i originally posted this in the hijackthis log section thinking there might be hidden spyware, however after going through everything there appears to be none. here is a description of the problem:



my computer has been running extremely slow, it has happened in the past and a reformat fixes it, however it always comes back. system restore to an earlier date worked about 2-3 times to fix the problem but eventually became useless. i have run the following programs: ad-aware, spybot s&d, mcafee virusscan, and windows defender. all of these programs are up to date, but have found nothing to fix the problem.

the computer runs slow for the most part, but struggles the most when starting programs etc. even the windows startup sound skips. when running in safe mode everything runs smooth with no delay.

i own a dell dimension 2400 running XP, 1 gig of ram and 2.39 celeron processor.

i have only installed standard programs, frontpage, photoshop, cuteftp, etc. disabling startup items in MSconfig does not fix the problem. safe mode runs smooth with no issues.

here is the original post with several replies on trying to diagnose the problem, at the end i was told to try the XP forum, so here i am. thanks for your help.


http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic53394.html

Hi kable.
Open task manager (ctrl+alt+del) and click the processes tab.
Under cpu and mem usage, anything out of line there?

Well, your issue is interesting. I have read the thread in the HJT forum. Just some info on the event error codes you posted, and what they mean:

Error Code 11. An attempt was made to laod a prgram with an incorrect format.
Error Code 15. The system cannot find the drive specified.
Error Code 12. The access code is invalid.

So, if I understand correctly, your computer runs slow while in real mode, and yet runs at regular speed while in safe mode. You reformat and reinstall and all is well for a while, then the issue returns. To me it makes the most sense to think this is a software issue, or a failing piece of hardware. Let's poke around some shall we?

Open the Task Manager ( ctrl + alt +del ) and click on the performance tab. While your computer is acting up and running slow:

1) How busy is the CPU? This is denoted by a percent under CPU Usage.

and

2) Under Physical Memory, what are the amounts for Total and Available.

EDIT: Sorry, Hitsquad, I was typing when you were posting!

Since safe mode runs normally and normal mode does not, there is a driver or ap being loaded in normal mode that isn't loaded in safe mode causing this.

Download Startup Inspector
http://www.windowsstartup.com/download.php

And disable startup programs one at a time until you find the culprit.
(reinable the one you disabled previously when disabling the next)

Then tell us which ap is causing the problem.

Additionally, look in your device manager to see if there are any yellow or red warning icons. If there are, delete the device/s that have such icons and reboot, allowing Windows to find and reinstall what you deleted.

Hello,

Here is a list of things that are not necessary to start when XP does, and/or they also are not required to be set to auto in your services list. All of these entries can be launched just when you need them, so they should all be set to Manual unless you absolutelly need to have them running even when you are not using them.

I see there has already been some software utility suggestions given to you, but I have to mention this app. just because it works great and it is only 34K in size. It's called StartupCPL and its found at this link...http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml if you are interested.

I also use Winpatrol, Spybot.........and all the rest, but StartupCPL is so quick and easy to use, that I rarely ever have to access those other apps that are slow, and do the same thing. But whichever app. you use, I recommend making sure none of these entries are listed for startup.

Also, Click Start --> Run --> type services.msc and set the following entries to Manual.You do this by Right-Clicking the entries to be shut down, and select Properties from the menu. Next to Start up type: set them to Manual, if they are currently set to Auto. Then Click Apply --> OK.
You may consider setting the Windows Indexing Service to Manual as well, since you already use Google desktop.



AOLDialer C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\ACS\AOLDial.exe

QuickTime Task "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime

DMXLauncher C:\Program Files\Dell\Media Experience\DMXLauncher.exe

HostManager C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\1144788333\EE\AOLHostManager.exe

SunJavaUpdateSched C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06\bin\jusched.exe

HKLM\..\Run: [iTunesHelper] "C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe"

HKCU\..\Run: [AIM] C:\Program Files\AIM\aim.exe -cnetwait.odl

Adobe Gamma Loader.lnk = C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Calibration\Adobe Gamma Loader.exe

Adobe Reader Speed Launch.lnk = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\reader_sl.exe

C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe

C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe

C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe

C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\TopSpeed\2.0\aoltsmon.exe

C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\ACS\AOLAcsd.exe

Google Desktop Search "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktop.exe" /startup



Hope this helps,


nos

Open task manager (ctrl+alt+del) and click the processes tab.
Under cpu and mem usage, anything out of line there?

rapimgr.exe takes up 80-89% followed by firefox at around 10%. i have not noticed this here before as i remember sorting by CPU usage to find weird programs. rapimgr.exe mem usage is at 724k.


