Why is my PC crawling to a halt?

.Griff. · 23 Oct 2007 at 18:21

My system specs are in my sig and I'm using Vista x64 (Ultimate Retail) as my OS. All the relevant drivers are installed and up to date and Windows itself is fully up to date. I've got NOD32 installed and that's not flagged up anything at all.

For the majority of the time I'm simply browsing the web which is hardly taxing on the PC and all is fine. However show the PC anything remotely taxing is it falls to it's knee's.

I'm currently patching BF2142 and it's been running for about 40 minutes so far and it's on 48%. Switching between IE7 and Installshield Wizard (The patch) takes about 25 seconds.

It's almost as if it's using 100% of the cpu but in reality it's using about 7% and only 42% of the memory is in use.

Any idea's as it's driving me nuts and if a simple patch takes this long how's it going to cope with office Ultimate and PS?!?

swinnie · 23 Oct 2007 at 20:24

Could it be worth getting another 2Gb of RAM as that is one advantage of a 64-Bit OS as it can utilise 4GB as appossed to 3Gb, I would imagine it could be a reason.

swinnie · 23 Oct 2007 at 20:26

Run Spybot and AdAware...update them first then do the deepest scan you can.

Fire Wizard · 23 Oct 2007 at 21:45

Hey WWS|Griff, before you started patching Battlefield, how did your system run when switcing between programs and playing a game for example?

swinnie said:
Could it be worth getting another 2Gb of RAM as that is one advantage of a 64-Bit OS as it can utilise 4GB as appossed to 3Gb, I would imagine it could be a reason.

Hey swinnie, adding more memory to he's system wont make a difference since this problem lays elsewhere. It shouldn't take 25 seconds to switch between programs even if you have 1GB of memory.

swinnie · 23 Oct 2007 at 21:47

Fire Wizard said:
Hey swinnie, adding more memory to he's system wont make a difference since this problem lays elsewhere. It shouldn't take 25 seconds to switch between programs even if you have 1GB of memory.

Sorry........it's me day dreaming again (and wishful thinking I think [wishfully])

bledd · 24 Oct 2007 at 00:53

check temperatures

might be badly overheating, then the cpu is running slower to keep the temps down

IAmATeaf · 24 Oct 2007 at 22:14

I downloaded SpyBot/SpyWareBot, claims it's free but then after detecting things asks me to register and then pay, is this what others are getting or am I doing something wrong?

bledd · 24 Oct 2007 at 23:33

that's probably a virus!

spybot s&d

thats what you want

RobH · 25 Oct 2007 at 00:50

Is there much disk activity going on? Disk IO is one thing that grinds my system to a halt even with my spec.

Dual core processors really do help when multitasking as normally a program can only use up to 100% of one processor, leaving the other one free to process requests from anything else running.

Energize · 25 Oct 2007 at 02:18

Run chkdsk.

.Griff. · 25 Oct 2007 at 12:40

In answer to the two questions above...

Energize said:
Run chkdsk.

I did that yesterday morning. I'm not sure if it was meant to take 90 minutes but it did. No errors or anything obvious came back.

RobH said:
Is there much disk activity going on? Disk IO is one thing that grinds my system to a halt even with my spec.

Dual core processors really do help when multitasking as normally a program can only use up to 100% of one processor, leaving the other one free to process requests from anything else running.

Funny you should mention disk activity.

I had Utorrent running the other night and as it was a well seeded torrent it was downloading at a decent speed. Rather than sit and stare at Utorrent I opened media player to listen to some music. As soon as I did this I notice download speed in Utorrent crawl to a halt and a message along the lines of "100% disk overload" appear at the bottom (almost as if Windows couldn't cope with running two applications at the same time). If I closed media player the warning disappeared and the torrents increased in speed back to normal.

Not sure if that's some generic Utorrent warning or if it suggests there's a problem with my HD!?!?

swinnie · 25 Oct 2007 at 14:15

As bledd. said check the temperatures, might indicate some issues that could be causing 100% use of the processor and high disk access.

.Griff. · 25 Oct 2007 at 14:18

Thermal throttling was one of the first tings I thought of but the temps are fine.

swinnie · 25 Oct 2007 at 14:24

Reinstall of Vista!?

Fire Wizard · 25 Oct 2007 at 14:38

Hey WWS|Griff,

WWS|Griff said:
I did that yesterday morning. I'm not sure if it was meant to take 90 minutes but it did. No errors or anything obvious came back.

The error checking can take quite a while, theirs nothing to worry about their.

WWS|Griff said:
Funny you should mention disk activity.

