Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dodgy Al]

I've been having problems for a couple of weeks now. Basically, after a couple of hours of working fine, simple commands start taking forever, and programs stop responding. It gets to a point where I have to restart the computer manually. Once the computer reboots it works fine again. Two hours later, the same problem.

I've cleaned inside the pc to try and reduce the temperature. I ran a check thorugh sissoftware, and everything seems to be fine. I suspect it's a hardware rather that a software issue. Any ideas?

[Rusty Shackleford]

One of your programs probably has a memory leak (I think that's the right term.)

Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and click the processes tab to see which program(s) is(are) using the most RAM. Does your PC take forever to start up as well? You probably have a buttload of random crapware running in the background.

[bassexpander]

How long has it been since your computer went through a reinstallation of Windows? It's a good idea to do it every year, IMHO.

Do you have a lot of programs you need? Start backing-up your files.

Also, a bad hard disk can cause similar issues soon before it dies.

Run chkdsk (you have XP?):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

[Dodgy Al]

A reformat is a last resort. My pc is definitley overdue for one, but I don't really have the time or *ahem* resources to do one. I'll look into the other things when I get home. Thanks a lot guys.

[Easter Clark]

Try looking at your virtual memory.

This guy has a similar problem to yours...sounds like a good place to start:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070316093913AAI5FlG

[blackjack]

What is the temperature inside?

Try running speedfan

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

[thoreau]

You probably have some spyware that is slowing down your computer.

Basically, behind the scenes spyware will visit websites and that process will use up CPU cycles and memory.

Checkout:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

for a great anti-malware program. But I agree with the above poster, a wipe is a good idea at least 1x per year.

[crescent]

I know it's impossible to diagnose problems from afar, but when commands execute well just after starting up, and then get slower the more you use the computer... it could be the hard drive starting to fail.

That's what i noticed right before my HD failed, and running a diagnostic check didn't show it.

Does Windows have an activity monitor that you can view as you operate your computer? Run the activity monitor to see what your HD, and Virtual memory are doing when you have this problem.

[hugekebab]

[Dodgy Al]

This is why I love the tech forum. Thanks for all your suggestions. I tried various things, and everything seems to be fine, except for the virtual memory. I remember tinkering with this before, so I reset it to let Windows manage it. It's a bit better now, but I think the problem is with Kaspersky. The virtual memory just seems to keep accumulating. After three hours it had crept up to 1.7gb! That's about when things start going bad. Am gonna scour the kaspersky forums to see if anyone else is having the same issues. Thanks again guys.

[thoreau]

[matthews_world]

Does anybody else but me get tons of malware when they use Yahoo! messenger or toolbar.

My computer runs crappy with those but I still use them anyway.

[eamo]

I would definitely undo any tinkering you did in the virtual memory settings.

If that doesn't help then try uninstalling Kapersky and using something light like AVG free-edition.

That's the problem with paid anti-virus software. They have to add and add features with each new version to justify the price they ask. It just becomes bloatware after a few versions.

I personally see any kind of add-on toolbar as bloat. Cut all that stuff out.

The key is to open up Task Manager and see what is using all the CPU and/or RAM.

[martypants]

[Bloopity Bloop]

If the only thing preventing you from reformatting is "Windo...", I mean a resource, I have a resource that ends in "ws 7 Ultimate" you could borrow.