Computer running slow

[koberulz]

Most of the time, my computer's fine. On occasion, though, windows will take ages to pop up, and Windows Explorer will even sit there for a full minute loading all the folders wherever it is that I'm browsing.

Just tried to play NBA 2k11 for the first time in a while, and it's unplayable. After highlighting a menu item, I have to wait a full second before pressing A, or it does nothing. The game itself is useless, as by the time I see something on screen and press the relevant buttons, the game's moved on several seconds. The CPU gets by me way too easily, because it takes me a full second longer than it should to cut him off, by which time he's in the lane already. After I ran out of bounds, due my player running three steps further than I wanted, I gave up.

What can I do about this?

[Andrew]

Have you run through the usual maintenance? Malware scan, defrag etc?

Have you installed anything new lately?

[koberulz]

I run SpyBot and AVG daily, neither have come up with anything of late. Ran Malwarebytes when I first noticed things going slowly, came up clean. Don't recall installing anything recently.

Shall give defrag a go, I guess.

[benji]

Shall give defrag a go, I guess.

http://filehippo.com/download_auslogics_disk_defrag/

[koberulz]

What's wrong with the defragmenter that comes with Windows?

It also tells me it's been running by itself every Wednesday, so I'm not sure how much running it again is likely to fix.

[benji]

Download auslogics, run analyze. Then report the percentages.

Based on your symptoms you have a far worse issue though. Sorry.

[koberulz]

C, which basically has nothing on it except Windows and whatnot, is 3% fragmented. D, which has all my files on it, is 1% fragmented. I, which is from an old computer and just plugged into an external device because there are files on it I haven't transferred onto D yet, is 41% fragmented.

It's also found 2,212 junk files and 18 registry errors. No security problems.

[benji]

Defrag and optimize always helps in some respect, but what you described with NBA 2K11 is just bad news.

Try and repeat the issue.

If you want to check the hard drives: http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm

http://filehippo.com/download_speccy/ is also good for gathering system information.

[koberulz]

What does Optimize do?

[benji]

What does Optimize do?

Reorders the files physically based on usage.

Check my edit btw.

To further, it's sounding like hardware failure of some sort. If the 2K11 issue happens every time and not just once, that's where I would lean. Explorer issue is too common to matter, high levels of fragmentation will do that so will all sorts of other problems with Windows. Theoretically you could have the same problem causing the 2K11 issue. But then I'd consider format and reinstall first just to check Windows.

[shadowgrin]

I'd consider format and reinstall first just to check Windows.

A true NLSCer.

[benji]

Hey, if it's not that then it's hardware failure. He already said all his data was on another hard drive so it's the easy check.

[koberulz]

Defragged and optimized. Ran 2k11, and it was playable but still laggy (though it was laggy before, too, so I'm not sure whether it's still worse than that).

Worth upgrading from Vista to 7 if I end up reinstalling Windows?

[Andrew]

I'd definitely go with 7 over Vista.

[Lean]

Most of the time, my computer's fine. On occasion, though, windows will take ages to pop up, and Windows Explorer will even sit there for a full minute loading all the folders wherever it is that I'm browsing.

Just tried to play NBA 2k11 for the first time in a while, and it's unplayable. After highlighting a menu item, I have to wait a full second before pressing A, or it does nothing. The game itself is useless, as by the time I see something on screen and press the relevant buttons, the game's moved on several seconds. The CPU gets by me way too easily, because it takes me a full second longer than it should to cut him off, by which time he's in the lane already. After I ran out of bounds, due my player running three steps further than I wanted, I gave up.

What can I do about this?

NBA 2K11 itself has the same framerate / lag issues from 2K10, plus if you're running on Windows 7 chances are it's running so slow after months from installation. The sound lags so bad it sounds like an autotuned pop singer.

You can check your Processes on the Task Manager and sees what eats up your system's resources.

[shadowgrin]

My hard drive is fragmented as shite. I used to have only 2 gigs left in it then it suddenly had 30 gigs available without even uninstalling programs or doing some cleaning (checked my bigass files, still there and working) and yet I'm still able to play games without the frame rate issues both then and now.
So I'm inclined to agree with the impending hardware failure like benji said.

[koberulz]

I'd definitely go with 7 over Vista.

That seems to be the consensus, but I've never actually heard a reason for it other than 'Vista sucks'. I've had Vista for a couple of years now and see no problems with it, thus the question. What's better about 7?

[benji]

I used to have only 2 gigs left in it then it suddenly had 30 gigs available without even uninstalling programs or doing some cleaning (checked my bigass files, still there and working)

Clusters can do this. They take up set space so you can have a 2kb file claiming 4MB of hard drive space, etc. When you defrag and "optimize" it redoes the clusters properly.

Certain games like TF2 or Guild Wars especially do this since they're held in one massive file that crosses multiple clusters even if only a bit of the file is in them.

That seems to be the consensus, but I've never actually heard a reason for it other than 'Vista sucks'. I've had Vista for a couple of years now and see no problems with it, thus the question. What's better about 7?

7 is the next iteration of Vista's far improved kernel. There's nothing wrong with Vista except for the FUD all the ignorant continue to believe, but 7 is everything good about Vista plus more core improvements. (Even if there are possible UI steps back.)

If all you're doing is re-installing what you already have don't bother upgrading. (No idea why you would...since upgrading costs money and re-installing is free.) If you do want to upgrade, 7 64-bit is the way to go.

[koberulz]

If all you're doing is re-installing what you already have don't bother upgrading. (No idea why you would...since upgrading costs money and re-installing is free.) If you do want to upgrade, 7 64-bit is the way to go.

If I'm going to upgrade, it makes sense to do it now, while I'm reinstalling everything and whatnot. Rather than going through the reinstall, and then the upgrade process down the line.

Depends how much it costs, too. I just got a whole lot of posters framed and Perth Wildcats season tickets (the latter of which I didn't plan to get, merely a spot on the waiting list for next year at the new stadium, but seats opened up), so money's a bit tight at the moment.

[benji]

A re-install will take a couple hours at most and is free...

[koberulz]

Plus reinstalling software, changing settings, etc. which is something I'd rather not do any more times than is necessary.

[benji]

You'd have to do that anyway if you upgraded properly.

[koberulz]

That's my point. If I upgrade and reinstall everything, it's easier than reinstalling Windows, reinstalling everything else, then upgrading a couple of months down the track and reinstalling all my software yet again.

[benji]

Except you pay for it, and you don't HAVE to upgrade. Vista will last for a long while.

Some of us are on Vista and are going to wait for 8 next year because that's when the hardware and price justifies it. Just like the jump to Vista.

[koberulz]

So an upgrade to 7 just isn't worth it, period? If that's the case, then yeah, I'll just reinstall. But the consensus just seemed that Vista was absolutely horrible and 7 was a lot better, is all, so I thought it might be worth looking at.