Performance Problems

[Huggy6ear]

Toshiba Satellite 5205-S703 Laptop
Windows XP SP2
P4-M 2.0 ghz
1gb pc2100 ddr sdram
60gb Toshiba MK6021GAS 2mb buffer HDD
MS Firewall
No Antivirus installed

The laptop started intermittently having performance problems several months ago, with short periods of 100% CPU utilisation. Gradually over months it has become much worse. Now its either around 5% when idle or straight to 100%, task manager shows most usage charged to system. PCpitstop analysis summary shows the processor was a winner, nominal clock speed - 2000mhz, measured clock - 1200, and external clock - 100, speed rating 3473 97% of 187 others average 3617. Disk unusally low performance - 2mb/second against average 14.6. Memory is a winner. I have run roadkil's diskspeed on the disk, linear reads - 12mb/s and random reads 4mb/s. I ran a scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors, it too 17hrs and found no errors, cpu was 100%. I have reformatted the disk and reloaded the system and latest drivers and BIOS twice.

Can anyone suggest ways I can determine where the problem might be, or any other advice?

 

[Sleepsalot]

Is it a svchost.exe that is eating up the cpu? If so disable auto update feature and see how the usage is this is a known problem and MS has an artical out but I don't rember the number.

Life is a big Roleplaying adventure.

Wayne

 

[linney]

17 hours to scan a 60GB hard drive, is that a symptom or the actual problem?

Device Fundamentals > Storage
DMA Mode for ATA/ATAPI Devices in Windows XP

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/IDE-DMA.mspx

The drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software on their site to thoroughly check the condition of this drive.

 

[cdogg]

Doing a quick search on the net regarding System and 100% usage, I found two top hits indicating that there is a known issue with PC-cillin:

http://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/viewxml.do?ContentID=en-124264

http://magicmonster.com/kb/os/win/system_cpu_100.html

Did you install that program by chance? If not, what third-party programs have you installed after doing a clean install of Windows? Does the same thing happen in safe mode?

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[aich69]

No Antivirus installed

I've suffered the issue with windows update service causing this problem but unless I'm missing something here (knowing me I am, usually half asleep at the best of times)...
it might be an idea to install and run a good AV app and possibly a spyware app too...

although as Linney points out: 17 hours to scan a 60Gb disk... might be a pointer, I can run Spinrite on a 100Gb in considerably less time than that.

Cpt. Red Bull

 

[cdogg]

Quote: "I have reformatted the disk and reloaded the system and latest drivers and BIOS twice"

Because of this, worrying about AV and Spyware protection isn't a priority at the moment. As far as we know, this is a clean install with no thrid-party apps until we're told otherwise...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[aich69]

point taken.... (told you I was half asleep)

Cpt. Red Bull

 

[aich69]

as that is the case then i would have to go with the Win Update cause....
It was after a clean install of XP SP2 + updates that the case I referred to earlier presented itself.... cpu usage crept up to 100% over several minutes and stayed there... for as long as the machine was on....

although it still doesn't explain the deterioration of the laptop over several months.... when we have laptops at work suffer with this it has usually been over night and WU has been the cause.

Cpt. Red Bull

 

[Huggy6ear]

Thanks for all your replies and interest. I need to give some clarification I didn't give on the original post. The reason for saying there is no AV was just to say I have eliminated it, originally I had Norton Security 2006 and thought it may be causing the problem. This laptop is only used at home which would cause the longer period of degradation. It's not svchost.exe using the cpu, it's system. Things like backup and installion cause the CPU to stay at 100% and on taskmanager it is charged to system. Another thing that causes 100% is video conferencing with either live messenger or skype. Memtest also caused 100% cpu and took about 2hrs for 1gb. DMA mode, Windows has enabled PIO by default.

 

[cdogg]

Well immediately after doing a clean install was there still an issue? Did you have a chance to test that before loading anything?

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[linney]

What happens if you change it back from PIO Mode to DMA, does it stick?

Have you tried setting the Bios to any Safe Defaults, stopping any Bios Scanner, and even checking for a Bios Update?

Any change if you remove a few of the USB, or other easily detached peripherals from the machine?

It may be time to consider a problem with the actual Processor or the Motherboard?

How is life from Safe Mode, or Normal Mode as a different user?

What errors do you have in the Event Viewer?

How did the Memtest give a CPU reading, I thought they ran from a bootable floppy outside of the Windows environment?

http://www.memtest86.com/

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

XP PRO upgrade installation failed due to error
thread779-1295421