1. SPS Accounts:
    Do you find yourself coming back time after time? Do you appreciate the ongoing hard work to keep this community focused and successful in its mission? Please consider supporting us by upgrading to an SPS Account. Besides the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting a good cause, you'll also get a significant number of ever-expanding perks and benefits on the site and the forums. Click here to find out more.
    Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
You are currently viewing Boards o' Magick as a guest, but you can register an account here. Registration is fast, easy and free. Once registered you will have access to search the forums, create and respond to threads, PM other members, upload screenshots and access many other features unavailable to guests.

BoM cultivates a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We have been aiming for quality over quantity with our forums from their inception, and believe that this distinction is truly tangible and valued by our members. We'd love to have you join us today!

(If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you've forgotten your username or password, click here.)

Slow pc...Need Help

Discussion in 'Techno-Magic' started by Sir Belisarius, Jun 10, 2008.

  1. Sir Belisarius

    Sir Belisarius Viconia's Boy Toy Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2000
    Messages:
    4,257
    Media:
    23
    Likes Received:
    4
    Gender:
    Male
    Remove all ads!
    Okay. My pc is about 4 years old. I've upgraded the video card to support NWN2. It's a Dell Dimension 8300, running XP/SP2, Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 3.25 GB RAM. It's starting to run really slow. WHen I call up Task Manager, I see a lot of processes running behind the scenes. What's weird is, I'm starting to see multiple like named processes, such as:

    svchost.exe (6 times!)
    CLI.exe (2 times)

    Is there any way to clean up the number of running processes and/or remove redundant programs?!? It seems like my pc takes forever to load things now, and I'd like to do what I can to clean up this one. I don't think I'm buying any more desktops...

    Any suggestions?
     
    Sir Belisarius, Jun 10, 2008
    #1
  2. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2000
    Messages:
    10,414
    Media:
    40
    Likes Received:
    232
    Gender:
    Male
    Everyone has multiple instances of svchost. It is basically a host process for services running on your machine. Many services are part of DLLs and so can't be run as a standalone process, so svchost is the guy that hosts these DLL services. Each instance can be hosting many services. You can try turning off services that you know you don't need I suppose...

    CLI from what I gather is the Catalyst control center, so I assume you have an ATI/AMD video board...
     
    Blackthorne TA, Jun 10, 2008
    #2
  3. Kitrax

    Kitrax Pantaloons are supposed to go where!?!?

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2002
    Messages:
    7,899
    Media:
    74
    Likes Received:
    96
    Gender:
    Male
    As BTA said, there's nothing you can really do about the svchost process (I've got 7 of them running right now).

    Have you tried any of my guides posted here? You may just have a lot of junk that needs to be cleared out. Also, the System Configuration Utility guide may help you speed things up since it shows you how to remove startup programs that you don't need.

    In case your eyes glaze of the sticky threads like most people...here's a reminder:
    Kitrax’s guide to killing Adware, Spyware, and Viruses
    Kitrax’s guide to the System Configuration Utility for WinXP
    Kitrax's guide to cleaning up your hard drive

    Try those and see if they help give your system a boost. :thumb: :rolling:
     
    Kitrax, Jun 10, 2008
    #3
  4. Disciple of The Watch

    Disciple of The Watch Preparing The Coming of The New Order Veteran

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2005
    Messages:
    7,024
    Likes Received:
    38
    Gender:
    Male
    A good ol' defrag wouldn't hurt either.
     
    Disciple of The Watch, Jun 10, 2008
    #4
  5. Sir Belisarius

    Sir Belisarius Viconia's Boy Toy Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2000
    Messages:
    4,257
    Media:
    23
    Likes Received:
    4
    Gender:
    Male
    I did that and ran a couple adware and registry key removers...That seemed to do the trick. It's running a lot better now!
     
    Sir Belisarius, Jun 11, 2008
    #5

  6. Erod Gems: 14/31
    Latest gem: Chrysoberyl

     Veteran

    Joined:
    May 21, 2005
    Messages:
    652
    Likes Received:
    3
    If you want to know what those multiple svchost represent, an easy way is to download Process Explorer from Microsoft's site.
     
    Erod, Jun 13, 2008
    #6

  7. Munchkin Blender Gems: 22/31
    Latest gem: Sphene

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2007
    Messages:
    1,413
    Likes Received:
    14
    Gender:
    Male

    Does anyone know if Vista has this issue?
     
    Munchkin Blender, Aug 8, 2008
    #7
  8. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2005
    Messages:
    2,445
    Media:
    23
    Likes Received:
    54
    Gender:
    Male
    The same as XP. It also clogs ups if unchecked. The reinstall made a lot of difference.
     
    Merlanni, Aug 9, 2008
    #8
Sorcerer's Place is a project run entirely by fans and for fans. Maintaining Sorcerer's Place and a stable environment for all our hosted sites requires a substantial amount of our time and funds on a regular basis, so please consider supporting us to keep the site up & running smoothly. Thank you!

Sorcerers.net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on amazon.com, amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.