slow start-up/slow performance, not malware

I originally posted in the infection removal forum and after going through various steps it was suggested to try and solve my problem here. I'm seeking help with a Compaq Presario CQ50-115NR Notebook PC that used to run pretty fast. start-up and shut down are painfully slow as is the overall operation. Below is the link to my original post.

http://forums.whatthetech.com/slow_start_u…707#entry610707

I'm hoping to avoid having to remove and reinstall the operating system. Thanks for any help you can offer.

Try using msconfig to determine what is causing the problem. Before you do any of the following, record what is currently being started on the Startup and Services tabs so you can put things back when done.

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP or Vista:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista

First, open Control Panel and click on Windows Firewall. If it's Off, turn it on because you will be disabling any other Firewall and Anti-virus in the following steps.

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab then the Disable All button.
Reboot and see how your system works now.
If okay then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, enable the Startup items you disabled, then click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see how your system works now.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best. Enable everything else you disabled.

Disable Windows Firewall if you enabled it at the start of this process.

my startup section was already pretty lean. i've disabled everything under services that i can. is it possible that the culprit could reside in the 100+ microsoft services that you had me hide? and if so, how could i figure out what is and isn't necessary to have running?

Anything is possible, but it's more likely to be some other cause. Let's check to see if your hard drive is running in DMA Mode or not.

Right click on My Computer and choose Properties. Click the Hardware tab, then the Device Manager button. In the list of devices, expand (click +) IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. In the expanded list, right click on Primary IDE channel and choose Properties…click on the Advanced Settings tab in the resulting window. This should open a window with one or more devices listed and show the transfer mode information for each. Make sure the Transfer Mode is DMA/Ultra DMA.

Above posted by wannabe1 on GeeksToGo: http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Help-badly-…ary+ide+channel

If it's okay, then let's get a PCPitStop report to look at.

Please Run the PCPitstop Full Tests, here: PCPitstop Full Tests

You must use Internet Explorer as it needs to install an ActiveX program.

Note: Vista users with UAC must first Right-click IE - Select "Run as Administrator"

If you haven't already registered, Click - Sign up now! (left hand column in User Login)

Register and create a password
Accept the ActiveX component to allow your machine to run the Full Tests
Registering and accepting the ActiveX are both SAFE and FREE.

The Full Tests take less than 5 minutes for most machines.

Once you have your Results, please post the URL (the http:// stuff) back here into this thread for review.

Note: Vista users, please close your instance of IE "Running as Administrator" after you are finished reviewing your Results.

Caution: During the testing of Video Adapter, a variety of patterns, shapes, colors and text are “flashed” onto the users monitor screen. In the many thousands of daily uses of the PCPitstop Full Tests over several years, two individuals who suffer epilepsy experienced discomfort and temporary dizziness when viewing the flashing patterns.

If you know that you are susceptible to photo driven seizure, please look away from your screen during the Video Adapter testing sequence.

Note: The PCPitstop Full Tests Results is a free service, but is supported by various paid product advertisements for utilities that "could" remedy the OP's problem.

Since this site is a "free-help" forum, we do not recommend or endorse purchase of automated utilities, and will assist you in manually correcting any problems and settings necessary to optimize your machine's performance. Ask your questions here. We'll help you walk through any necessary steps.

Under the IDE ATA/ATApi controller section I have no Primary IDE channel listed. I have 4 IDE channels and 2 standard dual channel PCI IDE contollers all of which appear to working properly. I went ahead and ran the pit stop tests. The results link is:

http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/sec.asp?conid=22966783

If you open Properties for each of the IDE Channels and look on the Advanced tab, what is the current DMA mode? S/B Ultra DMA 5 I think.

PCPitStop didn't show much, but I'll list what I did note:

1. You have multiple back level versions of Java. Download and run JavaRA to clean up the old ones and install the latest JRE 6 U17.

2. You also appear to have two Anti virus programs installed and running, AVG 8.5 and a-squared Free 4.5. Pick one and uninstall the other.

Did you update to IE 8 or did the computer come with IE 8 installed? If you updated, you might want to try uninstalling it via Programs and Features. This will give you IE 7 back, see if that makes a difference.

One last test. How does it boot and perform if you boot to Safe Mode with Networking? That gives you the minimum service and driver load at startup.

i ran JavaRa to clean up old versions of java. i don't think i had the anti-virus features of a-squared installed, but un-installed it completely anyway. I only use IE when forced to (such as running pcpitstop). i didn't see how to roll-back IE to version 7. Finally, i re-booted to enter safe mode. It seemed to take a long time to load the necessary files. Once I got to the windows logon screen, it seemed to boot a little faster than normal mode.

Actually Ztruker, the PCPitStop tests do show horrible hard drive performance: http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/tips/DskS…ort=Performance

I've only seen this when the drives are not running in DMA mode. There is definitely a bottleneck there. Its a laptop too, which suggests the drive has fallen into PIO mode due to disk read errors caused by bad sectors on the hard drive. I'll let you take it from there.

Thanks, I see what you mean. I just ran PCPitStop Full test on my computer and I'm getting 37Mb/s where loureed101 is only getting 10 mb/s.

loureed101, did you go back and check for DMA mode as I asked? If so, what is shown? On my Dell Precision 370 with one IDE and two SATA drives, I see the following:

[external image: Posted Image]
[external image: Posted Image]

Rich, are you running a Vista theme on your XP box? EDIT: Oh, nevermind, I see that you are also running Windows 7.

Here is a screenshot on XP: 📎IDE_DMA.JPG

Loureed101 has Vista according to PCPitStop, so it should look a lot like or identical to Windows 7.

You're right.. I guess reading a PCPitStop scan takes two people. I assumed, based on the user's profile. It lists Win XP.

the first 2 ide channels listed have nothing in the devices window (jpg 1). the 2nd 2 have DMA mode listed (jpg 2).

Hi Loureed… One of the channels should list the name of your hard drive and its DMA mode. The screenshot you took shows your CD-Rom. Can you please verify that you see the name of your hard drive and its DMA mode on one of those channels? Your hard drive might be a Seagate, or a western digital, or hitachi, etc. But, it won't say CD-rom.