Laggy Computer

Reveille SG

My computer was running really fine, until I did a reformat to fix an issue with having my computer giving me BSODs after 5 minutes of use. Now, all of a sudden, it's annoyingly laggy. For example, even opening Mozilla Firefox or even Winamp is slow. Having a few windows of Firefox with Winamp sometimes gives me lagging music. (The music plays slooooow... lol) And games started starting and loading slow. More lags during play as well. Oh, and when I boot my computer, it gets stuck at the Windows logo for more than 3 minutes. It was all pretty quick before this.

Does anyone know the possible causes of this? Driver problems? Registry? Or anything else? And how can I fix them easily?

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Operating System: Microsoft XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600)
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1024MB RAM

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 (Microsoft Corporation)
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce FX 5500
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
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Just some specs I got off dxdiag. Any help would be appreciated.

ditzy SG

Run task manager, look under the processes tab, and see which one has the highest CPU number. Laughing

ceecookie SG

How can Pentium 4 have 2 CPUs?

ditzy SG

Why not? Silicon systems can run 4 leh. Laughing

orionlight SG

Hyperthreading la Laughing

Conner MacDermott SG

Reveille. Do you still remember what you did during the five minutes of use? It would be helpful if you can pinpoint the "trigger" of your BSOD.

Since your post is too vague for me to completely understand your situation, I can only give you general advice.

1) Download a Memory Diagnostic, and test your system memories. If there are errors, it means it's time to change the memory.

Windows Memory Diagnostic
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

2) Download your Hard Drive diagnostic software. If there are errors, change your hard drive.

My Computer -> Properties -> System Properties -> Device Manager -> Disk Drive -> Your Hard Drive -> Update Driver

None of the above?

3) Your processor might be the one that is overheated.

Check that the fans are running, and reboot your computer. Press DEL repeatedly before logon to enter the BIOS screen. Leave your computer running for approximately one to one and a half hours. If the Windows crashed, your processor is definitely overheated. Buy a new processor.

4) Unplug everything from your computer, as in mouse, keyboard, drives, cards, memories, etc. Reboot your computer. If it can work, then plug each one back one by one to see which "triggered" the failure.

5) Reinstall XP again.

ndmmxiaomayi SG

Very vague. DirectX doesn't give much info, unless you use it...

Some questions:

1. What did you do to trigger the BSOD? Like open any programs?

2. Has the OS been just installed?

3. Related to question 2. If you have just installed XP, what did you to the operating system? List them in proper order what you've done.

4. If you haven't reformat and reinstall this PC for quite some time, did you add any new hardware or update any software(s) or driver(s)? Did you also tweak the system?

Next, go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer

On the left hand side, click on Application. Look at those red circles with a white X. They will tell you what has gone wrong recently.

Then click on System on the left. Also take note of the red circles with a white X.

Post back the most recent events.

Lastly, right click My Computer and select Properties. Select the Advanced tab. Under Startup and Recovery, click on Settings. A new window will open.

Untick Automatically restart box under System Failure.

Click OK to apply the settings.

This will prevent the system from restarting during BSOD. Note down the error and post back if it happens again.

Edit: Clarify the questions.

Conner MacDermott SG

To add on to Mayi,

What is that issue that forced you to reformat in the first place?