# Exe file slow to open



## Tintai (May 1, 2013)

Hello,

I have tested my computer with PCMark 7 and result is fine but one score is too low.
So result "starting applications" is ~51 MB/s in all tests. In firsts labels is 51,99 MB/s.
Why this value is so low?

My disks:
First system: SSD Corsair Force GT3 120GB, SATA III. In benchmark, maximum speed is 484 MB/s.
Second disk is HDD, WD Caviar WD1002FAEX, 1 TB, SATA III.
But on both disks exe files start slow.

I have ASRock p67 PRO3 B3 mobo.

So, when I click on the big exe file, I must wait few second before application start.

I hope you can help me 

~Tintai


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## drdeathx (May 1, 2013)

it a sythetic benchmark. I would not worry.

Run crystal mark and post screen shot


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## Tintai (May 1, 2013)

If I click on 1 GB exe file I must wait 10 or more seconds.


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## erocker (May 1, 2013)

Go to: Control Panel-->Power Options-->select "change plan settings"-->Change advanced power settings-->expand Hard Disk-->Turn off Hard Disk after = NONE.


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## Tintai (May 1, 2013)

Don't work. Nothing has changed.


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## micropage7 (May 2, 2013)

check your background process, you may have virus or spyware or like that
try to scan it again


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## Tintai (May 2, 2013)

Impossible. A few weeks ago I reinstalled Windows. It was before also.


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## micropage7 (May 2, 2013)

what about your background process? is there any apps that eat much resource?


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## Tintai (May 2, 2013)

No. Everything is fine. Physical memory is ~15%.
I think it's something in the system. "Starting applications" is maximum 51,99 MB/s so maybe something block this.


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## Mussels (May 2, 2013)

are you running any kind of antivirus? that would explain it.


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## Tintai (May 2, 2013)

I always using Microsoft Security Essentials.


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## Mussels (May 3, 2013)

Tintai said:


> I always using Microsoft Security Essentials.



then its scanning the .exe files and slowing things down.


try disabling its real time protection and see what happens.


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## TheMailMan78 (May 3, 2013)

Mussels said:


> then its scanning the .exe files and slowing things down.
> 
> 
> try disabling its real time protection and see what happens.



MSE doesn't slow down EXE files so turning it off would make no difference AND its not worth the risk. What exe is he even trying to run?


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## Tintai (May 3, 2013)

Each exe file. Maybe RAM is too slow? 1333MHz, 9-9-9-24.


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## Mussels (May 3, 2013)

TheMailMan78 said:


> MSE doesn't slow down EXE files so turning it off would make no difference AND its not worth the risk. What exe is he even trying to run?



he's trying to find out why they run slow, and you're saying dont even test if its his AV?


Tintai: no way is it even remotely possible its RAM. even SD ram would be faster than the ~50MB/s you're talking about.


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## 95Viper (May 3, 2013)

Mussels said:


> then its scanning the .exe files and slowing things down.
> 
> 
> try disabling its real time protection and see what happens.



Possible... I had Kaspersky and ZoneAlarm, both, on different machines & times, misbehavin' and had to re-install them to set them right.
Even after cleaning them out and re-setting them; they would still bog the file access times down and cause Windows Explorer (not ie) to be slow on opening and accessing, until re-installed.



TheMailMan78 said:


> MSE doesn't slow down EXE files so turning it off would make no difference AND its not worth the risk. What exe is he even trying to run?



If he turns off real-time detection it will not make any difference, as he has already been opening the file... he would/should have gotten an alert or warning if there were a problem with the file he is testing with.



Tintai said:


> Each exe file. Maybe RAM is too slow? 1333MHz, 9-9-9-24.



Probably not; but, how much ram?
What version of Windows? 
Where is you swap file located? What size?
How full are your drives?
What processor?
Have you got the latest firmware for your SSD?
Are your drivers up to date?
Is your MB bios current?

Is the file an installation file, video file, etc? Does it use compression?

You need to goto User CP  and put your system info there and then check the box to show the specs.  The info will go a long way in helping some to diagnose your possible problem(s).


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## Mussels (May 3, 2013)

guys he's running PCmark7, which tests its own .exe files. please read the first post.


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## Tintai (May 3, 2013)

95Viper said:


> Probably not; but, how much ram?


16GB.


95Viper said:


> What version of Windows?


7 Ultimate x64.


95Viper said:


> Where is you swap file located? What size?


Hm. I don't know.
What is default location and size?


95Viper said:


> How full are your drives?


C: ~70%, D: ~50%.


95Viper said:


> What processor?


Intel i7-2600k.


95Viper said:


> Have you got the latest firmware for your SSD?


I don't know.


95Viper said:


> Is your MB bios current?


Yes.

Thanks for helping me 

I checked in Total Commander and result are the same.
Maybe this mobo have this problem? I changed my system several times and always been like that. Or maybe something is wrong in the BIOS?


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## OneMoar (May 3, 2013)

if its just the benchmark showing the problem Ignore it
if its not then disable windows defender from the services cp


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## Tintai (May 4, 2013)

So I don't know.
For now it must be it. Thanks for help.


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## TheLaughingMan (May 4, 2013)

swap file is another way of saying paging files. By default Win7 mirrors the size of your RAM for this. So if you have 16 GB, then it is using 16 GB of paging files. You can bring this down to 2 GB or disable it all together. Even disabled Win7 keeps a small block of your primary drive for this task anyway so it can offload background tasks you don't need to know about.



Tintai said:


> If I click on 1 GB exe file I must wait 10 or more seconds.



When you say this, are you going by the results of the benchmark or do you have an exe you know is exactly 1 GB you are using outside of the benchmark?


