{OT} -- Computer Problem

#11

Yes. The computer says 375,280K, that would be 375M.

Processor is a Celeron running at 2.66Ghz.

"Dave Milne" <jeep (AT) _nospam_milne (DOT) info> wrote

Quote:

I'm assuming you mean Mb when you said K. Either way, you are better off
with 512Mb for XP.
What processor are you running ?

Dave Milne, Scotland
'91 Grand Wagoneer, '99 TJ
"Jeff Strickland" <crwlr (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote in message
news:yqQrh.9544$Wz.3408 (AT) trndny06 (DOT) ..
Thanks.

I have defragged and error checked since Christmas. Still slow.

I have 13G of Used Space and 24G of Free Space. 375K RAM. The 'puter came
with 128K, and I added 256K, the total is 384K, but displays as 375K.

The machine is running McAfee Security Suite, 2006 (or 2007, I forget
which)
that was recently (Thanksgiving, 2006) installed. the machine was slow
before McAfee was installed, and I was thinking it was "virually
enhanced"
then, and that's why I put the McAfee in. My b-in-law has signed up for
FiOS
(fiber optic internet), and that comes with a security suite that I am
going
to be setting up. Therer are two versions, one is free and the other is a
fee-service. I have the same fiber optic service, and my wife bought the
fee-service security suite for three of our machines, but my machine
still
is using the McAfee Suite and seems to run fine. (I replaced Norton
Security
with the McAfee back in November -- at the same time I installed the
McAfee
in my b-in-law's machine. My machine runs okay, his machine is slow --
the
machines at my house that have the fee-service security offered by the IP
run fine.)

I suspect (still) that my b-in-law's machine might have a virus. I use
the
built-in Defrag that comes with Windows, but I haven't a utility that
cleans
the Registry. I have a strong suspicion that my troubles are in the
Registry, but I am not smart enough to know what is a Registry
Requirement
and what is a Bogus Registry Entry.

Do you, or anybody else, know if I can reinstall XP using a different
copy
of the OS than the one that came installed on the machine?

"YouGoFirst" <yougofirst (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:aHPrh.416019$Fi1.402281 (AT) bgtnsc05-news (DOT) ops.worldnet.att.net...
You should first get a registry defragmenting program. The program
should
also look for errors in the registry. (I use a program called WinASO
to
both defragment and check for registry errors.) Another source of pain
and anguish is the anti-virus program. The more recent versions of
Norton
suck up immense computing resources. You can turn off a bunch of scans
that Norton does, and that helps. You should also defrag the hard
drive.

Part of the problem is that as XP has been upgraded by MS it eats up
more
and more resources.

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlr (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote in message
news:KBPrh.21233$wq.14150 (AT) trndny07 (DOT) ..
I (my brother in law, really) have a computer that has a SERIOUS case
of
The Slows. It takes FOREVER to open apps, and complete any number of
different tasks.

It is an off-brand box that came from Fry's (I think). I don't recall
what the architecture is, but I'm pretty sure my 286-based laptop was
faster.

The computer is on its way to my house for a checkout. I'm not sure
what
my strategy will be.

The machine has a valid version of XP Home edition, but I do not know
if
it has the Restore CD or not. Can I use a different copy of XP to do
restore operations? I assume that I have to use the Key Code that is
on
the computer, not the one that belongs to the copy of XP that I will
restore from.

Do not hesitate to offer suggestions on what to do ...

#12

"Mike Romain" <romainm (AT) sympatico (DOT) ca> wrote

Quote:

LOL!

The fancy AGP video cards have a serious low level issue with some
motherboards. ASUS motherboards in particular. Special drivers are
needed or the computer will be a seriously slow pig.

I put an old PCI video card in with hardly any memory on it and my speed
went up more than tenfold. Way more than tenfold, it is just flying.

I'm just running the standard video card that came with the machine. I just
checked, and the video card is actually integrated into the motherboard.

Quote:

My son also just warned about the new code keys. You cannot use yours in
the other machine because the windoze update checks it now apparently. If
it finds the same key code on two machines it will disable both machines
and you will need to purchase a new copy.

That's what I thought.

I have two valid versions of XP, but I only have one CD available. I was
hoping that I could use the CD to fix a problem on the machine for which I
haven't got a CD. (That machine came with XP pre-loaded, and I do not recall
a CD coming with it in the box ...)

