View Full Version : Laptop issues, running very slow! Not sure whats up.
So I am relatively knowledgeable as far as computers (PCs) go but this has me stumped.
A family friend asked me to look at her HP pavilion ze5185 which has been running very slow. I took one look at it, reformatted the HD and reinstalled Windows XP professional since there was too much adware/malware.
With a fresh install normally a computer like this would be flying compared to before, but in this case its super slow!
Here are the specs:
Hp pavilion ze5185
Pentium 4 2.4Ghz
512MB of Ram
The computer is so slow that it is beyond ridiculous.
Please help.
Thank you in advance.
SeasonalEclipse
12-09-07, 06:39 PM
Might be the hard drive. See if it has a built in HP diagnostic deal to check the drive, if not find out who makes it and get a utility to check it from their site.
Might be the hard drive. See if it has a built in HP diagnostic deal to check the drive, if not find out who makes it and get a utility to check it from their site.
Ahh, thank you.
I will check that first.
thideras
12-09-07, 06:42 PM
What is running on it? Did you use the HP restore disc? If so, turn all the HP programs off ;)
Well, can you give an example of what "slow" is for the computer? If it takes minutes to open the browser, see if the HDD light is on. If it is on all the time, then you may have HDD failure.
You can run a couple tests to see what is going on:
SMART HDD test (tells information on how healthy the drive is)
MemTest+86 (tells you if there is a memory problem)
From past experience (at a previous job), I had a laptop come to me (Win 2k era) that was running extremely slow. Not talking about 30 seconds to open Firefox, I'm talking 5+ mins easy. Turns out the drive was being used 100% because the drive started failing. Windows was trying to correct the errors.
Lastly: :welcome: to the forums!! :D:D
What is running on it? Did you use the HP restore disc? If so, turn all the HP programs off ;)
Well, can you give an example of what "slow" is for the computer? If it takes minutes to open the browser, see if the HDD light is on. If it is on all the time, then you may have HDD failure.
You can run a couple tests to see what is going on:
SMART HDD test (tells information on how healthy the drive is)
MemTest+86 (tells you if there is a memory problem)
From past experience (at a previous job), I had a laptop come to me (Win 2k era) that was running extremely slow. Not talking about 30 seconds to open Firefox, I'm talking 5+ mins easy. Turns out the drive was being used 100% because the drive started failing. Windows was trying to correct the errors.
Lastly: :welcome: to the forums!! :D:D
Thanks for the help, I will use those tools to check HD and memory.
P.S. I have been here longer than you. :p
thideras
12-09-07, 06:51 PM
Thanks for the help, I will use those tools to check HD and memory.
P.S. I have been here longer than you. :pO.o
By golly he's right! :eek:
O.o
By golly he's right! :eek:
Thideras got pwnd!
:D
I'll correct you both.
:welcome: BACK! lol
Hmm the HD light wasnt on all the time so I decided to run memtest86...
I got an "Unexpected Interrupt - Halting" message.
Type: 4 (whatever that means)
and then it gives the Stack dump.
Looks like we have found the issue... Time to replace the RAM.
Right before it goes to that message the # of errors in Test 2 goes to 32,767. That number is basically 32MB so I am suspecting one of the Ram modules (not sure what they are called, the separate rectangles on the memory stick) failed.
From what I can tell Test 2 tests "Moving inversions, ones & zeros"
Thanks alot everyone, especially thideras. :thup:
thideras
12-09-07, 07:24 PM
Hmm the HD light wasnt on all the time so I decided to run memtest86...
I got an "Unexpected Interrupt - Halting" message.
Type: 4 (whatever that means)
and then it gives the Stack dump.
Looks like we have found the issue... Time to replace the RAM.
Right before it goes to that message the # of errors in Test 2 goes to 32,767. That number is basically 32MB so I am suspecting one of the Ram modules (not sure what they are called, the separate rectangles on the memory stick) failed.
From what I can tell Test 2 tests "Moving inversions, ones & zeros"
Thanks alot everyone, especially thideras. :thup:Great to hear you found the problem :thup:
If it has two sticks, try removing one and testing it. Do the same with the other.
Great to hear you found the problem :thup:
If it has two sticks, try removing one and testing it. Do the same with the other.
Just popped it open and it does have 2 sticks.
Testing now :)
Although even with one stick of 256MB Winblows will run very slow. I wonder if it will be faster with less ram but without the corrupted stick in it?
thideras
12-09-07, 07:28 PM
Just popped it open and it does have 2 sticks.
