1. Close all applications except the basics like Norton Antivirus (leave this up). 

2. Push CTRL + ALT + DELETE  (1x only).

3. Click on performance and tell me what the CPU Usage fluctuates between.

4. Tell me what the PF Usage is.

5. Click on Networking and tell me what this chart looks like.

6. Go back to the Processes tab and open up an internet window with www.google.com

7. Type each "Image Name" from the process list into google and find out what they are and what they do.  This will alert you to any spybots, adware, etc.

*From my experience, slowdowns usually occur because of adware.

First of all, thanks for your reply.

I've done what you told me to do, and here are the results:

CPU usage: fluctuates between 8~40%, but mostly under 20%

PF usage: 127MB

Networking utilization: fluctuates under 0.1%.

I've also checked with every single image name under the processes tab, and nothing seems suspicious. Another thing I would like to mention (which I forgot last time) is that the fan keeps blowing at ALL time.

Does this apply to you?

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_virus&message.id=2184

Start / Run / Type: "msconfig" without the " "'s

Select diagnostic startup

 

Okay,

1. We can rule out the adware, spybots.

2. Your PF Usage and Networking is good.

3. *The CPU usage is definately too high. It should fluctuate at around 1%-3% with anti-virus up and an internet page up.

4.  Download this program called Fangui and lower the fan frequency.  This sounds like a faulty thermal sensor.  I have an Inspiron 8000 and my thermal sensor went bad. But in my case it stopped working altogether - the opposite of yours.

http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_bios&message.id=7742&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/faq.html

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html

Thanks again for your reply. Concerning the high CPU usage... do you have any suggestions what I can do about it? The startup program list is already kept at the minimal, and since I've run ad-aware and spybot, it seems like the problem is not caused by spywares either. Oh yes, I've noticed a very interesting phenomenon: if the computer is turned off for a period (say, like a couple of hours), when it starts up again it'll actually run fine for a short while, then the "slow-motion" problem will kick back.

Sounds like it applies to me, but I tried and nothing changed. Thanks for bringing it up though. I'll give the diagnostics a try now.

I've finally found the reason for slowdown. It happens when the fan run in high speed, and the problem is the fan does run at all time. By pressing Fn+Z will slow the fan down and hence immediately solves the slowdown problem, but whenever the fan comes back on in full speed again, slowdown problem also kicks back. Any idea what I can do to fix it? Both the motherboard and BIOS are new/latest.

Message Edited by Guu on 01-11-2004 11:20 PM

Since three weeks I have exactly the same Problem with my Insp8k. Have you solved yours in the meantime. I havn't tried the Fn+Z keys 'cause I need a more permanently solution. The 'slowing down' occurs more often/early, and its pretty difficult to watch a movie if you have to do it every 10 minutes;-/

TIA dribtoh:)