[geargrrl]

LOL, I am tech support around here. (laughable but I try)

Mr Geargrrls work computer is running slow. Its a XP custom build, not a lot of crap programs on it. I run spybot, adaware and avg on it regularly but it seems to just be bogging down. His programs are things like Office, Adobe,Quckbooks but nothing that I would think is a resources suck.

System specs:
XP home
AMD 64
3000+
1.81 GHZ, 512 RAM

C drive, 18.5/39 GB
D drive, 24/35 GB

I tried to write that for how full is drive to size of drive.
Could it be all the music he's got on that D drive is slowing things down?

I have tunes up utilities on my system ( and yes I know it's just a repackaged registry cleaner) and I never get slow like he does,might that be a place to start?

Any ideas on what else I can check?

thanks as always

gg

 

[stinkyboy]

Link.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Couple of apps to help him track down the issues:

CCleaner - check to see what all the apps are in the Startup. Eliminate as necessary
Process Explorer - will allow further investigation of what might be causing the "bog"

Has he done any disk defragmentation analysis lately?

 

[geargrrl]

I checked the processes, AVG is the #1 user, followed by windows.

We do defrag, how to analyze?

I am thinking that maybe more RAM is the answer. He's usually got Outlook, Excel, Word, Adobe and Quickbooks running at the same time.

I compared to my system, which has 2 GB ram to his 512.

 

[SkaredShtles]

<snip>
I am thinking that maybe more RAM is the answer. He's usually got Outlook, Excel, Word, Adobe and Quickbooks running at the same time.

I compared to my system, which has 2 GB ram to his 512.

You just answered your question. Check Process Explorer and see how much "paging" is going on. If paging is happening then it means the system is using DISK to act as "memory" which is horrendously slow compared to using RAM.

 

[geargrrl]

Define paging, please. I could see that Windows and AVG are using the most "stuff".

Learn as I go I guess.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Define paging, please. I could see that Windows and AVG are using the most "stuff".

Learn as I go I guess.

Wikipedia to the rescue!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paging

Basically when you run out of RAM instead of crashing a computer uses disk space as memory. And since disk is HORRENDOUSLY slow compared to memory, a PC will seem to "slow down" when this "disk memory" is being utilized.

 

[geargrrl]

Is this where I check the performance tab, it tells total-paged-nonpaged memory? I really don't know what I am doing here. ;-)

 

[SkaredShtles]

Is this where I check the performance tab, it tells total-paged-nonpaged memory? I really don't know what I am doing here. ;-)

To be honest, I'm not sure where you get paging stats from a Winders system with the built-in tools. Get that Process Explorer... it has more detailed stats...

 

[berkshire_rider]

I checked the processes, AVG is the #1 user, followed by windows.

We do defrag, how to analyze?

I am thinking that maybe more RAM is the answer. He's usually got Outlook, Excel, Word, Adobe and Quickbooks running at the same time.

I compared to my system, which has 2 GB ram to his 512.

Checking paged memory:
Task Manager>Performance Tab - Lower left corner shows paged and non-paged memory.

Bumping up your memory to 2gb should fix your problems. Even a move to 1gb should be noticeable.

Outlook and Adobe are both crap programs that can bog down a system. Is this for work? Using a different email program (Thunderbird) would help. If he is only using Adobe reader, uninstall it and go with Fox-It reader. Adobe is a hugely bloated program that can constantly cause problems. The entire Fox-it reader program is smaller is size than an "update" from Adobe.

 

[geargrrl]

Yes for work.

He does a ton of engineering reports.

thanks I am going to look into the RAM thing.