My computer is really slow

[J-M v2.5.5]

I had some hard disk errors last week so I did a full reinstall, but my PC is still really slow. Sometimes it can take up to two minutes to start up simple applications such as Explorer or Internet Explorer.

I did a full virus scan with McAfee, I checked for spyware with ZoneAlarm, and after that I did a full scan with Hitman Pro. Some files were found and deleted, but they were mostly tracking cookies and other low-profile things. I also did a full hard drive check (my HDD is 250 GB in size, divided into three partitions, and I checked them all) but while that was running I was gone. Still, when I got back I just saw the log-in screen, so I assume that the hard drive check finished successfully.

I can't figure out what's lagging my PC like this, but I am still guessing that my HDD is somehow messed up.

Does anybody know what could possibly be slowing my PC so much?

Edit: I just remembered that the problems started sometime after installing some demo to my PC and having my PC crash after it. According to Windows, my PC "might have crashed" while files were writing to the HDD. At any rate, I noticed a considerable slowdown after this particular crash.
In fact, I also just remembered how my PC refused to boot XP, so I had to boot in Vista to fix my C:\ partition (I don't have Vista on my PC anymore, by the way).

Edit 2: More info that might be useful: when you're installing XP, your computer restarts a few times. At one point during the reinstallation, my PC restarted (which was indeed supposed to happen), and at the window where it would usually give the "start from CD?" prompt, it didn't respond anymore. The prompt wasn't there either, just a flickering "|". So I waited a few minutes, but nothing happened. So I hit the reset button and I noticed how I didn't have any graphical output anymore; my monitor wasn't displaying anything. After another vicious attack on the reset button, I still didn't get any display. Hooking up a different monitor didn't do crap either, so I put in a different videocard (my sister's GeForce 7600 GS). That one gave me display, so I put back my own GeForce 7800 GTX, thinking the problem might've been solved. No display. Sister's GeForce 7600 GS back in, reinstall finalization, critical Windows updates, antivirus, ForceWare drivers. After installing the ForceWare drivers I put my own videocard back in and I had display again, but in somewhat odd colours. So I reinstalled the ForceWare drivers and now everything seems to be okay (the Call of Duty 4 demo runs fine, just like it did before the reinstall).

I don't really want to attempt another reinstall because I might get the whole temporarily-switch-to-a-different-videocard crap again, but I thought this information might somehow be useful, so I posted it.

 

[Belmont]

I had that too, but I'd recommend you to check for Virus and Spyware with better programs, Avast and SuperAntiSpyware are recommended, if that doesnt help, if you have your older Graphic card, change it and try, if that it isnt either, you should consider checking if you are getting CPU overheat and if you arent getting it, it might be the HDD that has been damaged, it happened to me before.

I mostly think it's the hardrive that has been damaged, but it can be any of those things too.

 

[Thraxis]

This sounds like the exact same thing that forced me over to Vista. Although I had an outdated copy of xp so there were major security isses in it. I know you don't want to, but if you must reformat again, try to back up only your most important files that you couldn't replace (music library, files you made yourself, etc). After doing this to my brother computer a few years after xp was out (think it was 05) it was back on and working fine.

Avast, Bitdefender, and ADP (think that's right, thoth reccomended it in a thread not too long ago) only found low profile things after 3 days of running safe mode and scanning with one, then another, then another. All while watching to see where it was picking these things up, just incase of a crash. Nothing worked. So dad was like "Your moving with your auntee and uncle to bel-air" and I got vista -.-.

 

[Blasto121]

I say

1. Update your BIOS, when was the last time you did this?

2. hit your hard drive with a zero fill tool. <- totally awesome converts all your bits on the drive to 0 makes it run like brand new. This has saved my computer more than once, and a few HDD I though where defective.

3. update your BIOS and zero fill your drive.


While I am sure there are lovely patches one can do to keep ones current install working fine, I prefer to attack the issue at its root. These two things are what have fixed my computer the most for the longest times compared to any registry tweaks or silly patches.

*edit*
I guess I should add if you have questions on how to perform these tasks I am more than happy to explain them to you.

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

I've never done a BIOS update in my life so I don't know how to do that, and I'm assuming I have to backup about 40 GB of files before I do a zero-fill thingy thing?

