computer going slower than normal

[MisterSako]

ok my computer was running pretty much fine. one day i got bored i ran the windows defragger. only on my C drive, havent gotten to my D drive. but ive noticed exsp today that when doing tasks windows that i open take longer to load up etc. my system temperature is normal (96 degrees F, sometimes when i play games it goes up to around 100, but never over 100)

i dont know if it was the defragger. isnt it supposed to organize your systems files to INCREASE speed?

right now im running spybot search and destroy and norton anti virus. i run spybot regulary once a week to keep spyware/adware out.

anything else it might be? when i press ctrl alt del the cpu ussuage isnt even over 50%. im pretty good about knowing whats on my computer and keeping crap off it like spyware and freeware software(which sometimes has adware/spyware). i just cant seem to get whats causing it to run so slow.

[sean]

One idea that comes to mind (although I've only ever seen this on fairly old DOS systems) is that when you run a program designed to reorganize your file system, it may allocate extended memory (I think that's what it was called). Some programs require it, and if, when you run the program, it allocates more than for extended memory than it had before, it would leave you with less RAM, and thus have the adverse effect.

It's also quite common for your computer to just become overloaded with junk indistuingishable to your defragger from important files. My suggestion is to make sure you've backed up everything important and do acomplete reinstall, right down to your OS.

[MisterSako]

i have a gig of ram. i got this program called freeramxp pro. which monitors free ram and on the bottom right it says i have 48% free. which should be plenty of ram...

[Draco]

you may want to check how big your pagefile size is. Defrag shouldn't be able to cause a problem with it, but it's possible.

[RoD]

You know there is one thing ive noticed. If you defrag weekly, or even biweekly, it tends to improve performance. But ive found if your like my dad, or his freinds, who only do it every month or few months, it has a reverse effect.

Anyone else confirm this?

[Waldo2k2]

Not sure about the whole defragging thing...but I KNOW that those memory monitor/free'ers have a serious negative affect on pc performance. If you want to see how much ram you're using just use task manager, get rid of that piece of garbage and see what happens...btw, as a rule of thumb, if you're having trouble with windows paging (if that ever causes you trouble) and you have a gig of ram or more, disable the paging file for a couple of boots, re-enable it, and see how it goes (defragment during the times in which the paging file is disabled). And once that's done, set the paging file size yourself, give it a minimum of ram*2 and a max of ram*4.

[anonytmouse]

>> when i press ctrl alt del the cpu ussuage isnt even over 50%. <<

Your computer should idle at ~1% CPU usage. Open up task manager with Ctrl-Alt-Del and tell us which process(es) is/are eating up your CPU.

>> FreeRAM XP is a small, yet powerful memmory manager and optimizer that allows you to free unused Ram. <<

You know how this is done? It will simply allocate as much memory as it can which causes Windows to give up the non-essential memory it is using such as disk cache, executable cache, etc. When it frees the memory it has allocated the free RAM figure will jump making the user feel fuzzy inside. Of course, the next time they run a program or read or write from a file it will be significantly slower as Windows has to touch the hard disk, but they won't notice as they'll be convinced that their computer is running faster due to the placebo effect of seeing the free ram number doubling.

You can find source for a memory "optimizer" here.

[Draco]

RoD and anonymity mouse I agree with you both. I would defrag my pc every so often and it had no noticeable effect, but when I do it every week or two it helps. Also I've been using a memory manager called cachemanxp. "Freeing" the ram will sometimes help if I have half of it being used, but when I play a game or do something that uses up most or all of my 256Mb I have to shut it off because it only doubles loading times, and worse.

[Tankndozer]

One other problem that could be affecting your machine is when the last install was done. The windows registry becomes very clogged over time as many many keys that are entered as part of software installs etc. are NOT removed when the software is uninstalled. This is because many install/uninstall packages only add new values to existing keys within the registry. Many of these same packages cannot remove that value without removing the entire key and as such they just leave it there, which over time clogs up the registry.

Also, with regard to defraggers: there is HUGE differences between what defraggers you use. Most GOOD defraggers will ask you what kind of optimisation you wish to perform. e.g. putting commonly accessed files to the front of the drive, putting most (not neccessarily frequently) accessed files to the front and leaving leeway for the windows swap files. If no leeway is left for swap files, then the swap files themselves will start to cause your drive to fragment from the moment the defrag finishes by appending part of itself to the end of the drive's contiguous data as necessary. This also causes the knock-on effect of other new files being placed between parts of the swap files between appendings- result: further fragmentation, and long saving/seeking times.

This is is what causes some peoples systems to slow down after a defrag.

You should also note that for a defrag to be completely successful, you need at least 10% of your hard-drive free. Otherwise there is no space large enough to defragment larger files that may be in 100s of fragments. This problem can also be alleviated by using a good defragger. Most defraggers will NOT defrag a file at all if there is not enough space to reassemble it into one file. More advanced defraggers will defragment such files into 2 or 3 fragments if it cannot defrag to 1. A HUGE improvement on 100s of fragments, I'm sure you'll agree!!

In short- a complete system reinstall is to be recommended every 6 months (if you don't have the time to do that frequently, I recommend getting Symantec GHOST. Create an image of a clean install with all your common programs installed and save it on a seperate drive or partition, then it only takes 2/3 minutes to reimage your C drive with a clean install. Use Partition Magic if you need to repartition and keep your data. It's the only utility for repartitioning compatible with NTFS). Personally I do software packaging for a living so I frequently reGHOST my machine 3 times a day in the time it takes to have a coffee. For those of you who won't be reGHOSTing as often as me, I recommend getting a good defragger.

p.s. if you wish to make a perfectly clean install for the sake of making a good GHOST image (the process takes less than a day) I'd be happy to help if you need more info.

Hope this is all of some use.

p.p.s This is before one even BEGINS to cover the mess caused by the Master File Table (the free space in which can NOT be freed by a defrag- another good reason for a re-install if you have high file change-over rates).

[sean]

Here's my code for a memory optimizer

#include <stdio>
#include <stdlib>
using namespace std;
int main(void)
{
    unsigned long int c= 0;
    while(malloc(1))
    {
         c++; // So that's where they get the name...
    }
    printf("You have %d bytes of RAM", WASTED_MEMORY);
    return 0;
}

[Waldo2k2]

I think sean got it right

why the heck do you guys think that a program running under windows would be half as good at managing memory than the OS itself? It may have been more true in the days of 9x, but it was still just a scam then too.


Oh, and about norton Ghost? You don't need it. You can get the sysprep tool that comes with the xp cd and turn your entire install into it's own xp setup, then you simply install it again and no more fragmented files.

[Tankndozer]

Oh, and about norton Ghost? You don't need it. You can get the sysprep tool that comes with the xp cd and turn your entire install into it's own xp setup, then you simply install it again and no more fragmented files.

True. I simply mentioned Ghost as it is applicable to most windows systems in use (and any other partitions you may want to image- I've got FreeBSD on my machine as well).

I too would have to agree with Sean though!

[Stan100]

Wow, all I'm wondering is that you have 1 Gig of ram, and only 48% left? I have half that, and run with 58%, with Realplayer and VC++ running!

Get a trojan detector, because if it isn't your defragger, you've been busted with something. All that ram? Are you noticing any space being filled up?

[sean]

Good suggestion, but I'd also load up on the Spyware Detectors. AdAware is pretty good.

[Draco]

And to remove unused or obsolete entries from your registry, try RegCleaner, downloadable here . Note: if it gives you an option to clean obsolete dll's, don't do it.