#13

"Tim" <None (AT) nowhere (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlr (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote in
news:VwQrh.7079$q32.1798@trndny01:

"Earle Horton" <earle (AT) vascongado (DOT) usa> wrote in message
news:45afd2e1$0$7864$a82e2bb9 (AT) reader (DOT) athenanews.com...
Don't let relatives know that you have computer expertise. If you
get assigned a computer maintenance or repair job, screw it up. If
you are not
going to listen to reason, the following may be helpful.

I bought the machine for him.

Run http://securitycheck.symantec.com no matter what kind of
anti-virus is on the machine now.

I'll tray that.

Defrag the hard drive and make sure that it is not almost full.

Done that already. All looks good in that department.

Put XP Professional on it.

All I have here is a bootleg copy of XP Pro that will not support --
Bill G. won't support, actually -- SP2.

Make him justify any non-Microsoft software that he has installed.

Earle

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlr (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote in message

If all else fails, format the hard drive and do a clean install of
Windoze.

That is actually where I was going, but I haven't the CD to do that.

I'll explore the Windows Restore ...

#14

I just used REGEDIT to find and remove Adobe Acrobat 3.0 and SpyBeGone.
Acrobat Reader 3.0 has long since been upgraded to Reader 7.0, but 3.0 was
still in the registry. SpyBeGone was also removed, but still had a registry
entry.

I am positive that both of these programs are no longer used, but they
remained in the Add & Remove Programs menu. I don't know if they were
attempting to be loaded on Start Up or not ...

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlr (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote

Quote:

I (my brother in law, really) have a computer that has a SERIOUS case of
The Slows. It takes FOREVER to open apps, and complete any number of
different tasks.

It is an off-brand box that came from Fry's (I think). I don't recall what
the architecture is, but I'm pretty sure my 286-based laptop was faster.

The computer is on its way to my house for a checkout. I'm not sure what
my strategy will be.

The machine has a valid version of XP Home edition, but I do not know if
it has the Restore CD or not. Can I use a different copy of XP to do
restore operations? I assume that I have to use the Key Code that is on
the computer, not the one that belongs to the copy of XP that I will
restore from.

Do not hesitate to offer suggestions on what to do ...

#15

Please make sure he tells Earle the justification :-)

Dave Milne, Scotland
'91 Grand Wagoneer, '99 TJ

"Earle Horton" <earle (AT) vascongado (DOT) usa> wrote

Quote:

Make him justify any non-Microsoft software that he has installed.

Earle

#16

Do an internet search for WinASO, and get that program. Whenever my laptop
starts to take a long time opening up menus or programs I run that program
and let it clean my registry. Once the registry is cleaned you should let
WinASO defragment the registry. It also has a registry optimizer. Unless
you pay for it, you can only fix 10 problems at a time, which isn't too bad
unless you have hundreds of errors.

The other option is to watch outside to see when the 14 to 18 year old
neighbor kids get home. You can usually hire one of them to fix it up for
$20 or so depending on how bad it is. Just make sure the kid is a computer
geek.

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlr (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote

Quote:

Thanks.

I have defragged and error checked since Christmas. Still slow.

I have 13G of Used Space and 24G of Free Space. 375K RAM. The 'puter came
with 128K, and I added 256K, the total is 384K, but displays as 375K.

The machine is running McAfee Security Suite, 2006 (or 2007, I forget
which) that was recently (Thanksgiving, 2006) installed. the machine was
slow before McAfee was installed, and I was thinking it was "virually
enhanced" then, and that's why I put the McAfee in. My b-in-law has signed
up for FiOS (fiber optic internet), and that comes with a security suite
that I am going to be setting up. Therer are two versions, one is free and
the other is a fee-service. I have the same fiber optic service, and my
wife bought the fee-service security suite for three of our machines, but
my machine still is using the McAfee Suite and seems to run fine. (I
replaced Norton Security with the McAfee back in November -- at the same
time I installed the McAfee in my b-in-law's machine. My machine runs
okay, his machine is slow -- the machines at my house that have the
fee-service security offered by the IP run fine.)

I suspect (still) that my b-in-law's machine might have a virus. I use the
built-in Defrag that comes with Windows, but I haven't a utility that
cleans the Registry. I have a strong suspicion that my troubles are in the
Registry, but I am not smart enough to know what is a Registry Requirement
and what is a Bogus Registry Entry.

Do you, or anybody else, know if I can reinstall XP using a different copy
of the OS than the one that came installed on the machine?

