New HP 820 Slow Response

[Bob]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

I have a new a820n PC that I like a lot except for one very annoying issue.
When I click on an icon (to show desktop, to open MS Word, etc.) there is
usually a lag of up to 10 seconds before anything happens. Sometimes (less
than 25% of the time) I get instant response, but usually not. My old
computer with only 1 Mhz did not have this problem. I tried all the obvious
things: checked for viruses and spyware and worked with the online help
desk. The help desk made many suggestions (increase virtual memory),
eliminate most of the start up items, etc. They also had me try Safe Mode.
In Safe Mode everyhing is VERY fast, but not in regular Windows mode.
Finally the help desk told me that ten seconds was not an unusual response
time and that I should just accept it. Is this true? Are others having the
same problem? Could it be my virus software slowing things down? I'm using
EZ Antivirus that came with the computer.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

A ten-second program startup time is pretty long for this class of computer. If
this is normal as claimed by HP support, HP screwed up the computer design.
That's not what you paid for when you bought a 3+GHz system!

According to the HP web site, this model shipped with 512MB, plenty sufficient
for most tasks. You've removed startup items. Have you removed all temp files?
Click Run then enter %temp% and click OK. Delete all files shown in the %temp%
folder.. Have you defragged the hard drive? Under normal circumstances,
neither of these would improve performance much.

You might also check for the availability of new Intel 915 chipset drivers at
the Intel web site.

Try disabling the A-V software.

Has this computer ALWAYS behaved this way from the time you first powered it up,
or did the slowdown happen suddenly? ... Ben Myers

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 17:39:53 GMT, "Bob" <boboaks@nospampacbell.net> wrote:

>I have a new a820n PC that I like a lot except for one very annoying issue.
>When I click on an icon (to show desktop, to open MS Word, etc.) there is
>usually a lag of up to 10 seconds before anything happens. Sometimes (less
>than 25% of the time) I get instant response, but usually not. My old
>computer with only 1 Mhz did not have this problem. I tried all the obvious
>things: checked for viruses and spyware and worked with the online help
>desk. The help desk made many suggestions (increase virtual memory),
>eliminate most of the start up items, etc. They also had me try Safe Mode.
>In Safe Mode everyhing is VERY fast, but not in regular Windows mode.
>Finally the help desk told me that ten seconds was not an unusual response
>time and that I should just accept it. Is this true? Are others having the
>same problem? Could it be my virus software slowing things down? I'm using
>EZ Antivirus that came with the computer.
>
>

 

[Bob]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

Thanks for the suggestions. I had already removed temp files (didn't help),
and yes, I have 512MB. I can't imagine defragging the hard drive would do
anything; there isn't that much to defrag! I only have 22.5 GB on a 180 GB
drive.
I did disable the AV software, but no change. Did it always act like this?
Can't honestly say. I don't think it did at first, but as soon as I got it
I started moving files and re-installing applications from my old computer
to the new one. I don't run anything very fancy; no games. Just Office97,
Quicken, photo editing program, and stuff like that.


<ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers)> wrote in message
news:420ba9ae.1093717@nntp.charter.net...
>A ten-second program startup time is pretty long for this class of
>computer. If
> this is normal as claimed by HP support, HP screwed up the computer
> design.
> That's not what you paid for when you bought a 3+GHz system!
>
> According to the HP web site, this model shipped with 512MB, plenty
> sufficient
> for most tasks. You've removed startup items. Have you removed all temp
> files?
> Click Run then enter %temp% and click OK. Delete all files shown in the
> %temp%
> folder.. Have you defragged the hard drive? Under normal circumstances,
> neither of these would improve performance much.
>
> You might also check for the availability of new Intel 915 chipset drivers
> at
> the Intel web site.
>
> Try disabling the A-V software.
>
> Has this computer ALWAYS behaved this way from the time you first powered
> it up,
> or did the slowdown happen suddenly? ... Ben Myers
>
> On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 17:39:53 GMT, "Bob" <boboaks@nospampacbell.net> wrote:
>
>>I have a new a820n PC that I like a lot except for one very annoying
>>issue.
>>When I click on an icon (to show desktop, to open MS Word, etc.) there is
>>usually a lag of up to 10 seconds before anything happens. Sometimes
>>(less
>>than 25% of the time) I get instant response, but usually not. My old
>>computer with only 1 Mhz did not have this problem. I tried all the
>>obvious
>>things: checked for viruses and spyware and worked with the online help
>>desk. The help desk made many suggestions (increase virtual memory),
>>eliminate most of the start up items, etc. They also had me try Safe
>>Mode.
>>In Safe Mode everyhing is VERY fast, but not in regular Windows mode.
>>Finally the help desk told me that ten seconds was not an unusual response
>>time and that I should just accept it. Is this true? Are others having
>>the
>>same problem? Could it be my virus software slowing things down? I'm
>>using
>>EZ Antivirus that came with the computer.
>>
>>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

