Hard Drive Slowing Down PC

Well first I would check for upgrades to my graphics card and register the product....That way if any fixes for glitches exist, I'll have them out straight away.....Next I would look in the card control panel for any instant load settings, or pre-load page options.....There's several ways to get to desk top settings, right click on desk top, select settings....

You can check the sleep/hibernate options under Control Panel/Power Options.

Have you done some of the simple maintenance things? Is it dirty? The floor is a worse place than a desktop due to the fuzz there; pet hair/dander can be a problem. Did one of the cooling fans quit? Overheated components can lead to erratic behavior. Open up the tower and see how much crud is in there and that all fans are running. (I have an air compresser to blow it out if needed, but cans of compressed air are available.)

What about defragmentation--have you done it recently? Have you checked the hard-drive to see how full it is? There are a number of programs that claim to speed up your computer; I suspect many are advertising hype, but there seem to be a few decent ones. Do you have (and use) an updated virus scanner? Have you done the Microsoft updates? Etc.

1. Are you sure all your memory is actually good? Run a memory checker. If you have some bad memory, the system might be swapping frequently to the disk. One would expect this with such things as memory-hungry CAD applications. If you watch your start-up screen very, very closely, down in the lower left corner instructions should flash telling you to press some key (varies for different BIOS's) to enter set-up mode, or for alternative start menus (i.e., safe mode, etc.). There should be a memory test in there somewhere.

2. Is it possible your hard drive is failing? I have encountered situations where bad sectors start showing up on the hard drive randomly, but increasing in number over time. The computer continues to try to use this drive by writing around bad sectors, which can ultimately really, really slow things down. There are programs for read/write tests of the hard drive, as well as for scanning for bad sectors. I don't have any quick references handy.

3. How long since you cleaned up your registry? Try running ccleaner or equivalent.

2. Are the graphics card drivers compatible with Windows XP? Some newer cards may have memory and GPU's that Windows XP doesn't know about, so it puts all the load on your main memory and CPU.

If all else fails, try Linux. You will be surprised how much more performance you can get out of old hardware from Linux. Many of the commercial CAD packages run fine under the Wine emulator (maybe you need to add some *.dll's to get this to work), or most everything will run with Windows XP in a VirtualBox installation (or VMWare, if price is no object).

2. With XP, I think you can run chkdsk off the command line. On the main menu XP has a 'run' button (or you can intercept windows boot up and select 'command line only). Best google the parameters to use first.

it's called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memtest86

I would:

1. Deselecting 'allow indexing' on the C drive.

2. Deselecting 'allow compression' on the C-drive.

3. Performing disk cleanup and then de-fragmenting the C-drive.

4. Use good registration clean up utility from cnet

5. Definitely make a backup of your Cdrive in case it is about to fail.

6. Although it is not likely to be the direct cause of the slowdown, a bad power supply and or frequent power transients can hasten the demise of hard drives. Checking the power supply voltages is simple. Frequent brownouts, blackouts or surges can certainly hasten the demise of lots of different equipment, and a dying computer power supply could easily be a consequence.

My daughters Laptop was running slow. Once I had sdjusted the hard disk power down times it was considerably better (I changed it to 1 hour), but it was still slow.

I ran a bit of software that I run each week on mine and it came up with 20,000 errors!!!! After the software had fixed everything (it took 3 hours), the laptop ran like new.....The software costs around €40 for a year, but it really does work and is very simple to use.....

http://www.auslogics.com/en/cpages/free-system-scan/?source=smenu&reason=disk-defrag

You can test it for free before deciding....it really does work, even on Win7.

Usual disclaimer, I have no financial involvement with this company, I pay too....

If speed is your problem the solid state hard drives are very fast. (PC WORLD/July 2012, pg 38,39)

I run XP on 3 machines.

When the hard drive is getting full my PC slows alot. All machines behave the same way.

Transfer data or delete permanently to free up some space.

If your hardrive has partitioning then make the Cdrive larger.

Defragging helps too but not as much as making room.

The slowing down of the PC and the hardrive spooling up when you run your graphics software points to insufficient RAM.

Change the virtual memory size to a manually set size, I usually double the available RAM size and set that as the virtual memory. Do this after a full defrag so the new file will get a permanent contiguous place on the hard drive. The setting is under My Computer/ Properties/ Performance.

Set all the graphics settings while in there to "Best Performance".

Turn off ALL power monitoring/adjustments especially"spin down hard disks when possible".

Someone said to not compress the hard drive but that can actually speed things up. If your memory is large enough, and your processor clock speed is high enough, then you can realize a gain in speed because a compressed file reads from the slower hard drive FASTER than the same file uncompressed. Decompression then happens in memory at the speed of the bus. A hard drive is 1000 times slower than the system bus. You have to do tests with and without compression on your system to see if it will help or not.

