{OT} -- Computer Problem

#31

This raises a good point also.... remove any program from the 'Startup"
folder that doesn't actually have to be there. These programs consume
resources that you are already too short of.

"Curtis" <cchandler63 (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

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

#32

"Will Honea" <whonea (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

On Thu, 18 Jan 2007 20:05:50 +0000, Jeff Strickland wrote:

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?

If you have the install disks - not the recovery disks that came with the
machine - you are home free.

Those are the disks that did not come over with the computer.

You can use the recovery version (if the OEM

Quote:

supplied it) on the machine it shipped with (others if you are clever and
a bit lucky) but the honest-to-goodness Install Disks from MS will work on
anything meeting hardware specs.

I have a problem with about all of the anti-virus apps at times.
I've watched McAfee bring even the fastest machines to their knees. One
office had all sorts of email traffic and the 2007 version basically
killed the box during mail retrieval. To see if that is the problem,
disconnect the machine from the net, do a full scan, then turn the virus
scanner OFF and see what it's doing.

The machine is not on a network, either here at my house or at its own home.
At home, it has a hardwire connection tothe fiber optic system, here at my
house, it connects to the fiber optics via a wireless adaptor.

You may be onto something though. I Uninstalled the McAfee Security Suite,
and removed a couple of legacy entries in the Registry, and the machine
seems to be much improved now.

#33

OpenOffice is pretty good and free as well.

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

"billy ray" <billy_ray (AT) SPAMfuse (DOT) net> wrote

Quote:

Unless your needs are unusual all you need out of Office is Word, Excel,
and PowerPoint and my main use of Excel and PowerPoint is the stuff people
send me for laughs or to review.

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlr (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote in message
news:6wRrh.9554$Wz.6650 (AT) trndny06 (DOT) ..

"Earle Horton" <earle (AT) vascongado (DOT) usa> wrote in message
news:45afe29c$0$7873$a82e2bb9 (AT) reader (DOT) athenanews.com...
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.

#34

"Curtis" <cchandler63 (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

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.

I know how to start the Task Manager and move around inside of it. My

trouble is that I do not know what are valid applications that NEED to run,
and what apps that are running that do not need to be. I went around and
turnd stuff off once, and shut down essential services.

Quote:

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...

Not the problem at all. The computer runs, it just runs slowly. Task
Manager's Performance window was stuck at close to 100% almost all of the
time.

I NEED TO REPORT
Since I removed some legacy crapola that was in the Registry, and
uninstalled McAfee Security Suite, the machine runs pretty good now.

Talk to me about the Page File some more. I made some changes to the size
(made it larger), but that did not change anything for the better. (The good
news is that it did not change anything for the worse either.)

Should I be trying to manually set the Page File, or should I allow Windows
to make the necessary settings? I have plenty of hard drive space for the
maximum page file, so I do not need to walk the tightrope between storage
space and performance.

#35

Yes, but is it farked up as soon as they take it out of the trunk and carry
it back inside?

"ufatbastehd" <ufatbasted (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

Earl you are so right. As the resident Techie in my family I should
have screwed up my first few times I helped out. Now I get the machines
running smooth only to have it farked up again by those I just fixed
it for.

Earle Horton wrote:
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.

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

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

Put XP Professional on it.

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

Earle

"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 ...

#36

It was once pointed out that one can be neither too rich, too thin, or have
too much RAM.

I dispute that rule, one CAN be too thin -- though it's much easier to be
too fat.

"James" <jnipperxxx (AT) nospamfdn (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

With Windows XP, you are a bit underpowered on ram. Many folks believe
that 512 mb is minimum, and more is better.

Good luck !!

--james--

#37

If running smooth is farked up then I guess so

Jeff Strickland wrote:

Quote:

Yes, but is it farked up as soon as they take it out of the trunk and carry
it back inside?

"ufatbastehd" <ufatbasted (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:1169156258.166568.54100 (AT) 11g2000cwr (DOT) googlegroups.com...
Earl you are so right. As the resident Techie in my family I should
have screwed up my first few times I helped out. Now I get the machines
running smooth only to have it farked up again by those I just fixed
it for.

Earle Horton wrote:
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.

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

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

Put XP Professional on it.

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

Earle

"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 ...

#38

Yes more ram is better. I wouldn't run less than 1 gig.

But Microsoft says
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;314865

James wrote:

Quote:

With Windows XP, you are a bit underpowered on ram. Many folks believe
that 512 mb is minimum, and more is better.

Good luck !!

--james--

#39

And what the hell does this all have to do with jeeps?
"ufatbastehd" <ufatbasted (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

Yes more ram is better. I wouldn't run less than 1 gig.

But Microsoft says
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;314865

James wrote:
With Windows XP, you are a bit underpowered on ram. Many folks believe
that 512 mb is minimum, and more is better.

Good luck !!

--james--

#40

Hi Jeff,
Do the normal maintenance like click on computer, left click C drive
Properties, and cleaned disk, Tools tab, Check disk, then Defrag, this
usually take hours, and runs a little faster without errors from the Save
Mode.
See what's running, what's in your Start Up, then Run, MSConfig, and
uncheck all the unnecessary programs under Startup, looking very carefully
for a Trojan.
See just how infected it is by running Ad Aware:
http://www.lavasoft.de/news/product/info/ AVG:
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1 McAfee Stinger: http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
All free.
God Bless America, Bill 0|||||||0
mailto:LWHughes3rd (AT) aol (DOT) com http://www.billhughes.com/

"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 ...

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{OT} -- Computer Problem

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Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 05:31 PM

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Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 08:07 PM

Re: {OT} -- Computer Problem - 01-18-2007 , 08:20 PM