Windows extremely slow!!!

[darbykidd]

My computer has been running extremely slow today. It is very slow to open (and close) programs and display content. For example it is having trouble keeping up with my typing right now. I ran Sandra's CPU arithmatic benchmark and it was in the normal range. I then tried running the RAM benchmark and it never finished. It wouldn't ever get past the analyzing. I waited the full 10 minutes then restarted my computer and tried it again with the same results. It never finished. It usually takes about 2 minutes I'd say for it to go through that RAM benchmark. I haven't installed any new software or made any changes to the registry. I first noticed the problem today while using Microsoft Excel and Word. I had multiple windows open and was printing and it was printing extremely slow. I have done this many times without any problem at all. The weird thing is the computer sometimes speeds up for a short while and runs at normal speed. It opens things up quick as ever and seems normal. I tried running the RAM benchmark once again during one of these episodes but it still wouldn't finish and as soon as I cancelled it out, the computer was back in slow mode. I haven't installed any new software and haven't made any changes to the registry. I also run a program called Memturbo which is supposed to free up the memory that windows loses. Here are my system specs. Thanks for any and all help.

WIN 98 SE
AMD k6-3+450 @ 450
EPOX mvp3g5 motherboard
384 megs PC100 ram
Maxtor 40 gig hard drive
Gainward Geforce 2 TI 64 meg video card

[big_block_buick]

i can only go by past experiences, but if you are on the web at such times. it might be a good idea to see what's happening with your cpu % time...banners (not here i think<but have been) have grabbed hold of a processor and hold it at 100%.. that was when i had half the speed so it may only grab 50 now ? ;) it's worth a look...if'n it happens when just on windows..like you say excel and word...then it must be something else..

i never had sys monitor when i had 98...so i'm not sure if you need alternative proggies or not...

eg. cpucool, mbm monitor. rambooster...all give cpu%

as always hope i helped... :)


quick edit<> nice setup you have there too...you need to search the cpu section about what that k63+ can do!

[jmatt]

Go back to a good copy of the registry .

Toggle F8 ( when , verifying DMA pool message comes on ) or Press
Ctrl during bootup , depends on your computor .

Select , Command prompt only .

After the C prompt , type , scanreg /restore

Follow the prompts and select a registry dated prior to the problems .

This article describes how to restore a backup copy of the Windows 98
or Windows Millennium Edition (Me) registry

scanreg /restore
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q221/5/12.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=scanreg/%20restore&rnk=3&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=W98

Restore Operation Failed (Q220878)
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q220878

--------------------------------------------

To improve on the 5 days MS have on registry backups , use the Cabrest system below & get 14 days .
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/regback1.html

For those that find the above site confusing , here is what to do .

Alter MaxBackupCopies from 5 to 14 as per instructions at above site .

Download the zipped copy of the Batch file from ,
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/downloads/cabrest.zip

Unzip , copy & paste cabrest onto the top of C: in Windows Explorer .

Delete zip file , or save it on floppy , if you want it for others or the
future .

Print the instructions below & stick on your comp in front of you , so
when you have to go back to a good copy of the registry , you don't
need to search for them .

------------------------------------

Toggle F8 ( when , verifying DMA pool message comes on ) or Press Ctrl
during bootup .

Select , Command prompt only .

Type in cabrest & press Enter , keep answering y & you will see a
table , which will allow you to select which CAB file to restore from .
So , for example , to restore from rb009 cab , you look at the table &
see 09 corresponds to the letter j . You type j & Not the number .
Follow instructions .

Type win & press Enter to exit .

If after following the instructions to Restore , things arn't
working , go to an earlier date & try again .

Type win & press Enter to exit .

[muchmark]

With the kind of problem you are experienceing for me it would be time for a clean install.

[rockinmale]

i would first try uninstalling that memory optimizing program. You can just reintsall it if that doesnt do the trick. Also from a run command type in msconfig and disable programs from the startup menu and see if that improves performance.

Things to try....
download a memory testing program.
Run diagnostic software on the hard drive.

here's a link for testing your memory
http://www.simmtester.com

If all else fails....i would second that notion posted by muchmark.

rockinmale:cool:

[darbykidd]

Ok I downloaded the 'simmtester' program and ran it and my memory passed the tests. I also ran the file system benchmark for my hard drives from Sandra. The score there seemed low I think although there wasn't a similar driver to compare to. I got a 6006 and they had a 10 gig ATA 33 drive as being 8000. I'm running with ATA 66 speed I believe with a 5400 40 gig. So it seems low to me but I don't know. I just don't know why dometimes it is fast and other times it slows way down. I guess I'll try restoring the registry like jmatt suggested and if that doesn't work I'll reinstall windows. any other suggestions? thanks

[darbykidd]

update...I restored an old copy of the registry and things seem to be back to normal. I ran the sandra tests and the RAM test was able to run and complete this time and scores were normal. I also ran the hardrive benchmark and this time instead of 6000 I get a score of over 22000! So thanks to Jmatt and the rest of you for the help. I'm still confused as to what may have caused this to happen in the first place though. Thanks again.

[Balthazor]

This unquestionably has nothing to do with your particular problem, and since that's apparently been fixed it's moot anyhow. But I wanted to toss this out to see if anyone could offer up an explanation of this phenomenon.

Some time ago I was experiencing some seriously slow performance, particulary when browsing through folders in Explorer. After a few minutes of cruising through folders things would get so bad that it could take a full 10 or 15 seconds just for a folder to open. Being that I had a 1 Ghz P3 with 768 meg of ram, this should not have been happening.

But then someone told me to remove all files from the My Documents folder, and that this would solve the problem. I thought that sounded kooky, but I did it and to my surprise it completely solved the problem.

So I'm really curious if anyone has any sort of idea just why this would happen, because I have to admit that I have absolutely no idea at all. It's one of the most incredibly bizarre things I've encountered, and I'd love to get a reasonable explanation of it.