Tag Archives: “slow performance”

Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and SBS 2008 with Service Pack 2 – You may find that applications stop responding, delays occur during resume from standby and/or files may become corrupt when the computer goes to sleep/hibernate and/or poor AMD processor/chipset performance

A variety of issue exist post service pack 2 with Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Small Business Server 2008, a variety of hotfixes have been released since 2008 to address these issues but you only need to apply the latest to ensure that all subsequent issues are addressed.

 

You should only need to apply the hotfix from KB 980080 to ensure that all the issues below are addressed as this contains the latest versions of the affected files, this can be obtained from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980080

 

KB 980080 – Files may be corrupted when a computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 enters the sleep mode or the hibernate mode

Info: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980080

KB 977323 – After you change the SATA mode of disk devices to use the AHCI specification on a Windows Server 2008-based or Windows Vista-based computer, the computer or certain applications randomly stop responding for 60 seconds or longer

Info: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977323

KB 974073 – An update for the Msahci.sys driver has been released for AMD chipsets

Info: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974073

KB 971390 – A minor delay occurs when Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 resumes from sleep if the hard disk is attached to a secondary ATA port

Info: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971390

Windows Vista and Windows 7 – USB Audio Device or USB Headset can cause High CPU Usage and you may notice skipping in the sound playback

If you use a USB Headset, USB Speakers or USB Sound Card under Windows Vista or Windows 7 you may notice that the CPU Usage is very high when you are listening to sound, music or gaming.  You may also notice that the audio lags or skips as a result, this will normally occur every 10-20 seconds and may get worse over an extended period of time.

This is most likely to occur when the device is connected to a USB 2.0 EHCI (Enhanced Host Controller Interface)

The issue is caused by a problem with the usbport.sys driver that is part of Windows

The issue can be addressed in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 by upgrading to “Service Pack 1”

The issue can be addressed in Windows Vista – Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2008 – Service Pack 2 by applying the hotfix from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981214 which includes an updated version of usbport.sys

Windows 7, Server 2008 R2 and SBS 2011 RTM or SP1 – svchost.exe may hold a lock on a service and cause slow Windows startup

You may find that svchost.exe holds a lock on a service whilst all the service libraries are being loaded.  This in turn then prevents any other services in the same instance of svchost.exe from starting up until the call to the function has been returned.

An updated version of svchost.exe that will address the issue is available here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510636

Intel Network Adapter Diagnostics May Wrongly Report that the Network Cable is over 100 Metres Long

When you run a Cable diagnostic using the Intel PROSet Network Adapter Diagnostics you may find that the utility incorrectly reports that your network cable is over 100 Metres and/or that the Cable is faulty/poor.

This issue can occur if you have a network switch that implements “power Saving” or “Green Ethernet” this feature is meant to reduce the power to a network port that is supporting a device with a short network cable run.

This “power saving” or “Green Ethernet” feature can cause the diagnostics to fail and can sometimes contribute to network drops and/or poor network throughput.  If you have a managed/smart switch then you can normally login via a browser and “Disable” this feature to correct the issue.