If you suspect a hardware issue, then install Linux along side your Windows and see if Linux has the same issues. Also, the Linux installation will include a MEM check routine at boot time that can help diagnose system/board/memory issues.

Deefburger is correct. I should have been more detailed when suggesting to have the c drive not compress.

All of the slow-down problems I have had with XP have had either CPU and/or RAM operating at capacity (that I can recall at the moment... Microsoft provides such a rich experience in this area it is difficult to be certain I am recalling every treasured instance). In those cases, not-compressing will generally help speed things up.

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The quick check is just to check out processor and memory usage via task manager when you are having the problem. If CPU or RAM are not maxed out, then compressing is probably the better/faster option.

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Right you are on recommending a brainier graphics card with its own processor.

1G of RAM gets things humming along nicely.

with MS-Win the "internet" says that setting up the pagefile.sys (windows swap) in multiple partitions or in different than windows partition will improve performance (whitch is bulls) you want to keep the 1 and only pagefile.sys in the root DIR of your WINDOWS partition (and yes, ... keep enough continuous free space avail there)

how many times we have to specify this ...

if you running your office/home pc you can have active desktop screenies power savings and graphics "enchangements" set (to extra drain your CPU and make your sys more un-stable)

if you want to do work ... you eigter want specially designed software other than windows OR to dump all unnecessary along with power-savings, internet, java, flash, multimedia & ... off your sys

How graphics cards and other devices affect memory limits Devices have to map their memory below 4 GB for compatibility with non-PAE-aware Windows releases. Therefore, if the system has 4GB of RAM, some of it is either disabled or is remapped above 4GB by the BIOS. If the memory is remapped, X64 Windows can use this memory. X86 client versions of Windows don't support physical memory above the 4GB mark, so they can't access these remapped regions. Any X64 Windows or X86 Server release can. X86 client versions with PAE enabled do have a usable 37-bit (128 GB) physical address space. The limit that these versions impose is the highest permitted physical RAM address, not the size of the IO space. That means PAE-aware drivers can actually use physical space above 4 GB if they want. For example, drivers could map the "lost" memory regions located above 4 GB and expose this memory as a RAM disk. Related topics 4-Gigabyte Tuning IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE Physical Address Extension http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms680349(v=vs.85).aspx

ParetoLogic PC Health has proven invaluable in my efforts to purge dead software. There are no alien "Mal" software resident in memory and I have discarded many traditional add-ons in an attempt to reduce wasted space in memory.

Amongst the most notorious intruders are the many files installed by Norton Utilities and it's companion, Norton Internet Security. Both hog enormous amounts of memory too.

I've concluded that software developers are sloppier than ever. Gone are the days of writing in Machine Language which gave us instant results with minimal memory.

Developers apparently no longer consider these older machines when writing software. Any incentive to write code efficiently has been tossed knowing that today's modern platforms and OS have a lot of space.

While I have neutered a lot of programs, the problem persists. Until the hard drive wakes up, spools up to speed, the executed program doesn't work and when it does, the hard drive slows down again.

I would like to find out how to adjust the space allotted in memory that prevents disk caching. Is that what "Page-file" does? Or, failing that block out a portion of the four gigs installed and use that as a virtual drive.

Or maybe I should simply buy a solid state drive and put all the executables and OS on that!

BTW, what I wrote suggested that the problem is most severe when running CAD software (SolidWorks). That was not accurate. It happens most all the time.

To all those who have offered support . . . . thanks

L.J.

lj, you actually only have at MOST 3 gig of memory to work in. windows takes a minimum of a Gig of memory all unto itself. anything you take out as a ram drive is inaccessible to the OS so you are effectively shooting yourself in the foot which is why ramdrives don't exist anymore. the swap or page file is the temporary file created on the HD that windows is constantly (and i do mean constantly) swapping chunks of memory back and forth to/from. putting a solid state drive in the machine and putting the swap file on it would do you a WORLD of good.

Thank you BWire!!

I disabled the write-behind feature as the web site suggested and the change was immediately apparent.

The most frustrating example of the problem was at web sites where i uploaded rendered images (JPG's) of 3D cad designs. Paging through each image took forever as the hard drive would spool up and down for each image. And, of course, I had to sit there and wait.

Not any more! With the write-behind feature neutered, the hard drive is silent and the images can be paged through with lightning speed.

Thank you. Thank you Thank you!

And I'll still buy a SS drive.The power supply is modern and has the power connectors for the new generation devices. Hopefully, they have an adapter for the older motherboards that will allow the SSD to run along side IDE's.