1) How busy is the CPU? This is denoted by a percent under CPU Usage.

CPU Usage is at 100%, doesnt drop off at all, just running firefox and aim right now

2) Under Physical Memory, what are the amounts for Total and Available.

Total: 1,046,528
Available: 540,000


i'm going to try and disable some startup items now, back shortly.

oh as im typing this my computer is going nuts, its freezing again, every 1-2 minutes for about 10 seconds. event log is showing those errors that have been previously posted. any idea what that might be?
thanks.

Hello,

Here is the description for rapimgr.exe:





Does this sound like something that you are familiar with? If not, you can set this service to Manual as well. If you create more troubles setting the services to manual, you can totally reverse this. It helps alot for troubleshooting.


nos

bah, yes that program is for my phone, recently installed, forgot about that.

well i disabled everything and startup sound still skips and computer still runs slow, althought it might be like 5% less slow than before, thats about it.

also, any idea how to stop the frequent freezing which is evidently related to the errors posted earlier from the event log?

Hello,

Follow this tutorial for using Cleanup!, if you havn't already. It will clean various locations of your PC, as well as getting rid of old Prefetch files for thos apps. that you changed to Manual in the services utility. Defragmenting your hard disk probobly wouldn't be a bad idea either, I recommend doing that once a week if use your PC daily.

These suggestions are not going to cure your computer, but it does help in the mean time while one of us comes up with some answers.

Do you by any chance have your original Operating System Disks? If a solution is not presented soon, then you may need to do a repair install. This usually needs to be done because of a system file corruption, but you should not worry about that unless all other options have been exhausted.


nos

i do have the original disks, so i could give that a shot. also, i tried to set the programs to manual via services.msc but i did not see most of those programs listed there. i was able to disable startup of all the programs using the startupcpl program.

current cpu usage around 5-20% but it keeps jumping all over.

thanks for your help ill give the cleanup a shot.

At 5% to 20% is it still freezing?

What program reduced the processor usage that much when stopped from starting?

Another thing to look for might be the "startup sound" might be corrupted. Disable it in "sounds and audio devices" under the "sounds" tab.

Also look in your device manager for a yellow or red warning icon in the "sound video and game controllers" section.
If anything has such a warning icon, delete it, reboot, and let Windows find it and reinstall it.

the freezing seems to be a different problem, however it MAY be related...the freezing correlates to the error log events mentioned earlier. that is not the main problem i was trying to solve though, that came up recently.

the freezing seems to be directly related to these in the event log:

Error Code 11. An attempt was made to laod a prgram with an incorrect format.
Error Code 15. The system cannot find the drive specified.
Error Code 12. The access code is invalid.

the startup sound is not the only sound that skips, all sounds do. i was just mentioning the startup sound because i assumed some programs might not be loaded at that point, which could narrow down the possibilities. playing music on my system is impossible.

What is used by default to play wav files?

Can you play mp3 files without a problem? (open Windows Explorer, find an mp3 and double click on it)

any sound that comes out skips. mp3s wav's etc. the whole computer runs slow, so its not a sound issue, but the sound skips as a result of whatever the problem is.

i ran cleanup...

CleanUp! 4.0 recovered 695.9 MB of disk space from 9717 files.

ill restart now and see how it worked

....alright no luck still running slow. it does seem a bit smoother but still not anywhere near normal.

CPU usage is around 4% right now, with firefox and aim running

ay dude i was just letting you know i have the same problem my computer skips just like yours when i listen to music it starts out fine but when it starts to skip the music begins to become distorted.

I use to be able to get rid of it with system restore it would go away for awhile then just come right back.

