Delay in right clicking and execusion of files

[Red131]

Hello All:

Here is my issue:

- When I right click on any file, it takes approximately 10 seconds before the content menu shows up.
- When I double-click an image, mp3 file or document it takes approximately 10+ seconds before the item loads
- When I browse to my secondary HDD, it takes a good 5+ seconds to show the contents within.

What I have done:

- Disabled all the content menu items with a third party utility.
- Uninstalled my anti-virus client.
- Confirmed that DMA mode is set for both drives
- Confirmed that Indexing is enabled
- Uninstalled Google Toolbar (I had an issue with it at work so thought it might be related)

FYI - I have recently added the second HDD approximately 4 weeks ago. The problem, I am guessing started about 2 weeks ago (total blind guess). Never had this slowness before.

Any suggestions?

 

[SimonDavies]

Have you defragmented your drives?

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[Sympology]

What AV client was it? Symantec / Norton by any chance? If so, reinstall and remove again ( I think there are guides how to unistall "correctly" on this forum and Symantecs)

Also try runng a cleaner such as CC Cleaner, expecially the reg cleaning.

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[Red131]

Thanks for replying.

I have completed a defrag on the machine hoping that would help, but no luck.

The antivirus client was Trend Micro Internet security. I will run CC Cleaner when I get home.

Any other suggestions??

Thanks

 

[sggaunt]

Make sure temporary Internet files are cleared.
CC will do this for you anyway
How much free disk space have you? More than 1/3rd free is recommended.
Do you have enough RAM?

It could be that some bad stuff has got onto you computer. Get hold of a copy of HiJackThis do a scan and post it here forum760

Do Ctr/AltDel and bring up the task manager.
Select the Performance Tab and look at the values of Commit Charge (bottom left corner) peak should be much less than limit, it it isn't then your system is spending a lot of time buffering to disk.
You can also see your CPU usage on this tab If your are not running anything it should be just a few percent a high value indicates a problem.







Steve: N.M.N.F.
If something is popular, it must be wrong: Mark Twain

 

[Red131]

Okay, ran CC Cleaner and cleaned which removed temporary internet files. I also removed the second HDD to see if maybe that was it but no luck.
The HiJackThis log has been posted in the Virus section as instructed and can be found her:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1473732&page=1

My peak Commit Charge is much less than my limit.
I have 21 out of 149 GB on Drive 1 and 240 out of 298 GB on disk 2.

 

[linney]

How does your machine run from Safe Mode, and how does it run in Normal Mode if you log on as another user?

310353 - How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

316434 - HOW TO: Perform Advanced Clean-Boot Troubleshooting in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

310560 - How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310560&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Are you getting any errors in the Event Viewer?

 

[BadBigBen]

RED131 - What is the SMART status of the drive that has C:/ on it?

is the boot relative slow or does it seem normal, as in comparison from before installing the second drive?

make sure that the cable to the drive is seating correctly, and try another cable, same goes for the power plug, switch it...

How are these drives hooked up, are they SATA or are they IDE, what about the CDROM how is it hooked up in relation to the drives, are they jumpered correctly?


Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[GlenJohnson]

Have you checked for virus's/spyware?

Glen A. Johnson
Johnson Computer Consulting
MCP W2K

Support our Troops!

 

[donb01]

I've got the same problem to this one. Running XP Pro, P4 1.9 GHz, 512K RAM, have about 20G free on what I think is a 60G drive. Drive is probably only ATA66. but still never ran this slow. Peak is at least 300K under limit on the commit charge, and I defrag and run CCleaner often.

From my olden days of computer support, I am guilty of some old offenses that I'm not sure still matter. First is I probably have 60 or 70 applications on this thing - 3 rows of All Programs on a 1280x1024 screen. i do not have a lot of icons on the screen - I keep the less used ones in a folder so they don't have to be redrawn often (because it causes pain to wait for it). I have a lot of fonts, and there may be a few directories with a lot of files, but I try to sort things out as best I can.

It can take as long as 30 seconds to load (tweaked) Firefox, Outlook 2003 is at least a minute or two before I can read messages after loading it, etc, booting can take 4 - 5 minutes before it is complete. I really only have about 5 programs that run at boot.

I have AVG Anti Malware 7.5 for the virus stuff, plus have scanned with Ad-Aware, and what is usually the last word for me when looking for strange crap - the online version of Panda ActiveScan.

I fear the HD is failing but it doesn't seem to be taking any errors, and I've scanned it, etc without anything bad happening. The drive has been kind of strange since day 1 - I actually ended up reloading XP over the top of itself about 5 years ago, but it has always seemed reliable.

