finally narrowed it down!

[Ken]

For the past six weeks or so I have had many problems with slow internet. I have tried everything that I could think of even to the extent of getting Virgin to change modem for an ethernet one. Nothing has made much difference.

I then started to look through 100s of internet forums trying to come up with an answer. I eventually found a post from someone with the exact same problem as I had. The answer was to switch off sytem restore so I tried it and its actually put the internet running at the correct speed again. I have now tried it dozens of times and every time I switch on restore the internet is slow again, switch it off and its fast.

My question is why would system restore cause my internet to run slow and is there really another reason like memory or something.

Thanks for any help :lol:

Ken

[GreyGhost]

Don't know for sure Ken but I would think system restore is tying up a lot of processor capacity or system resources. Meaning other applications have to wait their turn for useage. That would slow everything down. I do find it hard to fathom why that process has priority over others. In my way of thinking that should be waiting as lowest priority or only running in idle time.

[BMC123]

system restore uses a certain amount of system hard drive space, so maybe the problem was lack of space....? when you turn system restore off it deletes the old restore points, and frees up space, then when you turn it back on again it reclaims the space, thats the only thing I can think off at the minute :shrug:

[mayor]

Hi it could be that you picked up some spyware that can really slow down your connection as it competes and tries to install its programme in the background with your connection. Going to restore at a specific date before this spyware had infected your computer could clear the spyware before it was written in the registry. Some spyware programmes are quite sophisicated now and even anti spyware like Adaware find it difficult to clear because some spyware and indeed viruses re-install on boot-up. Sometimes in this situation its better to disable restore and boot up and then re-enable restore

[Vinyl Junki]

Spyware sounds most likely - suggest a very strong but FREE Anti Spyware utility AVG Anti Spyware FREE. Just google it and you will get it. Run around once or twice a month to clear trackers/zombie bots etc. THey do a great FREE Anti virus also. Hope that helps future probs

[Tatts]

Ken, do you have VM ADSL or Cable?

I've never heard of System Restore slowing an internet connection down.

[Keith]

System restore should not slow the PC down but Microsoft Automatic update certainly will especially if an update has failed to install and keeps retrying

The background processing power auto update uses on boot up is amazing and it combined with MS defender can kill a machine stone dead for the first 15 minutes or so especially if you have another AV product as well, then they really get upset with each other!

Then on top of that if you have one of these evil $ky or 4od streaming products using Kservice that steal your pc for file sharing and before you know it everything is permanently slow

[Ken]

I have AVG installed and it shows nothing neither does CCleaner or Ad-aware. The connection is still flying along but as soon as I switch sytem restore back on its slows right down to almost dial up speeds and I have 2mb Virgin cable.

I have just tried it again and its still doing it so leaving it switched off now.

Ken

[JohnDotCom]

Strange one this Ken, will for my own benefit (then tell you of course) see if I can work out why, because it should not thats for sure.
I take it you do have plenty of space left on your hard drive?

[Ken]

Strange one this Ken, will for my own benefit (then tell you of course) see if I can work out why, because it should not thats for sure.
I take it you do have plenty of space left on your hard drive?

Only 18gig John :lol:

Its strange because when I switch on SR and it slows everything down I would expect the PC to probably be making that 'writing to' sound but it doesn't, everything is silent and normal apart from the internet connection.

Don't worry about it John I am quite happy with SR switched off so its not really a problem to me :lol:

[Ken]

All fixed found out what it was for sure...............

Keith wrote System restore should not slow the PC down but Microsoft Automatic update certainly will especially if an update has failed to install and keeps retrying which got me thinking that I have not had an automatic update for quite a while. I looked at the security centre and the 'notify me but do not download or install updates' button was selected. I then did a windows update check and there was 126mb waiting to download. When it downloaded some of it installed but then it got to something called .NET and would not install unless System restore was switched on. I switched on SR and its still on and the connection is going like a bat out of hell :drool4:

It must have been some sort of conflict between windows update and SR all the time.

By the way what is .NET?

Thanks to all who have helped :lol:

Ken

[JohnDotCom]

The .NET framework created by Microsoft is a software development platform focused on rapid application development, platform independence and network transparency.
.NET is Microsoft's strategic initiative for server and desktop development for the next decade.
According to Microsoft, .NET includes many technologies that are designed to facilitate rapid development of Internet and intranet applications.
I bet you wished you hadn't asked now Ken.

[Keith]

I thought that would be it been there done that etc!
Tommorow when you switch on do the three finger salute after it has booted
choose the process tab and watch how much CPU WUAUCLT.EXE is using

That is the beastie that was causing your problem it should not use lots of CPU but if you have other problems preventing the update scaning process it can get very greedy

[JohnDotCom]

I turn the NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- Auto Update fully Off.
I check manually every 3-4 days and Technet send me an EMail on any really worthwhile updates.
svchost.exe uses a lot of Processor up at times to.

[Keith]

svchost.exe uses a lot of Processor up at times to.

Svchost.exe is a wrapper for services lots of things run under it some quite machine intensive it also spawns multiple instances as well

The sysinternals tools are great for identifying high CPU use and for tracking memory leaks, so good in fact MS even use them as well now

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx