XP is getting to excruciatingly slow !!

Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

Penang wrote:
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

How much RAM do you currently have?

How large is your hard drive and how much free space is on it?

XP Home, Pro, or MCE? Service Pack level?

Once the five minutes pass and "everything [is] back in shape," how is
the performance?

What antivirus program or suite do you use? Do you have it automatically
update and perhaps scan your drive each time you boot up?

FWIW, "cleaning" and "defragmenting" the registry won't boost your
performance. And you need to be careful; there have been numerous people
who have used these registry "cleaning" products only to find they are
left with a PC that doesn't boot!

Here are the typical causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This
page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...iruses_Malware

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many programs
that run in the background have trivial consequences.)

To determine every program and process you are currently running, use
the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You should
be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good ideas which
ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down the names of
all the processes for future detective work (or take a snapshot and
print it out).

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup...p#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way:

Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter (or
OK)

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/i...while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/

Penang wrote:
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

How much RAM do you currently have?

How large is your hard drive and how much free space is on it?

XP Home, Pro, or MCE? Service Pack level?

Once the five minutes pass and "everything [is] back in shape," how is
the performance?

What antivirus program or suite do you use? Do you have it automatically
update and perhaps scan your drive each time you boot up?

FWIW, "cleaning" and "defragmenting" the registry won't boost your
performance. And you need to be careful; there have been numerous people
who have used these registry "cleaning" products only to find they are
left with a PC that doesn't boot!

Here are the typical causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This
page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...iruses_Malware

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many programs
that run in the background have trivial consequences.)

To determine every program and process you are currently running, use
the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You should
be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good ideas which
ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down the names of
all the processes for future detective work (or take a snapshot and
print it out).

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup...p#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way:

Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter (or
OK)

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/i...while-copying/

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/

"Penang" wrote in message
...
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

When's the last time you ran a scan for viruses and other malware?

SC Tom

"Penang" wrote in message
...
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

When's the last time you ran a scan for viruses and other malware?

SC Tom

"Penang" wrote in message
...
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

When's the last time you ran a scan for viruses and other malware?

SC Tom

Per Penang:
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

...

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

Speaking as one who doesn't know a lot about operating systems -
buy who has a teenager beating on their PCs every day after
school for a couple hours....

I have become comfortable with imaging my systems right after a
build. This takes about 20 minutes - but presupposes the
discipline of not ever keeping "data" on C:. I keep "data" on
a separate "D:" drive always.

There are dozens of utilities that do this. Mine is called
Terabyte and cost about 20 bucks.

I write the image to a USB2 drive and keep a little notebook
where I write down any changes I make to the system post-image.

When things get flaky - which maybe as often as every couple of
weeks, here's what I do:

1) I restore the last image I took.

2) I re-make whatever changes to the system I made since.

3) I take another image with those changes in it.


This takes maybe 30 minutes at the most - depending on how many
changes I've made and how diligent I've been about keeping track
of them.

Works for me, and also is a hedge against physical drive failure
- although I've only had a couple of those in my whole life.

--
PeteCresswell

Per Penang:
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

...

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

Speaking as one who doesn't know a lot about operating systems -
buy who has a teenager beating on their PCs every day after
school for a couple hours....

I have become comfortable with imaging my systems right after a
build. This takes about 20 minutes - but presupposes the
discipline of not ever keeping "data" on C:. I keep "data" on
a separate "D:" drive always.

There are dozens of utilities that do this. Mine is called
Terabyte and cost about 20 bucks.

I write the image to a USB2 drive and keep a little notebook
where I write down any changes I make to the system post-image.

When things get flaky - which maybe as often as every couple of
weeks, here's what I do:

1) I restore the last image I took.

2) I re-make whatever changes to the system I made since.

3) I take another image with those changes in it.


This takes maybe 30 minutes at the most - depending on how many
changes I've made and how diligent I've been about keeping track
of them.

Works for me, and also is a hedge against physical drive failure
- although I've only had a couple of those in my whole life.

--
PeteCresswell

Per Penang:
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

...

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

Speaking as one who doesn't know a lot about operating systems -
buy who has a teenager beating on their PCs every day after
school for a couple hours....

I have become comfortable with imaging my systems right after a
build. This takes about 20 minutes - but presupposes the
discipline of not ever keeping "data" on C:. I keep "data" on
a separate "D:" drive always.

There are dozens of utilities that do this. Mine is called
Terabyte and cost about 20 bucks.

