Author Topic: Computer is sluggish (Read 19458 times)

rjbinney · « **on:** September 19, 2006, 05:44:51 PM »

All of a sudden last night, my laptop got rrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaal llllllllllllllllll sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssll llllllllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooo ooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww w.

Took a long time to boot, and takes a long time to process any commands.

I haven't DL'ed anything out of the ordinary, as far as I know. (Well, apparently I HAVE, I just don't know it!)

Anyway, I looked in task manager and had "cidaemon.exe" in there... Never had seen that before, so I fixed the indexing settings, and that went away.

I ran Spybot, and it came back OK.

AVG runs every morning - it's OK.

I tried running Ad-Aware SE, and it hung up 1730 files into the scan, "HHCTRL.OCX". After it parked there for about 20 minutes, I canceled it out.

I am running Kaspersky now.

It's just nonresponsive. Like you click an icon to launch a program, and it takes a few minutes before it launches.

After Kaspersky, any thoughts on what's the best next couple of programs to run?

Should I just launch Ad-Aware and let it run til like Friday?

(btw AVG, Ad-Aware, etc. - all up-to-date)

(I'm sure someone will ask for a HijackThis log... I'll get to it when I can - in the meantime, any killer apps to run before I run the log?)

patio · « **Reply #1 on:** September 19, 2006, 05:51:02 PM »

Have you updated the ADAware defs lately ? ?

Try running ADAware in safe mode.

patio. 8-)

rjbinney · « **Reply #2 on:** September 19, 2006, 08:41:15 PM »

Yeah, I thought I'd mentioned that - I had updated everything. Slowly.

Will run it in Safe tonight. Report out in AM.

Thanks

Fed · « **Reply #3 on:** September 19, 2006, 09:33:18 PM »

Google Ewido

rjbinney · « **Reply #4 on:** September 20, 2006, 09:55:05 AM »

I hadn't tried Ewido yet; I have it on another machine and never really thought much of it.

But I will try it now.

I ran Ad-Aware in safe mode last night (that is, I was running XP in Safe Mode and launched Ad-Aware)... ran "Smart System Scan", with "Negligible Risk Entries" and "Low-Risk Threat" searches both ENABLED.

It ran for about six seconds - and I got this message in a little Windows bubble:

Quote

Windows was unable to save all the data for the file c"\program files\common files\installshield\driver\8\Intel 32. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file

(and yes, the message itself was poorly punctuated!)

I cancelled and tried again, got to "Deep scanning local registry", Objects scanned: 60965 when it parked there for the night. The file it parked on (at least what was next to the caret) was "Typelib\{E248965-2CE5-4690-9111-76E79A9F6CCD}".

I'm thinking of moving each major subdirectory to my backup HD and scanning it from a different machine?

I will try to DL Ewido onto that machine and try it first.

Keep the thoughts coming!

Thanks,

rjb

patio · « **Reply #5 on:** September 20, 2006, 10:23:31 AM »

You could safely move the HDD to another machine and hook it up as a slave and scan it in safemode...

I'm curious as to that error message there. It looks like a driver installation gone wonky.
Any new hardware in this beast ? ?
Or software ? ?

patio. 8-)

rjbinney · « **Reply #6 on:** September 20, 2006, 10:34:58 AM »

This is a machine I had to reformat about six weeks ago, so there's lots of "new" software that's really just the "old" software reinstalled. So same stuff, but no doubt in different physical places on the HD. And, of course, I had mucho issues with the driver installs (dude, it's a Dell).

My thoughts on moving to an external and scanning is I may just back it up and do another reinstall. But I want to make sure I'm not just moving a virus or something else back and forth.

My ewido (that's hard to type) install went wonky. Said it was OK (I did it while still in XP Safe Mode), but I couldn't do an update. So I rebooted in Normal, and it kept giving me an error message that where ewido installed AVG (which I already have installed, anyway) was "corrupt and unreadable" and I should run Chkdsk.

