Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Computer extremely slow

May 21, 2014 2:00AM PDT

I am running Win XP Pro, P-IV, 253, two HD's, (one 80G and one 1Terrabyte). Firefox, 1 MG ram. In the last few days my computer has gotten extremely slow, (no real problems prior to this) I have run Housecall and it found nothing. Charter is my internet connection! Any one else having this type of problem?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Time for a new PC?
May 21, 2014 2:04AM PDT

In case you haven't heard, XP is unsupported now and subject to more and more malware. Your hardware is ancient. It's time to upgrade to something with Windows 7 or 8. I've seen new Windows 8.1 computers for as little as $350.
`
Good luck.

- Collapse -
Answer
Given the age. Why not do the usual work?
May 21, 2014 2:08AM PDT

Canned air, replace the heat sink compound if that hasn't been done in the past year.

If it is an OS or infection issue, you can scan with the full set of free tools noted by Grif at http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6122_102-5509131.html?tag=posts;msg5509131

But an 80GB drive is quite old. Be sure to run non-destructive tests on that.

Finally, that OLD ISSUE about XP DMA should be addressed. No reboot required and a mystery why Microsoft in over a decade didn't issue a fix or fixit. Here's a link on that.
-> http://winhlp.com/node/10
Bob

- Collapse -
On the DMA bug
May 21, 2014 9:56AM PDT

On the DMA bug, not sure how much stock to put into it, but still at least a plausible explanation in that it's not so much a bug as a failover condition. For some reason or another -- probably a dodgy IDE cable, and why THAT little manufacturing issue was never resolved is something I'd like to know -- the OS can't establish a DMA connection with the drive, so falls back on PIO after X number of unsuccessful attempts.

When I ran into this issue, I would always just flip it back to DMA and be about my business, I never thought to look in Event Viewer to see if there was anything to see that might corroborate that explanation. Largely a moot point now with SATA being pretty ubiquitous, but I would be interested in hearing someone's findings if they have an old system with IDE drives and think to check Event Viewer if this happens to them.

- Collapse -
Yes.
May 21, 2014 10:02AM PDT

Let's hope they flip it and move to the next area.

- Collapse -
Answer
Added help
May 21, 2014 2:59PM PDT
- Collapse -
Except that
May 21, 2014 11:39PM PDT

Except that after it indexes the drive(s) the first time, it doesn't really do anything except sit there until the next time a file is added/created, when the performance penalty is negligible, even on a much older system. I'll grant that the index function on XP was just this side of useless, it wasn't until either Vista or 7 that it started having some real utility, but after the drive(s) are indexed the first time, the performance penalty/savings are below what people are going to even notice.

- Collapse -
Extremely slow
May 22, 2014 12:36AM PDT

To all that have replied and helped with this problem. I got in touch with my ISP, (charter), they sent a tech out to test my cabling and found a filter that was not working and replace all cabling from the tap to the house. works like a charm. Thanks to you all, again. Bill

- Collapse -
That is an entirely different issue
May 22, 2014 9:36AM PDT

That is an entirely different issue from what you reported. You said your COMPUTER was slow, not your INTERNET CONNECTION was slow. It's good that you got it fixed and all, but maybe next time try and be a little more specific.

- Collapse -
I would not have guessed that.
May 22, 2014 9:40AM PDT

The opening post seemed to state the computer was slow, so in the future tell more so folk don't mislead you.

That is, I guess with more folk considering their computer is the internet and such, when the internet is slow, they may write their computer is slow.

Yowch! Bob