Only thing is that when my computer skips alot of my memory gets consumed. I checked using task manager and when it skips it jumps from using 2% all the way up to like 80%. I have no idea what it is but im pretty sure its more than likely the same problem as yours.

Im completely clueless on what to do about this i posted a thread on another forum hopefully we can get some help from there.

Here is the thread: http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic85555.html

Im really looking into getting a mac mini or mac pro im tired of random problems like these.

I used that cleanup software and now everything looks like its from windows 98 or 95. How do I get that xp look back? and all the settings are still set for the xp look.

right click the desktop and under themes choose windows xp

ok I did and all it did was reset my background. it doesnt change the color and style of the taskbar, start menu, and windows back to the xp style and the xp blue.

do you still need help?

Yes because the start menu and the entire task bar as well as the border of any window I open is still grey and in the older windows version style. Everything is suppose to be irreversable but I still have not found out how to fix it at all.

go to start, run, type in services.msc

scroll down to themes and it should be started and set to auto. If not, double click themes and change the settings.

if that doesn't work there is a registry setting that can be changed, i just cant remember what it is but I will find out if you need me too.

I always use the classic 98 configuration, my computer is old and fast

Ok ThrillHouse I did what you said and the themes are already set to automatic.

if you right click the desktop and go to properties and then appearances, under windows and buttons: does it say classic style or xp style? It needs to be on xp style too.

It says XP style.

There is a registry key that might help.

Please, please, please backup you registry before making changes.

Start/Run/Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer

If there is something called NoSimpleStartMenu, you can edit that. If not you can make one by right clicking and choosing DWORD value and making an entry called NoSimpleStartMenu.

Change the value to 0. Save and restart. Let me know if it worked.

ok I did that the data for the registry u add me add looks like this 0x00000000 (0) then I closed out of it and restarted the computer. nothing has changed so I went back into the registry and that one that I added is still there did I do it all right?

you did it right, that just wasn't the problem, I was wrong again. if you have an xp cd, load it and do start/run/cmd and type sfc snannow and that should scan windows to see if its missing something, may point you in the right direction.

scannow

good save!

yeah i dont have that. the friggen idiots that I got the computer from never gave me anything cause their stupid butts lost all the cds when they were moving. is there any possible way to get around that?

The easiest, cheapest way for a manufacturered computer is to contact the company and order a set of their restore disks (but not all restore disks have this functionality). What is the exact make and model of your system?

I have a HP Compaq nc8000.

If the service contract is valid (most computers come with one) then they will ship you windows disks for free. Just call tech support and ask them to look up the numbers on your service tag (on a sticker under the laptop) and see if they can send you the cd's for free.

The Compaq disks may work for your (or may have an option for a non-destructive recovery) - so I'd suggest ordering them from Compaq ( http://www.compaq.com/ )

ok thanks and the warrenty is not active at all.

try going to my computer, then tools, folder options, and press the restore defaults button.

nothing happened. so I guess it didnt work

I found this on another site, give it a try:
1St) In file explorer, Tools, Folder Options check to make sure of the following: a) Check the check box for "Show hidden Files". Uncheck both checkboxes for: Hide Extensions of Known file types and Hide protected operating system files. This will ensure that you will be able to find the file outlined below however, be sure to recheck these boxes afterwards to protect them. 2) Go to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes and locate a file: "Luna.theme" and double click on it.

If that doesn't work in means your luna folder is corrupted and you need the xp cd to put a fresh copy in there. Since you don't have the cd, I can email you the folder and files (only 4 mb) and then you can replace the corrupted ones with good ones. Let me know if double clicking Luna.theme doesn't work and pm me your email and I will send you the stuff if we have to cross that bridge.

it didnt work but when I was browsing in the display properties screen that popped up after clicking the luna theme I noticed that the windows and buttons was selected as the windows classic style and that was the only option for that. is that what could be wrong? either way I am going to pm you my email address.

You've got mail!

hmm ffor some reason I didnt get the email.

I sent it at 10:44 and hotmail says it sent at 10:58 so give it another go and if it's still not there I'll send it again

yeah that worked thanks I appreciate that.

glad to hear it, have a good one