I write the image to a USB2 drive and keep a little notebook
where I write down any changes I make to the system post-image.

When things get flaky - which maybe as often as every couple of
weeks, here's what I do:

1) I restore the last image I took.

2) I re-make whatever changes to the system I made since.

3) I take another image with those changes in it.


This takes maybe 30 minutes at the most - depending on how many
changes I've made and how diligent I've been about keeping track
of them.

Works for me, and also is a hedge against physical drive failure
- although I've only had a couple of those in my whole life.

--
PeteCresswell

"Penang" wrote in message
...
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

If the problem of being slow happened within a quick
period of time then as others have already mentioned
it could be one or more Viruses.

Hard drive free space again as mentioned could also be the cause
and or badly fragmented drive.

One other thing is that you have over a period of time installed
to many apps or mini apps that load when you first boot.

Multiple AV software programs that are both in 'Active Scan' mode
can cause the slowdown.

A useful tool to see what loads during the boot and login steps
if you want to dig deeper is AutoRuns from the MS Windows SysInternals site:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx

AutoRuns will show/list all apps/etc. that load/run when you first boot ...
(the 'Boot Execute' tab),
when you logon (the 'Logon' tab) and other programs that load
(grouped by labeled tabs) for easy viewing.

It also provides the ability to selectively allows you to stop
(use with care) any program that you don't want to load.
You can undo any changes you have made.

Note: To get additional details on an item in the list you can't
readily identify you may need to highlight the item (right click) and use
the 'Search Online' option to get the details,
especially useful for the more obscure items in the list.

Probably one of the most noticeable slowdowns when
booting can be caused by AV software. Some products
now include "Boot Scans" and "Quick Scans"
(when you log on), compound this with other programs
that load when you first log on and you can see a noticeable
slowdown from a PC that you just re-installed XP to the
same PC after one or more AV products are installed on.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com

"Penang" wrote in message
...
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

If the problem of being slow happened within a quick
period of time then as others have already mentioned
it could be one or more Viruses.

Hard drive free space again as mentioned could also be the cause
and or badly fragmented drive.

One other thing is that you have over a period of time installed
to many apps or mini apps that load when you first boot.

Multiple AV software programs that are both in 'Active Scan' mode
can cause the slowdown.

A useful tool to see what loads during the boot and login steps
if you want to dig deeper is AutoRuns from the MS Windows SysInternals site:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx

AutoRuns will show/list all apps/etc. that load/run when you first boot ...
(the 'Boot Execute' tab),
when you logon (the 'Logon' tab) and other programs that load
(grouped by labeled tabs) for easy viewing.

It also provides the ability to selectively allows you to stop
(use with care) any program that you don't want to load.
You can undo any changes you have made.

Note: To get additional details on an item in the list you can't
readily identify you may need to highlight the item (right click) and use
the 'Search Online' option to get the details,
especially useful for the more obscure items in the list.

Probably one of the most noticeable slowdowns when
booting can be caused by AV software. Some products
now include "Boot Scans" and "Quick Scans"
(when you log on), compound this with other programs
that load when you first log on and you can see a noticeable
slowdown from a PC that you just re-installed XP to the
same PC after one or more AV products are installed on.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com

"Penang" wrote in message
...
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

If the problem of being slow happened within a quick
period of time then as others have already mentioned
it could be one or more Viruses.

Hard drive free space again as mentioned could also be the cause
and or badly fragmented drive.

One other thing is that you have over a period of time installed
to many apps or mini apps that load when you first boot.

Multiple AV software programs that are both in 'Active Scan' mode
can cause the slowdown.

A useful tool to see what loads during the boot and login steps
if you want to dig deeper is AutoRuns from the MS Windows SysInternals site:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx

AutoRuns will show/list all apps/etc. that load/run when you first boot ...
(the 'Boot Execute' tab),
when you logon (the 'Logon' tab) and other programs that load
(grouped by labeled tabs) for easy viewing.

It also provides the ability to selectively allows you to stop
(use with care) any program that you don't want to load.
You can undo any changes you have made.

Note: To get additional details on an item in the list you can't
readily identify you may need to highlight the item (right click) and use
the 'Search Online' option to get the details,
especially useful for the more obscure items in the list.

