Vista runs slow

[chicagotech]

Thank you for the update.

Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
<joseph> wrote in message news:1187899650.720382.186320@x35g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
On Aug 22, 4:30 pm, "joseph.gr...@gmail.com" <joseph>
wrote:
> My Fiance's laptop is experiencing some very strange symptoms. I
> don't know how to sum them up or even how to categorize it, but here's
> my best shot:
>
> * The computer when re-booted starts to hang just about when it
> starts to make a connection to our wireless network.
> * Everything takes about 30 seconds to do (click on start?... menu
> shows up 30 seconds or more later)
> * No signs of resource problems: The task manager shows CPU
> utilization at about 6%. Memory usage also seems normal. Network
> usage seems normal. Still... everything crawls.
> * Wireless network connections: The connection to our wifi network
> shows success.
> * I try to open Firefox but it never launches
> * I click on Start, it takes 22 seconds to load on screen.
> * I click Control Panel, it takes 3 minutes to open the screen... a
> searching flashlight is displayed as it cannot find the control panel
> icons. This process lasts minutes. (I've been watching it now for 5
> minutes with no change).
> * Double-clicking on the wireless network connection icon in the
> lower right hand corner opens the Wireless Netowrk Connection Status
> window (about 22 seconds later). The screen is frozen. The duration
> value is not incrementing. Buttons change color on mouse-over, but
> then freeze. The duration value increases a bit. It's like the
> program is getting a few miliseconds of cpu time every minute.
>
> Later, if I get to the window showing all available wireless
> connections, the computer shows I am actually not connected. Attempts
> to reconnect start duplicate wireless connection icons on the bottom
> of the screen. Last reboot I got 6 of them. Three showing failure,
> two frozen mid-process of trying to get a new IP address allocated.
> One showing connected.
>
> The whole system is un-usable and I've got no idea what to do. The
> slow system makes it extra difficult to troubleshoot.
>
> Here are the specs of the system:
>
> Sony VGN-SZ330P laptop
> Windows XP OS with SP2
> Virus Protection and Firewall by ZoneAlarm. All virus defs up-to-
> date.
>
> Any help appreciated.

Update: I started the computer in safe mode with networking and it
performed well. After investigating the system logs, I found
countless tcpip information entries of code 4201. Practically one
every 5 seconds. I restarted the computer in normal mode with the
wireless networking disabled (using the manual switch on the laptop
console). Then I changed zone alarm so that it would not start
automatically upon system start.

Then I restarted the computer again with networking disabled again.

The system ran fine. I then enabled zone alarm. The system ran
fine. I then enabled networking and everything ran fine.

No problems since. Not sure what the root cause was.