Win2000 Pro really slow lately

I know there's plenty of posts about slow systems - and I have one more to add

My system is a P3, 550 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 20GB HD (with lots of free space), running Win2000 Pro. It's about 4 yrs old now. I'd say for the last 3 1/2 years, it's performed very well. I use Outlook Express, IE, MS Office tools, Quicken, photo editing, etc etc. I've tried to keep it clean with Norton AV, several spyware scanners, keep the disk defragged, and so on.

The last few months, there's been a noticeable decline in performance. Where it used to boot to the desktop in a couple of minutes, now it probably takes 10 mins. And it's slow from the start, slow during the "windows starting" logo, slow getting to the logon screen, and slow getting to the desktop. No error messages, just slow.

Running apps is becoming painful. NOW I'm taking a closer look at Task Manager. LOTS of page swapping. The disk light comes on and stays on solid for long periods. It's as if I suddenly lost part of my RAM. I've run a memory tester overnight and it checks out ok.

I don't think I've changed anything radical lately, but obviously something's changed. In browsing other posts, I've seen comments like Win2000 Pro can barely run in 128MB - which is kind of what I'm experiencing now!!

The question is: How did it run so well for the first 3 years? Any theories?

At todays RAM prices, I'll gladly increase the memory even though it's a 4 yr old machine - if that really is the problem.

Is it possible a rogue system file has found it's way inside and slowing things down?

Attached is the Hijack This file - see any nasties?

Thanks in advance for any comments and ideas.

Scott
-----------------------------------------
Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 5:19:35 PM, on 6/9/2005
Platform: Windows 2000 SP4 (WinNT 5.00.2195)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP1 (6.00.2800.1106)

Running processes:
C:\WINNT\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\services.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINNT\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\regsvc.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\MSTask.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\SPEEDD~1\nopdb.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\stisvc.exe
C:\WINNT\System32\WBEM\WinMgmt.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINNT\Explorer.EXE
C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\NORTON~1\navapw32.exe
C:\PROGRAM FILES\SCANJET\PrecisionScanPro\HPLamp.exe
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Hardware\Mouse\point32.exe
C:\WINNT\System32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3\hpztsb04.exe
C:\Program Files\QUICKENW\QWDLLS.EXE
C:\Program Files\Microsoft AntiSpyware\gcasDtServ.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\administrator\My Documents\Upgrades\Hijack This\HijackThis1991.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.canada.com/calgary
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.canada.com/calgary
R3 - Default URLSearchHook is missing
O2 - BHO: (no name) - SOFTWARE - (no file)
O2 - BHO: NAV Helper - {BDF3E430-B101-42AD-A544-FADC6B084872} - C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Norton AntiVirus - {42CDD1BF-3FFB-4238-8AD1-7859DF00B1D6} - C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: &Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINNT\system32\msdxm.ocx
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Synchronization Manager] mobsync.exe /logon
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NAV Agent] C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\NORTON~1\navapw32.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HP Lamp] C:\PROGRAM FILES\SCANJET\PrecisionScanPro\HPLamp.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [POINTER] C:\Program Files\Microsoft Hardware\Mouse\point32.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HPDJ Taskbar Utility] C:\WINNT\System32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3\hpztsb04.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Symantec NetDriver Monitor] C:\PROGRA~1\SYMNET~1\SNDMon.exe /Consumer
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [gcasServ] "C:\Program Files\Microsoft AntiSpyware\gcasServ.exe "
O4 - Global Startup: Quicken Startup.lnk = C:\Program Files\QUICKENW\QWDLLS.EXE
O4 - Global Startup: Billminder.lnk = C:\Program Files\QUICKENW\BILLMIND.EXE
O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Office.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\OSA9.EXE
O12 - Plugin for .pdf: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\PLUGINS\nppdf32.dll
O16 - DPF: {0A5FD7C5-A45C-49FC-ADB5-9952547D5715} (Creative Software AutoUpdate) - http://www.creative.com/su/ocx/12119/CTSUEng.cab
O16 - DPF: {0E5F0222-96B9-11D3-8997-00104BD12D94} (PCPitstop Utility) - http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/PCPitStop.CAB
O16 - DPF: {0EC4C9E3-EC6A-11CF-8E3B-444553540000} (WaveTab Control) - http://www.riffinteractive.com/setup/RiffLick.cab
O16 - DPF: {6414512B-B978-451D-A0D8-FCFDF33E833C} (WUWebControl Class) - http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/V5Controls/en/x86/client/wuweb_site.cab?1118290873534
O16 - DPF: {74D05D43-3236-11D4-BDCD-00C04F9A3B61} (HouseCall Control) - http://a840.g.akamai.net/7/840/537/bcd48c18cb7498/housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/xscan53.cab
O16 - DPF: {EB387D2F-E27B-4D36-979E-847D1036C65D} (QDiagHUpdateObj Class) - http://h30043.www3.hp.com/hpdj/en/check/qdiagh.cab?312
O16 - DPF: {F6ACF75C-C32C-447B-9BEF-46B766368D29} (Creative Software AutoUpdate Support Package) - http://www.creative.com/su/ocx/12119/CTPID.cab
O23 - Service: Creative Service for CDROM Access - Unknown owner - C:\WINNT\System32\CTSvcCDA.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service (dmadmin) - VERITAS Software Corp. - C:\WINNT\System32\dmadmin.exe
O23 - Service: Norton AntiVirus Auto Protect Service (navapsvc) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe
O23 - Service: Norton Unerase Protection (NProtectService) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton Utilities\NPROTECT.EXE
O23 - Service: ScriptBlocking Service (SBService) - Symantec Corporation - C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\SYMANT~1\SCRIPT~1\SBServ.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Network Drivers Service (SNDSrvc) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\SNDSrvc.exe
O23 - Service: Speed Disk service - Symantec Corporation - C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\SPEEDD~1\nopdb.exe
O23 - Service: SymWMI Service (SymWSC) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\SymWSC.exe

 

Its really hard to say why your system worked better for several years and is now experiencing slow down. You are correct in assuming that more memory will help. I would recommend at least 512MB. I recently spoke with a neighbor who had a similar problem, and after upgrading his system to 512MB, his system is much faster.
It is possible that system / application updates are just using more RAM than previous versions. Applications such as AV and spyware detectors also add to this increase in memory usage.