Ah well as long as it works. The only reason I didn't reformat my entire drive (only the C:\ partition, which is 125 out of 250 GB) is because I have tons of crap backupped on D:\ and E:\ which I didn't want to move to an EHDD.

But I know I should just erase everything completely on the HDD. So please fill me in on the BIOS updating and the zero-fill thing

 

[Blasto121]

BIOS today is rather easy, most do it through windows. I can get you started if you tell me what your motherboard model number is and the company that built it.

as for the zero-fill, Ulitmate Boot Disk is your friend -> http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/

just download the iso and burn to disk, boot with said burned disk and you can run all the tests you want on your computer. This is of course the BIOS updated doesn't fix your computer.

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

BIOS today is rather easy, most do it through windows. I can get you started if you tell me what your motherboard model number is and the company that built it.

as for the zero-fill, Ulitmate Boot Disk is your friend -> http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/

just download the iso and burn to disk, boot with said burned disk and you can run all the tests you want on your computer. This is of course the BIOS updated doesn't fix your computer.

I have an MS-7091 from MSI which can not be found on the MSI homepage
It's some lame OEM motherboard.

Edit: And do I have to backup all my files before I run this Ultimate Boot Disk?

 

[Sabre]

I'd put everything you want to keep on a backup, cause zerofill erases everything clean. (If I am not mistaken)

 

[Blasto121]

I have an MS-7091 from MSI which can not be found on the MSI homepage
It's some lame OEM motherboard.

Edit: And do I have to backup all my files before I run this Ultimate Boot Disk?

no you don't have to back up your data to run the disk, I do recommend backing up your data if you plan to do a zero fill. Zero fill does just what it says it does, converts every bit on your hard drive to a zero. Makes the data "raw" vs just writing over the top of old data.

The Ultimate Boot Disk is a lovely tool, its a linux based bootable disk that contains tons of utilities for computers, ranging from memory testers, hard disk format utilities, to data recovery programs.

 

[CrazyMonkeyDude]

Is there a list of games I can get that are known to work on linux's WINE? I think that might be the deciding factor on wether I back up and switch one of these days.

 

[Blasto121]

Alright, after some intensive research and making sure my facts are correct about your motherboard I found both your new BIOS, and a way for you to flash it that won't drive you mad.

as a technician I have to cover my ass and say this -> I can not be blamed for any issues that arise because of what I have told you. I am trying to help in good faith but just like anything in this world something can go wrong.

So anyway...

This is the flash utility I would suggest here. its a windows based utility, most people will tell you not to use these for risk of breaking your computer. However unlike the dos versions if this one screws up you can keep trying until it works (don't worry its never failed me or anyone else I helped with this).

this contains the BIOS, its an extractable exe to start, just run it and extract the files to the desktop or something, doesn't matter really. Once extracted your looking for one particular file -> W7091IM7.50C This file is your BIOS update.

Now that you have both the utility to flash your BIOS and the BIOS update itself its time to get started!

first things first, look at your motherboard in the bottom right corner there should be a little square with a flashy sticker on it. That should be your BIOS I need you to make sure your BIOS is a Phoenix Award BIOS, if it has the word phoenix on it then we may proceed if it does not DO NOT ATTEMPT.

now open up WinFlash it should fill your whole screen. in the middle you should see the writable and unwritable memory blocks in your ram and right above that it should tell you what your BIOS is if you do not see something starting with MS then a list of numbers and dashes take caution.

Now for a safety net lets make a backup of your BIOS click file->save old bios, simple enough, then just click backup on the pop-up window. If this fails to backup your BIOS DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FLASH IT.

ok so if you are this far and all things are cleared then you should be good to go, this is real simple, go to file->update BIOS, look for the BIOS file select it. Now click start its the blue quick launch button under options. It takes about 60 seconds then assuming everything went alright no errors restart your computer go into your bios and play with your new settings and other stuff. Hopefully your computer feels better and functions like it did before.