I had Utorrent running the other night and as it was a well seeded torrent it was downloading at a decent speed. Rather than sit and stare at Utorrent I opened media player to listen to some music. As soon as I did this I notice download speed in Utorrent crawl to a halt and a message along the lines of "100% disk overload" appear at the bottom (almost as if Windows couldn't cope with running two applications at the same time). If I closed media player the warning disappeared and the torrents increased in speed back to normal.

Not sure if that's some generic Utorrent warning or if it suggests there's a problem with my HD!?!?

The 100% disk overload is actually to do with Utorrent itself.

How does your system run when say for example running a game?

hp7909 · 25 Oct 2007 at 14:55

HijackThis scan? Copy paste scan result on here.

.Griff. · 25 Oct 2007 at 15:01

Fire Wizard said:
Hey WWS|Griff,

The error checking can take quite a while, theirs nothing to worry about their.

The 100% disk overload is actually to do with Utorrent itself.

How does your system run when say for example running a game?

Strangely enough it's fine. It really does seem that if it's got one application to concentrate on it's fine but add a second, third or fourth and it can't cope.

.Griff. · 25 Oct 2007 at 15:01

hp7909 said:
HijackThis scan? Copy paste scan result on here.

It came back with a couple of unknowns but nothing alarming.

Code:

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 14:58:54, on 25/10/2007
Platform: Windows Vista  (WinNT 6.00.1904)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v7.00 (7.00.6000.16546)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
E:\Windows\SysWOW64\CTxfispi.exe
E:\Program Files\Common Files\Logitech\LCD Manager\Applets\LCDMedia.exe
E:\Program Files (x86)\MSN Messenger\msnmsgr.exe
E:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe
E:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Nero\Lib\NMBgMonitor.exe
E:\Program Files (x86)\ESET\nod32kui.exe
E:\Program Files (x86)\Sony Ericsson\Mobile2\Application Launcher\Application Launcher.exe
E:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\jusched.exe
E:\Windows\SysWOW64\CtHelper.exe
E:\Windows\SysWOW64\Ctxfihlp.exe
E:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Teleca Shared\Generic.exe
E:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Nero\Lib\NMIndexStoreSvr.exe
E:\Program Files (x86)\Sony Ericsson\Mobile2\Mobile Phone Monitor\epmworker.exe
E:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
E:\Program Files (x86)\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = 
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch = 
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName = 
F2 - REG:system.ini: UserInit=userinit.exe
O1 - Hosts: ::1 localhost
O2 - BHO: IE7Pro - {00011268-E188-40DF-A514-835FCD78B1BF} - E:\Program Files (x86)\IE7Pro\IE7Pro.dll
O2 - BHO: Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - E:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: Enterra Download Manager Helper - {2956DD50-4F3E-4C20-81D1-FF36435FF288} - E:\Program Files (x86)\Enterra\Download Manager\edm.dll
O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - E:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {7E853D72-626A-48EC-A868-BA8D5E23E045} - (no file)
O3 - Toolbar: Enterra Download Manager - {B5147546-9359-4D9B-8B36-F54C54555799} - E:\Program Files (x86)\Enterra\Download Manager\edm.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [nod32kui] "E:\Program Files (x86)\Eset\nod32kui.exe" /WAITSERVICE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [StartCCC] "E:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\CLIStart.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Sony Ericsson PC Suite] "E:\Program Files (x86)\Sony Ericsson\Mobile2\Application Launcher\Application Launcher.exe" /startoptions
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] "E:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\jusched.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NBKeyScan] "E:\Program Files (x86)\Nero\Nero8\Nero BackItUp\NBKeyScan.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adobe Reader Speed Launcher] "E:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 8.0\Reader\Reader_sl.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [EasyTuneV] "E:\Program Files (x86)\Gigabyte\ET5\ETcall.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AsioThk32Reg] REGSVR32.EXE /S CTASIO.DLL
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CTHelper] CTHELPER.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CTxfiHlp] CTXFIHLP.EXE
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Sidebar] E:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [MsnMsgr] "E:\Program Files (x86)\MSN Messenger\MsnMsgr.Exe" /background
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Steam] "E:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe" -silent
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [BgMonitor_{79662E04-7C6C-4d9f-84C7-88D8A56B10AA}] "E:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Nero\Lib\NMBgMonitor.exe"
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [WMPNSCFG] E:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\WMPNSCFG.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [DAEMON Tools] "E:\Program Files (x86)\DAEMON Tools\daemon.exe" -lang 1033
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [WindowsWelcomeCenter] rundll32.exe oobefldr.dll,ShowWelcomeCenter (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O8 - Extra context menu item: &Download by Enterra Download Manager - res://E:\Program Files (x86)\Enterra\Download Manager\edm.dll/3000
O8 - Extra context menu item: &ieSpell Options - res://E:\Program Files (x86)\ieSpell\iespell.dll/SPELLOPTION.HTM
