T61 slows down to an extremely slooow crawl-why

[mwagner2]

Every now and then (twice in the 3 weeks I was in Germany, and just yesterday) after perhaps 2-3 hours of use my T61 (6459CTO) really slows down horribly. Usually the only way to solve this is to press the power button for 20+ seconds to turn off the machine. On restart, all is okay.

I know it isn't a heat buildup because now it is running with fan underneath. Someone suggested perhaps the memory cache is not emptying. This machine is 18 months old, and just fyi-
bios is Lenovo 7LETA9ww (2.09) 12.27.2007, and SMBIOS is 2.4

I am quite ignorant of technicalities and would prefer not to update bios. But if I have to, I would attempt it.
By the way, I do love this great machine.
But, first, any suggestions would be highly appreciated.
Many many thanks
Mahl

[crazyfrog]

Upgrade BIOS isn't that complicated and painful. The instrcution and the latest BIOS file are available at: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 67988.html

As for the problem of slowdown, my suggestion is when you feel the system is abnormal, open Task Manager, check CPU/memory/Page File usage as well as the list of running processes. You may also sort the process list by CPU/memory usage and see which one is mad.

[bhtooefr]

How many programs are you running at once, what version of Windows, and how much RAM do you have, too?

This is in addition to everything crazyfrog said.

[Bojje]

It definitely sounds like you have a cache problem. Try getting a program to empty your cache, and see if that helps your problem.
You should also see how much ram your programs use, my firefox loves to use ram, and when running for a long time, firefox gets slow.
Also, what programs do you use when it happens? Because if you use a browser like firefox, then you can empty the cache yourself.
Good luck, and if it does turn out to be your cache, then you don't have to update your bios
Edit: Yeah, you are right, I should have read into what the program did.

[bhtooefr]

That's not even close to what you'd want to clear out RAM caches that programs are using. That's meant to run on a webserver to optimize performance of PHP scripts.

And, we don't even know if it's a memory leak or 100% CPU or what.

[hellosailor]

Mahl, there is generally no fast or easy solution to a slow machine.

It could be a problem (lack of memory, page file filled, memory leak in program) that is only solved by a process of elimination, i.e. buy a pad, keep track of what you are running, see if any particular program or task has been run prior to every slowdown. Or, make a point to NOT launch particular programs after a cold boot, and see if not using any one of them results in the machine running properly.

At the same time, check for updates and patches to your programs. Even the add-ins like Acrobat Reader or Adobe Flash, which are updated from time to time.

But the problem could also be malware running on your computer, stealing use of the system from time to time. No matter how well you have protected your system, run several antivirus and malware scanners, see if they all come up clean. (At least two of each, because each of them misses something.)

And if you are using any peer-to-peer file sharing systems like Limewire? Get rid of them. Make sure anyuthing like that is shut and uninstalled, because folks have a habit of coming in and using your machine without your knowledge or permission--which can bog it down just that way.


Patience and careful notes, and you will find it. Also, if you have an SD card in the computer's card slot? Remove it. Apparently simply having it there caused a number of our computers to bog down. Assorted system patches and updates--including a BIOS update--eventually cure that.