Help - Slow computer, low CPU usage.

I have a system (HP) with the AMD Athlon 64 3800+(single core) chip. There is 1GB of RAM and the operating system is Windows XP media center. I've gone through the usual trouble shooting routine. Safemode MalwareBytes scan and while that did turn up 385 "infected objects" there was no boost in speed on this particular system. I've tried to boot with only the Microsoft services selected to run at start up. I HAVE NOT tried to defragment yet however. Nor have I done a "Check Disk". It's something I would like to have fixed yet I'm still sort of a newbie! The CPU usage in Task manager is low and I don't have a process consuming too much ram. Highest was 60mb. What could cause this? Help would be appreciated.

EDIT: I should probably add that this isn't my system. It belongs to a friend and it is not in my possession. All of the troubleshooting I have done with her has been over phone/chat.

Also, should I ask to person to just let me take the computer home and see whats what? Or should I leave it in their possession to prevent a liability if something were to go wrong?

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Comments

cyberguypr

instant000 wrote: »

He reminded me of the guy in the basement on Office Space, with the Swingline Stapler.

Please show some respect, his name is Milton.

And like they say in the movie, "Is this good for the company?" At some point it is not worth spending hours on one system if a quick wipe will solve the issue and get the user back online.

Devilsbane

instant000 wrote: »

It's not cheating to get the customer back up and working quicker.

Some companies actually prefer this solution. I haven't worked for any, but know a couple companies where the first attempt to fix the situation is to reimage the computer. Why spend hours troubleshooting when the computer can be completely rebuilt in under an hour by 3 clicks of a mouse?

And if it still doesn't work, it must be a hardware malfunction.

I don't agree with that line of thinking, but you can't deny that it works.

Psoasman

CodeBlox wrote: »

Yeah, but I do feel like I cheated by doing this. I mean, I never actually found out what was causing this. I mentioned I was doing this over chat/phone and I suppose that wasn't so bad. The hard thing was to deal with the friends mother tinkering around while I'm troubleshooting! I was troubleshooting and she decided she wanted to uninstall Norton Internet Security. It resulted in her computer only booting into safe mode. I then had to take the time and step back and guide her to fixing that problem. I did easily fix that problem though.

I've actually helped a quite a few people with computer problems and I never make anyone pay me for it. Not sure if I'm missing out on lots of money!

It's not cheating, there are time when the computer will not start or run properly and a system restore will get you back up. What I often do is ask the user some questions:

1. When did the computer last work correctly?
2. what have you installed since then?
3. has anybody else used your computer or installed anything?
4. Anything else happen to the computer? This information may not be forthcoming. I had a computer at work start to have all sorts of random problems, nobody confessed up to anything. After getting back to shop, I was replacing the power supply and saw coffee residue all over it. There was only 1 person who drank coffee and regularly used the computer - now they don't.

Once you have the information, you can start to reinstall any software, etc that you think may have caused the troubles and see what happens.