Testing now :)
Although even with one stick of 256MB Winblows will run very slow. I wonder if it will be faster with less ram but without the corrupted stick in it?Well, I would say it would run faster ;)
Not only that, you don't want to run bad sticks. That could cause some serious stability issues :beer:
Windows doesn't need help with stability issues, it is great at that already ;)
Weird...
Both sticks give the same exact error!
exactly the same....
thideras
12-09-07, 07:31 PM
Weird...
Both sticks give the same exact error!
exactly the same....Acquire a different copy of MemTest+86...sounds like a bad copy. You are running this from a bootable cd, right? :eh?:
This is bizzare!
Same error for both sticks and I tried sticking them in one at a time into different slots.
Mobo issue?
thideras
12-09-07, 07:33 PM
This is bizzare!
Same error for both sticks and I tried sticking them in one at a time into different slots.
Mobo issue?Possibly, do you have other RAM that you can test in it? It could be a northbridge issue. Maybe a BIOS reflash? :shrug:
Floppy actually, and I got it from softpedia...
Do you have a better source?
Acquire a different copy of MemTest+86...sounds like a bad copy. You are running this from a bootable cd, right? :eh?:
thideras
12-09-07, 07:35 PM
Floppy actually, and I got it from softpedia...
Do you have a better source?http://www.memtest86.com/download.html
There you go, get the ISO version and burn it to a cd ;)
Possibly, do you have other RAM that you can test in it? It could be a northbridge issue. Maybe a BIOS reflash? :shrug:
Don't have pc2100 ram on me but might be able to run some tests later...
Damn well this sucks! :(
thideras
12-09-07, 07:38 PM
Don't have pc2100 ram on me but might be able to run some tests later...
Damn well this sucks! :(If you have DDR2 (or DDR) that is at a rated higher speed, you can still use it, it will just run it at whatever the motherboard can handle.
http://www.memtest86.com/download.html
There you go, get the ISO version and burn it to a cd ;)
Thanks, I will give the CD image a shot when I get home to my docking station. (X61 doesn't have an optical drive)
If you have DDR2 (or DDR) that is at a rated higher speed, you can still use it, it will just run it at whatever the motherboard can handle.
All I have is a 2GB stick of DDR2 RAM and I am hesitant to put it into this laptop...
thideras
12-09-07, 07:40 PM
All I have is a 2GB stick of DDR2 RAM and I am hesitant to put it into this laptop...I understand :beer:
Is the laptop under warranty?
I understand :beer:
Is the laptop under warranty?
99% sure its not, too old to be under warranty unless the owner bought some ridiculously extended warranty.
Anywho, I tried the floppy on yet another laptop with a floppy drive which works fine and has pc100 RAM sticks and it failed in the same way.
I burned the most recent version to a CD and tried it on 3 different laptops:
Old compaq with pc100 ram
The computer in question (HP pavilion ze5185) with DDR ram PC2100
and my personal X61 with DDR2 PC5300
all failed in the same way. The only difference is that the compaq and the X61 did not give the haulting message but rather carried out the test and reported many errors.
The HP gives the hault message described in my previous post.
Can't figure out what is going on. Any other programs I can use to check the memory status?
thideras
12-10-07, 07:50 AM
99% sure its not, too old to be under warranty unless the owner bought some ridiculously extended warranty.
Anywho, I tried the floppy on yet another laptop with a floppy drive which works fine and has pc100 RAM sticks and it failed in the same way.
I burned the most recent version to a CD and tried it on 3 different laptops:
Old compaq with pc100 ram
The computer in question (HP pavilion ze5185) with DDR ram PC2100
and my personal X61 with DDR2 PC5300
all failed in the same way. The only difference is that the compaq and the X61 did not give the haulting message but rather carried out the test and reported many errors.
The HP gives the hault message described in my previous post.
Can't figure out what is going on. Any other programs I can use to check the memory status?You can try an "older" version here:
http://www.memtest.org/#downiso
Again an ISO disc. If that fails on many machines...then you might have a burning issue...I have successfully used v1.7 (memtest.org) and v3.3 (memtest.com) with no issues.
I ran the Drive fitness test to check the HDD and it "succeeded" so it looks like the HD is not the issue.
About to try Memtest+
Ok, I ran memtest86+ v1.7. It did 12 passes it didn't find any errors so RAM is fine most likely.
So far I have ruled out memory and HD problems.
Could it be a software issue? Drivers maybe?
Neuromancer
12-14-07, 09:24 AM
Does memtest work on devices with shared video memory? I just tried it on my aunts acer because hers is running slow, and it errored out then the screen corrupted.
Does memtest work on devices with shared video memory? I just tried it on my aunts acer because hers is running slow, and it errored out then the screen corrupted.
Did you use memtest86+?
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