Probably one of the most noticeable slowdowns when
booting can be caused by AV software. Some products
now include "Boot Scans" and "Quick Scans"
(when you log on), compound this with other programs
that load when you first log on and you can see a noticeable
slowdown from a PC that you just re-installed XP to the
same PC after one or more AV products are installed on.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com

RAM = 4GB

HD 1 = 640GB
HD 2 = 1TB

HD mostly empty, though.

XP Pro.

Once the 5 minutes it takes to get past the cold boot (and get
everything ready), performance is okay.

Malware wise, I've scanned and re-scanned the computer with all types
of malware scanners. So I think all the malware (at least most of
them) have been eliminated.

On Oct 17, 4:25*pm, "Daave" wrote:
Penang wrote:
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

How much RAM do you currently have?

How large is your hard drive and how much free space is on it?

XP Home, Pro, or MCE? Service Pack level?

Once the five minutes pass and "everything [is] back in shape," how is
the performance?

What antivirus program or suite do you use? Do you have it automatically
update and perhaps scan your drive each time you boot up?

FWIW, "cleaning" and "defragmenting" the registry won't boost your
performance. And you need to be careful; there have been numerous people
who have used these registry "cleaning" products only to find they are
left with a PC that doesn't boot!

Here are the typical causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This
page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...iruses_Malware

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many programs
that run in the background have trivial consequences.)

To determine every program and process you are currently running, use
the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You should
be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good ideas which
ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down the names of
all the processes for future detective work (or take a snapshot and
print it out).

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup...s/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way:

Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter (or
OK)

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/i...dvd-drives-too...

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/

RAM = 4GB

HD 1 = 640GB
HD 2 = 1TB

HD mostly empty, though.

XP Pro.

Once the 5 minutes it takes to get past the cold boot (and get
everything ready), performance is okay.

Malware wise, I've scanned and re-scanned the computer with all types
of malware scanners. So I think all the malware (at least most of
them) have been eliminated.

On Oct 17, 4:25*pm, "Daave" wrote:
Penang wrote:
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

How much RAM do you currently have?

How large is your hard drive and how much free space is on it?

XP Home, Pro, or MCE? Service Pack level?

Once the five minutes pass and "everything [is] back in shape," how is
the performance?

What antivirus program or suite do you use? Do you have it automatically
update and perhaps scan your drive each time you boot up?

FWIW, "cleaning" and "defragmenting" the registry won't boost your
performance. And you need to be careful; there have been numerous people
who have used these registry "cleaning" products only to find they are
left with a PC that doesn't boot!

Here are the typical causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This
page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...iruses_Malware

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many programs
that run in the background have trivial consequences.)

To determine every program and process you are currently running, use
the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You should
be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good ideas which
ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down the names of
all the processes for future detective work (or take a snapshot and
print it out).

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup...s/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way:

Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter (or
OK)

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/i...dvd-drives-too...

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/

RAM = 4GB

HD 1 = 640GB
HD 2 = 1TB

HD mostly empty, though.

XP Pro.

Once the 5 minutes it takes to get past the cold boot (and get
everything ready), performance is okay.

Malware wise, I've scanned and re-scanned the computer with all types
of malware scanners. So I think all the malware (at least most of
them) have been eliminated.

On Oct 17, 4:25*pm, "Daave" wrote:
Penang wrote:
Even on cold boot it takes more than 5 minutes for XP to get
everything back in shape, ready to be used.

I have tried everything, from defragmenting the HD to "cleaning" the
registry to even defragmenting the registry, and it's STILL so slow.

Software wise, I don't use too many. Just the typical office thingy,
that's all.

What else should I do to speed up my XP machine --- a 4-core CPU with
4GB of RAM ?

How much RAM do you currently have?

How large is your hard drive and how much free space is on it?

XP Home, Pro, or MCE? Service Pack level?

Once the five minutes pass and "everything [is] back in shape," how is
the performance?

What antivirus program or suite do you use? Do you have it automatically
update and perhaps scan your drive each time you boot up?

FWIW, "cleaning" and "defragmenting" the registry won't boost your
performance. And you need to be careful; there have been numerous people
who have used these registry "cleaning" products only to find they are
left with a PC that doesn't boot!

Here are the typical causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This
page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...iruses_Malware

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many programs
that run in the background have trivial consequences.)

To determine every program and process you are currently running, use
the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You should
be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good ideas which
ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down the names of
all the processes for future detective work (or take a snapshot and
print it out).

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup...s/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way:

Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter (or
OK)

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/i...dvd-drives-too...

and

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/