O8 - Extra context menu item: Check &Spelling - res://E:\Program Files (x86)\ieSpell\iespell.dll/SPELLCHECK.HTM
O8 - Extra context menu item: Lookup on Merriam Webster - file://E:\Program Files (x86)\ieSpell\Merriam Webster.HTM
O8 - Extra context menu item: Lookup on Wikipedia - file://E:\Program Files (x86)\ieSpell\wikipedia.HTM
O9 - Extra button: IE7Pro Preferences - {0026439F-A980-4f18-8C95-4F1CBBF9C1D8} - E:\Program Files (x86)\IE7Pro\IE7Pro.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: IE7Pro Preferences - {0026439F-A980-4f18-8C95-4F1CBBF9C1D8} - E:\Program Files (x86)\IE7Pro\IE7Pro.dll
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - E:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - E:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra button: ieSpell - {0E17D5B7-9F5D-4fee-9DF6-CA6EE38B68A8} - E:\Program Files (x86)\ieSpell\iespell.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: ieSpell - {0E17D5B7-9F5D-4fee-9DF6-CA6EE38B68A8} - E:\Program Files (x86)\ieSpell\iespell.dll
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {1606D6F9-9D3B-4aea-A025-ED5B2FD488E7} - E:\Program Files (x86)\ieSpell\iespell.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: ieSpell Options - {1606D6F9-9D3B-4aea-A025-ED5B2FD488E7} - E:\Program Files (x86)\ieSpell\iespell.dll
O9 - Extra button: Enterra Download Manager - {1AB6CC97-17C1-4207-BC51-5C9D435A338E} - res://E:\Program Files (x86)\Enterra\Download Manager\edm.dll/3002 (file missing)
O13 - Gopher Prefix: 
O16 - DPF: {D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000} (Shockwave Flash Object) - https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab
O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{BBCDDE83-C5C0-44FD-A55F-004D3BDE84EB}: NameServer = 208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\Alg.exe,-112 (ALG) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\System32\alg.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: Ati External Event Utility - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\Ati2evxx.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @dfsrres.dll,-101 (DFSR) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\DFSR.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\fxsresm.dll,-118 (Fax) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\fxssvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - E:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\11\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe
O23 - Service: @keyiso.dll,-100 (KeyIso) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @comres.dll,-2797 (MSDTC) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\System32\msdtc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: Nero BackItUp Scheduler 3 - Nero AG - E:\Program Files (x86)\Nero\Nero8\Nero BackItUp\NBService.exe
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\System32\netlogon.dll,-102 (Netlogon) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: NMIndexingService - Nero AG - E:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Nero\Lib\NMIndexingService.exe
O23 - Service: NOD32 Kernel Service (NOD32krn) - Eset  - E:\Program Files (x86)\Eset\nod32krn.exe
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\psbase.dll,-300 (ProtectedStorage) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\Locator.exe,-2 (RpcLocator) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\locator.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\samsrv.dll,-1 (SamSs) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\SLsvc.exe,-101 (slsvc) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\SLsvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\snmptrap.exe,-3 (SNMPTRAP) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\System32\snmptrap.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\spoolsv.exe,-1 (Spooler) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: Steam Client Service - Valve Corporation - E:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Steam\SteamService.exe
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\ui0detect.exe,-101 (UI0Detect) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\UI0Detect.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\vds.exe,-100 (vds) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\System32\vds.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\vssvc.exe,-102 (VSS) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\vssvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\wbengine.exe,-104 (wbengine) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\wbengine.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%Systemroot%\system32\wbem\wmiapsrv.exe,-110 (wmiApSrv) - Unknown owner - E:\Windows\system32\wbem\WmiApSrv.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe,-101 (WMPNetworkSvc) - Unknown owner - E:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe (file missing)

--
End of file - 9680 bytes

IAmATeaf · 25 Oct 2007 at 22:11

bledd. said:
that's probably a virus!

spybot s&d

thats what you want

Thanks mate, ended up with something called spywarebot but have now got the search and destroy product

Fire Wizard · 26 Oct 2007 at 10:49

WWS|Griff said:
Strangely enough it's fine. It really does seem that if it's got one application to concentrate on it's fine but add a second, third or fourth and it can't cope.

Hey WWS|Griff, very strange problem you have their. Is this a newly built system and have you had this problem from the beginning or has it just come about?

You could try running Disk Defragmenter if you haven't already done. It may also be worth running Memtest just to check your memory isn't faulty. If after you have ran disk defragmenter and Memtest doesn’t report any errors then I would back everything up, wipe your hard disk completely and then do a fresh installation of Windows Vista.