Almost sounds like the disk could be spinning down way too soon. Check
all the power management settings. Might be set to spin down after a minute,
which would give a long delay in getting going again.

Other than that, these computers get preloaded with many gigabytes of junkware.
If I ever had the misfortune of working on a system like this again, first
thing I'd do is wipe the disk and install just the OS.

-Dave



Bob wrote:
> Thanks for the suggestions. I had already removed temp files (didn't help),
> and yes, I have 512MB. I can't imagine defragging the hard drive would do
> anything; there isn't that much to defrag! I only have 22.5 GB on a 180 GB
> drive.
> I did disable the AV software, but no change. Did it always act like this?
> Can't honestly say. I don't think it did at first, but as soon as I got it
> I started moving files and re-installing applications from my old computer
> to the new one. I don't run anything very fancy; no games. Just Office97,
> Quicken, photo editing program, and stuff like that.
>
>
> <ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers)> wrote in message
> news:420ba9ae.1093717@nntp.charter.net...
>
>>A ten-second program startup time is pretty long for this class of
>>computer. If
>>this is normal as claimed by HP support, HP screwed up the computer
>>design.
>>That's not what you paid for when you bought a 3+GHz system!
>>
>>According to the HP web site, this model shipped with 512MB, plenty
>>sufficient
>>for most tasks. You've removed startup items. Have you removed all temp
>>files?
>>Click Run then enter %temp% and click OK. Delete all files shown in the
>>%temp%
>>folder.. Have you defragged the hard drive? Under normal circumstances,
>>neither of these would improve performance much.
>>
>>You might also check for the availability of new Intel 915 chipset drivers
>>at
>>the Intel web site.
>>
>>Try disabling the A-V software.
>>
>>Has this computer ALWAYS behaved this way from the time you first powered
>>it up,
>>or did the slowdown happen suddenly? ... Ben Myers
>>
>>On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 17:39:53 GMT, "Bob" <boboaks@nospampacbell.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I have a new a820n PC that I like a lot except for one very annoying
>>>issue.
>>>When I click on an icon (to show desktop, to open MS Word, etc.) there is
>>>usually a lag of up to 10 seconds before anything happens. Sometimes
>>>(less
>>>than 25% of the time) I get instant response, but usually not. My old
>>>computer with only 1 Mhz did not have this problem. I tried all the
>>>obvious
>>>things: checked for viruses and spyware and worked with the online help
>>>desk. The help desk made many suggestions (increase virtual memory),
>>>eliminate most of the start up items, etc. They also had me try Safe
>>>Mode.
>>>In Safe Mode everyhing is VERY fast, but not in regular Windows mode.
>>>Finally the help desk told me that ten seconds was not an unusual response
>>>time and that I should just accept it. Is this true? Are others having
>>>the
>>>same problem? Could it be my virus software slowing things down? I'm
>>>using
>>>EZ Antivirus that came with the computer.
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

On the seventh day, Bob wrote...