So now I'm trying to remove ewido and reinstall and see what happens.

Heck, I live in Philadelphia - what ISN'T "corrupt and unreadable"

??!?

rjbinney · « **Reply #7 on:** September 20, 2006, 12:13:51 PM »

Well, I was going to publish my ewido report, but it printed in gibberish. Two cookies and one "Adware" - all medium risk.

Attached is my Kaspersky report.

patio · « **Reply #8 on:** September 20, 2006, 12:23:51 PM »

Quite a few locked objects but none looked questionable...was this run in safemode ? ?

rjbinney · « **Reply #9 on:** September 20, 2006, 12:38:22 PM »

Quote

was this run in safemode ? ?

Um.....

No.

(I can't access the internets when I'm in Safe Mode, even if I do "Safe Mode with Networking". I can ping outside IPs, but I can't get the browsers to work.)

rjbinney · « **Reply #10 on:** September 20, 2006, 12:45:25 PM »

I uninstalled and was reinstalling Adobe Reader (tangent), but I noticed that a Zone Alarm screen would flash for just a bried moment - just enough for me to see it was ZA, but can't make out anything else. It's just a small window in the middle of my screen.

I am SUPPOSED to be running ZA when the machine launches, but I just noticed it's not in the tray.

Hmmmm.... Could that be something?

patio · « **Reply #11 on:** September 20, 2006, 12:51:44 PM »

Quote

Quote
was this run in safemode ? ?
Um.....

No.

(I can't access the internets when I'm in Safe Mode, even if I do "Safe Mode with Networking". I can ping outside IPs, but I can't get the browsers to work.)

Re-DLoad Ewido...install it into it's own directory. Then re-boot into safemode and run another scan...you do not need the internet to run a scan with Ewido.

patio. 8-)

rjbinney · « **Reply #12 on:** September 20, 2006, 12:58:26 PM »

Sorry - ewido WAS run in Safe Mode. Kaspersky was NOT.

You do need the net with ewido, to update.

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #13 on:** September 20, 2006, 01:01:10 PM »

yea
try to update before going inot safe mode

Fed · « **Reply #14 on:** September 20, 2006, 01:40:42 PM »

It's time to take a look at that HJT log you mentioned.

rjbinney · « **Reply #15 on:** September 20, 2006, 03:14:13 PM »

Asked and answered, here 'tis.

Looks OK to me... But then again, I don't really know a whole lot.

I DID run ewido again, and this time it found nothing. (I had repaired the three things it found first time).

The machine is only a year old, it can't be crapping out THAT badly, even for a Dell!

Thanks

Fed · « **Reply #16 on:** September 20, 2006, 03:40:20 PM »

No big problems in there.
Is it slow in safe mode?
Is it slow when not connected to the net?
Is it slow when plugged into mains supply?
I'm off to work, I'll come back later today.

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #17 on:** September 20, 2006, 03:49:26 PM »

patio would that winsocket fix you gave me work?? its worth a shot

rjbinney · « **Reply #18 on:** September 20, 2006, 04:19:01 PM »

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Is it slow in safe mode?

Actually, no, not really.

Quote

Is it slow when not connected to the net?

Well, it's on a wireless network; I'd never tried NOT having it hook up. But I did, and it seemed - at startup - to not be so bad, but that was a ruse. It is still very sluggish. For example, I click on a menu in Acrobat Reader, and it takes between eight and ten seconds for the menu to drop.

Additionally, this problem started Monday evening. I have since replaced my DSL modem and router, and no noticeable impact. I do get good ping times, still.

Quote

Is it slow when plugged into mains supply?

I presume you mean the plugged in vs. on battery? No noticeable difference between the two.

Quote

I'm off to work, I'll come back later today.

Lucky you; this is distracting me from getting resumes out.

I've also noticed that the HD light is on almost nonstop.

Attached is some tiled screenshots of MSCONFIG... Which I'm sure is redundant after looking at the HJT log.

Time to run Chkdsk?

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #19 on:** September 20, 2006, 04:24:55 PM »

WinsockXPFix.exe

google this the icon is a red cross

run it click fix and restart see if that helps

sorry i cant find the website

Fed · « **Reply #20 on:** September 20, 2006, 05:31:37 PM »

Quote

Anyway, I looked in task manager and had "cidaemon.exe" in there... Never had seen that before, so I fixed the indexing settings, and that went away.

I'd put that all back to the way it was, I'm not sure what you did to fix the indexing settings but whatever it was...unfix it.

Get ccleaner, run the cleaner & also scan for issues, defrag, reboot & check.
I'd also disable all the startup items in msconfig, reboot & if it's fast then enable them one at a time.

rjbinney · « **Reply #21 on:** September 20, 2006, 06:01:16 PM »

It was acting up, and the first thing I did was check Task Manager... Saw that cidaemon.exe thing, and Googled it. There were a few folks that all seemed to be describing similar symptoms and suggested that tactic, so I did it. I will add it back, but I think I will do that LAST! (Nothing personal...)

I ran ccCleaner on Saturday morning... Don't recall if I scanned for issues or not afterwards.

I will try your msconfig suggestion before the defrag.

Does anyone else (besides the pop-up Windows balloon) suggest Chkdsk? Or is that just crazy talk?

About to run WinsockXPFix.exe.

Crossed fingers here...

rjb

Fed · « **Reply #22 on:** September 20, 2006, 06:22:19 PM »

Whatever you do, just do things one at a time rebooting & checking before doing something else.
chkdsk won't hurt your computer and it takes hardly any time to run.

rjbinney · « **Reply #23 on:** September 20, 2006, 07:26:09 PM »

One thing at a time???!?!? What, no DOE guys here? (Just kidding....)

I disabled EVERYthing. It seems to be better, although still a little choppy. It's like back in the 80s when I would overload my Mac, it would just be, well, not as smooth, for lack of a better word. But it could totally be my imagination, as I have stared at this wayyyy too much.

I guess it's when I add the "/f" to Chkdsk that it can potentially do some damage, huh?

Do you recommend Defragging BEFORE adding back the processes?

And, is there a recommended Defrag utility I should use instead of the XP one?

I also have the Ultimate Boot for Windows CD... Any utilities on that I should try?

====

Thanks for your help. I don't know if this is BETTER than reformatting, or faster, but at least I feel like I'm accomplishing something.

rjb

rjbinney · « **Reply #24 on:** September 20, 2006, 07:28:36 PM »

One other thing: I noticed that it takes a long time to boot while still on the main XP screen - BEFORE asking for User Logon. Would THAT be impacted by Startup issues in MSCONFIG? I thought Startup.ini would come into play AFTER a User logs on?

rjbinney · « **Reply #25 on:** September 20, 2006, 08:47:56 PM »

From chkdsk:

58597055 KB total disk space.
33600744 KB in 37752 files.
   10904 KB in 3147 indexes.
   48 KB in bad sectors.
   116091 KB in use by the system.
   65536 KB occupied by the log file.
24869268 KB available on disk.

...and it is going to Defrag overnight. The "Estimated disk usage before" and "Estimated disk usage after" pictures are *censored* near identical.

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #26 on:** September 20, 2006, 09:03:42 PM »

winsockfix thing i gave u should work

Fed · « **Reply #27 on:** September 21, 2006, 01:27:41 AM »

I'd be very concerned about the bad sectors on your HD before going any further with this.
Run HD diagnostics on it from the manufacturer's website & see what turns up.

Fed · « **Reply #28 on:** September 21, 2006, 01:37:07 AM »

The following text was 'borrowed' from pcstats.com...

Warning signs to watch for Advertisement

While you may be able to repair software errors caused by bad sectors, and in some cases you may be able to repair the bad sectors themselves, if your drive has begun to fail mechanically nothing will stop the process.

The catch then is to detect the imminent failure of your drives before they give out on you and data is lost. Let's look at some common warning signs of impending hard drive failure:

Frequent but irregular crashes, especially while booting up Windows.
Frequent and cryptic error messages while performing typical activities like moving files.
Folder and file names that have been scrambled and changed.
Disappearing files and folders.
Really loo....ong waits to access folders and files.
Hard disk is silent for a long period after you request data by opening a file or folder.
Garbled output from open files or printing.
Hard drive grinds away constantly because of noisy bearings.

rjbinney · « **Reply #29 on:** September 21, 2006, 09:45:40 AM »

Quote

I'd be very concerned about the bad sectors on your HD before going any further with this.

Really? This may be where my naivete starts to show... I figured 48KB bad meant that 99.991808462 percent of my drive was A-OK... Can't Windows account for bad sectors?

Quote

Let's look at some common warning signs of impending hard drive failure:

This doesn't sound good, but OK.

Quote

Frequent but irregular crashes, especially while booting up Windows.

No.

Quote

Frequent and cryptic error messages while performing typical activities like moving files.

You mean like this one?

Quote

...I ran Ad-Aware in safe mode last night (that is, I was running XP in Safe Mode and launched Ad-Aware)... ran "Smart System Scan", with "Negligible Risk Entries" and "Low-Risk Threat" searches both ENABLED.

It ran for about six seconds - and I got this message in a little Windows bubble:
Quote
[highlight]Windows was unable to save all the data for the file c"\program files\common files\installshield\driver\8\Intel 32. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file[/highlight]

(I also tried backing up a 7GB Docs directory, and had two files fail because of "cyclic redundancy check". Not "frequent", but "cryptic"? You tell me - I know what it means, I just don't know if it's necessarily related.

Quote

Folder and file names that have been scrambled and changed.

No.

Quote

Disappearing files and folders.

Not that I've noticed.

Quote

Really loo....ong waits to access folders and files.

Great lumps of gravy, YES!

Quote

Hard disk is silent for a long period after you request data by opening a file or folder.

No.

Quote

Garbled output from open files or printing.

No.

Quote

Hard drive grinds away constantly because of noisy bearings.

Well, it's spinning constantly. "Grinding" - not really. Well, maybe. I can't tell if it's the HD or the fan. It's not noisy, just noticeable.

I ran Defrag, and it's been parked for at least four hours on "Defragmenting... 61% Compacting Files":

OK, this is probably going to make lots of otherwise friendly and helpful people unhappy. At least you will roll your eyes and dismiss me as a fool. But, unless Santa robs a liquor store (or I get a job, soon), there's no cabbage for a new hard drive.

I'm currently running Windows' "Error-checking" utility, with the "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" option selected. It's parked in "Phase 4", with no toolbar and the cancel button greyed out. I'll let that cook for a while and see what happens.

Then I'm gonna go to Dell's site and see if there's the HD Diagnostics you recommended earlier. I will also tool around on my UBCD4Win and see if there's any magic.

Then I guess I will reformat and ride it out.

Well, at least it's small comfort knowing my firewalls work!

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #30 on:** September 21, 2006, 10:00:05 AM »

Quote

Quote
I'd be very concerned about the bad sectors on your HD before going any further with this.
Really? This may be where my naivete starts to show... I figured 48KB bad meant that 99.991808462 percent of my drive was A-OK... Can't Windows account for bad sectors?

ummm if thoses bad sectors have information on them then that could be bad, maybe that could explain why some of your files are acting werid and why defrag is taking for ever and the other program

rjbinney · « **Reply #31 on:** September 21, 2006, 10:27:14 AM »

OK, the progress bar has moved one block in the last hour or so. So it will keep cooking.

Question, though - about the bad sectors - isn't there a way to tell Windows to stay away from those bad sectors? Mark them as toxic, so they just sit there?

And does that chkdsk report mean that 48KB are ALL that are bad? Or is it that out of what's been written, 48 are bad? And there's untold blank-but-bad sectors out there?

Ugh!

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #32 on:** September 21, 2006, 10:33:30 AM »

from my knowledge you cant quarantin the bad sectors.

when you did the error checking program did you select both boxes?? cuz the top one is suppose to fix errors.

rjbinney · « **Reply #33 on:** September 21, 2006, 10:37:11 AM »

Quote

when you did the error checking program did you select both boxes?? cuz the top one is suppose to fix errors.

Um,

no.

I just selected the "attempt recovery of bad sector" option. It seemed more relevant. At the time. [gulp]

Is there a way to stop this process? Or just let it run out?

===

Not that I'm ready for an "end of life" discussion, but what are peoples' thoughts on buying a replacement HD from ebay?

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #34 on:** September 21, 2006, 10:48:02 AM »

let it run.. where did you find this program?? did you try using the windows scan disk?

depends is the hdd new used? will it even work in your computer? which shouldn't be a problem

rjbinney · « **Reply #35 on:** September 21, 2006, 10:49:48 AM »

Quote

let it run.. where did you find this program?? did you try using the windows scan disk?

Right-click on C: => Properties => Tools => Error-Checking

Quote

depends is the hdd new used? will it even work in your computer? which shouldn't be a problem

Presuming the seller says it's new and for my machine....

Raptor · « **Reply #36 on:** September 21, 2006, 10:52:38 AM »

Quote

Quote
Quote
I'd be very concerned about the bad sectors on your HD before going any further with this.
Really? This may be where my naivete starts to show... I figured 48KB bad meant that 99.991808462 percent of my drive was A-OK... Can't Windows account for bad sectors?

ummm if thoses bad sectors have information on them then that could be bad, maybe that could explain why some of your files are acting werid and why defrag is taking for ever and the other program

One rotten apple leads to a rotten batch, the same goes for spoiled teenagers and it also happens to apply to bad sectors.

If you find a damaged sector, you should replace the Hard Disk Drive or use it for unsensitive data. But don't be surprised when Windows one day fails to load.

rjbinney · « **Reply #37 on:** September 21, 2006, 11:14:35 AM »

Quote

One rotten apple leads to a rotten batch

I don't think so. Faulty causality reasoning there... Like the dead canary doesn't CAUSE the miners to die, it only indicates a condition that will lead to that inevitable conclusion.

So, no, one rotten apple only indicates that the conditions are present which will cause an entire batch, er bushel (paint is made in batches, apples grow on trees), to go bad.

So, unless you're saying that the conditions that CAUSED those sectors to go bad will, or, at the very least, MAY, cause OTHER sectors to go bad, well, then...

Oh, wait.

That IS what you're saying.

Never mind.

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #38 on:** September 21, 2006, 11:30:46 AM »

I think so

Fed · « **Reply #39 on:** September 21, 2006, 12:59:30 PM »

What if your canary has bird flu

I think it depends on what caused the bad sectors, have a read here.
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1583&page=3
The whole 9 pages... it's an education.

rjbinney · « **Reply #40 on:** September 21, 2006, 01:12:56 PM »

I'll read it, but I know what caused them.

I dropped the frigging thing in June.

Reinstalled Windows in July.

Run like a champ since.

Til Monday.

Fed · « **Reply #41 on:** September 21, 2006, 01:19:53 PM »

I think all you can do at this point is run all the HD tests you can find then if it still comes up OK do a clean install.
We could be chasing the sluggish problem forever if there's a problem with the HD.
Lapstops are notoriously hard on HDDs due to heat I believe.

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #42 on:** September 21, 2006, 01:35:29 PM »

thankfully i got a two year warranty on mine

rjbinney · « **Reply #43 on:** September 21, 2006, 02:11:59 PM »

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #44 on:** September 21, 2006, 02:40:48 PM »

you should have had it fix errors automaticall

rjbinney · « **Reply #45 on:** September 21, 2006, 02:43:10 PM »

Quote

you should have had it fix errors automaticall

You said that alread

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #46 on:** September 21, 2006, 02:45:04 PM »

that i did my bad

Raptor · « **Reply #47 on:** September 21, 2006, 02:54:06 PM »

Fixing your bad sectors won't do you any good, the HDD will still be untrustworthy.

What software are you using?

rjbinney · « **Reply #48 on:** September 21, 2006, 03:06:12 PM »

Quote

Fixing What software are you using?

Right now, just Windows' built-in utility.

Raptor · « **Reply #49 on:** September 21, 2006, 03:21:07 PM »

Quote

Quote
Fixing What software are you using?
Right now, just Windows' built-in utility.

Use the diagnostic software provided by the HDD's manufacturer, it is a lot more reliable.

rjbinney · « **Reply #50 on:** September 21, 2006, 03:22:57 PM »

Will do, just waiting for it to finish. Can't be good to stop in the middle. At this rate, I have about seven more hours to go, is all.

Raptor · « **Reply #51 on:** September 21, 2006, 03:35:53 PM »

Quote

Will do, just waiting for it to finish. Can't be good to stop in the middle. At this rate, I have about seven more hours to go, is all.

It's not working properly because the HDD is in constant use by Windows. Aborting it will not matter.

patio · « **Reply #52 on:** September 21, 2006, 06:10:52 PM »

Quote

Quote
Quote
Fixing What software are you using?
Right now, just Windows' built-in utility.

Use the diagnostic software provided by the HDD's manufacturer, it is a lot more reliable.

And if you followed this advice using the manuf. utilities on a boot CD Windows wouldn't be slowing down the process....

rjbinney · « **Reply #53 on:** September 21, 2006, 09:11:55 PM »

Yeah, not to be snarky, but I got that advice AFTER I'd already started the built-in one.

But hey we're making progress:

rjbinney · « **Reply #54 on:** September 22, 2006, 09:50:41 AM »

Plus, Dell's HD Diagnostics program forces itself onto a floppy... Which my machine ain't got.

unlovedwarrior · « **Reply #55 on:** September 22, 2006, 10:05:50 AM »

try to find an cheap usb external one then if possible or go to a friends house who has one

Raptor · « **Reply #56 on:** September 22, 2006, 10:55:12 AM »

Quote

Plus, Dell's HD Diagnostics program forces itself onto a floppy... Which my machine ain't got.

You can't create a bootable CD?

rjbinney · « **Reply #57 on:** September 22, 2006, 11:24:13 AM »

Not according to Dell.

So I'm playing with UBCD4Win now.

Raptor · « **Reply #58 on:** September 22, 2006, 11:58:35 AM »

I believe I once used killdisk to erase a HDD and it also warned me of any damaged sectors, give it a shot.

GX1_Man · « **Reply #59 on:** September 23, 2006, 01:14:23 PM »

I'm late getting in here but bad sectors will grow, sometimes rapidly and it does indicate an untrustworty drive. If your data is not valuable, keep on using it. If it is, replace the drive.

'Nuff said.

rjbinney · « **Reply #60 on:** September 23, 2006, 09:03:29 PM »

Well, all the important data is on my USB backup hard drive.

Oh, wait.

mroilfield · « **Reply #61 on:** September 24, 2006, 07:27:56 AM »

I may be tottally wrong here as I am no where close to being an expert on these matters but my wife's comp was getting really sluggish. It was slow from start up to shut down and we ran every kind of program we could think of to find errors. The harddrive did have a few bad sectors but we eventually found out that one of the RAM chips had crapped out and once we replaced it everything was fine(Except for those bad sectors) and back to normal as far as the speed was concerned.

Computer Hope Forum

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Author Topic: Computer is sluggish (Read 19458 times)

rjbinney

patio

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Fed

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