My system's performance took a giant nosedive

I've had my P4 1.7Ghz 256, PC800RD RAM, 64MB GeForce3, 80Gig HD computer for about a year now. Through the year the computer has worked absolutely perfectly. Great speed and performance...

Recently I installed SimCity4 which I discovered to be a game that takes up a lot of rescources... Not a big deal, I thought.. and even though I could hear my system working a lot while playing the game, everything seemed fine when I wasn't playing. The only strange to happen was one time it took almost 15 minutes to save a city I was building and the computer seemed like it was REALLY working hard to process the information

Then I decided to update my Norton Anti-Virus. I uninstalled 2002 and installed 2003. Here begins my own personal hell.

After upgrading Norton Anti-Virus I started noticing the computer lagging. I'd click the start button and the menu wouldn't pop up for 2 or 3 seconds. the Mouse curser would get jerky. and even closing programs and folders became delayed. Also, now after a while the H.D.D. light on the computer's tower will suddenly stay on until I shut down the computer and restart it. This even happens when I have no apps running. I've checked the task manager in XP and the performance tab shows a normal amount of CPU usage, there's no suspicious processes hogging up memory. And yet at times I also hear a sound that sounds like the computer is about to power down for a split second but recovers (kind of like a power skip sound)

Oh and I uninstalled both Anti-Virus and SimCity 4, and the problems still continue

Can anyone offer any advice of what the hell might be wrong with my system? Did the RAM in my computer get damaged that the computer isn't reporting to me? Did my hard drive get damaged? Or is Windows XP the problem in which a HD format might be in order? I hope someone can help me because I'm at a total loss and I need my performance to be at it's best for my video editing and graphic design work.

Thanks to anyone who can provide some insight.

 

Hi magmazing, Welcome to TSG

One option you have is to do a System Restore to a date before you installed Sim City and see if it corrects the problem. You can always reinstall it. This will tell you for sure if it is something that was recent.
Hope this helps.


ajdupont

 

I assume your HD isn't close to full?

Did you try running diskdoctor, windoctor, and speedisk?
Did a full virus scan? Make sure in options, that it's set to comprehensive scan for both auto and manual.

Can you make a copy of the background processes running on your system and post them here?

CTRL-ALT-DEL to get the task manager, Processes tab.

Check your Startup folder and see if there's anything loading that doesn't need to be on.

 

Thanks for your suggestions, but...

I have 50 gigs available on my 80 gig drive

I did a system restore to a date prior to when the problems started (didn't improve performance)

I turned off unnecessary programs at startup in the msconfig

I defragged the hard drive twice

I Scanned the hard drive for errors

I did a comprehensive scan for viruses before uninstalling Anti-Virus 2002 and after installing anti-virus 2003

I even opened up the tower and and shot some compressed air to get the dust out thinking maybe my system might be overheating

Still having performance diffs

Other things to note: A couple times the computer has completely froze on me while just doing something simple as surfing the net. There was one time when I restarted the computer and while booting up it had to run CHKDSK and ended up fixing "Index $I30 for file 12676" whatever that means. I also forgot to mention that whatever happened to my computer has also affected the time it takes to load XP. It used to take about a minute to boot up and start using my computer. Now it takes almost or over 3 minutes.

here is a jpg of my processes on right now


I'll have to download or buy Diskdoctor, windoctor or speedisk and see if any of those tell me anything, but I have the strange feeling it won't.

 

Sounds like it could be memory. If you had an extra stick to swap out it would be very helpful. I would be thinking format too. But you really shouldn't have to be formatting at this point.
My machine is about the same age and I've got Winxp home. Haven't had any of your symptoms.

Keep us posted.

ajdupont

 

Ideally I intend on getting another 256 MB of memory soon, but currently I lack the extra cash to get it. What totally boggles my mind is how everything was working spectacular until the day I installed the newer Anti-virus software. Needless to say even if it's not the culprit, the Symantec and Norton company is not in my good books right now.

Anyway, Thanks.

 

Well... I formatted the hard drive... and now I'm unable to reinstall Windows XP.... It looks like my Hard drive is DEAD... and it's barely a year old... ugggh... joy the hassle of trying to get it replaced... Hopefully the company will still consider it under the one year parts warranty. CRAP!