XP Pro running extremely slow

[FSEdge]

Good day all,

I have a problem with XP Pro. It is painfully slow. The boot-up appears to be normal. The problems start once I have reached the Desktop. The first hint is when I move the mouse it turns to an hourglass. I stop movement and wait for the action to complete. This happens two to three times. When I do manage to try and open any application it can take a very long time. For example MSN Instant Messenger takes 5 to 7 minutes. MS word can takes up to 10 minutes, as do other applications too.

Here is what took place before this problem started. I removed my zip drive to test in another machine. I tried to boot my XP system back up and kept getting boot device could not be found. I am confused with this because the zip was never set as a boot device in BIOS. I put the zip back in and the machine booted. As it was booting though it crashed. I powered down the system for a minute and started it back up. That's when I started having all sorts of problems.

I have run DocMemory but found no memory problems.

Would anyone be will to offer possible solutions? I am lost at this point and could use the help.

Thanks in advance,

FSEdge

 

[gargouille]

Try restoring a Set Point from a happier time (pre messing around with the zip drive)

Look in Event Viewer logs for clues to what may be happening.

Device Manager shows no problems?

 

[Alan1954]

Try downloading the latest driver for your ZIP drive. There is a new one available. I removed my ZIP drive when I upgraded to XP because I found it slowed it down. It now works OK with the latest driver.

 

[jayjay67]

Check your startup files in msconfig( goto run type msconfig and hit enter) If it has rundll32 C:\windows\system32\NvCpl.dll,Nvstartup checked then this is slowing ur startup. I had same problem I unchecked it and starts fine but I don't know if it is necesary for anything as of yet.

 

[gargouille]

Hi jayjay67:
NvCpl.dll relates to Nvidia display control panel...and isn't necessary to startup when the computer boots up.
Starting the app will just be manual.
Ya' did right by removing it...but doubt it'll help the original poster.

 

[firewolfrl]

sounds like there is an app hogging most of the CPU processes
check the task manager for the resouces in use.

 

[FSEdge]

Thanks to all for offering help.

I have tried to roll back the system but the application stop responding.

The system has gotten worse. Now nothing will run. The funny thing is it seems to boot just fine.

firewolfrl,

If I can get into the task manager I will see if something running that shouldn't be.

Thanks to all.

FSEdge

 

[llsmith]

I was getting the big slow down too and sometimes restarting helped for while but when I noticed the my cable modem was going crazy, I check some firewall logs and discovered that I had fallen into some kind of mini denial of service type situation with very many probes into my sustem through my gnutella client, shut it down for a day or so and the problem disappears.

 

[firewolfrl]

try safe mode and see if it boots up and you can acess the task manager
look at the event logs to see if you can find the error

 

[FSEdge]

Hello all, I thought I would let everyone know how my saga is going. I managed to actually get my hands on the troubled machine today. As far as I can tell it appears to be a defective HD. The HD is a Western Digital 40 gig. When the PC is switched on you can hear what I guess to be a solenoid of some type switching off and on continuously. I pulled the drive out and put it in a known working machine and it did the same thing.

Have any of you ever experienced this type of failure before? The drive has only been in use since August 2002. Of course there is data on there I would really like to retrieve too. Dose anyone know if I can recover it. I tried to use the Western Digital Lifeguard Utilities but they couldn't locate the drive. It's as if I don’t have the dive hooked up at all.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

FSEdge

 

[Marcs41]

If it still boots, you can access it.
If need be, use a bootdiskette to do so manually.
Hook up a second HD to transfer to if still possible.

About the fault itself, it can happen, bad design, shocks .. hard to tell.
But, it is still in warranty, so have it replaced. If the solution is out there, let us know it was helpful, so others can benefit from it as well..