not very helpful in determining slowdowns. 9 out of 10 times it is software causing it.

Do you run any P2P programs?
Do you have an anti-virus checker running?
Do you check for spyware regularly?
Do you run any services on the computer?

They could all be causes.

[pixel]

Well, sytem specs are not very helpful in determining slowdowns. 9 out of 10 times it is software causing it.

Do you run any P2P programs?
Do you have an anti-virus checker running?
Do you check for spyware regularly?
Do you run any services on the computer?

They could all be causes.

No.
Yes. But have tried turning it off and same slow speed occurs.
Yes.
No.

Could it be RAM trouble? I don't think it should be though.

Will I upload a pic of what system resources are running in taskamanager?

[Solarjetman]

Could it be RAM trouble? I don't think it should be though.

I doubt it as well. If it was a piece of hardware, you would most likly have the slowdown all the time, and not just at certian times.

Does this happen when a certian program is running? Maybe it is hogging resources.

I am not supprised that a DVD rip causes it to slowdown though. That is a lot of acessing the hard drive which is slow and time consuming.

[pixel]

Its usually just when I am ripping DVD's to my capture drive, but when I am finished my whole PC goes slow.

I rip the DVD's and when I try to switch between other programs it takes like 10s to switch between them.

[funkguy4]

Its usually just when I am ripping DVD's to my capture drive, but when I am finished my whole PC goes slow.

I rip the DVD's and when I try to switch between other programs it takes like 10s to switch between them.

That's because ripping a DVD is I/O intensive. Depending on your OS, it may be going around doing things after your huge I/O transaction.

[flaninacupboard]

I am running windows XP and anytime it occassionally starts to run slow (when running a few programs at once, or ripping DVD's to hard drive).

Unless i really misunderstood you, that's normal. when you run programs, the computer is busy, so when running multiple programs, it's very busy. so doing things like browsing web pages will seem slower when you've got lots of programs running. that is normal.

Be thankful you're not using DOS, no multi tasking there!

As for it remaning slow after a big project, yeah, my machines have always done that. i always restart before playing games or running a long encode.

[pixel]

I am running windows XP and anytime it occassionally starts to run slow (when running a few programs at once, or ripping DVD's to hard drive).

Unless i really misunderstood you, that's normal. when you run programs, the computer is busy, so when running multiple programs, it's very busy. so doing things like browsing web pages will seem slower when you've got lots of programs running. that is normal.

Be thankful you're not using DOS, no multi tasking there!

As for it remaning slow after a big project, yeah, my machines have always done that. i always restart before playing games or running a long encode.

OK. Thanks. I'll just restart next time and try avoiding multi-tasking whilst doing things like ripping DVD's.

[funkguy4]

That's weird though, hasn't happened to any of my 3 Windows XP mahchines, nor to my friend's comps with XP. But my friend's 98 machine has these problems........DOS for you!

UNIX=Older, better, stronger, more versatile, more stable

So why the hell did the world go with Windoze? That's humans for you!

[pixel]

That's weird though, hasn't happened to any of my 3 Windows XP mahchines, nor to my friend's comps with XP. But my friend's 98 machine has these problems........DOS for you!

UNIX=Older, better, stronger, more versatile, more stable

So why the hell did the world go with Windoze? That's humans for you!

I hope your joking! I am not learning to use a DOS interface. I have better things to do, I am only a teenager, I can't be bothered learning something like that.

[funkguy4]

That's weird though, hasn't happened to any of my 3 Windows XP mahchines, nor to my friend's comps with XP. But my friend's 98 machine has these problems........DOS for you!

UNIX=Older, better, stronger, more versatile, more stable

So why the hell did the world go with Windoze? That's humans for you!

I hope your joking! I am not learning to use a DOS interface. I have better things to do, I am only a teenager, I can't be bothered learning something like that.

I too am a teenager. There are several GUI interfaces for UNIX, ignoramus!!! It's not called a DOS interface either, it's called CLI........man ppl these days...........SO DAMN IGNORANT!!!

[SLK001]

Look under the PROCESSES window in TASK MANAGER and see if there are any "unauthorized" large resource users there. If you try out a lot of different software, these have a habit of leaving behind .DLLs that can clog up your system. Also, having a lot of fonts installed will do this (this happened to me when I loaded every font from a COREL DRAW CD - hey, I just couldn't choose!). Needless to say, it slowed my system down to a crawl.

Sometimes, a fresh install is the only cure.

