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What's causing this slowness?

M

MrHood22

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 21, 2007
Messages
4,312
So I feel like my computer is slower then it should be.

Data:

Once the power button is pushed...

Displays BIOS screen: 13 seconds
Login Screen: 80secs (from when the Power Button was pushed)
Display Desktop: 120secs (from when the Power Button was pushed)

Shutdown: 25secs (from when "Shutdown" was hit in windows)

CPU: 3.4ghz @ 1.36v
Usage % While writing this post: <20%

RAM: 378mhz 5-5-5-18

GPU: Drivers - 260.99

Core: 691
Shader: 1386
Memory: 1200

Sometimes it drops down to...

Core: 300
Shader: 601
Memory: 100


OS HD (via HD Tune Pro 3.00)
Min: 1.4mb/s
Max: 106.9mb/s
Average: 61.3mb/s
Access Time: 17.7
Burst Rate: 96.5mb/s
CPU Usage: -1.0%

3Dmark06 (Trial), Single Display:
SM2.0: 5989
SM3.0: 7281
CPU: 4742
Overall: 15,650


The main red flag I see is the start up times, that seems awfully long.

I'm trying to figure out if it's just my hardware getting old or if there's something in my system limiting the performance. I think it's something limiting the performance but if it is a piece of hardware it's probably my OS Hard Drive (WD 320gb, 7200RPM, SATA).

Any suggestions?
 
GPU: Drivers - 260.99

Core: 691
Shader: 1386
Memory: 1200

Sometimes it drops down to...

Core: 300
Shader: 601
Memory: 100
Click to expand...

That's probably your 3D and 2D clock settings respectively.

Your HD access time seems high.
 
Have you defragged your hard drive recently? Have you tried disabling the antivirus software temporarily?
 
Post the HD Tune benchmark graph of your hard drive. The Min: 1.4mb/s looks really bad.

Are there any smart errors? You can use CrystalDiskInfo to look at this.
 
MrHood22 said:
So what does that mean?
Click to expand...

About the clock settings? You have different clock settings for 2D and 3D applications... Open up CPUZ and look at the graphics tab, you'll see what I mean. This isn't what's causing your slowdown though. It's normal.
 
Shameless Liar said:
About the clock settings? You have different clock settings for 2D and 3D applications... Open up CPUZ and look at the graphics tab, you'll see what I mean. This isn't what's causing your slowdown though. It's normal.
Click to expand...

No. "Your HD access time seems high."

What does it mean when my access times are high? Failing hard drive? Software?
 
do a error scan and a Benchmark and put the pic up here so we can see. you will know if your harddrive is going bad if you get errors in the Error scan
 
Last edited:
drescherjm said:
Post the HD Tune benchmark graph of your hard drive. The Min: 1.4mb/s looks really bad.

Are there any smart errors? You can use CrystalDiskInfo to look at this.
Click to expand...

I don't have any smart errors.

4LC4PON3 said:
do a error scan and a Benchmark and put the pic up here so we can see. you will know if your harddrive is going bad if you get errors in the Error scan
Click to expand...



I did a quick scan of all my HD's and nothing came up.



I'm actually in the process of reinstalling the OS. I'm going to install Ubuntu for shits and gigs and then dual boot with Win7. I've been wanting to get a SSD for a while now and this might be the thing to push me there.
 
Load bios defaults, then on windows, run CCleaner with everything checked minus the wipe free space option, reboot and see if that makes any change.
 
Long delays without disk activity in the boot process can often mean a service critical to starting up is disabled or not working right. I've had this problem before. If you're the type that goes into the services console or msconfig utility to disable certain services, then this may have bitten you.

Unfortunately, it's been so long since I had this happen to me that I've forgotten what are the exact services that will cause this kind of abnormal delay after logging in. My guess is mainly to check Event Log, Fast User Switching, System Event Notification, and Terminal Services. Those are related to the login process and if something goes wrong with any of those they'll cause these generic delays.

Sometimes you can find out through the event viewer. Administrative Tools \ Event Viewer -- browse through the various startup logs looking for a message that may indicate that Windows had a problem connecting to a certain service on boot. Check the services list (Administrative Tools \ Services) and make sure any services mentioned there are set to Automatic and that their status is Started. (if their status is not Started, check that they are not set to Disabled in the Log On tab. That is how msconfig will disable services).

If the services all look fine, then it's time to look at your hard disk as a potential failure point. If it's trying to access the disk and it runs into a bad sector, it takes some time to try over and over until it reads it. Listen to see if it's cranking away at the drive while it boots up. Use some kind of low-level utility like SpinRite to be sure about any and all bad sectors.
 
Last edited:
Do you have lost of USB devices connected on you computer?
That can be one of the reason.
 
USB devices (sometimes, not always) occasionally would impact the speed. USB is host-based so it does eat away I/O and CPU, especially when the computer is first turned on.
 
Oh, I forgot to mention - if you have one of those green drives, they sometimes need to spin up or spin down before you can shut down / start your PC. The wait time for that to happen can add several seconds, and seems a bit strange.
 
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