Computer recently slowed down...

[HiTempguy1]

I don't really know what happened. About 3 weeks ago, my computer just started to run "slower". While I normally have 50 bajillion tabs open in IE7, the computer now lags and pauses between opening of a couple of tabs.

I thought I might have gotten a virus, so I downloaded/updated AVG 8.5, Spybot SD, and I've always ran crapcleaner. Nothing is coming back with any hits, and my computer still runs dog slow. I know M$ released alot of updates over November, and was wondering if this was the problem?

I'm seriously considering buying an OEM copy of windows 7 for $130, as this is ridiculous.

Comp specs (its a HP reman) running on 32bit vista:

AMD 64 X2 3600+
2gigs of 5300DDR2

Any thoughts?

Here is a pic of task manager and how much mem and what not is being used. (this is with 15 tabs opened in IE7).

http://usera.ImageCave.com/bkburger123/computertaskmanager.jpg

[sr20s14zenki]

Thats the biggest problem with vista, it all the sudden decides it wants all your memory to itself. Windows 7 is EXCELLENT, im very happy with it. Im running a legit OEM 64bit version, and I love it. I ran the DTM release and i liked it as well, very stable, and fast.

[revelations]

Likely your drive is starting to act up - a little.

Not sure with Vista but in XP you can run Windows performance tools to see if your seek times, etc. is the culprit.

How long has it been since the drive has been wiped clean and the OS reinstalled?

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by revelations
Likely your drive is starting to act up - a little.

Not sure with Vista but in XP you can run Windows performance tools to see if your seek times, etc. is the culprit.

How long has it been since the drive has been wiped clean and the OS reinstalled?

Lesse, computer was bought two years ago on boxing day. Therefore, the OS install was new then :eek: So therefore, you are recommending I not only reformat (which is understandable, considering the gigabytes of shit I download/go through per month) but also a new HD?

If thats the case, here is hoping Futureshop/Bestbuy has a sale for $200 computers so I can cannibalize this one and get windows 7 :thumbsup:

Anybody else got any opinions? You seem to know what you are talking about revelations, and while I'm not awesome with computers, I do understand what you are getting at.

[revelations]

Not a new drive..... what can happen - esp with heavy use - is the drive slowly starts to lose "track" of data on the disk - or at least gets harder to find. This can manifest itself in many ways depending on the drive, computer, etc.

The drive has built-in error correcting methods, but once it gets past a certain point, you will start to lose files and have to start from scratch.



It still may not be the drives fault, could be something else like too much dust in your PC causing the system to heat and the CPU to turn itself down a bit.

[dragonone]

werd

format, defrag etc.

[Kardon]

I'd go for a defrag, and perhaps just check the HDD itself and make sure its got at least 10GB free, if not, time to upgrade.

Edit: Could be something with IE, have you tried dumping out your cookies and cache?

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by Kardon
I'd go for a defrag, and perhaps just check the HDD itself and make sure its got at least 10GB free, if not, time to upgrade.

Edit: Could be something with IE, have you tried dumping out your cookies and cache?

I defrag at least once a month, even if Vista doesn't "recommend" it.

Definitly have more then 10gigs free, I have almost 1tb of usable space through the three HD's that I have ;)

I have a program called speedfan that monitors CPU/GPU temps and all of my fan speeds. Doesn't seem to be an issue, I regularily delve into the computer (added a better PSU so I could run a PCIX gpu, another harddrive, more ram, etc) and it isn't very dirty.

I always delete cookies/cache once every couple of days (Never know when you've picked up the ugly stuff).

Thanks for the tips guys, sounds like I am coming closer to a reformat. Woohoo Christmas time! ;)

[snoop101]

I stopped reading at the 3rd line that said IE7. Theres your issue right there. Sure theres probably some maintanance to be done, but you first thing should be to download firefox.

And yes buy win 7 :D