Dragging Computer Poor performance

[Frazzled]

I have a Dell Dimension 3000 which is running Win XP SP3, at 2.4Ghz with 2.0GB ram.
 It has been progressively slowing down and struggling to operate, taking longer to boot and everything else. I ran out of HD space on my original HD so I cloned and installed a new, larger HD with no improvement. Is this unit just getting tired from all of the constant windows updates both to the system and to the antivirus? or is there some conflict between software that I can ascertain? I get 100% cpu doing many operations.... Opening firefox 2-3 minutes from click, searching for files in large directories takes long with icons flickering. I notice also that my task manager will not show up in the taskbar by the clock when minimized. I am guessing something somewhere is goofed up, missing, or corrupted, though sfc/scannow noticed nothing.
Can you Help???

[Allan]

Have you run full scans with both your anti virus app and MalwareBytes? If not, please do so now.

[patio]

Any Yellow !!'s in Device Manager...this indicates missing/corrupt drivers.
It may also be your startup tasks are overloaded...DLoad and install Startup CPL from Mike Lin...this places a Startup applet in Control Panel that is handy for keeping startup apps under control. Turning items off in there doesn't cripple them...it simply stops them from loading upon startup.
Note: Don't turn off anything if you don't know what it is...

Other than that sometimes a wipe and a clean install of XP does wonders for an older PC...

[Frazzled]

Thanks Guys,
  The first thing I do when I have problems is to run full scans with my AV (MSSE), Malwarebytes, and Super Anti Spyware. Results are clean at this time. I also ran the Eset online scan as well.
  As far as startups, I Do have a few running but they have been ongoing for some time now. Could all of the program updates be causing the problem? I am always having to update flash, java, MSSE, Firefox, IE, and of course the system. Could these programs be being written for the new multi core processors?
  This general slowdown seems to be happening across several of my computers, both laptops and desktops. This slowdown seems to be most pronounced when online.

[patio]

This general slowdown seems to be happening across several of my computers, both laptops and desktops. This slowdown seems to be most pronounced when online.

Based on this i'd visit speedtest.net and check your connection speeds vs. what your paying for...

[Roguebantha]

If your computer is using so much CPU all the time...
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/process-hacker-portable

Download this and install it. It will put a portable version of process hacker into where you ask it to, in other words, it won't write to directories all over the place and in C:\WINDOWS as many programs are wont to do, plus it makes it easy to clean up after. Process Hacker is an advanced Task Manager that will hopefully let you see what's slowing down your computer.

Check to see what's using the most CPU (if you can see it, which you should) but don't close it unless you know what it is or what it does. You don't want to close any programs that windows depends on.

If it's explorer.exe that's causing the issue (which may or may not be the case), feel free to close it but be prepared to freak out as to where your start bar and desktop went. Just restart explorer.exe using the upper left toolbar functions.

I think that Process Hacker lets you see what startup programs are set as well so you should be able to modify those.


I'm not as familiar with Windows as I am with Linux, but I have used Process Hacker before and it's very useful.

[Allan]

The easiest way to see which process is using the cycles is to open Task Manager to the Processes Tab and sort on the CPU column (with highest usage at the top). Which process is it that's spiking?

[Geek-9pm]

Here is the link mentioned by Patio above.
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

[Frazzled]

Thanks to everyone who is trying to help me here. In the windows task manager I see that either Firefox or IE8 are spiking the cpu, depending on which I am using. Firefox seems to have a better performance than IE, but depending on which sites I visit, they are both slow in rendering the pages. Huffpost news is a notorious offender. My network speed test results are as follows:
DL 4.69Mbps UL .98Mbps
The slowdown occurs when the cpu spikes to 100% and stays there for some time. Various programs also cause this activity but browsing seems the worst.

[Allan]

Are you running the latest versions of IE and Firefox? If not, please upgrade. Also, try running Firefox Safe Mode (or IE with No Add-Ons). What happens?

[Frazzled]

Thanks Allen,
I am running the latest updates for my software. That is where I am thinking the problem lies... I went through this headache a couple of years back with a friends' computer and anti virus programs. They seem to continuously update and get more complex. The cpu spikes a lot when loading programs, changing pages or even exploring my disk. Just seems to stay there longer than ever before doing routine tasks.

[Allan]

Well, it certainly sounds like malware, but you said you ruled that out so let's try a selective startup.

Open msconfig and on the General tab choose "selective startup" (uncheck all three items) and reboot. Does the problem still occur? If not, start adding items back to msconfig one or two at a time, rebooting after each change, until the problem reappears and you'll have identified the offending process. This is clearly a time consuming procedure, but it is the best way to determine if some process loading with the system is the cause of your problem.

After you've isolated the cause, do not use msconfig to permanently disable the process. Instead, if it is a service go to START - RUN and type: services.msc (then press enter) and disable the service OR, if it a program, you can download & run a simple app such as Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel (http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml) to enable, disable, or otherwise manage startup programs.

[Computer_Commando]

... My network speed test results are as follows:  DL 4.69Mbps UL .98Mbps
The slowdown occurs when the cpu spikes to 100% and stays there for some time. Various programs also cause this activity but browsing seems the worst.

...I am running the latest updates for my software. That is where I am thinking the problem lies... I went through this headache a couple of years back with a friends' computer and anti virus programs. They seem to continuously update and get more complex. The cpu spikes a lot when loading programs, changing pages or even exploring my disk. Just seems to stay there longer than ever before doing routine tasks...

I believe you understand the problem.  All software is more complex.  DSL speed just adds to the problem.  Cable is 5X faster for the least expensive tier.
BTW, Microsoft ends support for WinXP Apr., 2014.

[Frazzled]

Thanks again guys,
OK, I will play around with the msconfig to try and isolate the problem, if I can. I have been running a full scan with MSSE for the past 4 hours now and I am only somewhere like half done. The CPU is pegged at around 100% all the time during the scan. with only it and the startup programs running. Very discouraging indeed.  What was the mention of DSL speeds and why would this be a factor in what the computer is doing right now?

[Computer_Commando]

...What was the mention of DSL speeds and why would this be a factor in what the computer is doing right now?

...This slowdown seems to be most pronounced when online.