My almost 3 years old Dell Inspiron 8200 worked like a charm until a
month ago, when I got a blue screen of death. After making a quick
formating of the OC partition, the computer was and remains very much
slower to start and run applications. It also became unable to wake up
from standby mode.

After backing up my data I deleted both partitions, did a full
formatting of the disk and recreated the partitions. I reinstalled
Windows XP SP1 from the CD Dell reinstallation, downloaded SP2, and
defragmented. The computer was faster for a couple of hours then
returned to being very slow, yet functional - I am writing this from
that machine.

I would like to find a solution to the problems of low speed and
impossibility to get out of standby mode.

Looking at the litterature online I found some references to SP2 being
a possible culprit. I also sometimes hear a fait squeaky noise coming
from behind the keyboard, so it could he a hard drive issue. I just
wouldn't want to be replacing my hard drive if that is not the source
of the problem.

The install is clean, with only XP with all updates, Office 2003, and
Norton antivirus and a couple other pieces of the Google Pack. All
drivers are pretty standard, with the graphic driver being the latest
OmegaDrive compatible with my ATI 9000 graphic card. I am connecting
to the internet with a wireless card.

Description:
P4-M 2Ghz
512 Mb RAM
40 Gb HDD, split in a system partition and a storage partition, 20 Gb each
Windows XP Home SP2

Hello kpascal,

My first suggestion is to REMOVE NORTON ANTIVIRUS! It is the slowest
antivirus on the market. Instead, install either www.avast.com (free)
or www.nod32.com (paid).  Nod32 is the best choice and Avast the
second-best on the market.

That is your first step.

Secondly, run a scan disk on your hard drive (it sounds like you know
what you are doing to do this but i will tell you anyway)

Open My computer, Right click the C drive and choose Properties. Click
Tools, then click Check-Now under Error checking. It may say it cannot
get full access to the drive. Allow the scan to run after reboot and
let me know what happens.

After this has happened try this software

Disk Checker
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Disk-Checker.shtml

Let me know the results of what happens.

In addition--  let me know the manufacturer and model of the hard
drive you are using, as I may be able to find a scanning utility that
is written specifically for your hard drive.

Let me know the results and then I'll be glad to continue to assist you.

--keystroke-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by kpascal-ga on 16 Nov 2006 05:12 PST

Hi,
Thank you for your prompt answer.

I have followed the steps you outlined. I did not get any errors
through either the Windows or the other disk checker (the drive is an
ic25n040atcs05-0 IMB/Hitachi Travelstar).

I also replaced Norton with Avast, removed the Google pack and turned
the theme of the computer from XP to Classic, which I understand
consumes less resources.

Finally I removed Messenger, the ATI tray and Adobe Reader from
startup though MSConfig, leaving only office and Avast.

I am experiencing a slight gain in speed while using the computer,
though it?s still quite slow (particularly when starting IE, but I?m
putting that down to having upgraded to IE7).

Startup still takes a few minutes, and the computer remains unable to
awake from Standby. The machine itself restarts quite vigorously, fan
and all, but the screen remains blue with only the cursor. After about
10 minutes the screen to select the account is displayed, but the
cursor does not activate, and it remains like that.

I am looking forward to your reply.
Pascal

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Clarification of Answer by keystroke-ga on 17 Nov 2006 12:16 PST

Hello Pascal,

Thank you for asking for clarification.

I will be out of town for the weekend and I will not be able to get
back to you until Monday.  Thank you for your patience :)

--keystroke-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by keystroke-ga on 20 Nov 2006 10:22 PST

Hello kpascal,

First, I would advise you to go to the Dell website and find out if
there are any driver updates available for your computer. Install
EVERY driver that is available as sometimes these can slow you down.

Secondly, I would check for Windows Updates too, as I know there was a
bug in one Windows update that caused a person's PC to slow down to a
crawl.

Next I would visit this site:

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

and download the following software.

Drive Fitness Test (v4.08)

Use this software and it will analyse the hard drive and tell you if it is failing.

If all these tests are coming back OK and it is not showing you
anything is wrong i would advise you either

1 Replace the laptop.
2 Check to see if you can get an extended warranty on the PC and then
get it replaced.
3 Take it into a local PC repair center and get them to fix it and
analyze it in depth.

You can also run a disk defragmentation; however, since the machine is
a relatively new installation I cannot imagine that this will make
much difference.

If you need any additional clarification, let me know.

--keystroke-ga

First uninstall anything you dont need

Second, shut off remote access (right click on my computer, goto
properties and use one of the tabs)

Third, right click on your hard drive, and unselect "allow disk
indexed", ( hit ignore all when it gives u the errors relating to the
prefetch files)

Fourth, using services.msc get rid of services you do not need. (i.e.
messenger, remote registry, help and support, infrared, etc.)

Also install ad-aware (and run it when your computer is in safe mode).

use a program called regseeker to clean your registry. (also have it
search for invalid services and you can delete everything green (and
probably everything thats red too, but save the backup and just in
case, set a system restore point before you do this.

Next defrag your c drive; at c prompt type
"defrag c: /b" <enter>
then
"defrag c:"