BleepingComputer.com: slow comp, especially on start-up & jumpy streaming video

Main problems: Programs take a while to start-up, windows takes a while to start-up, all icons on desktop take a while to appear when starting up (just generic icon for a while until computer actually starts responding), video and audio is choppy.

Already went through the Malware attempts and disk scanning, defragging, and all that:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ind...p;#entry1586320

Not sure if it's software or hardware related as I'm not sure what CPU temperatures I should be expecting and the computer has always run hot.
The previous HD on this computer got borked and ended up getting a new one thats much bigger and faster (7200 vs 5400). So far from all the different hardware testing programs everything seems to be passing.

Any ideas? It's been driving me crazy and sure is making it hard to get work done.

Thanks!

How much RAM installed?

How much free space on C:? How large is C:?

I find that..."slow" is a relative term and when applied to a system...much depends on what is installed and running.

Don't know if you have looked at remarks by Quietman7 at Slow Computer-browser Check Here First; It May Not Be Malware - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic87058.html.

FWIW: From the time that I press the power button...until all icons are present and system is accessible...normally takes 2-3 minutes for me (which is probably a good average).

Problems with video files...depends heavily on system capabilities and origin/locale of the video source (online or hard drive).

Louis

Stats on the comp:
TravelMate 8204WLMi
Intel Core Duo T2500 - 2.0 Ghz, 667 Mhz FSB, 2MB L2 cache
ATIM Mobility Radeon X1600 - 512 HyperMemory (256 dedicated)
320 gig, 7200 RPM, 8mb cache SATA (old one was 120 GB, 5400 rpm)
2 GB DDR2 Ram

C drive is 60.5 gigs and 10.4 GB free.

The issue is that it got dramatically worse a bit ago. Bad enough that I though it was malware and went through that whole process.
And yes, I went through all of QuietMan7's post and did most all of that. Still running slow.

FWIW: It's generally desireable to have 15-20% free space...on the system partition...if the user expects XP to work properly.

If a user has functions like hibernation, indexing, system restore enabled...they constantly require real estate.

Louis

Freed up the space and doing a full disk check.
It's been taking a long time, almost over 24 hours. I assume that's not good. This is why I'm thinking it could be hardware based and that maybe the harddrive is borked?
I've done multiple hd tests though and they all came back good...

Worth verifying:

If you are using IDE drives, use Device Manager to verify the transfer mode of the IDE channels is set
to something like DMA id available (depends on your hardware) and not the slower PIO mode.

PIO is the slowest, DMA is the fastest.

This is easy to check and generally easy to fix and the mode would not have changed by itself,
so if it has changed to PIO, change it to DMA and then figure out why it changed and fix it.

To launch the Device Manger console, click Start, Run and in the box enter:

%SystemRoot%\system32\devmgmt.msc

Click OK.

Expand the IDE/ATA controller section to see your IDE channels. Right click each, choose Properties,
and for each channel that has an Advanced Settings tab, determine the Transfer Mode. There are
usually 4 channels to check in a desktop, maybe fewer for laptops.

The fastest selection will be some DMA selection (usually: DMA if available). If it is PIO, change it
to DMA.

If you are not sure about what you see post back for help and advice.

Follow this up with a reboot to make sure any changes stick.

What may have caused the change?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472

Pretty sure I checked those settings a bit ago but I'll check again when I put it back together.

So just opened up the computer to take a look, started hearing something inside.
Turns out the heat spreader is off of the processor (http://mechanicaltutorial.com/uncategorized/comment-le-microprocesseur-intel-est-fabriquer). The metal just fell out of the case.
Think that might be messing with it? I ran a processor test and had a similar problem some time ago but found out it was a faulty HD (maybe temp burned it out?).
If that's the issue, should I be looking to take the whole processor out or just get some new cement and put the heat spreader back on?

Only other changes have been minor installation of programs (Win VNC) and filling up the C drive with a few more large files (leaving 10-12% of the drive free). Not sure what else it would be if it's not the heat spreader.

This post has been edited by ScottDG: 20 January 2010 - 06:56 AM

think it's the heat spreader that fell off the south bridge...

Check your clearances then go out and buy a good heat sink for your processor, years back I have a very cruddy fan on a processor and things got very slow cleaned and it went back up to speed. Heat is deadly I clean my machines about every three months, believe me in three months quite a bit can collect in there.

Yeah I clean mine out fairly often... especially when procrastinating work.

Looks like it's a heat spreader but not sure where it comes from. Just guessing it's from the South Bridge because that's where I found it but it could have snuck over there.
Fairly sure the heatsinks are doing ok but I'll probably be taking those off and cleaning them as well.

Isn't the TravelMate 8204WLMi a laptop?

I am not familiar with that model, but have seen disassembly instructions for other TravelMates.

I am just curious to understand how you can find a fallen off heat sink in a laptop. Why would you guess it is from the South Bridge? Did you disassmble it? What am I missing here ?

Disassembled it.
Have a service book for it.

When opened I found the heat spreader (not heatsink). I assume it's part of the South Bridge because it was stuck near there.
I haven't been able to fully open it yet because I haven't put in all the time to disconnect all the wires to do this.
Currently most of the pieces have been taking apart.