Vista has ground to a halt!

[CHR1S]

My laptop (Core2Duo 2.3Ghz, 3Gb RAM, 250Gb HDD) has really started to grind to a halt, logon is quick but once I hit the desktop I get a huge amount of disk access and the wait begins.

During this time CPU use is under 50% and there is over 1GB of RAM free but the majority of disk access is to the page file and for outlook with svchost coming in third.

Im almost 30 mins in and the little LED is still on solid! Im due to move to Win7 x64 very soon so dont waste your time if its not something obvious, im just curious as to why its started doing it.

Thanks

Chris

[CraigM]

My laptop (Core2Duo 2.3Ghz, 3Gb RAM, 250Gb HDD) has really started to grind to a halt, logon is quick but once I hit the desktop I get a huge amount of disk access and the wait begins.

During this time CPU use is under 50% and there is over 1GB of RAM free but the majority of disk access is to the page file and for outlook with svchost coming in third.

Im almost 30 mins in and the little LED is still on solid! Im due to move to Win7 x64 very soon so dont waste your time if its not something obvious, im just curious as to why its started doing it.

Thanks

Chris

I recently found that if I try and login into my Vista box with a user who has printers assigned to them through Group Policy Preferences, login would sit on the "Wait" screen for ages.

however, your case doesn't sound exactly the same, so I can't say what it could be.

[chazzy2501]

I recently found that if I try and login into my Vista box with a user who has printers assigned to them through Group Policy Preferences, login would sit on the "Wait" screen for ages.

Thanks for that comment you've solved a problem I've had all week.

[Michael]

If you start the computer with Safe Mode with Networking, do you have the same problem? And have you tried running Scandisk?

[CraigM]

Thanks for that comment you've solved a problem I've had all week.

I am glad that my own experience helped you, but now to find a solution....

If you start the computer with Safe Mode with Networking, do you have the same problem? And have you tried running Scandisk?

I haven't done either of these yet, though I have a feeling none of them will help. I installed Windows 7on another on this box, and 7 reacts much more quickly.

The only messy thing about this situation is that the printer drivers for 32 bit clients are XP drivers, and I've tested with a 64 bit Windows 7. I need to find time to test with 32 bit Windows 7.

Wonder why this problem happens in Vista...

[CHR1S]

If you start the computer with Safe Mode with Networking, do you have the same problem? And have you tried running Scandisk?

It made the world of difference in safe mode, now its time to play pin the HDD activity on the startup prog.... am I right?? lol

[Michael]

It made the world of difference in safe mode, now its time to play pin the HDD activity on the startup prog.... am I right?? lol

You are indeed correct. This is where msconfig becomes handy. The Safe Mode and Networking option I prove useful as this ultimately makes it clearer whether it's a software or hardware problem. There's always a theory behind the madness you know

As for drivers, on your print server, open up Printers and Faxes, right click in an empty space and choose 'Server Properties', then the drivers tab. From here you can add additional drivers as appropriate.

[mossj]

Could it not be a dodgy virus/program of some sort? Have you done a scan recently?

[llawwehttam]

I prefer to use CCleaner to msconfig. I have had a few glitches with msconfig in the past.

[CHR1S]

Could it not be a dodgy virus/program of some sort? Have you done a scan recently?

Were sophosed up to the hilt! On access scanning works a treat too!

[CHR1S]

Right, I managed to get to the bottom of the issues. For anyone who is seeing the same slowdowns on vista or 7 try disabling the superfetch service.

For some reason this goes mad and tries to index and preload everthing, this morning it tried to preload my XP SP3 image i downloaded yesterday!

As to why its suddenly started doing this I have no idea

[RTFM]

Were sophosed up to the hilt! On access scanning works a treat too!

I was going to mention Sophos as a possible cause to the problem.

We have noticed that Sophos is very resource hungry on startup when it is updating.

You had said you sorted it another way though so yay