Windows Vista problem

[Mecha]

I recently did a clean install of Windows Vista Home Premium on my laptop, I Updated the OS from the internet.

Now when I start the PC I get about 10 minutes of Unusual HD activity.. I was curious as to what it could be, It seems that svchost is randomly searching my files on my Disc (using usualy 40-50 megs of RAM!), files that are not connected to OS in any way I know of, Files that are not even programs (my pics,vids..) I found this through "reliability and Performance monitor" in Windows. I thought it could be Indexing.. but thats supposed to be low resources app. I searched the net and found out that several people have the same Problem.. no one realy seems to have a clear Idea what it is..
it looks likesvchost.exe(LocalServiceNetworkRestricted) is accessing media files, on my hard drive. What could be the reason for this,
and how can I get it to stop doing it?

I would realy like to know.

Thanks for any help with this

 

[nerp]

It's most likely superfetch.

Performance shouldn't be affected while it's doing its thing.

Just use your PC normally and the disk access should taper off over time.

The benefits of superfetch outweigh the concern about HD access.

Think of it this way -- if you didn't see the HD LED on your computer and heard no HD noise, would you even know there was a "problem?"

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: nerp
Think of it this way -- if you didn't see the HD LED on your computer and heard no HD noise, would you even know there was a "problem?"

You'd have a Mac and everything would Just Work?!

 

[Mecha]

Ok I can live with the Superfetch, But it does Lag down my computer the first few minutes, so yes I would notice it even without the LED. How big is the benefit of Superfetch? and is there a way of disabling it?
thanks guys.

 

[Mecha]

Originally posted by: loup garou

Originally posted by: nerp
Think of it this way -- if you didn't see the HD LED on your computer and heard no HD noise, would you even know there was a "problem?"

You'd have a Mac and everything would Just Work?!

Mac.. and Work ?? Surely you must be joking...

 

[corkyg]

Superfetch and indexing. It is part of a new installation - and in time the basic work will be done and its HDD action will abate.

 

[Nizbot]

Superfetch is one of the main reasons to upgrade to Vista. That initial access time only occurs when you restart, thus making accessing your files much faster. If it is affecting your computer that much, you need to upgrade your HD, more ram and/or a faster processor. Superfetch is your friend.

 

[13Gigatons]

I disabled superfetch because I got sick of the constant hard drive thrashing and it didn't work for me the way I use my computer. I usually open a lot of apps and leave them open and also leave the computer run for days without rebooting. I also disabled all the scheduled task, I run them manually when I want to.

Superfetch can't launch an app any faster if it is open all the time. I reboot about once a week.

 

[Smilin]

It's not just apps. It's the system DLLs that have the API and function calls that your applications use. It helps load apps faster but it also helps them run faster.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: 13Gigatons
I usually open a lot of apps and leave them open and also leave the computer run for days without rebooting.

Not exactly the best way to use a laptop.

 

[nerp]

Originally posted by: Smilin
It's not just apps. It's the system DLLs that have the API and function calls that your applications use. It helps load apps faster but it also helps them run faster.

Yep. THis point seems to be lost on a lot of people.. It's not just to make apps load faster. It's to turbocharge the entire OS based on usage patterns. And I've said it dozens of times -- your usage patterns are a LOT more predictable than you think.

I often wonder if people would bother disabling it if they had silent HDs and their HD led wasn't working.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: nerp

Originally posted by: Smilin
It's not just apps. It's the system DLLs that have the API and function calls that your applications use. It helps load apps faster but it also helps them run faster.

Yep. THis point seems to be lost on a lot of people.. It's not just to make apps load faster. It's to turbocharge the entire OS based on usage patterns. And I've said it dozens of times -- your usage patterns are a LOT more predictable than you think.

I often wonder if people would bother disabling it if they had silent HDs and their HD led wasn't working.

I understand their feeling though. You look at a grinding drive and increased CPU and you get this immediate placebo effect that your machine is dogging. If you objectively just watch what's happening everything is still snappy during this period.

There is also some disk grind that is not related to superfetch as well. Indexing and backups will kick in from time to time. I had a backup run while 3d gaming (some TF2) and didn't even notice it until I dropped out of full screen to see WTF was pounding my drive.

Who knows though, maybe somebody somewhere is actually having problems. I know I'm not and I know that every case that I have chased to root cause has turned out to be something else. If there is a problem with superfetch I'm just not seeing it.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Mecha
I recently did a clean install of Windows Vista Home Premium on my laptop, I Updated the OS from the internet.

Now when I start the PC I get about 10 minutes of Unusual HD activity.. I was curious as to what it could be...

I'm a little late to the party - everybody has expressed an opinion, but...

