# IBM T43 running slower and slower everyday....



## elazarus (May 20, 2007)

After being cleared by Ian at the security forum, he suggested that I come over here to see if I could possibly get some help with my IBM T43.

The T43 Thinkpad is 2 years old which is getting slower everyday.

The computer is "clean" having run Defrag, CCleaner, Registry Repair Pro, Housecall, AVD anti Spyware deleted all Temp files etc. and more. Also at the Hijack this forum we did all the tests for malware and there was not one problem.

Is there something I can do? Is is just that it is a 1.86 Centrino M with 1.5 Ram that is a processor that is getting old?

I didn't think it was old enough to run this poorly....any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Elliot


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

What Anti-Virus? . . running Norton System Works by any chance?


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## elazarus (May 20, 2007)

Hi,

Thank you for responding.

On my T43 I am using Avast and there is very little in the startup group....

Even on my 2 desktops I have learned that Norton and Mcafee were not good for me and switched to NOD 32

Regards

Elliot


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

This may take some time, but should find what is causing the slow performance.

In msconfig disable everything in Startup and in Services ( after hiding Microsoft services) . . reboot to see how it runs . . if better, go back into msconfig and enable half of the ones you disabled . . reboot and see if it is any better . . if not, enable half of the remaining half and so on untill you find the culprit

You should disconnect from the internet since you will have disabled your protection


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

simpswr made a good suggestion.

Is the computer slow at any time or do your applications sometimes run smoothly then periodically start lagging ? Tell us more about your symptoms. Do you hear the disk swapping constantly ? What's the cpu and memory usage in the task manager (press ctrl+alt+del and go to the performances tab).

Before you try tweaking your startup items as simpswr suggested, open the task manager, go to the processes tab and check whether there's a particular process taking up cpu usage when you're experiencing your slowdowns. When the computer is idle there should only be the system idle process taking up cpu ressources.

Also, go to the device manager : right-click on "my computer" => properties => hardware => device manager. Check "show hidden devices" in the view menu and check whether you have any yellow warning sign there.

Then run the even viewer : start => run => eventvwr.msc /s. Check the different sections for warnings and errors and report here if you find any.

Edit : if there's some overheating problem, the cpu might also be throttling down. Use this utility and post a screenshot of the readings it gives you :
http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml


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## elazarus (May 20, 2007)

Hi,

After I read Simpswr's post, I went into MSconfig and disabled all the startup items and the processes......I rebooted.....it still took awhile to shut down.....4-5 minutes and a few minutes to boot up. (There is nothing on here but programs as I use it for travel and not as my desktop).

Then before I started with the toggling of Processes and Startup, I took your suggestion and went back to where I was and rebooted.

When Idling the Idle process was at 99% of the usage and everything else was a 0%.

In the show hidden devices, there were no yellow flags.

In the event viewer there were a lot of goodies.....Many Category 52....Com+ event system failed to fire the connectionmade No QOC and then a lot of numbers and then many zero's. This type of error went back a few months but I had the slowdown long before this.

Lots of Crypt 32 mwarnings going back a year.

So, the stratup/turn off takes forever. The opening of E-mail and Browser take toooooo long.

Any thoughts?

Thank you

Elliot


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

How much space do you have remaining on your system disk ? Right-click c: in my computer and click properties.

A failing hard drive could also make it longer to access files on it so run the hard drive diagnostic to get that out of the way. Here are the infos from IBM :


> Run the PC Doctor diagnostics for all current ThinkPad A, G, R, T, X, and Z series systems. PC Doctor for DOS is available by pressing the F11 key, the Access IBM button, or the ThinkVantage button during startup to access the predesktop menu area for options to troubleshoot.


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## elazarus (May 20, 2007)

Hi,

On my C; drive there is 22 gigs free and 11 gigs used.

I ran PC doctor and each test passed.........Maybe it is just the speed of the processor at 1.86 Centrino with the 1.5 gigs Ram?????

Thank you

Elliot


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

Right-click on my computer => manage => disk management and post a screenshot of what you see there (maximize the window so that we get to see everything). To take a screenshot press the printscreen (or prt scr) key of your keyboard, open paint, click edit => paste and save as .jpg. Attach it to your next post using the manage attachment button in advanced mode.

Go to the system properties : right-click on my computer => properties. Go to the advanced tab and click settings under performances. Go to the advanced tab and check that the cpu and memory are optimized for better programs performances. Under virtual memory, click change and report what the size of the page file is. Set it to a custom size with 1536 as both minimum and maximum size.

Open the defrag utility, analyze your system drive (usually the c: drive) and click on view report. Save the report as a .txt file and attach it to your next post. Note that the second part of the report will probably give the names of some of your files so if you feel it hurts your privacy, cut that part. Be sure to look it on your own to see whether any system files are very fragmented.


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## elazarus (May 20, 2007)

Sorry it has taken awhile to respond as I am on a business trip in Europe.....

I have attached the screen shot of the Drive management page.....

On the Properties, the memory was set to "System Cache" and I changed it to "Programs. For the Virtual Memory it was set at 2301 and 2301...they now are changed to 1536 each.

The defrag file is now attached......Pretty clean.


