Very slow laptop/high PF Usage

Hi, I am visiting a relative and they are having trouble with their laptop. It is running extremely slowly during the most basic tasks (booting, shut down, opening web pages etc). I do not know why but have noticed that PF Usage/Commit Charge in task manager is already around 500 MB on initial start-up and quickly rises to 700+MB. If I try to do several tasks like downloading or accessing databases it can rise to 1 - 1.25 GB. CPU Usage seems ok (fluctuating between 2-20%) but can rise to 100% when the laptop freezes during tasks. The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 9400 (about 3.5 years old) with, I believe, 512MB of RAM. OS is XP (service pack 3). Mcafee doesnt detect anything, nor did Ad-aware. I ran Spybot which found a few cookies and there was a marginal improvement once they were removed. I have disabled all start-up programs via the system config utility, and removed all but the most essential programs, but again only a small improvement. It definitely feels like something isnt right. It is only needed for basic web-surfing so if anyone can help to enable it to do this at least it would be much appreciated. Merry xmas to all!

Hi JDSpurs, welcome to WhatTheTech and Merry Christmas.

Have you tried cleaning out all the temporary junk that collects on a system over time. This can have a big affect on performance.

See here: How to clean up your hard drive to increase free space NOW!

Also look at this one: How to free up space on your hard drive - long term

Many thanks Zt. Your articles were extremely interesting and certainly boosted my limited knowledge of how to 'clean' computers. I have run all the programs suggested and have certainly noticed an improvement. However, I feel the laptop is still slower than it should be. The PF usage/committ charge has decreased - starting at around 250MB on start-up, but quickly rising to 500-600 at normal use, and around 900 at it's peak. Would you say this is still high and would cause/be a sympton of the slowness? Anything else you can suggest would be awesome. Many thanks again

I know you said you disabled all start-up programs via the system config utility, and removed all but the most essential programs, but have you tried booting to Safe Mode with Networking to see how your system runs? If runs considerably better then there is still something starting at boot time that is slowing things down.

Hi Zt, Thanks for taking time to help with this. I booted in safe mode and it was so much faster. PF usage began at 95 MB and only reached 125 with web-surfing so I guess that proves that something is running on start-up in 'normal' mode. I have disabled every app which was set to start via system config utility so I'm a bit stumped. I noticed that there were 20 processes in task manager when booting in safe mode but approx 50 when booting normally. Can I conclude that it is one of these causing the problem then? None are taking noticable CPU. I googled any 'suspicious' looking processes but didnt find anything untoward. As always, any advice on how to proceed is much appreciated.

Hi, until Ztruker gets back, you could try this….. 1disconnect from the Internet.(pull the plug so you don't inadvertantly connect) 2 Use msconfig to "disable all" (this will stop your protections/anti virus etc, so that's why we disconnect from the net first) 3 Enable each item one at a time trying out your machine in the meantime. This is tedious but eventually your machine will exhibit all the "old" symptoms and you will have found your culprit. 4 A way to speed up the process is to enable 50 % of all the items (noting down which ones you have enabled)… and then try the computer if it still runs fast and sweet then the problem lies with the other 50% which you did not enable……. so repeat the process using half again (noting down which ones you have enabled)…. its a lot quicker than doing them one at a time! Regards paws

Hi Paws, Thanks for the advice. Can I clarify something though - is it all the 'start-up' programs whch you suggest systematically testing? If so, I have actually disabled all start-ups and still experience the symptons. It is only when I boot in safe mode that it runs at correct speed. I do not know enough about the difference between safe mode and normal mode to be able to diagnose further. Do I understand correctly? Apologies if not!

Yes, that is what Paws was suggesting. Since you already did this, take the next step. Click on the Services tab, then check the box that says to hide all MS services. Click the Disable all button, then reboot and see what happens. As Paws mentioned, disconnect from the internet this time also, as some of the services you will be disabling will affect your AV software.

Thanks Zt. I did as you advised and PF usage dropped from 500-600 to just under 400, with a minimal increase in performance. Just to summarize the situation after the in-depth clean-out then: All services running: 500-600 MB Only Microsoft services: 400 MB Safe mode: 125 MB At this stage I am directly associating PF usage with the speed of the laptop as the lower PF usage, the faster it seems to run. Is this correct/logical? Do you think that 400Mb PF usage is high for a system running only Microsoft services? By the way, I noticed there were 26 processes running when booting with only Microsoft programs, as opposed to 20 when in safe mode. Does this mean that 1 or some of these 6 extra programs are responsible for the increase in PF usage from 125 to 400 Mb?