hello everyone,

i'm running xp pro sp3 on a dell inspiron b130 laptop. it's a bit of an older model, but i'm having slowness issues with it. it's not spywared / malwared at all. one thing i noticed is the sound skips around really bad when i listen to music. i have defragged the drive, configured the boot to use minimal programs on startup (therefore less memory) by way of start - > run -> msconfig. i have used check disk utility, but still my computer runs slower. what else could be slowing down my computer? i would really appreciate the help. i need this computer running faster, so i can use it for my work. it's too slow.

-etidd

I don't know about what you've asked about, but what your describing sounds like the drive is getting full, obviously this will be a gradual process over time, click on Start - My Computer and you will see the drive, right click on the drive and select properties, this will show you how full it is and how much free space you have, let us know what that shows, my bet is it's pretty full.

Get and run the following file cleaners, they will remove the junk files and empty your bin, so be aware if you binned something by accident and run these it will be gone, but it will not touch any of your files.
Disk Cleaner, CCleaner and CleanUp.

Also click on Start - Control Panel - System, click on the System Restore tab and drag the slider down to 3% then run the cleaners, this should free up a fair bit, see how that helps.

free space: 46.4 GB
total size: 74.5 GB

not full at all.

Not what I expected, the symptoms fitted it perfectly, OK lets see whats running in the background, it may be a case of the system is so busy it's trying to catch up all the time, hence the delays, give it the 3 finger salute (press ctrl + alt + del at the same time), then look at the bottom bar of the task manager window, it will show a %age of the systems use the higher that is the more it's playing catch up.
If it is showing high enough to wonder click on the processes tab, underneath it will list them all, take note of the %age column, click on the head where it say %age and it will list them in order of use, you may need to click it a 2nd time to get them listed from the top down, 1st click may list them the other way up, see what this shows.

right now, the computer is showing an avg. of 25% cpu usage with only the internet and winamp running. that's bad! only 37 total processes. 428 mb page file usage.. the cpu usage jumps to almost 100% at times. is that all you needed to know?

It seems to confirm my suspicion of your system playing catch up, when it hit's 100% that means it's maxed out, and the more you try to do the slower it will do it.
Have you clicked on the Processes tab and taken note of the processes that are showing their %age usage ?
when the system is running clicking on the head of the tab as I explained above means they will jump about in order of most activity, so you can see what is running at the highest rate, then it may give a clue, but as well as that all I can suggest ATM is to run a scan at the Pit, then post the link for the results back here and maybe we can advise on what may help, it will also allow us to see your system spec to get an idea of what you have.
You will need to sign up so the test can be save and the link posted back here so we can view it, but it's free and safe, so do these things and we can try and suggest things to try.

well, i ran the tests now, but i don't see a unique link to the results. hmm.....

thanks for help.

The actual url is the link now, they used to have a specific link, but not anymore, so log into your account and go to your test you've already run, then just copy that url (address) back here then people can view the results, hope that makes sense lol.

http://pcpitstop.com/neptune.asp

if you want my login info. i don't care, i'll pm it to you.

Hello etidd

The link that you have supplied is actually a link to the log in page if you use a Mozilla Firefox or Opera browser,
these browsers can be used to run the pitstop test,
Though it may be wise to use Internet Explorer 7, (or higher) to run the pitstop test, then copy/paste the URL into your next reply,
it should look something like this~ http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/sec.asp?conid=22109668

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Regards,
Jkc73

http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/sec.asp?c...;report=Summary

there it is.

Hi etidd

After looking at your PCPitstop Report, I believe this following link will assist in removing some of the clutter on your machine.

After you have completed the directions on the forum page listed in the link above, please post back how your machine is running.

Best Regards,
Jkc73

hmm, maybe it's not running as slow as i say it is (well, it is slower), but i can't listen to any audio on the computer without the sound skipping/cutting out. maybe a reinstall of the sound drivers will make that better?

Well, I typed this once, and lost my post.. I love it when that happens.

I want to point out, according to your PCPitStop tests, you have an 80GB internal hard drive in your laptop and a 250Gb external hard drive hooked up via USB presumably. I want to point out that your external hard drive is getting 15MB/s speed, and your internal hard drive is getting a lousy, measly 1MB/s. There is a significant speed problem with your hard drive, and likely the reason why your sound and everything else is skipping.

Please read here at PCPitStop under "Make sure DMA is enabled.": http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/tips/DskS...?conid=22223576

If DMA has been turned off and switched to PIO mode then this could be a sign of hard drive read errors caused by a failing hard drive. Laptops are prone to hard drive failure because they are banged around so much. Further hard drive diagnostics should be done.