[funkguy4]

Look under the PROCESSES window in TASK MANAGER and see if there are any "unauthorized" large resource users there. If you try out a lot of different software, these have a habit of leaving behind .DLLs that can clog up your system. Also, having a lot of fonts installed will do this (this happened to me when I loaded every font from a COREL DRAW CD - hey, I just couldn't choose!). Needless to say, it slowed my system down to a crawl.

Sometimes, a fresh install is the only cure.

HOW MANY FONT!?!?!!?

[pixel]

Look under the PROCESSES window in TASK MANAGER and see if there are any "unauthorized" large resource users there. If you try out a lot of different software, these have a habit of leaving behind .DLLs that can clog up your system. Also, having a lot of fonts installed will do this (this happened to me when I loaded every font from a COREL DRAW CD - hey, I just couldn't choose!). Needless to say, it slowed my system down to a crawl.

Sometimes, a fresh install is the only cure.

HOW MANY FONT!?!?!!?

Sorry, funkguy4, I wasn't trying to be ignorant.

I do not have any unauthorized processes (seems to be a lot of duplicate system processes though).
The Corel thing happened to me when I was installing photo-paint.
As for the clean install, I just have clean norton ghost images that I roll back to.

funkguy4, with all the fonts installed it takes you to 500+ fonts.

[funkguy4]

TOO MANY FONT!!!!!

[flaninacupboard]

I have better things to do, I am only a teenager,

Then surely you grew up using DOS? i know i used DOS for the first time aged 5 or 6!
And it's really not that hard. "i want to delete the file called porn.txt so my mum doesn't see it. 'delete porn.txt' and enter. hooray!"

[funkguy4]

I have better things to do, I am only a teenager,

Then surely you grew up using DOS? i know i used DOS for the first time aged 5 or 6!
And it's really not that hard. "i want to delete the file called porn.txt so my mum doesn't see it. 'delete porn.txt' and enter. hooray!"

Don't call it DOS fools, that would be like calling a fast car slow........I don't think many of the teenagers here, much less their parents, used DOS until they got Windows. Windows is like a GUI for DOS, much as CDE is a GUI for Unix. There are many more, but that's just to name one.

[pixel]

I have better things to do, I am only a teenager,

Then surely you grew up using DOS? i know i used DOS for the first time aged 5 or 6!
And it's really not that hard. "i want to delete the file called porn.txt so my mum doesn't see it. 'delete porn.txt' and enter. hooray!"

Nope. I started using a PC at about 8yrs old and have used windows for the next 7 years after that. (Win95, Win98, WinXP)

Why would you store porn in a .txt document?

[funkguy4]

I have better things to do, I am only a teenager,

Then surely you grew up using DOS? i know i used DOS for the first time aged 5 or 6!
And it's really not that hard. "i want to delete the file called porn.txt so my mum doesn't see it. 'delete porn.txt' and enter. hooray!"

Nope. I started using a PC at about 8yrs old and have used windows for the next 7 years after that. (Win95, Win98, WinXP)

Why would you store porn in a .txt document?

Maybe a URL to porn. Lets get creative here, folks!

[flaninacupboard]

the example was to point out the non-multi-media-ness of PC's in the days of DOS. you had text files of raunchy porn stories, and 4 colour pictures of........ blocks.

I don't think many of the teenagers here, much less their parents, used DOS until they got Windows.

No where near true! i remember using DOS 3.2 on a 086, and i'll be entering my 20th year soon.
I also remember still using DOS after win95 came out, because games ran faster without the GUI running

[pixel]

This thread was answered long ago, but I don't mind you carrying it on to discuss what you remembered about using other OS.

The furthest back I can remember is using windows 95 and being happy that I had a pentium 2!!

My pentium 4 isn't even fast enough for me nowadays.

[SLK001]

Oh, yeah? I remember boot-strapping a PDP-11 by entering the kernel via front panel switches, just to enable a paper tape program to run!

Beat that, you whipper-snappers!

[funkguy4]

the example was to point out the non-multi-media-ness of PC's in the days of DOS. you had text files of raunchy porn stories, and 4 colour pictures of........ blocks.

I don't think many of the teenagers here, much less their parents, used DOS until they got Windows.

No where near true! i remember using DOS 3.2 on a 086, and i'll be entering my 20th year soon.
I also remember still using DOS after win95 came out, because games ran faster without the GUI running

I said many, not any.

[pixel]

Oh, yeah? I remember boot-strapping a PDP-11 by entering the kernel via front panel switches, just to enable a paper tape program to run!

Beat that, you whipper-snappers!

You win hands-down. I do not have a clue what you just typed The only bit I understood was the paper tape program part.