[dba-Tech] Sloooow pc

There's nothing hogging resources in task manager. Well, no more than usual
anyway.

Having checked the system log, there's no red flags, but there are hundreds
of yellow warnings all saying this: 

"Printer Driver HP LaserJet 2420 PCL 6 for Windows NT x86 Version-3 was
added or updated. Files:- UNIDRV.DLL, UNIDRVUI.DLL, hpc24206.GPD,
UNIDRV.HLP, HPC24X06.GPD, HPZSC042.DTD, HPC24106.GPD, HPC24106.XML,
HPC2410C.INI, HPLJ24X0.CFG, HPC24206.XML, HPC2420C.INI, HPC24306.XML,
HPC24306.GPD, HPC2430C.INI, HPZUI042.DLL, HPZ6R042.DLL, HPZ6M042.GPD,
HPZSM042.GPD, HPZST042.DLL, HPZEV042.DLL, HPZLS042.DLL, HPZSS042.DLL,
HPNRA.EXE, HPBNRAC2.DLL, HPBMINI.DLL, HPCEAC05.HPI, HPBOID.EXE, HPBPRO.EXE,
HPBOIDPS.DLL, HPBPROPS.DLL, HPBMIAPI.DLL, HPPAPTS0.DLL, HPPASNM0.DLL,
HPPAPML0.DLL, HPZIPM12.EXE, HPZIPT12.DLL, HPZINW12.EXE, HPZIPR12.DLL,
HPZISN12.DLL, HPJCMN2U.DLL, HPJIPX1U.DLL, PCLXL.DLL, PJL.GPD, P6DISP.GPD,
PCLXL.GPD, HPCDMC32.DLL, HPBCFGRE.DLL, HPBMMON.DLL, HPDOMON.DLL,
HPBHEALR.DLL, hpzar042.hlp, hpzhc042.hlp, hpzht042.hlp, hpzcs042.hlp,
hpzda042.hlp, hpzen042.hlp, hpzfi042.hlp, hpzfr042.hlp, hpzde042.hlp,
hpzel042.hlp, hpzhe042.hlp, hpzhu042.hlp, hpzit042.hlp, hpzja042.hlp,
hpzko042.hlp, hpzno042.hlp, hpzpl042.hlp, hpzpt042.hlp, hpzru042.hlp,
hpzes042.hlp, hpzsv042.hlp, hpzsk042.hlp, hpzth042.hlp, hpztr042.hlp,
UNIRES.DLL, STDNAMES.GPD."

I installed a new printer on the pc last week, but it shouldn't keep doing
this... It's using the latest set of drivers from HP, which I guess I could
reinstall.

I can rule MSN messenger out, as it's blocked by the firewall, and I've set
the group policy on all the PCs to not let it run.

I'm officially not allowed to use ad-aware as it interferes with a databse
program we use, where spybot and the microsoft one don't.

I'll try reinstalling the printer, see if that cures anything.


Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: Erwin Craps - IT Helps [mailto:Erwin.Craps at ithelps.be]
Sent: 08 November 2005 12:49
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Sloooow pc


Adding memory will not solve this issue.

Did you check the CPU usage in the task manager?
If its running at 100% what process is generating that usage?

Did you check the event viewer if a lot of red flags are logged
(application and system log)?

I recently had a simular problem with same result as you.
I download ad-aware from lavasoft and scanned the computer and he did
found a hijakker software where the MS anty spyware (that was already
long installed and updated) did not recognized it.
After removing this spyware with ad-aware the slowness stopped...

A previous version of MSN messenger was also buggy, it hung when logging
in and caused my CPU usage to be at 100%. Terminating the process
helped.


There can be lots of other stuff that can cause this slowness like the
graphic card driver that is corrupt or has problems.




Erwin



 

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jon Tydda
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 1:38 PM
To: Dba-Tech (E-mail)
Subject: [dba-Tech] Sloooow pc

Hi all
 
I've got a user here who's always complaining about her pc being slow. I
usually tell her to run disk cleanup and defrag, then restart the pc and
it'll be ok, and usually it is. Yesterday however, I ran them, and it
was still just as slow afterwards, so I threw her off it and hit it with
literally everything - deleted all the temp files that disk cleanup
doesn't remove, ran spybot and microsoft anti-spyware, ran a virus scan,
emptied all the cookies and internet objects out of internet explorer,
updated as much software as I could (windows update is blocked by the
company firewall, yet office update isn't...), rebooted it, ran disk
cleanup again, then defragged it three times.
 
It's still running very slowly. When you change sheets in excel it stops
and thinks about it for 10-20 seconds, and browsing on the network is
horrible.
I'm out of ideas... I've looked at the server, there's nothing untoward
going on there that I can see, and that was only restarted itself on
Friday.
I don't think it's a network issue because everyone would be
complaining, wouldn't they? I've certainly not noticed anything slow on
the network unless you're in a folder with 1000+ files.
 
The pc in question is a P4 1.7 with 512mb RAM. She's asked for more
memory, but I don't think it's going to help, as the tasks she's asking
it to do are hardly memory intensive.
 
Does anyone have any thoughts on what it could be, or what I've missed
in terms of scanning?
 
 
Jon


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