New computer is slowing down

I just completed a new system build and everything went together pretty good (except for the defective psu) but after running my system for a few hours almost everything slows down. It almost acts like it's running out of memory but the Task Manager still shows that I'm only using about 50% of my memory and the CPU usage is right around 50%. When I try to open new programs it takes anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes to open but once most programs are open they seem to operate normally. Windows programs seem to take the biggest hit on speed. Explorer and the file search are really slow to respond. Once I reboot everything runs normally for a few hours and then slow down again. I tried an ATI Radeon x1600 pro video card and I have the same problems. Here's the system specs.

Thermaltake Aguila case
Thermaltake Toughpower 700W ps
Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
Intel 3.6Ghz Dual Core processor
Corsair 2GB DDR-675 memory
Asus EN7600GTSILENT2DHT256M video card
Creative X-Fi sound card
Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 speakers
Plextor sata dvd burner
Asus dvd-rom
Hitachi Deskstar 250GB hard drive
Samsung 20" LCD
Logitech MX3000 Laser

Microsoft Windows XP Pro


Here's an example I just tried. My system has been running for about 3 hours and windows explorer took about 2:15 to open. CPU Usage was at about 15%, PF Usage 665 MB and available physical memory was about 1.3 mb. I have XP firewall enabled, McAfee virus scan, spysweeper, iTunes, Firefox, Thunderbird, Microsoft Excel and Windows Live Messenger running. In the 2 minutes waiting for explorer to open I was able to alt-tab to firefox or excel and use those programs normally without any delays or problems. The taskbar was slow to respond.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Millertime

 

1. Check CPU heatsink, does it attach properly to the CPU?
2. Check grapic card heatsink, does it attach properly to the GPU?
3. Ventilation of the casing?

 

Could it be that your processor is throttling due to overheating?

 

1. I thought it was secure but I'll check again. I have a Thermaltake fan on the cpu. When I installed the stock intel fan I didn't have it seated properly and my system would shut down when I botted up.

2. Here's the link to the graphic card. I don't think that's an issue. http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=2&l2=6&l3=271&model=1097&modelmenu=1

3. The case has a mesh front with a 120mm front and back. The side window has a mesh guard where one 80mm fan could go. The case is very roomy and uncluttered inside so I think I'm ok there.


Can I check my CPU temp from windows or only when I go into BIOS?

Thanks,
Millertime

 

Yes, you can check your CPU temp from windows. You need to install the hardware monitoring software provided in your mainboard driver CD.

 

I installed the Asus PC Probe II software to monitor temps. The CPU temp ranged from 21 deg C to a peak of 32 deg C, the MB ranged from 28 deg C to 31 deg C. What temps are normal?

Thanks,
Millertime

 

As long as your temperature don't go over 70c, there shouldn't be any problem since you are not overclocking.

Wait.... I just noticed this in your 1st post.

I think there must be a software eating up the system memory a lot. Does your HDD starts to get really busy swapping files when you try to open new programs?

Also, did you try checking the processes list in task manager? If possible I hope you can take screenshot the task manager (the processes and performance tab) and post them here.

 

Here's a couple of screenshots of the processes and performance tabs. This is after my system has been running for about 2 1/2 hours after a restart. Windows explorer took about 15 sec to start and an Excel file took about 2 min to open. Firefox and Thunderbird seem to be fine and iTunes is playing along just fine. If I were to start "NFS: Most Wanted" right now it might take a minute or two to start but then I could play it for hours without any problems.

Thanks for any help,
Millertime

 

Here's a few programs or tasks that seem to cause me the most grief after I've been running for a few hours:

AutoCAD 2007 (this could be a driver issue)
Windows Explorer
File search task
Excel (only when I double-click a file, opening Excel from the start menu is very fast)

When Explorer is acting up the taksbar won't respond but I can alt-tab to my programs and they'll be performing normally.

Is there any chance this could be a bad install of Windows XP? I bought a new copy so there's no bootlegging and it seemed to install just fine.

 

Here's what I know is in the tray.

nVidia Settings
McAfee Virus Scanner
Safely Remove Hardware (for my external drives)
LAN 2 (limited or no connectivity)
Windows Live Messenger (not always running)
yPops (allows pop access for Yahoo mail)
Webroot Spy Sweeper
Logitech Wireless desktop
Earthlink internet connection
iTunes
XP firewall is also enabled

I also have Firefox and Thunderbird running most of the time. My old Win 2k system with 1 GB ram would run for weeks at a time without any system slowdown with all of these programs running.

Millertime

 

Hm... try closing the nVIDIA tray thing? One of my friend was having similar problems and the nVIDIA tray was the culprit.

 

Closing the nVidia settings task did not make a noticable difference. Any other ideas?

Using file search with explorer will cause even greater problems. If I have explorer open and run a number of file searches I'll eventually hit a point where explorer stops responding and I have to close explorer in task manager. This messes with the task bar and really slows things down even more.

Thanks for the help so far.
Millertime

 

Sounds like a bad WinXP installation to me. Is it possible for you to do a fresh install of WinXP on the system now? I seriously doubt its your hardware that is causing all the trouble.

 

That's the feeling I've had, my system just hasn't felt quite right from the beginning. I haven't used XP before so I thought maybe it was that much different from Win 2K. I was hoping it wasn't the hardware because I tried selecting components that had good ratings and would work good together. I'd hate to start bastardizing it and swapping parts chasing an elusize problem.

What would be the best way to go about reinstalling XP? Do I need to format the drive and repartition or is there a different method?

Millertime

 

I really screwed up. I tried reinstalling XP using the upgrade option and now all I get is a blue screen with the following stop message.

STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0x8050BFF6, 0xF78EAA8C, 0xF78EA788)

It dumps memory contents to hard drive and then reboots, goes back into setup and runs partway through "Installing Devices" then hits the blue screen.

And of course there's data on my hard drive that I neglected to backup because I thought that this reinstallation would be a piece of cake.

Please help, I don't have a clue on what I should do now.
Millertime

 

I use the reovery option and then after a few steps I end up at the Recovery Console where it asks which installation to log onto and the administrator password. When I enter the password it sends me to a dos prompt at c:\windows. What do I do?

 

Get your harddisk backup through a friend's PC or something onto a DVD, etc. Then do a clean format and Windows installation. That would heal your headache.

 

That's what I was thinking. I have a Win2K system as my second computer, will I have any problems putting the hd on that computer and backing up what I need or do I have to use an XP system?

Another question about the headache I'm having. Could that stop message possibly be because by a bad memory module?

Thanks,
Millertime