Which component is slowing me down?

I'm not sure if this should be here or in the "Windows Software" area.. anyway:

Sometimes when I run a program (it can be a game, it can be the browser, it can be skype/msn,....) it takes AGES for it to start (actually as I'm writing this I have the feeling that in most cases it's games which have those slow downs). After the start, everything is fast and fine. But until it start it sometimes takes 10-15 seconds when the next time it doesn't even take 1 second. It doesn't matter if it's started after a fresh boot or if I had started the game a few times already. It doesn't matter if the game/app is on the SSD or HDD (windows is on the SSD). It is really weird because my system & SSD (in my signature.. the P170HM) are very very fast and most times everything just starts within a second or less. But then sometimes it takes 10-20 seconds (without any system load) and I wonder why. Sure... 10 seconds aren't really slow compared to other systems.. but on my new laptop I know it can be way faster

Is there a way to find out what exactly is slowing down the process? E.g. I started the game (ET.exe) and some application (perform.exe ?) will log for me what exactly this file is doing or which hardware-component is causing the slow down? I don't really belive that it is a Windows/Software problem.


Thanks

 

I'm sure this is another of your 'tweaks' to Windows 7 that is coming back to bite you.

Could this be a network issue (on the other end, not yours)?

Have you let the system sit at idle for at least 10 minutes after bootup? If it has been running, but idle, it may have just started some internal housekeeping just as you want to start your game?

Check your Task Scheduler to see if anything is set to run at the times you had issues.

If all the above don't give you some insight into your system's behavior, then I would do a clean install (with no tweaks except for what the Intel SSD Toolbox suggests for your 510) and see if it is still the same.

Tweaking Windows by default and/or indiscriminately is always a bad idea in my experience.

 

Pull up the Resource Monitor (type it into the start menu) before you launch a game and see if your disk or CPU or network is being used extensively during the hangs. Hopefully it can help isolate it down to one of the above.

In all likelihood it's probably something waiting for something before timing out. Unfortunately I have no idea how to isolate that.

 

There aren't really many tweaks I do to windows 7.. disabling undeeded windows features/a few services (like windows firewall/defender/media center sharing).. that's pretty much it.

Task Scheduler:
Intel_C_LNEL129100 (I guess thats the Intel SSD Toolbox)
~35 Tasks which are all enabled and not expired yet (windows tasks like time sync, defrag, redIdlebackup,...)

Will try checking with ressource monitor for some time now.

@edit: just tried it: Nothing really gets high usage when starting the game.. cpu/ram/disk.

It also only happens sometimes.. e.g. photoshop cs5 just started in 1-2 seconds. So it's just fine. Also working with Windows itself it really fast.

 

35 tasks in Task Scheduler?

Well, just because we think a Windows feature/Service is not needed, doesn't mean its so.

That is why doing a clean install with no tweaks would confirm or deny that aspect of your 'normal' and 'default' install is not contributing to your issues.

 

http://files.bestmail.ws/task1.JPG
http://files.bestmail.ws/task2.JPG
Those are the tasks when running task scheduler as admin... as standard user its 25 tasks.

If I check the last active tasks during the last 30 days, none show up

Took me 2 days to install all programs / get all settings back on the new windows 7 installation :/

Btw: I just experienced it again when I started windows snipping tool. I thought I miss clicked and started it again.. then after a few more seconds it finally showed up. All in all it took 5 seconds.. but then again sometimes it starts in less than 1 second.

 

Wow, do you need all those tasks running anytime they wish?

One thing I forgot to mention: do you have your system Power settings set to Performance and not Balanced or Power Savings, etc.?

 

Hmm those are the standard tasks created by windows? Tasks created by some other programs would show up in the overview of task scheduler? Or am I wrong? What should/could I disable?

Everything on High Performance

 

I would disable all of them (I don't like anything in Task Scheduler unless I put it in there myself).

 

Is there a sysinternals toolset which runs on Win 7? If so, you could use it to see which resources are being requested and how long each one is taking. That might be the quickest way to get to the bottom of things.

 

You don't want to do any tweaks on win7 but disable standart tasks?

Those tasks are:

I guess I will disable all those "microsoft-sending" tasks. The rest should stay enabled?

@Jclausious: sysinternal toolset.. like perfmon.exe ?

 

No.

At one time, there used to be a tool which recorded which Win32 API call was being made by any running executable. I was thinking you could use that to see what calls were being made and how long each call was taking. For example, if CreateFile() and ReadFile() are taking a long amount of time to complete, you would know this process is disk i/o bound.

 

Such a tool would be great

 

Yeah, it was like a profiler for the Win32 API. I cannot find one w/ some basic internet searching, but I swear something like this used to exist.

 

Run a memory diagnostics test, Memtest86+.

 

Take an image of your OS partition, hopefully you have your data separated on another partition, install Windows clean without any tweaks and see what happens.
You will be astonished how quick your computer flies!

 

Black Viper’s Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Service Configurations | Black Viper's Website | www.blackviper.com

 

Hmm actually I think that only a few special apps are having that slow downs..

e.g.
Snipping tool
Game (located @C:/ET/*.exe)
Game (located @D:/Games/D2/*.exe)
Again.. there aren't any tweaks on my system... a few disabled services & windows features.