I am thinking 2 things right now - one, is the registry is probably bloated and it may be causing problems even if it is clean, and the other is that I just had a friend who ran an application on his computer that cleaned up the unused file handles (or whatever they're called) and said it worked like night and day. It took his computer 10 hours to do that, and I have run so many files across that drive that it would probably take more than a day to run that process, and I can't be without the computer for that long.

I don't know if this info helps the other guy above, but if it pops up any other ideas from someone maybe it'll be helpful. I'm just going to tolerate this a few more months to clean off some CC space, and then I'm going to buy into the wake of the cutting edge anyway. Thanks!

 

[Red131]

Okay, here is where we are at:

- Performed startup in Safe Mode and performed a Clean Boot
- Event Viewer is clean of any errors
- Boot time in normal and doesn’t seem to take longer with the second drive in
- Can’t figure out how to check the SMART drive status
- Cables have been swapped and checked
- The 2 drives are SATA. One connected to port 0 and the other to port 1
- I scanned the system prior to removing the anti-virus and it was clean
- HyjackThis log came back clean.

 

[Red131]

Here is a summary of what has been completed thus far:

- Disabled all the content menu items with a third party utility.
- Uninstalled my anti-virus client.
- Confirmed that DMA mode is set for both drives
- Confirmed that Indexing is enabled
- Uninstalled Google Toolbar (I had an issue with it at work so thought it might be related)
- Completed defragmentation
- Ran CC Cleaner
- Checked Commit/Limit charge ratio
- Performed startup in Safe Mode and performed a Clean Boot
- Event Viewer is clean of any errors
- Boot time in normal and doesn’t seem to take longer with the second drive in
- Can’t figure out how to check the SMART drive status
- Cables have been swapped and checked
- The 2 drives are SATA. One connected to port 0 and the other to port 1
- I scanned the system prior to removing the anti-virus and it was clean
- HyjackThis log came back clean.

I still have the issue which is:

- When I right click on any file, it takes approximately 10 seconds before the content menu shows up.
- When I double-click an image, mp3 file or document it takes approximately 10+ seconds before the item loads
- When I browse to my secondary HDD, it takes a good 5+ seconds to show the contents within.

Any other suggestions??

Thanks a million all for pitching in and helping me out

 

[linney]

Have you tried setting the Bios to any Safe default Settings?

Try running ChkDsk /r either from Recovery Console or the GUI, via right-click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking. Select both boxes. The drive Manufacturer will have free diagnostic software to thoroughly check the condition of your drive.

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

Memory RAM testing.

http://www.memtest86.com/

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

xp freeze troubleshooting
thread779-935320

PC Freezing - Hard to explain (see details)
thread779-1398265

Windows random hang
thread779-1423743

If they don't work you could try repairing windows by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp

Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis,_and_Reporting_Technology

 

[BadBigBen]

- Can't figure out how to check the SMART drive status

as Linney mentioned this can be done with the drive manufacturers tools, they are free to download... alternatively you can use this tool: Active-SMART
It is a TRIAL software, but works with a charm...

- Uninstalled Google Toolbar (I had an issue with it at work so thought it might be related)

good, had nothing but problems with it myself...

- Boot time in normal and doesn't seem to take longer with the second drive in
- Cables have been swapped and checked
- The 2 drives are SATA. One connected to port 0 and the other to port 1

rules out a few thoughts I had about why it would hick-up... e.g. loose cables, wrong jumpering...

This may seem unrelated, but how are you hooked up to the internet? if you have a DSL modem/Router, unplug it from the PC, power it down (reset the modem), then replug the PC... did that change anything? (explorer is tied into alot of places and seemingly unrelated items could cause problems in other areas)... on another note, check your add-ins in IE7, either disable them or deinstall them, to see if they could cause the hick-up...

if all fails, then I would suggest that which Linney mentioned, How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341), may be the best route to go...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[Red131]

Hello All:

I have found the solution to the problem, but it causes a hiccup in the way I open files.
Basically, I followed the guide from this site:

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm.

I went through one by one and started deleting the "ContextMenuHandlers" located in registry key "[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]". I would delete one and then right click a file, go t the next one and right click a file. Finally, I got the subkey "[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Open With]
@="{09799AFB-AD67-11d1-ABCD-00C04FC30936}", deleted it and everything was fixed.
Although this resolved my issue and everything loads as normal, I do not have an "Open With" option in my Content List.

Any suggestions how to get that back and working (without the slowness) again???

Thanks again

 

[BadBigBen]

Hehehe... sorry could not resist...

"Open With" Command Missing from the Context Menu

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/218805

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[linney]

Can you put "Open With" back into the Registry and clear individual listed programs from the actual "open with" list?

Clear unwanted Open With entries

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/OpenWith.htm

It is worth remembering that lots of Registry edits don't have any effect until after the next reboot or logon.