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## Tintai (May 4, 2013)

I know it's 1GB. I tested this on Win Explorer and Total Com.
For example 250MB file is opened in ~5 seconds.

@edit: I turned off the pagefile but it don't work.


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## TheLaughingMan (May 5, 2013)

Something is wrong with your I/O make sure the motherboard is in AHCI mode, reinstall the Intel I/O drivers.


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## Tintai (May 5, 2013)

Mobo is in AHCI?
Do you mean disks in this mode?

I reinstalled Windows many times and this problem appears always.
Maybe it's something wrong in the BIOS?


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## Tintai (May 7, 2013)

I changed *.exe to *.pif and *.com and nothing has changed.
Tell me please, is this problem is software or hardware?


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## erocker (May 7, 2013)

Tintai said:


> Maybe it's something wrong in the BIOS?



Maybe. If possible take some pictures of your bios screens.

Are the HDD's set to AHCI in the bios?

Do you have your chipset/SATA drivers installed?

What motherboard are you using?


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## Tintai (May 7, 2013)

erocker said:


> Are the HDD's set to AHCI in the bios?





erocker said:


> Do you have your chipset/SATA drivers installed?


Yes



erocker said:


> What motherboard are you using?


ASRock p67 PRO3 B3. How can I take screen from BIOS?

But now I tested one thing. Exe files from WinRar(SFX archive) open faster. When I click on SFX archive(exe) I must wait max 1 seconds.
So the problem is only for application like installers.


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## erocker (May 7, 2013)

Tintai said:


> But now I tested one thing. Exe files from WinRar(SFX archive) open faster. When I click on SFX archive(exe) I must wait max 1 seconds.



A SFX archive isn't going to open right away. The files have to be extracted first. When you are opening it in WinRar, it's not extracting the file, it's just reading it which is why it opens right away.


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## Tintai (May 7, 2013)

I see. So... I have no idea.

You have the same disk as me(Corsair Force 3 120Gb). If you can check how long 1GB installer opens in your computer. I would be grateful.


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## erocker (May 7, 2013)

1gb installer for what?

Download ATTO: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1749/atto-disk-benchmark-v2-46/

Run it.

Post your result.

Here is mine:


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## Tintai (May 8, 2013)

erocker said:


> 1gb installer for what?


Anything.





I think it's ok but why installers open slow? I remember that on my old computer this operation was faster.


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## erocker (May 8, 2013)

Looks good. I guess I don't understand your issue. You seem to be expecting file extraction to be immediate which it is not. Any installed application/program I run on my computer will open immediately. Any files that I extract will take time to extract.


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## Tintai (May 8, 2013)

Yes maybe you right... Thank you 
Last question, installer extract to pagefile? When I disable pagefile, all files will be extract to RAM? Yes?


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## Aquinus (May 8, 2013)

Ever stop to consider that a 1Gb installer might be doing other things in the background before it shows any window? I suspect there are compressed files and preparation the needs to be made prior to installing the software and it's very possible that even though you don't see it, it's doing something.

You know how UAC prompts you when you do something that requires admin? An installer that does that will only give you that prompt once the application has been loaded into memory and is ready to run. If you get the UAC box, you click yes and it takes some time, that's the installer doing its magic and it takes time regardless of the kind of machine you have. If it's slow before the UAC dialog box, that's slow disk I/O.

I personally haven't experienced this on my rig but that means nothing as it kind of has excessive amounts of I/O bandwidth.


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## Tintai (May 8, 2013)

I wait for UAC dialog. After this installer runs normal.


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## erocker (May 8, 2013)

Disable the UAC dialog and see what happens.

Control Panel, User Accounts. Turn User Account Control off.


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## Aquinus (May 8, 2013)

erocker said:


> Disable the UAC dialog and see what happens.
> 
> Control Panel, User Accounts. Turn User Account Control off.



Do not disabled UAC, it will not make a difference. I only bring it up because the dialog box comes up only after the application has been loaded into memory. It can tell you what is going slow by show quickly that box comes up and how quickly the installer comes up after you say yes to UAC. It has absolutely no reason why it would be going slow and to recommend turning it off will only cause more problems than it will solve.


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## erocker (May 8, 2013)

I find UAC to be a nuisance and counterproductive. I have zero reasons to leave it enabled.

Anyways, do you think the memory is unstable?


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## Mussels (May 8, 2013)

have you tried without the antivirus like i suggested?


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## Aquinus (May 8, 2013)

erocker said:


> I find UAC to be a nuisance and counterproductive. I have zero reasons to leave it enabled.



I agree, but if you don't disable it when you first start using the computer all the local settings inside your account suddenly aren't used anymore because you can now write to the program files folder. That does cause problems which is why I never recommend disabling it after Windows has already been installed for a while.

I don't find it incredibly counter productive, it's certainly no more intrusive than what OS X does with administrative tasks and gksudo for linux. I seriously see nothing wrong with the setup other than the fact that his SSD write performance seems a bit low so I'm baffled. I guess memory could be unstable, but the low write speeds makes me suspect that there may be I/O errors present.

Could we get a screenshot of your SMART logs for both drives? You can get it using something like CrystalDiskInfo or HDTune. Personally I use smartctl from the smartmontools package on Ubuntu for checking it. CrystalDiskInfo doesn't seem to get it right half of the time with my drives in RAID, but that's a different problem.

If there are I/O errors, it's very possible it's a bad cable. So just for the heck of it, if you have a extra SATA cable, try a different cable.


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## Tintai (May 8, 2013)

Here is the screens:


Spoiler















I'll try to defragment HDD.


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