Acronis TI 10 Build 4942 Question?

Hi All,

Sorry if this is a question answered 100 times already BUT my system is getting VERY slow. I have a pentium 4 2.8Ghz system with 1GB RAM, it's about 4 YO running Windows XP PRO SP3+, all fixes current!

My system has been slowly grinding to a halt, by that I mean, after a boot it seems to act semi normally in speed but after a while it slows to the point that I can't navigate anything.

I've been looking at task manager, trying to eliminate UN-needed processes and see two processes running Trueimagemonitor.exe and timountermonitor.exe. Do I need them or can I stop them? Here is how I use Acronis: I run Acronis TI every night at 3AM on a schedule and do a FULL back-up to my USB external HD of my C drive, I keep 1 weeks worth of back-ups. So my question is do I need the running processes Trueimagemonitor.exe and timountermonitor.exe or would it be OK to stop them to save resources on my machine?

Thanks for any direction to a mostly novice PC user,

Steve

 

The first suspect would be a virus.

Certainly, run error checking on the drive and get rid of your temp junk such as could be removed by Ccleaner.
Stop the System Restore checkpoints for a while. Since you have current backups, it should not be a problem.
If you drive indexing turned of, turn it off.

If you have full disk backups, then un-install and run the Acronis cleanup tool so no residue remains. I believe you will find the problem remains.

My computer setup is similar to yours in speed and age with XP Pro and 4942 has caused me no grief.

 

Hey GroverH,

Thank you for the reply. I doubt I have a virus or any malware on the machine. I run AntiVir Personal (free) A/V and it's always updated several times a day and I run a full scan every night. I run Superantispyware everyday and A2 Antimalware daily as well. I also run CCleaner everyday. (I also ran free copy of AVG 8 just to check system, but uninstalled it). The reason I asked about the need for the services Trueimagemonitor.exe and timountermonitor.exe is because under task manager I have 65 running tasks and I'm trying to offload as many UN-NEEDED tasks as possible.

I have now stopped the system restore points temporarily as you suggested, I'm not sure I understand what drive indexing, so I'm not sure if it's on or off. Can someone explain that & why it might be causing my slowdown?

Do I need the tasks Trueimagemonitor.exe and timountermonitor.exe running TI the way I do currently, what is the downside *IF* I don't have them running? In taskmanager I have about 70 tasks & am trying to delete un-needed tasks!!!

Thanks for any further direction,
Steve

 

Service elimination - see the eldergeek site
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
and/or
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

70 services is outrageously high IMO. 28-32 is sensible, of course depends on the system. You may need 40 or so.
There's something called decrapifier which removes vendor-installed junk.

Acronis services you see don't stress the system at all. Minimal usage. Don't worry about them. Let'm run. One is essential so that exploring works, one or two others have to do with scheduliing whether you use it or not, still they are not slowing your comp down.

Trojan, virus, spyware, accumulation of old junk, disk fragmentation can be the culprits.
Have you ran CCleaner recently?
http://www.ccleaner.com/

 

Have you defrag your system hard drive?, also you might want to do a good scandisk (with the box to fix errors checked) on all your partitions. Any corrupted files on a hard drive won't cause crashes but it will slowdown your computer.

With no programs running (except background software) what is the load on your cpu? it should be less than 5 percent. If it's like 80 or 90 with no programs running, I would check my hardware especially onboard soundcard.

I would remove the antispyware software and just rely on your antivirus. Antispyware software always slowdown my computer and I don't use it anymore. Instead of antispyware I use "returnil" when I surf the internet, it speeds up my computer instead of slowing me down. If you do get a virus/spyware just use true image to restore you to an earlier time.

I also have true image 10, and the background processes you mention are insignificant to the cpu. If you are using the scheduler, I wouldn't disable them.

Currently I have 52 processes running on my amd x2 4800 cpu with 1gb ram xp sp2. My ram usage with no load (just background 52 processes)is 450mb and cpu usage is running between 1 and 2 percent). It runs like a champ. I would check everything else before I would suspect the processes.

 

The next time I becomes really slow, open the Task Manager and see what is occupying the cpu cycles the most. You may need a program called Process Explorer. There have been several posts advising where to download. Do a forum search. Process explorer will tell you what program is running within some of the actity you see in task manager.

Don't forget to run chkdsk to chec drive for errors.

You could have a situation where you have something on automatic updates and the update is downloading. I do not use automatic updating on anything. I arrange updates manually.

 

And sometimes Windows XP just gets enough insults over time that it can't be fixed.

Make a full backup image and then try restoring old images to see what runs fast. It may be that SP3 on that will make a fast system for you with less work than a clean install.

If none of your backups are old enough to be fast, restore that latest backup, and you are back where you are now.

It may just be time for a clean install. You can ease the pain by making a full backup of the slow system, wipe the disk and start the clean install. Do as much as you have time for and make a full backup. Restore that last backup of the slow system and go about your work. When you have time, make another backup, restore the partial clean install and work on updating it, etc.

Evenutally, your clean install will be satisfactory, and you can just use it and forget the slow installation.

Of course, this might also be just the time to buy a new computer instead.

 

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the reply's, working on these should keep me out of trouble for a couple of evening's at least (HaHa). Thanks, I'll let U know what I discover as I work on the problem!!!

Steve