PC super-slow, flashlight, when browsing folders, "My Computer&quot

[overmonkey]

Hi friends,

I've got a Dell Optiplex, win xp pro, 256M RAM, P4 1.6 I think, and it is exhibiting odd behavior for some time now.

The machine boots to desktop just fine, and operates normally for nearly every operation. However, there are a few places that, if accessed, will stymie the computer. It will eventually recover, but it takes too long, ie ~15 minutes. The main culprit is "My Computer." Open this window, and the window opens quickly, and then the flashlight appears, and animates back and forth ad nauseum and eventually will display the HDD, the FDD, the CD, and the external CDRW (Iomega USB). Accessing any of these drives results in normal operation. Returning to the My Computer window causes the pauses to recur. I get the same issue with any "Browse..." button, with save dialog boxes, with the "Send-to" contextual menu link. . .

I created direct links for each drive - they can be cleanly and quickly accessed using this direct method.

But I'm stumped.

 

[sbergne]

From an Explorer window, click on tools - folder options - view and uncheck "Automaticaly check for network folders and printers" if it is checked. This made a big difference on the network where I work. Your mileage may vary.

Steve

 

[bcastner]

Any remote resources in the listing? Remote shares, FTP sites, anything like that?

Is Device Manager showing clean, without any exclamation marks on any physical hard disk drives?

Is the machine on a network? There are tweaks that can help a lot in this case.

Your 'Send to' context menu issue is indicative of a defined device that is not responding, or doing so very slowly. This can be hardware, driver, or a bad link. It is directly tied to the slowness in My Computer. A flakey CD ROM interface, or a misconfigured interface, is often the cause. Look to all aspects of the CD Rom service first.

 

[linney]

819017 - Long Delay Before Files Appear in My Computer in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;819017&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Also see how it goes if you switch off anti virus software for a few moments.

Computer Speed and Performance May Decrease (Q310419)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q310/4/19.asp

HOW TO: Set Performance Options (Q308417)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/4/17.asp

 

[overmonkey]

Thanks for all the replies. I actually inadvertantly found the fix for the problem in a seemingly unrelated post right here. I went out to the client site, and looked into the services running ont he machine.

In this post: thread779-651611 They refer to my exact problem, tying it to Windows Image Acquisition service. The client does have a scanner attached - I'm not sure at all how important this service is to operation.

However, I stopped the service, set it to manual from automatic, and the problem is 100% resolved. I'm going to do more testing tomorrow to see what happens when I try to scan, etc.

Thanks to all who read/replied.