(no subject)

[unbibium]

My computer seems to be slowing down.  My TV capture software loses sync with the audio and video, and some emulators no longer run full-speed.  This wasn't a problem a month ago -- in fact, this wasn't a problem even before I upgraded my processor.

Ad-Aware comes up clean.  What else could it be?

Comments

[davetheinverted]

Ad-Aware doesn't catch everything. Down at the shop, we use it in conjunction with SpyBot S&D, so you might try that. (I assume you have A/V software and that it's current and isn't finding anything.)

Dav2.718

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Reinstall sound drivers. Bad sound drivers adversely affect sound and video, while video problems tend to show up with artifacts long before they noticeably affect sound, at least in my experience.

Also, make sure your preferred audio drivers are in use, or maybe I should phrase that as Make sure the correct audio drivers are set as the "preferred" drivers: Control Panels, Sounds and Audio, and see what's listed there under the "Audio" tab. Under "Sound Playback," check the "advanced" button/Performance tab to see what the Hardware Acceleration is set to; if it's off, turn it on, and vice versa.

Also, open Task Manager, Processes tab, click the box to display processes from all users, and have it sort by CPU usage, descending, to see what else is kicking around while you run something that's experiencing the slowdown. In this case it needs to be something you'd normally run in a window, so you can have both visible.

Google the filenames of any processes you don't recognize or that're eating CPU. Some of them can't be killed; they're probably services, but googling them will produce a long roster of sites that'll tell you whether it's bad. Some want you to join or pay or whatnot, but you'll get used to which ones don't.

Update Java, if appropriate.

[piehead.livejournal.com]

You might want to try out "Autoruns" and "Process Explorer" (from the same place, Google can get you there), to see what's launching at startup and a better view of running processes than the built-in task manager gives you.

They'll even let you right-click-to-Google processes.

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

I do notice that the sound kind of craps out on the emulator, too. It stutters and stammers.

I wonder if buying an actual sound card would help -- I'm currently using the motherboard's built-in one, though I've never had trouble with it before.

[darquis.livejournal.com]

Check for Sasser and other svchost exploits - they can slow your comp way down.