Slow PC Help

Puppetmaster

Puppetmaster

Puppetmaster

Soldato
Joined
17 Jun 2005
Posts
6,514
Location
Near Brighton
Hello.

Friend came to me with a problem yesterday complaining about her pc running slow. Ive had a quick go on the pc and it seems its very sluggish when opeing my computer and when you try to read a cd, it goes extreamy slow. she is trying to backup some work onto a cd but my computer seems to crash everytime you try to access the disc.

No extra programs have been installed, done virus scan etc etc found nothing. Tried a system restore but it said nothing had changed so it couldnt complete the restore.

Its been running fine for several months but started to go slow middle of last week. As far as i can tell nothing has changed

Any ideas as to whats wrong. Sorry for the rather vague description.
 
Last edited:
Does that AV also scan for Spyware, if not run the free version of say Ad-Aware, then run CCleaner and get rid of junk.

Reboot doing a Chkdsk (3stages), then check if needs defragged.
 
Defrag it. Maybe run a HDD speed test and see what that says. Check msconfig and see if theres any un needed rubbish being loaded on startup

- Pea0n
 
To the above note about ad-aware.

Whilst it's a great program, you should be using it alongside something else like spybot search and destroy, since they both seem to excel at different areas and you have more chance of finding the nasties that way.

Although i always feels it's a moot point doing any sort of security after the initial setup of the machine. Without a read-only copy of system files that it can hash against, how will you ever know there is no infection? because a little box pops up and says so? you can't tell if that software was corrupted when you installed it...

Checking for programs running on startup is a good start, and use crap cleaner to remove temp files and repair the registry.

I normally don't bother, i'll just take a copy of their files (usually a complete dump, people ALWAYS forget htings) and re-install the OS.

If you expect the problem to happen again you could image the install to re-apply whenever needs be.
 
Indeed using Spybot and AdAware at the same time is good, but as another thought if the HDD might be looking to give up the ghost (if this was a sudden slow down) it might be an idea to make sure anything of value is backed up just incase it does kick the bucket.

- Pea0n
 
Sounds to me like it's possibly one of 3 things.

1.) HDD dying.
2.) Optical Drive dying (if PATA).
3.) IDE Controller dying.

You appear to have a general slow down on the bus.

Try disconnecting the CD-ROM and see if the system works any faster.

If not, see if the BIOS has a HDD test/SMART test and check it's results.
Download a copy of a HDD testing utility relevent to the HDD's manufacturer, and see what that says.

You could also daisy chain your friends HDD into your system as a slave and see if you have any problems access the content, if not, back up the data that they want to save, just incase!
 
slight update. Currently on the pc atm. Checked out eventvwr and this error is there a lot under system.

The device, \Device\CdRom0, has a bad block.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Also a hard disk error a couple of times

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Does this suggest that cd rom drive is broken?


event id for the cdrom is 7 and 11 for the hard drive
 
Last edited:
"The device, \Device\CdRom0, has a bad block" usually refers to bad media or failing optical drive.

Also with "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D" this points towards the IDE controller or a device attached to the same controller. It can also relate to the logic board on the HDD.

Cheapest/easiest thing to try first would be a replacement CD drive, or just disconnecting it from the bus.
 
I had this exact same thing happen on my ideq. Id only ever used a SATA HDD and a single PATA CD drive, but when I built it up top sell it I stuck a PATA HDD in meaning 2 devices on the channel and it kep producing those errors, running slow, restarting, etc.

Got it back, stuck in a SATA drive and worked fine. So i figurd the IDE controller was a bit borked and didnt like 2 devices...

If there is no SATA option however, then it may need a new mobo...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom