Continued problem with Slow System

On 5/25 I wrote:

"I have a problem with Windows ME. After a couple of
hours of use the system slows way down. The cursor is
jerky when it moves and system sounds become "echo'y".
Even the clock falls way behind actual time. It acts like
a resource problem but when I close all of my open
applications, the available resources seem to be restored
to an acceptable level without a corresponding recovery in
system performance, the clock will not even catch up. I
have run both scan disk and defrag. I also have an up-to-
date virus checker and have specifically scanned for
sasser. The problem goes away after a re-boot only to
return after another couple of hours. Heavy internet
usage (on line gaming or streaming audio) seem to cause
this to happen more quickly. I do not believe that
hardware is the problem as this is a fairly recent
phenomena. Any advice?"

Noel Patton was kind enough to point me towards several
utilities to run to detect possible viruses/hijackers.

First off, thanks everyone for all the advice. I was
hopeful that we got this nailed, especially when AdAware
detected some possible browser hijack attemps. However
after cleaning my system the problem has not gone away.
What would be my next step?

What would be my next step?

Download and use a process viewer which will tell you which processes are
running and how much cpu time each is using, both instantaneous and
cumulative. Knowing such details will then help in establishing the cause of
the slow down.

Suitable viewers include the old but still functional WinTop (part of the
equally old Win95 Powertools available from
http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/d...oy/Default.asp)
through TaskInfo 2003, unfortunately no longer free, (www.iarsn.com) to
SysInternals Process Explorer (www.sysinternals.com where you will also find
many other useful tools and utilities).
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



bgaard wrote:

On 5/25 I wrote:

"I have a problem with Windows ME. After a couple of
hours of use the system slows way down. The cursor is
jerky when it moves and system sounds become "echo'y".
Even the clock falls way behind actual time. It acts like
a resource problem but when I close all of my open
applications, the available resources seem to be restored
to an acceptable level without a corresponding recovery in
system performance, the clock will not even catch up. I
have run both scan disk and defrag. I also have an up-to-
date virus checker and have specifically scanned for
sasser. The problem goes away after a re-boot only to
return after another couple of hours. Heavy internet
usage (on line gaming or streaming audio) seem to cause
this to happen more quickly. I do not believe that
hardware is the problem as this is a fairly recent
phenomena. Any advice?"

Noel Patton was kind enough to point me towards several
utilities to run to detect possible viruses/hijackers.

First off, thanks everyone for all the advice. I was
hopeful that we got this nailed, especially when AdAware
detected some possible browser hijack attemps. However
after cleaning my system the problem has not gone away.
What would be my next step?

OK, what am I looking for? I don't see anything that
looks like it is grabbing and keeping resources, by and
large system idle is above 95% but my PC is really
dragging. There are a couple of processes (Explorer.exe
and a couple of Symantec programs) that have a relatively
large number of threads, but nothing that is using a lot
of CPU time.
-----Original Message-----
What would be my next step?

Download and use a process viewer which will tell you
which processes are
running and how much cpu time each is using, both
instantaneous and
cumulative. Knowing such details will then help in
establishing the cause of
the slow down.

Suitable viewers include the old but still functional
WinTop (part of the
equally old Win95 Powertools available from
http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/d.../contents/WUTo
ys/W95KernelToy/Default.asp)
through TaskInfo 2003, unfortunately no longer free,
(www.iarsn.com) to
SysInternals Process Explorer (www.sysinternals.com where
you will also find
many other useful tools and utilities).
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



bgaard wrote:

On 5/25 I wrote:

"I have a problem with Windows ME. After a couple of
hours of use the system slows way down. The cursor is
jerky when it moves and system sounds become "echo'y".
Even the clock falls way behind actual time. It acts
like
a resource problem but when I close all of my open
applications, the available resources seem to be
restored
to an acceptable level without a corresponding recovery
in
system performance, the clock will not even catch up. I
have run both scan disk and defrag. I also have an up-
to-
date virus checker and have specifically scanned for
sasser. The problem goes away after a re-boot only to
return after another couple of hours. Heavy internet
usage (on line gaming or streaming audio) seem to cause
this to happen more quickly. I do not believe that
hardware is the problem as this is a fairly recent
phenomena. Any advice?"

Noel Patton was kind enough to point me towards several
utilities to run to detect possible viruses/hijackers.

First off, thanks everyone for all the advice. I was
hopeful that we got this nailed, especially when AdAware
detected some possible browser hijack attemps. However
after cleaning my system the problem has not gone away.
What would be my next step?


.

OK, what am I looking for?

I thought you were looking for what was causing you your problems. :-) Next
time your system "slows down" and "drags" check what is using the cpu cycles
at the time or perhaps even post details of exactly what you are doing at the
time.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



bgaard wrote:

OK, what am I looking for? I don't see anything that
looks like it is grabbing and keeping resources, by and
large system idle is above 95% but my PC is really
dragging. There are a couple of processes (Explorer.exe
and a couple of Symantec programs) that have a relatively
large number of threads, but nothing that is using a lot
of CPU time.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. What I reported above is what I
saw when my system slowed down. My clock was an hour
behind, cursor movement was jerky, everything was slow and
Wintop indicated that the CPU was 95% idle. I had 1 or 2
browser windows open at any given time, a word document,
and outlook express. My son encounters the same problem
when he plays on-line games (Warcraft). Shutting all of
the applications down does not improve performance - once
this behavior starts it continues until I reboot.


-----Original Message-----
OK, what am I looking for?

I thought you were looking for what was causing you your
problems. :-) Next
time your system "slows down" and "drags" check what is
using the cpu cycles
at the time or perhaps even post details of exactly what
you are doing at the
time.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



bgaard wrote:

OK, what am I looking for? I don't see anything that
looks like it is grabbing and keeping resources, by and
large system idle is above 95% but my PC is really
dragging. There are a couple of processes (Explorer.exe
and a couple of Symantec programs) that have a
relatively
large number of threads, but nothing that is using a lot
of CPU time.


.

If your clock is an hour slow and it was correct when you booted your system
then you have an application running that is stealing clock cycles and this
same application could be what is causing you to have problems with your
mouse. As I said perhaps you should think about posting details of the
applications you have running on your PC when this happens.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



bgaard wrote:

Sorry, I wasn't clear. What I reported above is what I
saw when my system slowed down. My clock was an hour
behind, cursor movement was jerky, everything was slow and
Wintop indicated that the CPU was 95% idle. I had 1 or 2
browser windows open at any given time, a word document,
and outlook express. My son encounters the same problem
when he plays on-line games (Warcraft). Shutting all of
the applications down does not improve performance - once
this behavior starts it continues until I reboot.