Vista slowdown when multitasking

hello,

I am back again, having problems with Vista slowing down a lot when multitasking. For example having FlashFXP up and at the same time talking on skype and surfing the web my vista can just slow down and takes ages to write and open and close windows.

If i start up a game however it works fine and gives normal performance in the game, Vista however is still slowed down. It doesnt help even if i close down all my programs, i have to restart the computer to fix this problem.

My specs are in my signature so it isnt a hardware not being able to cope with Vista problem. I use NOD32 for antivirus. Also worth noting is that the slowdown doesnt happen instantly, it takes some time and is more a build up. When i check task manager and CPU usage it isnt above 50%, it fluctuates however between 20-70% and 100% when i am actively starting up new windows/programs.

Anyone have any ideas? I tried degragging, diskcleaning and diskchecker. I also increased virtual memory to 1.5 times my RAM so 6 gigabytes. I am using 32bit Vista.

Thanks!

//Svarto

 

I would suggest that you first disable vista disk indexing and vista search indxing services. Give it a few days and see

cheers ...

 

Very very strange... have all the latest updates installed (including chipset and storage drivers)? That's all I can think of

 

Try doing a registry cleanup, and defragging the page file..!!
You can also try keeping the initial and maximum size of the page file equal....
This way the system won't be allocating disk space for the page file while you're trying to play your game or encoding or whenever the system is under load.... (I have done that and the system is running fine with a celeron and 2GB ram)

 

FlashFXP + skype = vista slow down.
Have you check the task manager? Which process use most of the CPU? or is there other processes running in the background?

 

Why would you suggest that without first determining what was slowing down the machine??? Give it a few days??? If disabling those services is going to do anything the results would be seen immediately. But that "solution" is just a shot in the dark.

To the original poster, go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx then click on "Process Utilities" and then "Process Explorer". Download that app run it and then recreate the slow down scenario. Look in the Process Explorer window and sort the list by CPU utilization. You will immediately see what is hogging the CPU.

Gary

 

Ahhhh! Someone who actually understands how to DIAGNOSE the problem rather than these "magic bullet" suggestions. Well done! Rep for you.

Gary

 

a shot in the dark? probably, based on ... "If i start up a game however it works fine and gives normal performance in the game, Vista however is still slowed down. It doesnt help even if i close down all my programs, i have to restart the computer to fix this problem."?

from OP "It doesnt help even if i close down all my programs, i have to restart the computer to fix", iI would think that the OP did take that (your suggestion) in consideration already.

the suggestion of a "few days" is based on MY experience of vista trying to learn its environment. The issue the OP has, is ongoing.

cheers ...

 

Mate, the OP states that he has checked the CPU utilization through the task manager and I don't think that anyone who is checking the CPU utilization in task manager wouldn't actually bother seeing what program/service is responsible for that high CPU usage..!! <-- If that is not the case, then I really don't know what to say..

 

Sounds like a possible memory leak, even though Microsoft says that memory leaks are a thing of the past. Same issue with my desktop with a Creative sound card while playing MP3's. Nothing in Task Manager showed anything weird, but the PC would slowly get slower ins responding, even though I quit playing MP3's. Only a hard reboot would get the PC going again until I started playing music. A new software driver for the sound chip seems to solve the problem. I do not use Skype, but it must access the sound chip of course. I would look into it.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys! I will try them all out when I get home tonight. Again many thanks!