OK........Let's see if the settings change will do anything. Looks like the computer is clean but the slowdown remains....

Thank you

Elliot


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

Good thing to have changed the memory setting back to programs. Now about the page file, I should have precised you only needed to change it if the minimum value was lower than 1536, sorry. 2301-2301 was ok, 1536-1536 is ok too so you can leave it as it is now. It won't impact on your performances as long as you have at least 1GB.

Your defrag log is indeed clean. And there are plenty of free space on your system drive which is correctly formated in NTFS with the correct cluster size.

Might be something fishy with your startup items and services. Run msconfig and go to those tabs, as simpswr had already suggested. For the services you can check the box to hide microsoft ones. Google on the names you see there to check which ones you could remove safely. If you find any that's related to a software you don't use then uninstall that software.

Then start with these threads :
http://www.techsupportforum.com/f10/long-startup-delay-113041.html (last two posts)
http://www.techsupportforum.com/art...our-windows-xp-based-system-optimisation.html

Then you can find some more clues in this one :
http://www.techsupportforum.com/f10/different-ways-to-speed-up-my-computer-162843.html


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## elazarus (May 20, 2007)

Thank you very much.

I will go through the files.......

There are only 5 files in the startup group.....

ucstartup.exe from IBM

tpshocks.exe

Synaptics touchpad (2 files)

Avast AV

In the Services......there were only 11 apps (after Hiding Microsoft) and they were either IBM, Avast or Intel.

*****I also noticed that the General tab is using "Selective Startup" instead of Normal Startup

Yesterday in my hotel....and I am connected via broadband.....I needed to download my e-mail in Outlook. It was VERY SLOW going 1/100th of a mb at a time.....there were 289 e-mails from the past few days.

I looked at the processes and Outlook.exe was at 99% and was not moving. I closed outlook and re-opened.....and the same.....I closed it again and opened Outlook Express and it zoomed through the E-mail.......this was a new install of Outlook from a couple of weeks back just to make sure....

Regards

Elliot


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

Ok, startup items and services seem to be clean. Selective startup is checked once you modified any item in msconfig, no big deal.

Make sure you got all latest updates from Windows Update and Microsoft update. Try uninstalling and reinstalling outlook (reboot after the uninstall process before you start reinstalling).

There's still this problem :


elazarus said:


> In the event viewer there were a lot of goodies.....Many *Category 52....Com+ event system failed to fire the connectionmadeNoQOC* and then a lot of numbers and then many zero's. This type of error went back a few months but I had the slowdown long before this.
> 
> Lots of *Crypt 32* mwarnings going back a year.


But I have to say I have no direct clue about them.

Go on this page on IBM support and input your complete model ID or product number (tell us about your model ID while you're at it, T43 isn't precise enough) : 
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=HOME-LENOVO
Search for updated drivers for your network controller.


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## elazarus (May 20, 2007)

Hi,

I am back from my business trip. Took the T-43 (model 2668-44U) with me.

Overall it works.....but it is still slow. Slow booting up, Slow shutting down, slow opening programs...just slower than one would expect.

I have tried many of the other links (some in the Registry was a little too scary for me) and the computer is clean but I cannot get it to speed up to what I would call "normal"

What is the logical next strap?

Thank you

Elliot


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

Hi again elazarus !

Sometimes outdated drivers can slow your computer down. Check this link :
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-58597
and update your audio, networking (ethernet and wireless), video and intel chipset drivers with the latest versions for Windows XP (for your model it's the right column, an arrow means you have to use the same driver than the one in the left column).


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## elazarus (May 20, 2007)

Hi,

I updated the drivers and have everything clean and up-to-date.

Today I booted up the computer and it took forever......used it...it was ok....not great...but ok...and then the shut down was very slow still.

I am starting to feel that the chip is too slow....don't know what else it could be....any thoughts?

Thank you

Elliot


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

I'm out of ideas about this one. Be warned that you shouldn't expect your laptop to run as fast as a desktop with the same cpu and memory because his HDD only spins at 5400rpm, instead of 7200 for a desktop.

May also be some of the IBM preinstalled softwares that are slowing it a bit. How long does it take to start ? Shouldn't take more than 2 minutes, if it does where does it halt ? How many "loading stripes" do you get to see while on the Windows loading screen ?

There are lots of good suggestions in the links I posted up there (post #11). When you have some spare time, start with this one : http://www.techsupportforum.com/611201-post13.html


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## elazarus (May 20, 2007)

Thank you.

I am sorry but I do not know what you mean by "loading stripes"...this is a new one for me.

Regards

Elliot


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

Sorry, not a native english speaker here : on the Windows loading screen, there's an animation with an horizontal bar moving from left to right displaying while Windows is setting up its kernel and loading all the drivers in memory. Usually the computer shouldn't stay there for more than a dozen of passings of that bar. Depending on the number of features your motheboard has, the computer may also stay longer in the POST messages screens, before the Windows loading screen appears.

I'll be away for a few days so feel free to try the steps described in the thread on resolving long startup delays and see how far you can go on your own. I'm sure other users will help you should you need it. Those steps have to be taken in the order they're mentioned. You should be able to see your desktop shortcuts less than a minute after you've pressed the power button (not counting the time taken to log in your user account).


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