# [SOLVED] SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!



## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

Hey guys, I really appriciate you've entered and I hope you'll help me out here.

Well, last saterday my computer was working perfectly, I had to go so I shut down the computer, everything was fine.
Today I got back home and started the computer. and its slow. very slow!
chrome gets stuck, takes 3 minutes to open the "Start", and about 5 minutes to open Control Panel. The computer seems to be "loading" all the time, and does everything VERY slow.. it is driving me crazy, and I can't work with it that way. 
An Interesting fact is that in the Task Manager CPU Usage is 0%, Memery is 773MB and free Phycial Memory is 1257MB out of 3007 MB.
I've been trying to reset it, shut it down, unplug and plug it again, and even cleaned it out of dirt with an air compressor. So far, I've not seen even the slightest improvement.

any suggestions??
my specs:
Core 2 duo 2.16 GHz,
3 GB RAM 
Geforce 9500 512MB.
thanks in advance for any help.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Hi and welcome to TSF you could try running chkdsk,and also a clean boot Perform a clean startup to determine whether background programs are interfering with your game or program


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## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

thanks for welcoming me. How the run a check disk? please consider my computer is SUPER slow, so this may take long time to get there, and forver to finish the check disk process (so will this be useful?). and I'll try this windows tool as soon as my internet browser work ( I currently using my parents' computer).

what do you think about system restore? heard once it can be dangerous, but is it worth a try? if yes please tell me how to do that (I can search in windows start menu system restore, but i'm worried I'll miss somthing important.)


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Ok this is about chkdsk How to use CHKDSK (Check Disk) - Windows 7 use the F switch
cleanboot I have given a link to. 
System restore what makes you think it is dangerous ? and you can access it from all programs, accessories, system tools, and choose a date when it all worked the only downside is you may have to reinstall any programs that where installed after the date of the restore and updates


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## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Never tried to restore my system, and my saying that its dangerous was based on rumor a friend told me long time ago. I am going to give it a try, but what to do first: System restore, or the check disk and clean up? (in other words- what will be faster and more simple for my computer to do consider his poor condition today)


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Hi it is a mistake to look for a fast fix,lets be clear chkdsk will look for error on your hardrive and try to fix them,clean boot is meant to stop non essential programs at start up you would then go through a process of restarting and see if anything cause a replication of your issue, system restore is taking the system back to a time when it all worked with no issue.Now you can try system restore however if the hdd has a issue then you could still have the problem,equally running chkdsk will take some time and may fix any hdd problem but if the issue is a program then chdsk will not help but theses are the type of steps you take to troubleshoot


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## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

well, I am not looking for a fast solution, of course I am going to defrag disk and scan my computer and use check disk and more things, but first I have to get it to work...

I'm going to restore my system now, will update you about the result. meanwhile, thanks again.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Hi not a problem


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## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

hey, while i was going to search "restore system" in the start menu, I saw the (!) near the shut down button, so I shut down my comoputer and it installed some updates. I turned it back again and hey! it works much better! however, it is still a bit slow, and it took about 3 minutes for it to be ready for use when from the moment I saw my desktop till the moment i could actually open chrome.

So, could you please instruct me what to do next in order to make my computer run even faster and make sure this problems won't come back anytime soon? I'm waiting for your answer. tnx.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Hi leave system restore and try the clean boot first and take your time to read the instruction in the links Perform a clean startup to determine whether background programs are interfering with your game or program

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7


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## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Hey, I cleaned up the disk, and made sure that only antivirus runs on start-up. I also checked on of my disks and it said that there are no errors.
I also used this tool in the link you gave me, which checked my computer and said that there are no errors.

I discovered somthing new- i have avira AntiVirus, and Lavasoft's Ad- Aware. apperantly they're both anti virus. Yesterday, when my computer we slow as hell the action center told me I have to update them both and that they're not working. today, for some reason the action center notified my again that they're not running, and I could notice my computer getting slow almost like yesterday. maybe the fact I had two antivirus programs caused them to collide and made my computer slower, along with the windows update needed??

however I removed the Ad-Aware, and I'm looking for new anti-virus, a good one. could you recommand me on something please? I'm running Windows 7 32 bits.

Later today I intend to defrag my disks. so after boot clean, check disk, that fixing tool from the link you give me (something of microsoft), and disks defragment, is there anything else I should do to make my computer run even better than now?

Thanks for your answers.


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## xpert71 (Mar 9, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

hi !did u hear a strange noise from your hard disk?


