Slow computer

For the last two weeks my company laptop has been running slow. System idle would be at 98-99%, while the CPU usage would be at 20-50%. I ran anti spyware, anti malware and anti virus and found nothing. We have always formatted and imaged when things like this happen, but I have some programs that take an act of the German Consulate to get back on the computer. :head_on_wall:

After days of Googling the problem and reading all kinds of junk from egg heads that didn't work, I stumbled on to the fix. Turns out ATA/IDE controllers will often revert back to PIO mode instead of Ultra-DMA. Here is how to check and fix

Check the problem by examining the controller’s Primary and Secondary IDE settings: Device Manager -> IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers -> Primary or Secondary IDE Channel -> Properties -> Advanced Settings. Look at the Current Transfer Mode field. If it’s “PIO” then it’s a FUBAR PITA and you’ll need to uninstall the driver, reboot and let XP do its magic reinstall.
From http://frazzleddad.blogspot.com/2006/03/lousy-performance-high-hardware.html

So if your computer seems to be running extremely slow, try this simple fix first. It worked great on mine

 

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