Pentium D 2.66GHz, 2GBx667 DDR2, 256MB DDR3, 250GB HD... so why is my computer lagging!?

Question

Well, as you can see, I don't have a PoS computer... but I cannot figure out for the life of me what is making my computer lag.

My computer is brand new, like less than a month old. My processor started hittin 50% a few days ago, and it would stay there for about 10+ minutes. Yesterday, I did a reformat, and started from scratch (Windows XP Pro). Today, I am now having the same problem all over again. I know it is not my install... and my computer takes several minutes to go from the loading screen to the login screen (after taking several minutes on the loading screen).

The only thing I have installed are OS updates and Office. I tried setting the affinity of several processes, but nothing has changed. It only happens when I load something up. The mouse gets very jumpy (like when you open way too many programs at once).

I cannot figure out what is going on. Perhaps it requires a hotfix resolution? Let me know, I'm dyin to get back to bein fast again!

I should also point out that this computer worked flawlessly when I first put it together.

And I only have 40 processes total (mostly essential stuff).

Apparently people misunderstood my specs... here they are again...

Pentium D 2.66GHz
2GB DDR2 667 RAM
256MB DDR3 VideoRAM <-- That's my graphics, not my system RAM
250GB Hard drive

------ UPDATE ------
I actually did find out what the problem was. One of the Windows Updates for one of my hardware devices (either sound driver or my tablet driver) was causing problems. I used the default drivers that came with both, and the computer is running flawlessly now. Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

I had a similar problem....You can use msconfig to troubleshoot programs.....

Simple instructions

1. open the start menu

2. click "run"

3. type msconfig, then click ok

4. click on the "startup" tab

Uncheck everything, restart the computer....if it starts like it should, there is a program that is causing a conflict somewhere.....you will need to open msconfig and palce a check mark next to a few programs at a time and restart untill you find what program is causing the problem......

Feel free to email me, or I have yahoo messenger up....

Answer 2

There may be other underlying problems here but right off the bat the biggest problem I am seeing is that you have the bare minimum amount of RAM you should have in a machine running XP. Considering the processor is of decent speed I am assuming you didn't do much customizing to this machine when you purchased it. No machine should be sold anymore without at least 512MB of RAM, however a base of 1GB is more ideal.

Now - other possible issues. You said you just reformatted again. But did you use a REAL Windows XP ONLY CD or did you use a restore CD from the manufacturer? If you had the restore CD they always install at least a dozen completely unnecessary programs that you will never use. However - they are there, installed on your computer. And most of them start up with the machine doing absolutely nothing but eating up resources - including precious RAM which you do not have to spare.

Go through and uninstall all the crap that the manufacturer put on there for starters. You should hopefully see some decrease in the amount of time it takes to leave the loading screen and get you to an actual working, responsive desktop. But do yourself a favor and drop at least another 512MB of RAM in that machine.

Answer 3

Right off the bat, I'd suspect software issue. Check your startup in msconfig, after you hide all microsoft services, disable everything. Then 1 by 1 bring them back up until you find the culprit. Also, after you disable everything, when you reboot and get the popup telling you the system configuration has been used, check to see if anything reset itself to load at startup.
The other thing I'd check, based on what you've got loaded is to find out if auto update is on. If you're connected, and auto update is enabled, you might be downloading a series of updates.

Answer 4

My suggestion. Start with the simple stuff first. It doesn't seem like it should be programming or software so it may be hardware issues. First, open the pc case and pull every cable ONE BY ONE, and then re-seat them. Next, pull your RAM modules and re-seat them. REALLY, THIS ALONE MAY TAKE CARE OF THE PROBLEM IN ITSELF. I have seen it many times! If not that, then Download.com offers a great free startup program that I highly recommend called startup inspector (see link). You should disable any unnecessary programs with this. Other than these 2 ideas, it could be many other hardware factors. For example: Faulty RAM module, power supply, etc. Thats all I can think of off the top of my head , but try these and GOOD LUCK! JD

Answer 5

You might want to scan your system for viruses and worms. I'd recommend Norton Antivirus 2006 or 2007. If it show your system is clean, you probably have a corrupted driver or application somewhere, or one of the updates you installed are encountering problems or are corrupted themselves. If the problem is there after you reformatted but before you did any updates or installs, you might have bad memory.

Answer 6

Problem seems to your memory. Just change the RAM slots and if possible install licensed version of OS. Dont update OS untill required. It seems to be software problem and not hardware one. So getting a good copy of OS will hope fully rectify the problem. Best of luck.

Answer 7

see for that you have to done some steps as follows ..
first go to run type msconfig then go to services there click on Hide All Microsoft Services now press Disable All button..

then go to startup and press Disable All ..

now remove unused items from Add/Remove Components ..and now restart your pc wil work ffaster ..

Answer 8

did you ever touch the settings in your mainboard or motherboard? well, if you did try loading back the default.
have you ever thought of adding more memory to your computer, adding 256mb would suffice. did you partition you hard disk or did you set it as one whole configuration...
try to reconfigure your hard disk by repartitioning it 80gb as drive c and the rest as drive d. hope this will solve your problem.