I've been running Vista HP for a year and a half, and this is absolutely normal!

The thing is, if you DO NOT install a ReadyBoost drive - this 'thrashing' will drive you crazy!!!

What I do is run 4GB RAM and a 4GB ReadyBoost drive (SDHC memory card).

After a few minutes, my Vista lappy calms down and 'thrashes' the memory instead the HD...

If you do this, your lappy will run cooler, quicker, and last longer - highly recommended!

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: 13Gigatons
I usually open a lot of apps and leave them open and also leave the computer run for days without rebooting.

Not exactly the best way to use a laptop.

True!

My Toshiba user's manual specifically warns against running it 24/7...

Then, again, lappys are only designed to be used for a couple of years anyway!

After that, you got a dinosaur on your hands...

 

[The Keeper]

Also, Vista has improved sleep and hibernate features since XP. After Vista has done all the superfetching and filled your RAM with cached stuff, I do not turn off my computer but instead put it to sleep. In this mode almost everything is shut down like usually, but enough current is kept on motherboard and RAM sticks so that whatever data was stored into the RAM is not lost. The computer wakes up literally in a second and is ready to be used. Since the cached stuff is still in the RAM, superfetch doesn't kick in. Even if it would, it doesn't hinder my system's performance. If you enable hybrid sleep, Vista saves your RAM into hard drive and shuts down your PC if AC power is lost and battery backup is low. Again cached stuff is loaded back into the RAM once you turn your computer back on. This is good for laptops and desktops with UPS.

I no longer turn off my PC except when it will remain unused for extended time (like a week or more) or when I need to dust off insides of the case or do other maintenance.

 

[Jeff7181]

"Hard drive thrashing." That's awesome... just how fragile do you think hard drives are? Yeah, they're mechanical and they can fail... but what makes you think doing what they were designed to do will cause them to fail prematurely? Are you one of those people who drives 55 in a 65 to save wear on your engine too? :roll:

 

[13Gigatons]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: 13Gigatons
I usually open a lot of apps and leave them open and also leave the computer run for days without rebooting.

Not exactly the best way to use a laptop.

True!

My Toshiba user's manual specifically warns against running it 24/7...

Then, again, lappys are only designed to be used for a couple of years anyway!

After that, you got a dinosaur on your hands...

It's not a laptop it's a desktop.

 

[13Gigatons]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
"Hard drive thrashing." That's awesome... just how fragile do you think hard drives are? Yeah, they're mechanical and they can fail... but what makes you think doing what they were designed to do will cause them to fail prematurely? Are you one of those people who drives 55 in a 65 to save wear on your engine too? :roll:

It has nothing to do with saving wear and tear. It's about performance of the app I am currently using like say Adobe Photoshop. At idle background apps run and become annoying while I'm trying work in Photoshop so I disabled them all and find that it's much better for me.

With 6 gigabytes in the machine I just leave everything I want running, like Outlook, Firefox, smartftp, file manager, Word, firewall, anti virus, winamp, google talk, Photoshop, SnagIt, etc.

With 4 gigs of the 6 gigs used and you never have to wait for an app to launch and it stays cached.

Superfetch uses cpu, memory and hard drive resources that I would rather have for my already opened apps.

 

[The Keeper]

Originally posted by: 13Gigatons
Superfetch uses cpu, memory and hard drive resources that I would rather have for my already opened apps.

This is mostly incorrect. Vista has quite good I/O priority scheduling, superfetch is ran on minimal I/O priority and it won't affect whatever apps you are running because they have higher I/O priority. Whatever RAM is used by superfetch to cache stuff, is freed for your applications once there is need to do so. Same goes for CPU.

Chances are, you are either noticing a placebo effect or there's something else wrong with your system if system performance is actually decreasing while superfetch does what its supposed to do.

I have never noticed any kind of perfomance impact while Vista's superfetch, system restore, etc, etc are doing their job in the background. Not even if I launched a game while they were running.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: VinDSL
I've been running Vista HP for a year and a half, and this is absolutely normal! The thing is, if you DO NOT install a ReadyBoost drive - this 'thrashing' will drive you crazy!!!

Then you have a problem somewhere. I've been running Vista Home Premium for approx. two weeks on four year-old hardware with 1GB RAM, and though Vista did exhibit some crazy background activity off-and-on for the first couple days, it has settled down substantially.

Now, every few reboots, there will be minor background activity that lasts 20 ~ 30 seconds after the desktop loads. Its noticeable but hardly onerous and runs at a much lower priority than before.

I have done complete defrag with and without boot optimization a few times, so maybe that is taking care of some work that would otherwise be happening as a background thing.