Solved a slow computer but problems still arise?

Question

My laptop, an HP pavilion dv1000, was experiencing severe slowdown w/all videos and audio skipping, startup/shut down taking a longer time, and the computer stalling at random times. I defragged, cleaned my registry, disk cleanup, virus scan, spybot, ad aware, etc. With no results.

I found out that my hd had fallen back to PIO mode from DMA. Using the outline here: http://winhlp.com/node/10 I solved most of my problems. The start up times are back to normal, along with the audio and video.

However, the random slow downs and freezes still remain. Since I've already solved the DMA/PIO problem, does that mean there's something wrong with the laptop itself or could something else be wonky?

Answer 1

My advice, backup your important data and format your computer!

And yeah! It may be a problem with DMA/PIO mode problem too, but cases are very rare.

Answer 2

I can sense your frustration. I have had the same problem in the past.

Some uninstallers for Windows software do not completely remove all traces of the software from the registry. It is possible that these traces may interfere with performance or have other negative impacts. Using a registry cleaner is a way to get rid of these bits. The registry cleaner scans the registry, and picks out the unnecessary and/or damaged pieces and deletes/repairs them.

There are many registry cleaners on the market today... you can look at some reviews of the top selling products here... http://registrycleanupsoftware.com/revie...

One of these products solved my problem.

There is also a terrific book called "The PC Secret Formula". It is very comprehensive and will guide you thru a step by step process of optimizing and securing your PC. This resource is really top notch. I had to dig around to find the link to it but I finally found it... http://askfirstmarketing.com/evaluates/P...

Hope this helps

Len

Answer 3

What antivirus software are you using? I expericed tons of troubles when I was using F-secure (a process called fssm32.exe took over 100%CPU). Since changing to Norton Internet Security everything works fine.

You should check out which processes are slowing you down (ctrl-alt-del + processes) when you experience this. That info would help you out.