Very slow computer

Hi mvm242. Since your computer is pretty slow, follow these steps to make the computer run faster:

1. Click Start< Control Panel< Add/Remove Programs and uninstall any programs that you don't use.
2. While in the Add/Remove programs window click the button that says Add/Remove Windows Components and uncheck the checkboxes next to Indexing Service, MSN Explorer, and Windows Messenger. Then click the Next button. When the wizard finishes click the finish button to close the window. 3. Download and run ATF Cleaner. Save the program to your desktop. Run the program and when it opens select all the checkboxes in the program then hit the empty selected button. Download it from here, ATF Cleaner.
4. Run Disk Cleanup. Click Start< All Programs< Accessories< Sytstem Tools< Disk Cleanup. When its done calculating how much free space you can save make sure you check all the checkboxes except for compress old files on the Disk Cleanup tab. Now click the More Options tab and under System Restore click the cleanup button. When it asks you if you want to delete all but the most recent restore point click Yes. Now click ok on the Disk Cleanup window to allow Disk Cleanup to remove unnecessary files from the computer.
5. Disable any Windows Services that you don't use by following, Black Vipers Services Guide.
6. Download and run Auslogics Disk Defrag. Make sure to uncheck any toolbars in the installtion wizard as they are not needed. After the installation finishes, open the program. When you open the program click on Settings< Defrag Priority and select High Priority. Then click on Settings< Program Settings< Algorithms Tab. Select the Delete temporary files before defragmenting checkbox and select the Move system files to the beginning on the disk checkbox. When done click Ok to close the Settings window. When you are ready to start the defragmentation process select the small down arrow next to the word Defrag and select Defrag and Optimize. The process could take a long time so please be patient. Download it from here, Auslogics Disk Defrag.
7. Download and run QuickSys RegDefrag. After you download the zipped folder on your desktop, right click the zipped folder and click Extract All. After the folder has been extracted open the regular folder. Run the QRegDefrag.exe program. When the program opens click the Defrag Registry button and then click the Analyze button. When the process finishes analyzing click the Defrag button followed by clicking the Restart button to finish the registry defrag process. Download it from here, QuickSys RegDefrag.
8. Download and run Autoruns. After you download the zipped folder on your desktop, right click the zipped folder and click Extract All. After the folder has been extracted open the regular folder. Run the autoruns.exe program. When you open the program click the Logon Tab and then highlight and remove any programs that you don't need to startup with your computer. Download it from here, Autoruns.
9. Click Start< Right Click My Computer and click Properties. In the System Properties window click the Advanced tab< Under where it says Performance hit the settings button. In the Performance Options window click the Advanced tab and under Virtual Memory click the Change button. In the Virtual Memory window make sure your harddrive is selected and select the option that says System Managed Size and click the Set button. Now click Ok on the Virtual Memory window to close it. Now in the Performance Options window click the Data Execution Prevention tab and select the option that says Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select. After thats done click Ok on all the windows to close them out and reboot the computer.
10. Click Start< Run and type fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1 and hit enter. After that command has been entered, click Start< Run again, delete the contents in the Run box and now type fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1 and hit enter. For more information about what these commands do take a look here, NTFS Performance Tweaks.
11. Take a look at these three links to further speed up your computer, Make Windows XP Shut Down Faster, Speed up Windows Start Menu, Automatically end tasks at shutdown.
12. Could you let me know what security programs that you have installed?
13. How many processes are running in Task Manager?

Let me know if your computer is any faster after performing the above steps.

Also please enter your System Details. It helps us in answering your questions.

Note: A common error is to forget to show your System Details in your profile:

Make sure to do the above when entering your System Details, thanks.

 

Go ahead and run Auslogics Disk Defrag when you are finished performing all of the other steps on my list.

Regarding Symantec, do you pay for that security program? If you do I would recommend that you remove Symantec by using the Norton Removal Tool and replace it with a free alternative security program such as Microsoft Security Essentials. Also the Symantec programs have a reputation for slowing your computer down due to the amount of processes that program runs in the background.

After you finish all of the steps in my list, lets see what processes are actually running on your system. Download and run Process Explorer from here. Extract the contents of the folder and then run the procexp.exe program. After it opens see if you can pinpoint any processes that you don't need running and find out which ones are taking up most of the CPU usage.

After you have monitored the processes in Process Explorer click File< Save As and save the ProcessXP text file to your desktop.

Open the text file and copy and paste the results here in your next reply with the number of processes the computer is running.

 

Uh oh. Whats the exact error message that you are getting? How do you know that the harddrive is failing? Did this error message happen randomly or has this issue been going on for a while?

 

I would check out the harddrive using the manufacturer's disk diagnostics:

ExcelStore

Fujitsu

Hitachi/IBM

Samsung

Seagate, Maxtor, Quantum

Toshiba

Western Digital

If the harddrive fails the diagnostics test then the harddrive has died and you will have to get it replaced.