DonationCoder.com Software > Screenshot Captor

Slowed Down My PC

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f0dder:
Hm... so you're saying that CPU usage is continuously at 50%, but you don't see any single process item in Process Explorer hogging the CPU? O_o .

OK, this is a very wild guess - but try looking here. Sorry for giving a google link, but it's a lot faster than me trying to explain the issue. That could give you similar symptoms (but so could a lot of other things).

bob99:

It's not continuously at 50% but while looking at the sysinternals graph I'm getting wide peaks at 40-50% for periods of time.  Then it will drop back to 0-10% range for a while with just occasional spikes.  Then again get 40-50% periods for awhile and back down.

The PIO/DMA settings articles you sent me to may be it.
Here's what I show...

Primary IDE
Device 0
Device type: Auto Detection (grayed out)
Xfer mode: DMA if avail.
Current xfer mode: PIO Mode

Device 1
Device type: Auto Detection
Xfer mode: DMA if avail.
Current xfer mode: Not avail

Secondary IDE
Device 0
Device type: Auto Detection (grayed out)
Xfer mode: DMA if avail.
Current xfer mode: Ultra DMA Mode2

Device 1
Device type: Auto Detection
Xfer mode: DMA if avail.
Current xfer mode: Not avail

Does this look like the problem to you?

Thx.

Carol Haynes:
What is attached to your Primary IDE interface? Presumably a hard disc - if it is running in PIO mode you have a problem somewhere. Do you know what kind of drive is installed (make and model) ? If you don't know try running SIW to find out.

I presume your Secondary IDE interface has a CD or DVD drive attached - in which case DMA Mode 2 is probably correct.

This article may help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472

Try the workaround before you try the hotfixes. This has happened on my system before now and everything grinds to a halt. Using the workaround will help solve the problem.

You may also want to check your hard disc hasn't got bad sectors before that though. Disc errors are a common cause for IDE drives reverting to PIO mode.

Go to START > RUN > CMD.EXE

and for each of your hard drive partitions run: CHKDSK C: /X /R /V

each time replace C: with the drive letter.

For drive C: (and possibly others) it won't run because Windows can't release the drive while it is up and running. When prompted allow it to do a scan on next reboot.

When you have checked all the other drives reboot your system and allow the locked drives to be scanned too.

This check will do a complete surface scan of your hard discs (an if you have a large drive it will take some time). It will help identify any bad sectors on your hard discs and map them out so they won't be used in future. If files are currently using bad sectors it will attemt to recover the files and move them somewhere else. If it can't do that the files are salvaged into the root folder of the drive and given a name something like ******.CHK. Depending on what files are damaged it may account for why Windows isn't working properly and you may have to do a repair install of Windows to replace damaged system files.

Even though it takes a long time you may want to sit and watch as the boot time scans are done so you can see which if any files are having problems. Have a bit of paper hand to note them down.

If you need any more help post back again with what happened.

Good luck.

f0dder:
Seems like I was right wrt. "xp reverts PIO".

Definitely time to get a S.M.A.R.T monitor and check the "reallocated sectors" count, and if nonzero - BACKUP and replace the drive. You will definitely want to hack the drive back into DMA mode before backing up, though, otherwise it'll take an eternity (it will most likely revert to PIO sometime during the backup because of bad sectors, but hopefully not until midway or later).

Now, reverting can happen for other reasons than bad sectors, but since you only have a single drive on your primary channel, bad sectors sound likely :(

bob99:
f0dder & Carol,

Thanks to both for your tips & suggestions.  Looks like I'm back up to speed.  It was the PIO revert.
It took a while to get back to this point since backing up my data files and the chkdsk both took a reeeaal long time at the slower speed.  Close to 7 hrs total for the two.   Only 23 GB of backup on the data partition and running chkdsk on the 35 GB program partition.  Chkdsk did not indicate any bad sectors.

Now if it happens again I need to think back to what may have caused it.  In my case it may have been my CD/DVD.  I remember a little while back it did seem to be struggling while burning a CD.  In one of the tips you referred me it mentions reverting to PIO can be caused by updating the HD driver or repeated timeouts on a CD/DVD burner.  Since I haven't updated my HD drivers it only leaves the CD/DVD, I hope.

I haven't applied any of the Hotfixes yet, just did the driver uninstall for the primary IDE and let it re-install.  One place I read said XP SP3 will include this fix.  Since SP3 only came out y'day I'll wait a little while before I update.  Want to make sure SP3 fixes don't break something else.

I noticed there have been quite a few reads on this post.  If anyone is experiencing the same problems give f0dder & Carol's recommendations a try.  Sure beats re-formatting and re-installing everything.

And so there is no confusion, let me repeat something I said in an earlier post.  Screenshot Captor didn't cause the problem!  It ended up just being a coincidence that the slowdown started at the same time I installed it.  I'll be re-installing it and sending in a donation.  The short time I used it, it looks to be a fantastic program and will be a big help for the needs I have in mind.

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