Q: Programs get sluggish? 12

[dcloud]

I've noticed when I run Photoshop on my computer that opening other programs take a little longer and the whole system becomes sluggish. I have Winodws XP Home running on a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 with 1022MB of Kingston dual channel PC3200 RAM. I would have thought having more RAM would help this issue, but obviously not. Recently I got a new SATA hardrive (SeaGate Barracuda 250GB) and I was thinking maybe I need to get a second one to act as a Photoshop scratch disc.

 

[dcloud]

You can check out a screenshot of my Services window here with that file on it:

http://webpages.charter.net/dwcloud/show/laa1erps.gif

I also ran a system search for "Laa1erps" and came up empty. Any other ideas for my original question?

 

[ski]

Run these just in case your AV program missed any viruses-

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm

Also, a clean boot may help to find the cause of the problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353

 

[LawnBoy]

I know you don't want to hear this, but at this point you would probably be better off backing up your data, scrubbing the HD clean with fdisk, and reinstalling from scratch. You could expend a lot of time and energy trying to track this down (if it's even possible to isolate).

 

[dcloud]

ski, I ran the Housecall at your first link and it found one virus called PAR_SE.16281 Housecall cleaned that up and I went to your other link, but nothing much really happened at pandasoft. I clicked Scan Now and another window opened and it said pick something to scan, but when I picked My Computer it just sat there. It did place a Panda ActiveScan icon on my desktop, whatever that's for.

I went to the third link you provided and followed the proceedure there to clean boot. Again it didn't really seem to do much because it's mainly for torubleshooting a problem and I don't even know what the problem is.

LawnBoy I would be all for scrubbing everything clean, but you would have to explain a little more about that. Do you mean just a simple reformat? I've never used fdisk. Is it free? Are there instructions? Is it difficult?

I appreciate everyone's time and patience in helping me. This has become the only site I use now for my computer questions, and it's because of people like you.

Thanks.

 

[ski]

Actually, you do know what the problem is, you just do not know what's causing it.
Doing a clean boot may be able to determine the cause by 'process of elimination'.

 

[LawnBoy]

No, you need more than a simple reformat. Virii can install themselves to the boot sector of your HD, and a format won't touch that part of the disk.

Fdisk will let you remove (or create) the partitions that are on the HD. If you remove all partitions, this also removes the boot sector, leaving you with a (practically) virginal HD.

Read up on fdisk. Do not guess while using fdisk, make sure you know what you're doing. Fdisk will destroy all the data on your HD in the blink of an eye, with no going back.

http://fdisk.radified.com/

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q255867/

http://www.fdisk.com/fdisk/

To use fdisk:
1. Go here:

http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

and download the Windows98SE OEM file. Once downloaded, doubleclick it to create a bootable floppy disk that has fdisk on it.
2. Boot the pc with the floppy disk you created in step 1.
3. Type fdisk at the command prompt.
4. Remove all partitions on the disk.
5. Reboot into your Windows CD, let Windows repartition and format the drive, load Windows.
6. Install drivers and applications.

Going on vacation in 4 hours...

 

[BadFrog]

I agree with LawnBoy on all accounts accept this, I'm almost certain that deleting partitions WILL NOT effect your MBR, however doing a fdisk /mbr command will reset the MBR. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure thats the case.

"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein

 

[dcloud]

While I appreciate the advice I'm not comfortable doing that to my HD. I don't know enough about computers to risk making a mistake. I will read up on fdisk, but I think for the time being I'll live with the slowness. At least until something comes along I feel comfortable doing or I run into someone who knows computers and can walk me through this.

 

[LawnBoy]

According to the MS article I linked to,

When you run the fdisk and format commands, the Master Boot Record (MBR) and file allocation tables are created

I take that to mean the MBR (boot sector) is destroyed when the primary partition is removed. I do know for sure that a disk without a primary partition won't attempt to boot, but maybe I'm misinterpreting what that means.

cdogg! Throw us a link!

 

[LawnBoy]

Good decision, dcloud. Fdisk is not something to screw around with unless you know exactly what you're doing and what to expect.

 

[BadFrog]

Here are a few links to read up on:

http://neosmart.net/blog/archives/14

http://dos.rsvs.net/DOSPAGE/DOS_EX.HTM

LawnBoy: I only know this from personal experience years ago while working on a PC that had a virus in the MBR I could not get the PC to boot even after deleting and recreating the partition, several times. It wasn't until my boss at the time came out and itroduced me to the fdisk /mbr command which I had never seen, and the PC promptly booted ont the next try.

"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein

 

[LawnBoy]

You're right, BadFrog.

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=69013

The MS-DOS Fdisk utility usually updates the master boot record (MBR) only if no master boot record exists. Repartitioning with Fdisk does not rewrite this information.

Have a(nother) star.

 

[BadFrog]

Thanks for the clarification LawnBoy!

"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy"
Albert Einstein

 

[KenB]

dcloud,
If you have the WinXP Home CD you can boot from that and use the commands FIXMBR and FIXBOOT, if you have an MBR infection this should clear it up without distroying the Partitions on the HD.
If there is no infection it won't hurt anything.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058/

or

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm

HTH
Ken

 

[dcloud]

I appreciate the links and such, but I don't have a problem with my computer starting just with it being slow. I've heard some scary stories about using Recovery Console, so just like with fdisk I don't want to risk doing more damage than there already is. All I wanted to do was figure out why the computer gets sluggish when I run Photoshop. I don't think I need to wipe my hard drive or run RC in order to fix that. No offense to anyone, but to me that seems a little extreme.

 

[dcloud]

OH yeah, I forgot to ask ... how did you figure I had a MBR infection?

 

[KenB]

You said Housecall found a virus and removed it but there could have been a worm component left behind and what better place to hide that the MBR. It can then install itself in memory every time you boot. If its in memory it is running in the background and taking up CPU cycles. When you add a CPU intensive App (Photoshop) on top of that everything slows down. But I only mentioned it because of the Fdisk discussion. Its easier to replace the MBR that way.

Ken

 

[dcloud]

Hmmm, ok. I guess after all this I still don't know what to do. That fdisk and RC sound complicated and (to me anyway) a little extreme. Are those my only options? Because like I said I don't know enough about computers to risk screwing up something else.

 

[KenB]

RC allows you to boot to a Command Prompt in 2K/XP the same way a boot floppy does for DOS/9X. The commands can be as simple as dir or you can run a program such as chkdsk.
Running RC from a windows CD doesn't even install any software to the HD so it won't change your system disk with the simpler commands. You may not want to use it right now but one day it could save you a lot of pain.

Ken

 

[dcloud]

Well if anyone has any other ideas for my original question I would appreciate it. I still don't have any answers on what to do about that.