> I have a new a820n PC that I like a lot except for one very annoying issue.
> When I click on an icon (to show desktop, to open MS Word, etc.) there is
> usually a lag of up to 10 seconds before anything happens. Sometimes (less
> than 25% of the time) I get instant response, but usually not. My old
> computer with only 1 Mhz did not have this problem. I tried all the obvious
> things: checked for viruses and spyware and worked with the online help
> desk. The help desk made many suggestions (increase virtual memory),
> eliminate most of the start up items, etc. They also had me try Safe Mode.
> In Safe Mode everyhing is VERY fast, but not in regular Windows mode.
> Finally the help desk told me that ten seconds was not an unusual response
> time and that I should just accept it. Is this true? Are others having the
> same problem? Could it be my virus software slowing things down? I'm using
> EZ Antivirus that came with the computer.

This pretty much isn't normal. Starting with 600+ MHz you should get
instantaneous responses from the system, that's my experience. I think that
helpdesk just wanted to get over with the issue. As for the symptoms you've
seen so far, esp. that the PC is working fast in safe mode, I'd recommend
shutting down services and applications one by one at a time and see what
triggers the behaviour. Since some apps and services don't get started in
safe mode, I think that's a safe bet.

HTH

--
mit freundlichen Grüßen/with kind regards
Christian Dürrhauer, Institute of Geography, FU Berlin

100,000 lemmings can't be wrong.

 

[Bob]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

>
> This pretty much isn't normal. Starting with 600+ MHz you should get
> instantaneous responses from the system, that's my experience. I think
> that
> helpdesk just wanted to get over with the issue. As for the symptoms
> you've
> seen so far, esp. that the PC is working fast in safe mode, I'd recommend
> shutting down services and applications one by one at a time and see what
> triggers the behaviour. Since some apps and services don't get started in
> safe mode, I think that's a safe bet.
>
Yes, that seems like a great approach, but I'm not sure exactly how to do
that. What do you mean by "shutting down"?I don't want to de-install the
applications, and simply not opening them doesn't work. There is a tab in
the System Config Utility called "services", but I"m not sure what they do.
When I don't load system services (the entire group), I think I essentially
get Safe Mode and everything is very fast. I guess I could uncheck the
services one by one and see if that makes a difference, but I'm not sure how
the "services" equate to specific applications. Any suggestions?

 

[gcc]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

"Bob" <boboaks@nospampacbell.net> wrote in message
news:cg4Pd.4100$ZZ.3234@newssvr23.news.prodigy.net...
>
>>
>> This pretty much isn't normal. Starting with 600+ MHz you should get
>> instantaneous responses from the system, that's my experience. I think
>> that
>> helpdesk just wanted to get over with the issue. As for the symptoms
>> you've
>> seen so far, esp. that the PC is working fast in safe mode, I'd
>> recommend
>> shutting down services and applications one by one at a time and see what
>> triggers the behaviour. Since some apps and services don't get started in
>> safe mode, I think that's a safe bet.
>>
> Yes, that seems like a great approach, but I'm not sure exactly how to do
> that. What do you mean by "shutting down"?I don't want to de-install the
> applications, and simply not opening them doesn't work. There is a tab in
> the System Config Utility called "services", but I"m not sure what they
> do. When I don't load system services (the entire group), I think I
> essentially get Safe Mode and everything is very fast. I guess I could
> uncheck the services one by one and see if that makes a difference, but
> I'm not sure how the "services" equate to specific applications. Any
> suggestions?

Bring up the task manager by Pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL, Pocesses
tab.....Close them down one at a time until you find the culprit....

sounds like something is hogging resources to me and I bet it's something
you don't know is there.....

 

[Bob]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

">
> Bring up the task manager by Pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL, Pocesses
> tab.....Close them down one at a time until you find the culprit....
>
> sounds like something is hogging resources to me and I bet it's something
> you don't know is there.....
There is a lot there I don't know about, but nothing seems that out of line
with what I see on my laptop (which does not have a performance issue).
When all applications are closed, the biggest process is SVCHOST.EXE with
21,800 K; next biggest is EXPLORER.EXE with 18,000 K; the rest drop off
rapidly from about 7000 K down to 28 K. I tried ending several of them, but
nothing changed the performance.