PCTech Forums

Hi Everyone!

My dad has an PC that I built for him running XP Pro SP2 which he uses for internet access over a wireless network and light word processing etc on Office 2003.

He uses it daily and finds that the internet and computer generally slows right up and "grinds to a halt" after continual use.

He runs disk cleanup but we have found the only thing that makes it run better is running a defrag using diskeeper, which brings up high levels of fragmentation every time.

A couple of points to note.

1. The computer has a clean install of XP SP3 and all other computers (lots!) I have setup with this combination run absolutely fine.

2. The ram has been tested and the hard drive appears to be fine. It has very occasional BSOD moments but my dad hasnt noted the errors.

The only thing I can think of is that the wireless network is a bit patchy and doesnt give a reliable internet connection which means pages often part load before they load fully, which could cause a high build up of fragmented temporary files. Am I barking up the wrong tree?

Sorry for the essay!

Mike

Try running a check disk on the drive. Rt click the drive, pick properties and then up at the top select tools and select error checking. Check both boxes and it will tell you that it can't do it now and choose reboot. The process should take about 10 minutes.
The last screen that comes up will have figures on it that look like an hour glass. look to where it is the narrowest. Make sure it says 0 bad sectors. This does wonders on a lot of drives.

The other thing you might want to do is make sure that SMART capabilities for the hard drive are enabled in the bios. That way on boot you can see if the hard drive is going bad.

Lastly, it could be an indication that the drive is starting to fail or you have cooling issue with the power supply or the CPU fan.