I have an older laptop running Windows 7 with a 32-bit processor. Yes I should replace it with something newer, but I'm trying to keep it going for just another year or so. A few months ago I started having very specific performance issues, which I've tried to troubleshoot to no avail. I can work in all the Windows Office products just fine, in either normal boot or safe mode with networking. I can send and receive email just fine in either mode. But when I launch any browser, it maxes out the CPU, sometimes for hours.
I first thought it was insufficient memory, so I boosted RAM. That helped a lot with overall performance, and for awhile I was functioning normally. Then I noticed that anytime I rebooted, it would bog down for awhile before operating normally. Then one day it never returned to normal performance.
I already have a very good virus protection product, and it was one of the first items to show the performance issue. Extensive troubleshooting with their customer support folks indicated their product wasn't the source. Instead their frequent attempts to download updates was tripping over whatever made my browser sessions slow. Then sometimes my Mozy backup would fail or hang. I uninstalled and reinstalled that, to no avail.
My next thought was a dying hard drive, but researching that issue the symptoms didn't really match. So then I started doing a lot of cleanup - temp files, registry files, defrag, removal of unneeded software, etc. That always helped the non-online products run faster, but nothing was helping the online performance. I also tested different browsers, and had the same issues with Explorer, Chrome and Firefox. I'm currently on Firefox.
Finally I started to work in safe mode with networking, which made it possible to work online (but still slow). That is getting very tedious. I got to wondering if one or more of my drivers was corrupted or if some hardware was failing other than the hard drive. I switched on the boot logging, and even in safe mode a lot of drivers fail to load. I worked through the log to eliminate the redundant entries and compile a list of failing drivers. I started to research each driver, but frankly I don't have much time to devote to that pursuit. I've posted the list below, in the hopes that someone with more experience can read through it, and spot which driver(s) is/are the source of the problem.
Drivers which failed to load:
@hal.inf,%acpiapic.devicedesc%;ACPI x86-based PC
@battery.inf,%*compbatt.devicedesc%;Microsoft Composite Battery
@cpu.inf,%intelppm.devicedesc%;Intel Processor
@oem9.inf,%alcaud.desc%;Realtek AC'97 Audio
@battery.inf,%acpi\acpi0003.devicedesc%;Microsoft AC Adapter
@battery.inf,%acpi\pnp0c0a.devicedesc%;Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery
@msports.inf,%*pnp0501.devicedesc%;Communications Port
ATI MOBILITY RADEON X600
cdrom.SYS
mozyFilter.SYS
\SystemRoot\system32\drivers\SBREDrv.sys
RDPCDD.SYS
RDPREFMP.SYS
Serial.SYS
Wanarpv6.SYS
TermDD.SYS
sbwfw.SYS
mssmbios.SYS
discache.SYS
blbdrive.SYS
%scrawpdodevicename%;Smart card filter driver
\SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
sbapifs.SYS
Any smoking guns here? Or is it really time to get a new machine? Any suggestions would be welcome, thanks, but I'm hoping to hear something other than "pitch it and get a new one".
I first thought it was insufficient memory, so I boosted RAM. That helped a lot with overall performance, and for awhile I was functioning normally. Then I noticed that anytime I rebooted, it would bog down for awhile before operating normally. Then one day it never returned to normal performance.
I already have a very good virus protection product, and it was one of the first items to show the performance issue. Extensive troubleshooting with their customer support folks indicated their product wasn't the source. Instead their frequent attempts to download updates was tripping over whatever made my browser sessions slow. Then sometimes my Mozy backup would fail or hang. I uninstalled and reinstalled that, to no avail.
My next thought was a dying hard drive, but researching that issue the symptoms didn't really match. So then I started doing a lot of cleanup - temp files, registry files, defrag, removal of unneeded software, etc. That always helped the non-online products run faster, but nothing was helping the online performance. I also tested different browsers, and had the same issues with Explorer, Chrome and Firefox. I'm currently on Firefox.
Finally I started to work in safe mode with networking, which made it possible to work online (but still slow). That is getting very tedious. I got to wondering if one or more of my drivers was corrupted or if some hardware was failing other than the hard drive. I switched on the boot logging, and even in safe mode a lot of drivers fail to load. I worked through the log to eliminate the redundant entries and compile a list of failing drivers. I started to research each driver, but frankly I don't have much time to devote to that pursuit. I've posted the list below, in the hopes that someone with more experience can read through it, and spot which driver(s) is/are the source of the problem.
Drivers which failed to load:
@hal.inf,%acpiapic.devicedesc%;ACPI x86-based PC
@battery.inf,%*compbatt.devicedesc%;Microsoft Composite Battery
@cpu.inf,%intelppm.devicedesc%;Intel Processor
@oem9.inf,%alcaud.desc%;Realtek AC'97 Audio
@battery.inf,%acpi\acpi0003.devicedesc%;Microsoft AC Adapter
@battery.inf,%acpi\pnp0c0a.devicedesc%;Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery
@msports.inf,%*pnp0501.devicedesc%;Communications Port
ATI MOBILITY RADEON X600
cdrom.SYS
mozyFilter.SYS
\SystemRoot\system32\drivers\SBREDrv.sys
RDPCDD.SYS
RDPREFMP.SYS
Serial.SYS
Wanarpv6.SYS
TermDD.SYS
sbwfw.SYS
mssmbios.SYS
discache.SYS
blbdrive.SYS
%scrawpdodevicename%;Smart card filter driver
\SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
sbapifs.SYS
Any smoking guns here? Or is it really time to get a new machine? Any suggestions would be welcome, thanks, but I'm hoping to hear something other than "pitch it and get a new one".
