Problem:Computer speed rapidly slows down

Hi
I have a problem with my m15x. I own this computer for 2years and i always had this problem (i tried different drivers and so on,i am posting it now because i hoped there will be a driver fix for this)
The computer is working well with commong operations. But when i try to copy or extract some large files it slows down immediately. I cant even click on explorer. I was trying to find why is this happening but i couldnt find problem. My RAM is on 35% of use and CPU doesnt go over 10% while copying.
Even i had issue while accesing Control Panel. When i open Control Panel it starts searching for something(idk what it is doing the green bar begins to move :X) and when i open something while the CP searching, it goes idle and the explorer.exe stops working
I am running:
System: Windows 7 64-bit
Graphic card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M
Processor: Intel Core I7 1.60GHz
Ram: 3GB
Thanks for any advice

 

Rapidly slows. Like it.

Anyway, you don't tell us what software you're using for extracting? Winzip, winrar or just the built in win7 extractor?

 

I use winrar
But as i said it happnes even while copying (total commander) or when i go to the Control Panel.

 

What you may be seeing is the effect of a HDD cache which is smaller than the size of the file you're copying. Early on, the copied data is being absorbed by the disk cache and is therefore being transferred as fast as it can be read, but once the cache is full, the remaining data can only be transferred at the same rate that data can be written from the cache to the disk. The only real fix is a faster disk and/or larger cache. Same principle could apply with unpacking large compressed files, assuming you're not simply overloading the CPU.

 

Might also help to remember to defrag from time to time as well as clean the registry.

 

Defrag might help in case it's a HDD and no SSD. Cleaning the registry is no longer necessary with Windows 7 and is a waste of time. It doesn't improve anything.

 

Well i have reinstalled the computer 3days ago. So i think the defragment couldnt help, but i will try it tomorrow. Thanks for help anyway

 

It sounds like bottlenecking at the HDD. If you're trying to start something that's already loaded into RAM (prefetched or previously run) it should be faster than something that requires reading from the HDD to do it while the copying is happening.

Re: SSD: this would hardly be an issue with the SSD being able to handle MANY more IOPS than HDD's.

 

Bottlenecking? I hope i got your point. I am not trying to run anything loaded on RAM. I have downloaded .rar file (+-500MB) and when i was extracting that file the computer was useless.
And also i thinked about issu with I7 + Win7, not only HDD issue. Because my control panel stops working every first run after system boot and i dont think that the control panel data are bigger than my HDD cache.

 

Bottlenecking at the HDD, not the processor and not RAM.

Aside from normal read/writes that are trying to happen, decompressing a 500MB file means that 500MB is being read from the HDD and decompresses while more than 500MB is simultaneously being written back to it.

So, for you to do something that requires a program being read from the HDD while decompression is happening means that the HDD has to do even more work when it's already near a full load. Unless what you're doing has already been loaded into RAM and does not require the HDD.

 

I agree with other posters, you got a bad HDD that is not good at multitasking. If you saturate the HDD queue, anything else would have hard time squeezing in. Get a better HDD.

This is similar to when you are doing a online video streaming and if your router don't have QOS, you cannot run VOIP applications smoothly(and why IP phone is still not what I recommend for home usage).

 

a) what kind of hard drive is the OP running, how full is it, what kind of swap space has been configured?
(I can't believe no one has bothered to ask this)

b) has the OP made sure that their notebook firmware and perhaps the drive firmware is up to date?

c) has the OP made sure that their device drivers, in particular disk controller, system device .inf, and others are up to date?

d) has the OP made sure that their OS is otherwise up to date?

e) has the OP tried a different archive program like 7Zip?

f) is the OP running an on-access antivirus/malware scanner?

g) has the OP applied any system 'tweaks' he might have found on the 'net and if so, what are they?

These are basic items that need to be covered before anyone starts pointing fingers at the hardware as being faulty. Shouldn't take the OP more than 30 minutes to get through these points.