"YouGoFirst" <yougofirst (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:aHPrh.416019$Fi1.402281 (AT) bgtnsc05-news (DOT) ops.worldnet.att.net...
You should first get a registry defragmenting program. The program
should also look for errors in the registry. (I use a program called
WinASO to both defragment and check for registry errors.) Another source
of pain and anguish is the anti-virus program. The more recent versions
of Norton suck up immense computing resources. You can turn off a bunch
of scans that Norton does, and that helps. You should also defrag the
hard drive.

Part of the problem is that as XP has been upgraded by MS it eats up more
and more resources.

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlr (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote in message
news:KBPrh.21233$wq.14150 (AT) trndny07 (DOT) ..
I (my brother in law, really) have a computer that has a SERIOUS case of
The Slows. It takes FOREVER to open apps, and complete any number of
different tasks.

It is an off-brand box that came from Fry's (I think). I don't recall
what the architecture is, but I'm pretty sure my 286-based laptop was
faster.

The computer is on its way to my house for a checkout. I'm not sure what
my strategy will be.

The machine has a valid version of XP Home edition, but I do not know if
it has the Restore CD or not. Can I use a different copy of XP to do
restore operations? I assume that I have to use the Key Code that is on
the computer, not the one that belongs to the copy of XP that I will
restore from.

Do not hesitate to offer suggestions on what to do ...

#17

Jeff Strickland wrote:

Quote:

"Mike Romain" <romainm (AT) sympatico (DOT) ca> wrote in message
news:45afdb36$0$6590$9a6e19ea (AT) unlimited (DOT) newshosting.com...
LOL!

The fancy AGP video cards have a serious low level issue with some
motherboards. ASUS motherboards in particular. Special drivers are
needed or the computer will be a seriously slow pig.

I put an old PCI video card in with hardly any memory on it and my
speed went up more than tenfold. Way more than tenfold, it is just
flying.

I'm just running the standard video card that came with the machine. I
just checked, and the video card is actually integrated into the
motherboard.

My son also just warned about the new code keys. You cannot use yours
in the other machine because the windoze update checks it now
apparently. If it finds the same key code on two machines it will
disable both machines and you will need to purchase a new copy.

That's what I thought.

I have two valid versions of XP, but I only have one CD available. I was
hoping that I could use the CD to fix a problem on the machine for which
I haven't got a CD. (That machine came with XP pre-loaded, and I do not
recall a CD coming with it in the box ...)

You can use your CD, just plug in his key if asked for.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view!
Jan/06 http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=2115147590
(More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

#18

"Earle Horton" <earle (AT) vascongado (DOT) usa> wrote

Quote:

This step is just to make sure he is not using weird shareware or PD
stuff.
It doesn't seem to be the issue in this case, but you never know.

Earle

I don't think the shareware is an issue. Everything I can find seems to be
valid. That is, the machine has the assrotment of Office programs, the
software to support hardware devices, that sort of thing.

Since I cleaned Acrobat Reader 3.0 (a long ago deleted program), SpyBeGone,
and the McAfee Security Suite, the machine is much faster. That's M-U-C-H
faster.

The Task Manager was reporting CPU Usage at 100%, but now is hovering in a
range of about 5% to 30%, and seems to spend most of the time at about 20%.
And, it's actively Defragging at this time.

#19

This step is just to make sure he is not using weird shareware or PD stuff.
It doesn't seem to be the issue in this case, but you never know.

Earle

"Dave Milne" <jeep (AT) _nospam_milne (DOT) info> wrote

Quote:

Please make sure he tells Earle the justification :-)

Dave Milne, Scotland
'91 Grand Wagoneer, '99 TJ

"Earle Horton" <earle (AT) vascongado (DOT) usa> wrote

Make him justify any non-Microsoft software that he has installed.

Earle

#20

personally I would atttempt to figure out the offending application or
driver before loading _anything_ .

boot the workstation up, bring up task manager, take a look at your
resources, what is using the most memory, what is the CPU at, you may
find a service or app is using tons of memory...an example would be AOL
messenger...if so de-install or kill that process.

It sounds to me if the box is dead slow unless your hard drive is
spinning endlessly, you probably have your memory or cpu maxed out by
some process.

If your hard disk is spinning endlessly, you can always remove your
pagefile then defrag then add it back. if the page file gets fragmented
especially with low RAM it can slow things down...

good luck

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

{OT} -- Computer Problem

Jeep and Willys Vehicles Discussions on Jeep and Willys vehicles. (rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys)

Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 03:43 PM

Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 03:47 PM

Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 03:48 PM

Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 03:51 PM

Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 03:53 PM

Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 03:56 PM

Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 04:09 PM

Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 04:20 PM

Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 04:24 PM

Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 04:26 PM