at least I think nothing is wrong, technically anyway - running XP SP3 on a relatively newer computer (well not that new, but new compared to when XP was released)

so I have up-to-date antivirus software, though it may not be the best (using Norton 360)

I use ccleaner, malwarebytes, and perfectdisk

they all seem to say that nothing is wrong. I did notice that PerfectDisk only took like 5-10 minutes to defrag - maybe I've got a bad copy of it or something

maybe I need to use the ccleaner one more time, I don't know

I'm just experiencing lag that I never used to - like when I type, sometimes it gets hung up for 2-3 seconds before it responds

one thing I've been doing lately differently is posting on the IGN forums, and I think they might be kinda slow to load. but it doesn't seem like that would affect everything, would it?

any tips would be appreciated

otherwise I think I'll just reformat again...

4/5/2011 3:44:25 PM

4/5/2011 3:54:54 PM

ha

I thought about making that joke in the OP

actually i just ran ccleaner and it sped up a good bit

there's probably something else I need to do though

4/5/2011 4:01:21 PM

do a CTRL+ALT+DELETE and show us the processes tab.


then run hijackthis and post the logs.

4/5/2011 4:04:08 PM

Boot into safemode with networking (f8 when you boot) and check the performance. I would assume the memory hungry bitch that is norton 360 might be slowing you down a bit.

Finally type msconfig in the run command and check what is starting up when you load windows. I typically recommend only your antivirus, graphics and audio, intel/amd, and windows start up, trackpad if you are using a laptop, everything else can wait.

4/5/2011 11:52:15 PM

I actually ran ccleaner again and it helped a whole lot

but if it arises again by tomorrow, I'm going to try what you guys suggested

thanks for the help

4/6/2011 1:42:11 AM

Use Process Explorer instead of Task Manager
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

And Autoruns instead of msconfig
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

4/6/2011 7:24:48 AM

maybe it was the older Firefox that was the problem?

I can't really pinpoint it precisely, but I upgraded Firefox and the problem pretty much went away

it was going reasonably faster before I upgraded though

so who knows

I will bump this thread if I need major help in the future

4/10/2011 10:13:01 PM

Maybe it was a malfunctioning plugin or extension; Firefox now blacklists certain plugins, and a few extensions still haven't been updated to work with Firefox 4.

4/10/2011 10:57:04 PM

I think that may very well be it

not sure which one it was though, but everything is working pretty great now

4/10/2011 10:58:35 PM

chrome >> firefox

4/10/2011 11:30:59 PM

I'm getting sick of your attitude synapse!

4/10/2011 11:39:55 PM

It's worth pointing out this:

Quote :

"(well not that new, but new compared to when XP was released)"

XP was released in October of 2001 (or somewhere around there). So saying that it's new relative to XP's release isn't saying much, since XP is about 10 year old as it is now.

4/10/2011 11:45:26 PM

Well Chrome *is* faster and more stable and secure than Firefox, but it's much less extensible, and its stability-enhancing tab/plugin/extension process separation hogs memory like a mofo (that fact alone IMO is why Google didn't bother sending Chrome out to the underpowered PPC Macs and Win2K boxes).

4/10/2011 11:49:32 PM

Do a clean install of windows. Windows 7 that is.

The combination of your 5 or 6 pieces of anti everything software are very likely the culprit to your per problems, in addition to running an OS that is severely out of date and prone to being compromised by the very things you're trying to protect it from.

4/11/2011 12:50:06 AM

As long as the OP isn't defragging all the time and doesn't use MalwareBytes in resident mode, I fail to see how they're slowing him down (however I can understand Norton 360 doing so...MSE4LYFE).

Also CCleaner isn't an "anti-anything" program; it merely clears out temp files and browser caches and can remove Registry entries made invalid when programs were uninstalled or malware was cleaned up.

Now something that *may* cause the system to run slow is just having a lot of programs installed, making the SOFTWARE registry hive huge; similarly there could be a problem with having a lot of programs unnecessarily starting up at launch.

IMO the reason it tool PerfectDisk so little time to defrag is that the HDD is almost completely defragged.


BTW I wholeheartedly support a move to Windows 7, so all those applications that make use of IE internally can benefit from the security enhancements to IE9, which will never work on Windows XP or earlier.
(and also so that apps can benefit from DEP and ASLR, if the OP's processor even supports those things)

[Edited on April 11, 2011 at 1:15 AM. Reason : The only two pieces of "anti-anything" software I saw were MalwareBytes and Norton, quite reasonable]

4/11/2011 1:14:45 AM

Is it getting super hot? I have fixed many a slow laptop by un-clogging the heatsink and fan. Lint and hair completely clog it and jam the fan, computer overhears and goes into safe mode, ect.

4/11/2011 3:58:47 PM