 

a) WDC WD6400BEVT-22A0RT0 - 610GB, Buffer size:8 MB

b) Yes the Win7 is freshly instaled and i always download the newest drivers from alineware

c) As long as alienware provides it for download yes (i dont know what do you mean by that)

d) all windows updates are installed

e) No i didnt but the computer also slows down when i just copy huge files (with total commander)

f)AVG free-edtiion

g)no i didnt

 

Try uninstalling avg.

 

Does this mean that you've got a 640GB hard drive that's got 610GB used, leaving only 30GB free? Did I read this answer wrong?

 

ok i will try tomorrow

Oh sorry my bad. No i got 640 GB disk and i miss read the info so i wrote 610. I just wanted to specify the disk so you dont have to look on the internet for the model.By the way i got 540GB free now.

 

Ah, that makes much more sense.

 

So i tried defragmenting disk and uninstalling the antivir. Nothing helped (i think that uninstalling the antivir helped a bit but really not much). I will try changing the HDD when i get new.

 

Go into Device Manager and under 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' select 'ATA Channel 0'. Make sure that under the Advanced Settings Tab the 'Enable DMA' is checked.

 

the ram overloaded,try to change another ram

 

rofl, and face palm.......

 

Well i can't find ATA Channel 0 there. I have there just these parts:
Intel(R) 5 Series 6 Port SATA AHCI Controller
Ricoh Memory Stick Controller
Ricoh SD/MMC Host Controller
Ricoh xD-Picutre Card Controller

 

It's the first one.
Intel(R) 5 Series 6 Port SATA AHCI Controller

It's name changes depending on the driver you have installed.

 

Did u run the disk error checking utility..This problem maybe due to some kind of bad sectors in the disk..

 

I dont have any Advanced settins there
But according to this http://forums.opensuse.org/archives/sls-archives/archives-suse-linux/archives-general-questions/359569-how-enable-dma-sata-drives.html there is no DMA for SATA disk

Now i will run disk error check and see what it shows up. Also i tried disabling paging file.
And i saw something odd when i was updating drivers. During intel chipset update i clicked install button and there wasnt even installation window or progress bar and finished immediately.

 

I probably solved the problem.
Disabling the paging file and setting theme to Windows 2000 default helped me.
Thanks for all help i hope that someone else will find help in this thread

Closed

 

^^
Page file could be the culprit but what makes you think that themes are making ur pc to slowdown..esp with a fairly high end machine like yours

 

Disabling page file .. one of the stupidest idea ever.
Lot of programs will crash or won't even load.

Most likely one or more from these:
-Virus/trojan..
-Sht load junk and temporaly files all over.
-Outdated or corrupt drivers.
-Sht load useless running utils/applications.
-Useless and old firewall and/or antivirus.

Posting without providing info .. can't help ...
Next time :
- detailed memory/process info by screenshoot.
- some 3dmark scores.
- pcmark/sandra./or other testing tools infos like everest/aida64.

 

Please correct your tone. You've got some really useful information for the user to look into. Your tone however is quite rude.

 

I keep on seeing this claim yet whenever I ask for an example or 2, I usually get no answer. The only thing I know is old version of photoshop that warns the non-existence of page file.

That is of course assuming there is enough RAM. page file is just slow RAM.

 

Agreed! I only need the page file for one of the games that I play. I had mine disabled for a little while until I got the game. Everything was just fine.

 

Understanding the Windows Pagefile and Why You Shouldn't Disable It

Tweak Windows Vista Virtual Memory (Change or Disable Paging File Size) My Digital Life

Pagefile on windows 7. Do you even need one?. - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

Support and Q&A for Solid-State Drives - Engineering Windows 7 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

 

I know what a windows page file is, I was asking for specific program that behave differently between page file disabled and enabled. I gave an example, I am asking for other because it was coined as 'lots of'.