In the event you did try and flash and something did go wrong, you options are this if still in windows do another flash with your backup this will return it to the way it was. If that fails or the computer turned off... well you should contact me asap so I can help you fix it, this is an extreme cases though

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

Sounds pretty scary
I'll try it friday, because I want to spend the rest of the evening burning some games to DVD (something I've been wanting to do for half a year now, also helps free some drive space and decreases the amount of GBs I have to backup) and tomorrow I'm going to a friend who's having his birthday (other side of the country, where he studies, so I'll be away).

Edit: Just checked, I have a Phoenix BIOS.

 

[Blasto121]

Is there a list of games I can get that are known to work on linux's WINE? I think that might be the deciding factor on wether I back up and switch one of these days.

the list would be rather small, while a lot of people are switching gamers won't or at least the majority of gamers won't. While linux is a nice operating system it still can't run WIN32 application natively this means that direct X has to be translated in order to get anything to work right. This only leads to more issues down the road. I use linux mostly as a utility, bootable versions of linux like Knoppix are very fun to play with. If you want to know what linux feels like, download the latest version of Knoppix its a CD based OS, so you can run it without touching the files on your HD drive.

Anyway http://appdb.winehq.org/ this will show what is and whats not compatible.

 

[dRkILL]

Okay, so you were having disk errors and decided to reformat?

No, go get your hard disk's diagnostics disk (you can download it from the manufacturer's site if yours did not come with one) and go test out your drive.

 

[Blasto121]

UBCD contains most HDD testing tools already

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

now open up WinFlash it should fill your whole screen. in the middle you should see the writable and unwritable memory blocks in your ram and right above that it should tell you what your BIOS is if you do not see something starting with MS then a list of numbers and dashes take caution.

I see "Grantsdale-6A79DM4IC-00" but I'm going to try to flash the BIOS anyway.

My computer annoyed me so hard for the past hour that I'm on the verge of ****ing killing somebody.

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

The backup went successful. I actually made about eight backups to see if their sizes matched (I like to be certain).

The BIOS update also went successful, or at least I think it did. I saw the progress bar, it didn't freeze, it completed, the program prompted me to restart, but when I load up WinFlash again, it still says that my BIOS is "Grantsdale-6A79DM4IC-00". Is this supposed to happen?

Here's what the "BIOS Information..." menu says:


I forgot how to access the BIOS... Do I have to press F10 or something while my computer starts? Do I actually have to adjust crap in the BIOS now?

And most importantly: how do I know if this worked?

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

I did notice a small difference after the BIOS update;
When my PC boots up, I now see the new Intel Pentium Inside logo instead of the Intel Inside Pentium 4 HT logo which I always used to see.

 

[Tentadrilus]

That's weird. I don't like the idea of 'flashing the BIOS anyway'. Are you sure that was really what you needed to do?

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

Well, no, not at all.

My dad recommended this program called Uniblue RegistryBooster which cleaned and defragmented my registry. My PC seemed to work just fine again after that, but now it still lags like shit sometimes when I open simple programs such as Paint.

And the BIOS update (assuming it worked) didn't help either.
Blasto121 suggested I'd update my BIOS because he figured that might work. And right now I'm going to try everything because I'm going ****ing crazy. This lag is unbelievable.

I just had to wait three minutes for WordPad to open. What the hell?

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

This shit is killing me. I've already been screwing with this god damn computer for three hours straight and I must've had at least fifteen resets already, if not twenty.

I guess I'll try that zero fill thing this weekend because man this is pissing me off.

 

[Belmont]

If the Zero fill doesn't fix it, reformatting should be your next step, if that also fails, I think your HDD might be damaged (I had that, but it wasnt this bad) I hope a zero fill / reformat can fix the problem for you.

 

[Blasto121]

zero fill is formating...

to bad the BIOS update didn't help, well at least you now have access to new features you most likely won't use

In the end nothing really gets past the zero fill, if its a software slow down this will get it. every single bit on the HDD is returned to 0 so there is zero carry over from previous installs.

If your computer is still slow and sluggish after the zero fill and a clean install you may possibly have a hardware issue. I highly doubt thats the issue.

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

I guess I'll try the zero fill then in the weekend.
Hmm... now to backup 50 GB of files...

 

[tehrilez]

if updating the bios did nothing all you really can do is backup everything and reformat. If that doesn't work.. I dunno.