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## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

I heard strange noises coming from the computer, sounded like "trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"
but its nothing new. I believe it comes from the fans in the computer, i had them long before, and they're not permanent, since they're gone after a whie. right now its quiet.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Hi microsoft security essentials for a antivirus


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## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

OK I'll try this antivirtus.

Anyways, I'm still having troubles with my computer.  
I've tried to open few rar files- big rar files, contains about 2.5 GB of pictures from my brother trip to China, and I cant extract it!!! the winrar gets stuck ( it says time elapsed for example 00:02, and gets stuck on it, and then after few moments you see time elapsed: 00:24, and then stucks again...) and eventually, it says it will take up to hour (in the good case scenario) to extract those files.
I tried this on my parent's computer, which is a laptop with 4 GB RAM (mine has 3 GB RAM) and core2duo 2.4 GHz (mine is core2duo 2.13GHz), and it went pretty smooth and took it about 3.5 minutes!

I tried to remove the winrar and installed 7-zip. its not getting stuck, but it shows the rate of extracting. it starts with a good rate of 9MB\s and gets down and down. right now as I write it is still on 690 KB\s and still going down!

Another issue I had regarding to speed: I tried to copy those pictures from my parents computer to mine using a network cabal. first it was going fine , on 11.7 MB\s (which is slow for network cabal but still acceptable) and after few moments it goes down to 7 MB\s, 6, 3 2 and eventually 800KB\s for a cabal network!!!

ofcourse I did many restarts and closed any opened appplication, but still, its slow. its so irrating, since a week ago I would extract and copy stuff without any problems, and I have no clue whats causing it.
as I said, check disk I did yesterday and some fixing tool Joeten kindly gave me here came up saying "hey buddy don't worry everything is good with your computer". however, Im still having serious problems with it.

any solutions???

thanks in advance.

p.s -I gave up in some point in tried to restore my system to last week, before problems started. I shut down my antivirus and let it restore my system. It took about 25 minutes and then restarted windows and said he cant acsses some files probably because AV is running. but i shut it down! so what's the problem there? although I prefer to use system restore as last solution.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Hi you would need to run some diagnostics to test the hdd,ram,and possibly your video card, memtest 86 + for ram, the hdd you would get at the hdd makers support site if you know who that is and occt for video


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## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

hey its a problem to run the mem check for me since I ran out of burning disks and lended my disk on key to a friend, so till next week there's no way for me to test it. for the other tests, ill try them. however, have u heard of DMA and PIO regarding to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers? I found in other forum some people which had the same problem as mine- winrar acting dead slow. the fix they offered- check if DMA is enabled. well I did this and it is enabled, maybe I do something wrong? maybe there's other similiar solution? Im going to try and check DMA trough BIOS, and if u have anything to add in this subject I'll be glad to hear. afterwards I'll google the named u gave me and try these tests, I'll come back with the results. thanks.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Hi you can read this it is written for xp but may help explain things a bit 
IDE ATA and ATAPI disks use PIO mode after multiple time-out or CRC errors occur do not use the hot fix


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## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

been there already- doesn't help in case the DMA is already checked. but if you see anything useful there that I didn't please do tell me.

about memory check- I tried to start bios but got to a screen (before windows appears) which offered me to run Windows Memry Diagnose. I did so, windows searched for memory errors during 10 minutes, and find none. I'll gonna use the test u told me about earlier, but so far check disk and boot clean and every other tool I tried said that there are no erorrs in my computer. will keep u updated. and if you have anymore idea to solve this problem- tell me please..


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## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

ok i kinda start giving up here...

No clue how to use OCCT and I don't know what is my HDD, so I cant check it either. anyway I dont think its hardware problem since every check I did so far (disk check,clean boot, CC cleaner and similiar programs, AntiVirus scan, and that fixing tool of microsoft) came up with good results. 
the IDE stuff, It's not converting itself to PIO, but stays in DMA mode, so I guess IDE's are not the problem. What should I do? it's not reasonable to wait 6 hours to extract 2.6GB ...

any help, ideas, solutions,and tips, will be really appriciated. thanks.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Sorry don't know much about winrar just the basics,never had this issue


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## Nox1 (Mar 16, 2011)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

ok, thanks for the help so far.
I'll post new thread with this problem, since its a new problem: now control panel works fast and fine but rars are the trouble.
again- Joeten thank you very much.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: SLOW!! takes 5 minutes to open control panel!*

Your welcome, could you please mark this as solved using the thread tools near the top of the page Thank you


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