To all who lent their support, Thanks

Laughing Jaguar

http://www.accucadd.com/TechNotes/Cache/WriteBehindCache.htm

This "spooling up and down" suggests to me that you didn't check what I wrote here a week or so ago.....some settings in windows are wrong. You must give the hard disk say one hour running between accesses....

Andy wrote: "This "spooling up and down" suggests to me that you didn't check what I wrote here a week or so ago. . . "

With so many technical responses, I got overwhelmed Andy, so I prioritized the suggestions according to my comprehension of what was proposed, using the simplest ones first.

BWire's Internet link that solved the problem took me to a plain and simple "Do This" then "Do That" sequence that did not require understanding or the acquisition of additional diagnostic software.

Since I do not have parity checking on my memory it also seemed like a good idea not to assume my memory is good, something i am inclined to do given the track record for solid state devices in recent years. I downloaded a suggested memory test program (Memtest 86) that requires burning the program to a CD. That would have run independently of the OS.

I never got to use it. I still may but it's not as urgent anymore given the successful cure of the hard drive issue.

I didn't ignore your suggestion Andy, or the others. . . . . I simply got to a cure before I got to yours. You've helped me before and I do appreciate it.

Thanks

L.J.

You wrote that you still have the "spooling up and down problem", IS THAT TRUE?

Andy, the little bit of hard drive spooling I do hear is rare. Everything is faster now, much faster. I still am learning how to delete programs that are no longer important.

In the long run, I must buy an entirely new system, preferably a 64 bit OS, a need driven by the 3D CAD software I depend on.

Then this machine will be gutted of all but the most important software needed for communication.

Thanks

LJ

Does that mean you don't want to bother to fix it?

Assuming you still do:-

Do remember that every time a hard disk runs up that it only runs up when a request is made for access. The running up takes several seconds till the correct speed has be reached and stabilised, this can take anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds..its a great way to waste time.

It also doesn't do the hard disk any good to have is so setup as each time it stops, the heads land on the "parking" area, which will eventually take off some of the special coating, which may cause a sudden disk crash, total loss of all data......or if the head gets "gummed up" with it, read and write errors.....

Assuming for the moment that you are using WinXP, you need to go into that window where all those system icons are (mine is in German, I don't know what the English version is called).There you will find an icon to do with Power saving. Look in there for how the Hard Disk is set up. Sorry that I cannot be more specific.....

Some manufacturers have their own version.....search.

My laptop is set up so that the Hard Disk is never powered down with the laptop switched on. This gives me the best and longest life for my hard disks and instant access.....win win....

Some things you need to know about SSD's before taking the plunge:

http://helpdeskgeek.com/featured-posts/should-you-defrag-an-ssd/

I still ocasionally use a PCB-CAD program that was written in the -286 days.....it has VGA support (must have been one of the first progs to support VGA).

You have to see it running with auto-routing when running on a modern CPU under WinXP, its blistering fast and even has support for suface mounted devices.

The whole program including libraries and an example PCB fits on a 1.44MB floppy.....I have made dozens of PCBs using it....over the last XX years.....I don't know exactly, but more than 20 years.....

All written in machine code....

Remember that software companies must come out with new versions every year to keep money coming in, which means they have to be able to add a few more bells and whistles every year to entice people to buy the next version. every iteration gets bigger and runs slower as a result. Also, since they are constantly swapping out software modules, they go to higher level languages which are less efficient but make maintaining the code easier. lather rinse repeat for a few years and you end up with some serious software bloat.

That was the whole point of my post........I didn't think I needed to add such extra infos....

my point was that it wasn't laziness on their part, there is a valid business reason for it. Unfortunately the user is the loser in this situation.

I owe you all an apology! What I thought was a hard drive spooling up at each command, was in fact the cooling fan on the CPU!.

I found out by accident when the system shut down from overheating. I took the PC down to the shop and opened it up to find a lot of dust and debris on virtually everything.

A few careful minutes of compressed air and the system booted like normally. It was then That i discovered that the noise I'd heard was from the CPU cooling fan.

I buttoned everything up and reconnected it and there has not been any high speed sound from the fan at all. It's running but at modest speeds.

It appears that the system was running hot because of the dust and dirt and that commands to the CPU put it over the threshold for activating the fan.

The system is still lethargic but we know that's due to a cluttered memory.

To all who worked so hard to help me. . . . . .thank you!

L.J.

A note of caution regarding the use of compressed air to "hose out" the dust inside electronic apparatus.

The stream of air can dislodge connectors and lift ICs from their sockets. The dust can also be pushed deeper into things.

A vacuum cleaner and a suitable brush is the preferred method.