Speed Problems

Okay, lets see if I can explain this good. About 3 days ago my computer started going through a VERY BAD speed slowdown. I have defragged my HDD's, my registry, and my RAM, but have not had any help at all. I do not know what else to do but it keeps getting slow, and freezing up. I have never had a problem this bad in the last 3 years, because I keep the PC defragged, but this time, I dont know what could have gone wrong. Here is what is in my PC.


ASUS A7N8X ULTRA motherboard
XP 2100+ CPU
512 MB ram
Windows XP pro
80 GB HDD(7200 RPM/ 8 MB cache)
40 GB HDD(5200 RPM/ 2 MB cache)
Radeon 9700 Pro video card
Pioneer a-04 DvD-rw
MicroAdvantadge 52/24/52x cd-rw



If anyone can help me with my problem, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hrm a few things to check.
Since its very isntable it might be:
Heat-you may be to hot although since your on an AMD system it wouldnt be throttling.
PSU may be going kaput.

Also does the HDD churn like a madman during all this
"ATTT ATTTT EHHTTT!!!!"
or is it reletivly normal.

your harddrive might be dying-it has been three years.

P.S.
WELCOME TO THE FORUMS

PC is running at about 81 degrees F, on average. The HDD does not make any weird noises at all, and everything looks/ sounds the same as it did before these problems occured. The only difference in my pc at ALL, is the fact that its become unstable, and that its going very SLOOOOW. By the way, thanks for welcoming me.

hrm- is the 81f the internal case temperature? the exhaust temperature? The CPU temperature? Also-celcius is generally used on these forums-most companies use it, its scientifically and internationally accepted and these are international forums. No i dont know what 50c is outside but i do know it means my CPU is hotter than id like lol. Like two completely different things im measuring.

This leads me to believe that the problem must be poer. Im not too experienced in this area but (someone who knows what they are talking about correct me if im wrong) the CPU may slow down without enough voltage-it would also crash alot.

What kind of crashes do you have? In my general experience HDD crashes are "soft" and you can ctl alt del it but a ram/cpu crash is a full lockup and you can do nothing but a hard reboot. What kind are yours? Im not the best troubleshooter here for failing hardware because i havent experienced too much of it as im new to overclocking (but not to the knowlage of howt o do it-just the actual doing, which is very important) and havent been into hardware long enough to have had much die on me.

Okay, I guess mine is this "soft" crash, because it just locks up, and then it will unlock itself after like 10-30 seconds. the temperature i told you about is my CPU temp. if you need to know what it is in celcius, it is 27.0 degrees

go download the latest version of Spybot and adaware and make sure there isnt any spyware slowing you down.
Dang man, 27°C is a darn low temp, what kinda cooling you got on there?

Well, all I am using is one side fan, and a heatsink. I found that by taking out my other 3 fans, my pc got cooler, and i dont know how, heh

if this is the stock HS i would seriously mistrust the readings from whatever form of thermal sensing you are running. I get that on my PIII but its a PIII with a HS on it ment to cool 3000+ @ stock. Im sure your off and probly by 5-10 degrees.

As far as your problem is concered-spyware is a good thing to check for. I didnt think of it because, well, iv never really had a problem with it.

well, im still new at this whole temperature thing. I dont know what a good temp/bad temp is or anything like that. I just did a search of spyware on my c: and found 47 things......i never thought about spyware either, i had the ad aware installed, but never used it, heh

update to the newest version of adware too, it finds tons more.

Yeah, i already did all updates to it, and it actually did speed my pc back up to normal.. I wanna say thanks to the people that helped me, and now if anyone else has this problem ,I can help them .
Well, if any of you have aim, msn or yahoo messangers, heres my info


aim rpgsearcherz
msn [email protected]
yahoo rpgsearcherz

im glad you got everything worked out. Never realized spyware was that nasty-it never really bothered me-i just idndnt like being watched. About the temps
Motherobard probes are known to be inacurate at times, not reporting correct temps. Some are better than others. Yours is off because its near impossible to keep temps that low on an AMD esp with a stock HSF.

Well, when i used the temp sensor that is in my motherboard, it also came out at the same temp....so i dont know if what this temp sensor says is right or wrong