Friend PC issues

[arus2001]

I play on my friend's PC from time to time. It's a bit of an archaic beast by today's standards, but it's held up moderately well for FFXI despite some graphic issues I'd attribute to the video card. Lately, however, we've noticed the system having intermittent spikes of lag, maybe 10-30s apart. When I've checked the system performance during those times, you can see it hits 100% and the little graph will reflect it, too.

We've run virus scans (doing one now, just to double check), I've poked at hijackthis logs just to see if anything's out of the ordinary (doesn't seem like it, but I'm not a pro), but things are still persisting. I'm thinking the system's just dying, as it was a POS custom job he got built by some local tech hack that's no longer in business. I've been trying to coax him into a new rig for a few years now, but he hasn't really taken the bait. While these issues may nudge him further into it, he's also paranoid about ordering online and insists again on someone local building something. He also seems to be anti-Vista, which might complicate getting a new system with XP from the start.

I've run SpeedFan just to see if it might be an overheating issue (not uncommon, from my experience. His old CD-Rom fried because I don't the guy put a strong enough fan in this) and the GPU is floating around 64C. There are some other vague readings from a Temp1 and Temp2 that around 34C and 50C respectively. An HD0 is giving me a 43C.

Some System Info yoinked from DxDiag:

Time of this report: 7/13/2008, 13:12:48
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: MSI
System Model: MS-6585
BIOS: Version 07.00T
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Memory: 1536MB RAM
Page File: 450MB used, 2984MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 6600
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 6600
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00F2&SUBSYS_98901462&REV_A2
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)

If there's something else I can pull up that might help ID things, lemme know. I'm going to be trying some Windows Updates since I don't know how vigilant he's been about those, either.

[Cephius]

I play on my friend's PC from time to time. It's a bit of an archaic beast by today's standards, but it's held up moderately well for FFXI despite some graphic issues I'd attribute to the video card. Lately, however, we've noticed the system having intermittent spikes of lag, maybe 10-30s apart. When I've checked the system performance during those times, you can see it hits 100% and the little graph will reflect it, too.

We've run virus scans (doing one now, just to double check), I've poked at hijackthis logs just to see if anything's out of the ordinary (doesn't seem like it, but I'm not a pro), but things are still persisting. I'm thinking the system's just dying, as it was a POS custom job he got built by some local tech hack that's no longer in business. I've been trying to coax him into a new rig for a few years now, but he hasn't really taken the bait. While these issues may nudge him further into it, he's also paranoid about ordering online and insists again on someone local building something. He also seems to be anti-Vista, which might complicate getting a new system with XP from the start.

I've run SpeedFan just to see if it might be an overheating issue (not uncommon, from my experience. His old CD-Rom fried because I don't the guy put a strong enough fan in this) and the GPU is floating around 64C. There are some other vague readings from a Temp1 and Temp2 that around 34C and 50C respectively. An HD0 is giving me a 43C.

Some System Info yoinked from DxDiag:

Time of this report: 7/13/2008, 13:12:48
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: MSI
System Model: MS-6585
BIOS: Version 07.00T
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Memory: 1536MB RAM
Page File: 450MB used, 2984MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 6600
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 6600
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00F2&SUBSYS_98901462&REV_A2
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)

If there's something else I can pull up that might help ID things, lemme know. I'm going to be trying some Windows Updates since I don't know how vigilant he's been about those, either.

Can't really tell anything wrong from what you posted. Try an anti-spyware client like Super Anti-spyware or Spybot Search & Destroy and see if they pick up anything. But yes, by todays standards that PC is ancient and he should start thinking about upgrading.

[arus2001]

Few minutes shy of a couple hours into the virus scan. Found something called Viewpoint Toolbar, which a little google fu suggests is a spyware of sorts. Gonna wait until the scan's done before I try to remove it, but I wouldn't put it past him to have downloaded something he shouldn't have. Hell, he still browses with IE despite me having Firefox installed and patched/plug-in'd up on his system.

[Shuemue]

When was the last time he did a fresh install of windows?

[arus2001]

Too long. One of the downsides of him getting that rig built by some local dipshit was he didn't get Windows install discs with it. If I knew a way to get around that, I'd try to bring it up with him, but from what I understand, working off pirated Windows can be a pain in the ass when it comes to updates and such.

[Raiine]

As long as he has a valid key, an XP install disc shouldn't be hard to locate. I probably have half a dozen laying around, and I also keep .iso of various versions. Not pirated, just oem discs you can use your current key with to reinstall. Ask around, I'm sure someone you know has one.

[arus2001]

Afraid nobody I know locally has one. My own disc happens to be a pre-fabbed Dell one, so I don't think it'd work since it's likely designed with things specific to my admittedly aged system.

I dunno, more of a selfish want for it to not be crappy while I'm on it, but not doing anything will hopefully get him to buy a new one sooner. Doesn't much matter at the moment since I'm back home for now.

[Cephius]

You can use that Dell one, it will install the OS fine, you'll just need to download the motherboard chipset drivers before installing and put them on a USB stick so you have them available. Just get to the point where you can get on the net and you'll be able to use windows update ect to get all the drivers you need.

[Avanarius]

Afraid nobody I know locally has one. My own disc happens to be a pre-fabbed Dell one, so I don't think it'd work since it's likely designed with things specific to my admittedly aged system.

I dunno, more of a selfish want for it to not be crappy while I'm on it, but not doing anything will hopefully get him to buy a new one sooner. Doesn't much matter at the moment since I'm back home for now.

My dell disk from my P4 is still what I use to this day to reformat :D

[arus2001]

How about if none of us have a USB key for the chipset stuff? Then again, not even sure what I'd need to snag for his system.