Windows 2000 Growing slowness, can't find solution

  • Thread starter Thread starter Daniel Kaplan
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Daniel Kaplan

Hi,

Have a Win2000 machine, not much ram, 8Gbs of free HD space left.

The computer's slowness has been growing and growing. I run on a regular
basis:

* NAV full scan (once a week)
* Defrag (once a week)

* and lately Ad-Aware and Spybot.

It's gotten so bad that I went an ddeleted all offline content (the user of
that machine was playing an AOL game alot).

So today I noticed that the Recyle Bin icon showed full, but there were no
items, and saying "Empty Recycle Bin" did nothing.

So I went and changed the Virtual Memory size to the bare minimum, rebooted,
was then able to "Empty Recycle Bin" and the icon showed ok.

Reset the VM size to the Windows recommended of 384mb (seems kinda low), and
restarted.

Did it work? Eh....not sure.

I would appreciate any real ideas or links that could help.

Thanks.
 
"Daniel Kaplan" <NoSPam@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
news:1218294516.216699@nntp.acecape.com...
> Hi,
>
> Have a Win2000 machine, not much ram, 8Gbs of free HD space left.
>
> The computer's slowness has been growing and growing. I run on a regular
> basis:
>
> * NAV full scan (once a week)
> * Defrag (once a week)
>
> * and lately Ad-Aware and Spybot.
>
> It's gotten so bad that I went an ddeleted all offline content (the user
> of that machine was playing an AOL game alot).
>
> So today I noticed that the Recyle Bin icon showed full, but there were no
> items, and saying "Empty Recycle Bin" did nothing.
>
> So I went and changed the Virtual Memory size to the bare minimum,
> rebooted, was then able to "Empty Recycle Bin" and the icon showed ok.
>
> Reset the VM size to the Windows recommended of 384mb (seems kinda low),
> and restarted.
>
> Did it work? Eh....not sure.
>
> I would appreciate any real ideas or links that could help.
>
> Thanks.

I would download msconfig.exe (http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnldoth.htm)
and examine the tasks under the Startup tab. Untick those you don't
recognise but leave the virus scanner intact. Have another look after
the first reboot to see if any have re-enabled themselves. Spyware
has a habit of doing this.
 
"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
news:eJ5kVcj%23IHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

> I would download msconfig.exe (http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnldoth.htm)
> and examine the tasks under the Startup tab. Untick those you don't
> recognise but leave the virus scanner intact. Have another look after
> the first reboot to see if any have re-enabled themselves. Spyware
> has a habit of doing this.

I should have mentioned have done that, seen a few things. But looking
online was impossible to determine what was and wasn't kosher.
 
Naming the executables here may help.


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

"Daniel Kaplan" wrote:
> I should have mentioned have done that, seen a few things. But looking
> online was impossible to determine what was and wasn't kosher.
>
>
 
"Daniel Kaplan" <NoSPam@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
news:1218298296.246446@nntp.acecape.com...
>
> "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
> news:eJ5kVcj%23IHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
>> I would download msconfig.exe (http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnldoth.htm)
>> and examine the tasks under the Startup tab. Untick those you don't
>> recognise but leave the virus scanner intact. Have another look after
>> the first reboot to see if any have re-enabled themselves. Spyware
>> has a habit of doing this.
>
> I should have mentioned have done that, seen a few things. But looking
> online was impossible to determine what was and wasn't kosher.

As I said, untick everything you don't recognise. As long as you
leave your virus scanner stuff ticked, you won't damage your
installation. You could even untick the virus scanner stuff, provided
that you first disconnect your PC from the Internet.
 
"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
news:%23jseCFl%23IHA.2060@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>
> "Daniel Kaplan" <NoSPam@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
> news:1218298296.246446@nntp.acecape.com...
> >
> > "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
> > news:eJ5kVcj%23IHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> >
> >> I would download msconfig.exe
(http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnldoth.htm)
> >> and examine the tasks under the Startup tab. Untick those you don't
> >> recognise but leave the virus scanner intact. Have another look after
> >> the first reboot to see if any have re-enabled themselves. Spyware
> >> has a habit of doing this.
> >
> > I should have mentioned have done that, seen a few things. But looking
> > online was impossible to determine what was and wasn't kosher.
>
> As I said, untick everything you don't recognise. As long as you
> leave your virus scanner stuff ticked, you won't damage your
> installation. You could even untick the virus scanner stuff, provided
> that you first disconnect your PC from the Internet.
>
Performance problems are hard to locate. It could be a persistent disk
error, say in the directory structure. Look for a log file that keeps
growing. Or maybe some device is constantly producing interrupts.
 
"Stubby" <William.Plummer*NO*SPAM*@alum.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:LpKdnZQ8Uc0BdgDVnZ2dnUVZ_ojinZ2d@comcast.com...
>
> "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
> news:%23jseCFl%23IHA.2060@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>
>> "Daniel Kaplan" <NoSPam@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
>> news:1218298296.246446@nntp.acecape.com...
>> >
>> > "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
>> > news:eJ5kVcj%23IHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> >
>> >> I would download msconfig.exe
> (http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnldoth.htm)
>> >> and examine the tasks under the Startup tab. Untick those you don't
>> >> recognise but leave the virus scanner intact. Have another look after
>> >> the first reboot to see if any have re-enabled themselves. Spyware
>> >> has a habit of doing this.
>> >
>> > I should have mentioned have done that, seen a few things. But looking
>> > online was impossible to determine what was and wasn't kosher.
>>
>> As I said, untick everything you don't recognise. As long as you
>> leave your virus scanner stuff ticked, you won't damage your
>> installation. You could even untick the virus scanner stuff, provided
>> that you first disconnect your PC from the Internet.
>>
> Performance problems are hard to locate. It could be a persistent disk
> error, say in the directory structure. Look for a log file that keeps
> growing. Or maybe some device is constantly producing interrupts.
>

Good point. If it's a persisten disk error then it would be highly
visible in the Event Recorder.
 
"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
news:O6S6rVl%23IHA.4816@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> Good point. If it's a persisten disk error then it would be highly
> visible in the Event Recorder.
I think I know where that is.,..but in case one cares to list it here quick
ly -) ..........
 
Start|Run|eventvwr.msc


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

"Daniel Kaplan" wrote:
> I think I know where that is.,..but in case one cares to list it here
> quick ly -) ..........
>
 
"Stubby" <William.Plummer*NO*SPAM*@alum.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:LpKdnZQ8Uc0BdgDVnZ2dnUVZ_ojinZ2d@comcast.com...

> Performance problems are hard to locate. It could be a persistent disk
> error, say in the directory structure. Look for a log file that keeps
> growing. Or maybe some device is constantly producing interrupts.
>

Nothing in the Event Log. No hardware errors it seems.
 
"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
news:O6S6rVl%23IHA.4816@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
> "Stubby" <William.Plummer*NO*SPAM*@alum.mit.edu> wrote in message
> news:LpKdnZQ8Uc0BdgDVnZ2dnUVZ_ojinZ2d@comcast.com...
> >
> > "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
> > news:%23jseCFl%23IHA.2060@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> >>
> >> "Daniel Kaplan" <NoSPam@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
> >> news:1218298296.246446@nntp.acecape.com...
> >> >
> >> > "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
> >> > news:eJ5kVcj%23IHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> >> >
> >> >> I would download msconfig.exe
> > (http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnldoth.htm)
> >> >> and examine the tasks under the Startup tab. Untick those you don't
> >> >> recognise but leave the virus scanner intact. Have another look
after
> >> >> the first reboot to see if any have re-enabled themselves. Spyware
> >> >> has a habit of doing this.
> >> >
> >> > I should have mentioned have done that, seen a few things. But
looking
> >> > online was impossible to determine what was and wasn't kosher.
> >>
> >> As I said, untick everything you don't recognise. As long as you
> >> leave your virus scanner stuff ticked, you won't damage your
> >> installation. You could even untick the virus scanner stuff, provided
> >> that you first disconnect your PC from the Internet.
> >>
> > Performance problems are hard to locate. It could be a persistent disk
> > error, say in the directory structure. Look for a log file that keeps
> > growing. Or maybe some device is constantly producing interrupts.
> >
>
> Good point. If it's a persisten disk error then it would be highly
> visible in the Event Recorder.
>
Not so. We had one that kept writing error lines in <system>\logs
(sorry, I don't have the exact directory name at hand. I'm still with
Win2K. GT uses Vista.). In fact, looking up the log file location
involved searching the directory structure, triggering another error!
Recurive errors. I finally figured out what was going on and advanced to
the "How do I get CHKDSK /R to run" sequence.
 
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