PC is very slow

Question

My Windows XP system is very slow. I tried all possible ways of improving the performance. But no luck. I've 4GB RAM and AMD Phenon XII B53 processor.

I don't see any applications consuming CPU resources. But the Page File usage is 4.18 GB(System Managed size in My Computer > Properties > Peformance). There is enough RAM available, but still why OS is using Page File? How can I improve the Page File usage? Please help me.

Answer 1

The speed of your PC is likely to be unrelated to the size of your page file.

You can read more about the page file at http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/10/page/2/

Answer 2

You may need to do some of the following things to address the speed issues:

• Check your drive with chkdsk to scan for logical and physical errors.
• Let Windows manage your page file.
• Defrag your hard drive.
• Run a virus / malware scan.

Your page file is not the problem. Windows is designed to manage its memory usage by swapping out RAM to the disk as needed, and interfering with that process is not advisable. See what @Zian Choy has linked to in his answer.

Don't do something silly like turning the page file off, either.

Please don't run a registry scanner either. It's not worth it.

Answer 3

I believe the PF Usage reported by task manager is actually the commit charge and represents the amount of memory requested by and granted to applications. It includes memory backed by both physical RAM and memory stored in pagefile.sys on disk.

Given that it is so high, it seems that an application has requested a large amount of memory so that the RAM is being used up. If this application is being given a high prioirity by the OS, new memory allocations would be using the disk based memory, which is slower and this could be the cause of the slow performance of the system. I would check how much memory each process is using, and googling any suspicious looking processes to see if they should really be there.

Answer 4

The Page file in Windows is used to move data to a secondary storage "tank" that does not fit into RAM. The only way to "improve" paging performance would be to have its minimum usage at about 1.5 times the totally amount of RAM you have and the maximum usage 3 times the total amount of RAM. Wikipedia page on Paging File.

If you are experiencing slowness issues, this could also be the first signs of a failing HDD. Run a disk check, and if it cannot complete, enter Safe Mode and try a disk check. If it still won't complete, you can check its status with an Ubuntu LiveCD using the Disk Utility. If you have any bad sectors, you'll need to run your manufacturers HDD testing utility and may need to replace your HDD.

If you really want performance, I would look into an investment in a Solid State Drive which in my honest opinion, is the greatest performance increase you can add to a system.

Answer 5

From time to time Windows simply needs to be reinstalled… Consider GNU/Linux http://ubuntu.com/download -- download and start operating your computer, with Windows it is the other way around -- the system operates you

Try making the page file smaller e.g. 1GB or disabling it entirely This is strange that Windows instead of using your ram uses the page file. Also check your computer against rootkits and viruses