Running very slowly, freezing and locking up

[boris]

I have a pc with a 1.6 Ghz processor and 504 meg of ram that is running like a 386! with XP sp2.

When it starts up the windows wave is badly garbled. Then it loads very slowly. Once everything is started it often hangs up completely.

Outlook takes forever to pop mail, downloading mail at a rate of only 1 every few seconds.

If I try to listen to xm online I have to close everything else or the sound is broken/garbled.

My mouse often freezes for seconds at a time then starts moving again.

I've run the basic windows clean up, defragged etc. I've run spybot and trend micro. There doesn't seem to be any malware running. Even if there was something, how could that effect Windows launching and cause the startup wave from playing smoothly?

Please help, I'm at a loss!

Dave

[Calum]

Try using Ccleaner to clean some more junk, and use the Issues scan to eliminate junk registry entries.
Set it up using this guide here.
How old is this PC?
Is Windows genuine?
Do you have the latest updates?
Can you provide us with some more specs?
What is running at startup?
And also, welcome to Computerhope.

[boris]

I tried your suggestion to no avail. I found another suggestion elsewhere that did work. I uninstalled the primary ide driver and rebooted. This fixed the problem somehow. Everything is running smoothly again.

Dave

[Calum]

I bet it was running in PIO mode rather than DMA, often caused by a virus and sometimes just set for no reason.
It can cause problems like that as PIO is much slower than DMA.
So a reboot would reinstall the driver and set it back to DMA.
Glad you're fixed up now anyway, and come back if you have any more problems.
Calum.

[patio]

What led you to uninstall the Primary IDE controller ? ?

[Calum]

I'd like to know that too.
You said another suggestion from somewhere else, but I'd be interested to know where, who and for what problem.
Seems pretty drastic to me.

[boris]

I found this on WinDrivers.com. The problem sounded just like what I was experiencing so I tried it and it worked.

my audio was distorted even on startup
after 2 hours on the phone w dell
2 weeks of searching i found this
sounds crazy, but worked immediately!

There is a popular problem with the audio for Dell's.
I'm not sure HOW this problem came to be but a possible solution is found.
Well, atleast this worked for me and I have been searching for this kind of solution for about 2 weeks now.

Problem: Audio stuttering, distortion, lagginess, etc. etc.

Solution: (Using Windows XP)
- Right click on My Computer > Properties > Hardware Tab > Device Manager
- Extend the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers group
- Right click on Primary IDE and hit Uninstall
- Reboot the computer, the Primary IDE drivers will re-install themselves after you reboot.
- Go back to the Device Manager and extend the same group again.
- Right click on Primary IDE Channel and go to Properties > Advanced Settings tab.
- Make sure that both Device's Modes are on "DMA if available".
- Anyways, by this time, my sound was working flawlessly.

[Calum]

Ah, I see.
That does seem to be the same problem as yours.
Uninstalling the drivers may not have been necessary, you could probably have skipped to Step 5, but it wouldn't hurt.

[boris]

Calum, I just saw your reply from earlier, it is true that I recently found a worm on this computer and removed it, maybe it had something to so with me having the wrong setting.

Dave

[Calum]

That would probably be it.
Viruses and worms often change that setting to slow down the infected computer to cause problems.  Very annoying.