system slows down while moving large files

[merk]

winxp pro sp 2 (it happened prior to sp2)

Whenever i burn files to dvd, or ftp files onto the machine, it slows to a crawl. Takes forever for a program to start. If i bring a window from the background to the front i can sit there for the next 30 seconds watching it draw the window.

CPU usages is normally pretty low, around 10%. Occasionally it'll spike up to 60%. The only thing that i see causing the spikes is something listed as DPC's (deferred procedure calls). Thats according to process explorer. Task manager will show the cpu spike but doesnt show any process thats using enough cpu time to account for it.

Even when the cpu is at 10% though the system crawls.

The dvd drive is an external usb2 drive. I thought maybe i had a bad usb controller, but the problem happens even when i plugged the dvd drive into the ide controller. And it happens when i ftp files into the machine.

Any ideas what might be wrong here?

thanks

 

[alzan]

Well, let's see. The things I would suspect are (not in order of likelihood): badly fragmented drive, not enough RAM, swap file not large enough, virus or malware.
Get the latest copy of AdAware (lavasoft-usa.com) and run it on your system, if you haven't already. Get current virus dat files and do a complete scan of all drives.

Hope that helps.

alzan

 

[xcript]

Make sure DMA is enabled for your hard disk.

 

[merk]

thought of the fragmented drive... tried defraging a few times as well as scheduling nightly defrags, no go.

512megs of ram, which should be more then enough for a machine not doing anything horribly intensive (i consider copying files to be not horribly intensive)

Swap file is set to 768-1536. again, not using anything memory intensive.

I have current AV protection with real-time protection enabled.

I havent tried adaware ... i dont think thats its since i havent downloaded anything questionable and i dont notice anything running that shouldnt be running. But, I will install adware and see if it finds anything. Doesnt hurt to try.

DMA is set to automatic on both ide controllers. For the disk drive its showing up as DMA 5 and for the 2nd ide controller its showing up as multi-word DMA 2. Hard drive is on IDE 1 master, and cd-rw drive is on IDE 2 master.

The dvd burner as i said is plugged into the USB2 port.

Thanks

 

[merk]

anyone have any other suggestions? this is really starting to drive me up a wall. I cant use my PC while i am burng dvd's. The system CRAWLS like a slug when i try to do anything ... wait a minute for a window to come to the front, wait a few minutes for an application to launch .... and then after gnashing my teeth for 10 minutes waiting for my browser to open, the dvdn will fail and i have to start over.

I dont have this problem with my home machine. I can burn dvd's without any slow downs, or copy files without any severe slow downs.

I cant think of any reason why moving large files would so drastically slow down the system. Hell, burning to dvd its only writing at 4x, which is about 5.5mbs, which the pc should be able to handle without a problem.

thanks

 

[swage]

You really need to check if Windows XP is showing your drive as DMA (not just at boot up time).

goto start/run/ type in "DEVMGMT.MSC"

look for IDE ata/atapi controllers, right click, on each of the channels, select 'properties' then advanced tab. make sure they the transfer mode is "DMA if available".

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you really need to run adaware, even though you havn't d/l-ed anything. If you're unfamilar with browser hi-jacking, your system is prolly already hi-jacked.


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you can also temporarily turning off start up tasks by running a simple program like 'startupcpl' located at linky.

 

[merk]

already checked dma... everything is set to dma, even the cd-rw drive on the 2nd ide controller. The HD is on the first controller, dma5. The cd-rw is on the 2nd controller and DMA2. And the dvd-rw drive is an external USB drive.

I forgot to try ad-ware ... just installed it and its running now. I'm pretty certain it wont find more then a few cookies and maybe some non-running applications. I really dont think its some spyware slowing the system down. But it cant hurt to look. I'll post back if ad-ware finds anything when its done doing the full scan.

thanks

 

[swage]

I originally had a problem similar to yours, and it had to do with the ethernet drivers. What motherboard do you have? version of drivers?

 

[merk]

Ok... only thing ad-ware found were cookies.

As for mb ... i dont remember which exact model, but i am pretty sure its K7T266 Pro2-RU from MSI. I'll have to physically look at the motherboard on monday to be sure. But dev manager is saying its a realtek rtl8319 pci card, so i may not even be using the onboard LAN ... again i'll have to check that monday when i get into work. But since dev manager is saying its in pci slot 4, looks like its a stand-alone card. driver version 5.396.530.2001 7/1/2001. And each ide controller has its own irq, as does the NIC.

I'm not sure the NIC would be the problem, since this problem occurs also when i burn files on the HD onto a DVD through a USB connection. but i'll check for updated NIC drivers on monday when i can confirm the actual brand/model of the card.