A problem with my PC?

[PeaTea87]

Hello to every one out there. Recently I have been having some problems with my PC For some reason, all programs have been running verry slow. For instance if I am watching a video or listening to music, it run extremely slow causing the audio and visuals to stutter quite a bit. Even general operations such as opeoning folders cause it to happen. Just wondering if anyone would have any idea as to what is causing this.
If it matters I have a acer Aspire 5610.....
Thanks.

 

[ChrisP.Lettuce]

Well, since I'm not a hardcore PC gamer or programmer I will try to add what help I can from my casual experience. My computers only seem to bog down for a couple reasons. #1 is spyware/viruses, #2 is temperature, other than that I'm not sure about hardware problems. If you computer was running well before and then this happened then I'm sure it's some sort of malicious software. I've never had a hardware breakdown that allowed me to boot up.

I had a problem once, my computer is located very near the heating duct, and right at the beginning of the cold season here in Ontario I noticed some major performance problems. Stupid me, I checked my specs and my video card etc were running at 45 degrees celsius or more. I air blasted it out, moved it away from the duct, and haven't had problems since.

My girlfriend's laptop also had a problem where the standard antivirus that Compaq(shudder) includes somehow decided that Windows Framework 2.0 was bad news and deleted it. It would run for around 5 seconds, then freeze for 10, then run for 5, freeze for 10 etc. I hunted down the framework again and no problems.

 

[Forestwolfss]

I have had many problems of this sort. The useual cause is spyware/adware/virus. Also if your temp folder is full your computer tends to slow down... dramaticly.
Try running a disk clean up by right clicking your drive, selecting properties and then disk clean up.
Run a spyare/adware scan followed by a virus scan.
If that fails a disk defrag is in order.
If that fails you may have to reformat the drive and reinstall you OS.

 

[Nugoo]

I had something like this happen recently, but I suspect that what happened to me is a pretty rare occurrence, so try the other stuff first (except the format. It could be the same thing if it's mostly hard drive reading and writing that take a really long time and eat up, like, 100% CPU (or less if you have multiple cores).

Anyway, what happened to me was my hard drive started reading in PIO mode instead of DMA mode. If it's that, yo can find a fix at http://winhlp.com/node/10.

 

[WingedFortress]

I asked my old man(He's an IT guy) and he said run a de-frag, clear up your hard drive space, run some optimization software(Norton, etc), and buy more RAM.
Hope any of that helps.

 

[Cousin_IT]

If all else fails, give ur PC a running kick (hitting my old laptops keyboard with a stapler used to be the only way to get the damn thing to work, but thats what u get for spilling milkshake all over it). It may (read, definately) wont help, but it sure is satisfying...unless u break ur foot that is.

Also delete some unused files/programmes, update ur media player (if can), defrag, scan for nasty things, etc etc.

 

[PeaTea87]

Wow thanks alot every one. I will try some of your suggestion and get back to you all.

 

[Colodomoko]

Hello to every one out there. Recently I have been having some problems with my PC For some reason, all programs have been running verry slow. For instance if I am watching a video or listening to music, it run extremely slow causing the audio and visuals to stutter quite a bit. Even general operations such as opeoning folders cause it to happen. Just wondering if anyone would have any idea as to what is causing this.
If it matters I have a acer Aspire 5610.....
Thanks.

The "DSL Virus", some kids hacked into a bunch of computers and now its in yours.

 

[werepossum]

If all else fails, give ur PC a running kick (hitting my old laptops keyboard with a stapler used to be the only way to get the damn thing to work, but thats what u get for spilling milkshake all over it).

Hah! I remember a story about a CPM machine (in the days before DOS), I've long since forgotten which machine, but it was a top-o-the-line business machine. They had built a computer with a cast aluminum frame, and it weighed 20 or 30 kilos. Problem was the heating and cooling cycles tended to warp the aluminum casting, which flexed the motherboard and thereby loosened the chips in their sockets leading to failures. Once the company isolated the problem they issued a bulletin instructing the users to lift the machine 25 or 30 cm above the desk and drop it (this was before hard disk drives.) The guy relating the story said nothing wakes up an office like a bunch of 20 or 30 kg machines being dropped onto desks.

On your machine, make sure you have up to date antivirus software, as there are numerous virus that make a machine act as a zombie, sending out spam. If you don't have an antivirus program running, Panda offers a free virus scan (Google Panda antivirus software.) Beyond that, go to "My Computer", highlight your "C" drive, right click and select "Properties". That should show you a pie chart showing how much hard drive space is left. If your available hard drive space gets too low, your paging space gets dificult to use, and your new programs don't load sequentially but rather in bits and pieces which slows access. If it is low (you need to keep at least 10% free), you'll need to delete some stuff or add another hard drive. If your hard drive is not full and you don't have a virus, then the defragging mentioned may help. You may also need to remove some programs from starting up automatically. Many software packages (including games) want to install utilities that run each time the computer starts, and those add up. You can find good tips on Kim Komando's web site, as well as links to good and free antivirus and spyware programs.

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

prob a virus dont ask me what one but chances are the way you got it was via; P2P downloads E.G Limewire or torrents, or going on naughty websites with a backdoor virus of some type

 

[ingsoc]

If you have had your computer for some time, there are a few other things that can and will slow down your computer. Windows tend to leave behind all kind of fragments and registry changes from the constant installation and removal of software (good and bad) and hardware. Here are a few tips that I have found helpful and some links for downloads. I will only reference software available from trusted sites (generally CNET or PC Word). Also an easy way to speed up a disk cleanup operation is to open your temporary documents folder by clicking Start then Run. In the dialogue box type in %temp% to open the folder without have to look for it. Then delete the contents of the folder. This may save you quite a bit of time depending on what is in the folder.

As stated, defragging your HDD is a good idea. Here is a link to Auslogics defrag utility. It is free and a lot faster than the Windows utility.

http://www.download.com/Auslogics-Disk-Defrag/3000-2094_4-10567503.html?tag=lst-1

Someone already suggested Ad-Aware and Spybot, which I also fully recommend. Here are download links.

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2007/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?tag=lst-2
http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html?tag=lst-1

Lastly, here is a wonderful and free utility that I use regularly. It is called CCleaner. It does a few things. First, it scrubs your computer for unused files. Windows does a very poor job of house cleaning and leaving fragments of all kinds of stuff everywhere. This program will find it and delete it. I recently ran this on a friends computer that was about three years old and running very slow taking about three minutes to startup. It removed 2GB of garbage and cut the startup time by 75% and the computer performed noticeably quicker. It also had a registry editor that will correct changes made the registry that could be causing you problems (CCleaner will prompt you to back up your registry before taking any corrective actions, listen to it). Finally, CCleaner provides a handy software remover that is faster and more thorough than Windows and will provide you will a pretty substantial list of installed programs. Windows does not show you everything. If you see something fishy, Google it.

http://www.download.com/CCleaner/3000-2144_4-10315544.html?tag=lst-1

Here is one more thing that may help. This is Auslogics System Information. It will give you a comprehensive list of everything going on inside your computer from hardware to software.

http://www.download.com/Auslogics-System-Information/3000-2094_4-10686831.html?tag=lst-4