 

Eric, thanks for your comments.

I'm using Norton Systemworks 2002. In doing some more browsing, I've seen various comments about Norton Systemworks slowing down systems. It does install a number of processes - as can be seen in the hijack listing.

Personally, I find I'm using less and less of the Norton utilities - using it mainly for the anti-virus protection. But I could be convinced to get rid of it and try other anti-virus packages.

Any others have experience (good or bad) with Systemworks? Did it help or hurt your systems?

Thanks again.... Scott

 

Personally I like Norton. However I don't run System Works. I only use the Anti Virus. Running 2004. One of these days I'll install 2005 as I have it sitting here. Just haven't gotten around to it.

 

A further update to my slow system....

I did a cold boot of the system, probably took 10-15 mins to get to the windows desktop. First thing I did was start up Task Manager, sorting the display by Page Faults. The top 3 in the list were:

navapsvc.exe 20,574
winmgmt.exe 7,442
explorer.exe 7,218

Then I opened up Outlook Express, received 6 emails (took at least 5 mins to do this). Looked at Task Manager again to see number of page faullts for msimn.exe was 13,723.

I wish I had benchmark numbers to compare with several months ago, to know if these numbers are excessively high - they seem like it to me!

Anyone care to comment on the number of page faults? Is adding more memory the simple fix? Or should I look somewhere else?

Thanks.

 

My 2000 pro is running slow too. I have a number of problems that I need
help with.

Someone put some links to some **** sites in Favorites. When I delete them
they are right back in there after a reboot (I have deleted files and cookies).

I have cookies blocked.

Also, the home page keeps coming up About:blank even though I change
it to http://www.msn.com

running dsl and I.E. starts up without clicking on it.

I wish there was some program like MSStart (in win 98 == i think that was the name) that could show what is being started at startup (the startup in
programs>startup is empty.

I've run adaware and spybot and it gets rid of a lot bot some it cant.

I've run symatec antivirus and nothing was found.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Run Spybot after booting in safe mode. It should be able to then get rid of more.

Actually what someone probably did was install a program that is supposed to give free entry to **** sites. What it actually does is pretty much take over your system.

Look in Ad.Remove Programs for anything that stands out. Look for things that have dialer, about and such in the name and uninstall them. If you feel confident that you know what should be on your system you can uninstall other stuff that shouldn't be there but be carefull.

Come back and let us know what is going on.

 

Someone may correct me on this as the fault amounts aren't something I'm real familiar with but these numbers seem way out of line to me.

You may probably want to reinstall windows over itsself to see if it helps but wait and see if someone else confirms this or says no.

 

Thanks Jaylach, will try your suggestions and report back.

Actually, did go through the add/remove programs and did delete some stuff.
Will check it again though.

 

Buff,,,first thing I would do is dump Norton,,Symnatec and any other "anti-virus" software on your computer. Have you ever seen these things "stop" a virus. Long and short is they are worthless,,after you have a virus they "might" tell you what it is. Put Adaware and Spybot S&D on your computer, run these once a week and you should stay relatively "malware" free. Use RegSeeker to clean out your cookies and history - Windows Disk Cleanup is pretty weak. Since your boot time is so slow I would recommend running HiJackThis and post your results. Sounds like you have junk running in the background.

 

Norton AV has reported a blocked/deleted virus on my system quite often.

 

I run 3 different sytems in my home,,have been on DSL for 5 years without any anti-virus "software ". I run an on-line scan once a month and found one instance of a virus about a year and 1/2 ago. My personal stance is that the Nortons and McAfees are resource hogs and if one follows a common sense approach you do not need a virus scan constantly running. A bigger threat to your computer is malware and adware. I also am a certified tech, work out of my home and a vast majority of computers that I work on are loaded with re-directors, unnecessary cookies and just general **** that none of your "anti-virus" programs will protect you from. I have 2 teenage sons that built and maintain their own computers, without any anti-viral software. They are extreme on-line gamers, constantly downloading bots and patches without one instance of a virus. So you see why I don't care for anti-virus programs.

Norton and Symnatec are in the business to sell their product. Nothing wrong with that. But Dell, HP, Gateway and others use the selling point "includes anti-virus" software when they should be including AdAware, SpyBot S&d and HijackThis to protect their customers computer. But since it's all freeware,,they don't get the almighty dollar.

 

Well after several weeks of slow slow performance and troubleshooting, I finally took my system to a local tech.

He did a full hardware scan overnight. By the next day, it was still on the first pass (he usually does several passes of everything). It was still scanning the hard drive. He'd never seen anything like it. He finally cut it off and said to replace the hard drive.

Happy to report that all is well now. So I guess the lesson here is.... even without any error messages, there can be hardware problems.

Many thanks to you all for your earlier comments.