OT - any computer boffins fancy offering help before i run over laptop with the RR

Dave

Mine's exactly the same, but mine has the excuse of being 5 years old and wasn't designed to handle modern software. For me, I'm pretty sure the problem is lack of RAM (only 256MB). With a newer machine that probably won't be the problem.

FWIW, mine can take 5 minutes to change applications, while I stare at a white screen. It's a shit way of spending an evening.

Di has a few files containing advice from a friend in the States who fixes computers for a living, and it helped her out a lot. I'll get her to email you. FFS don't take it to PC World. They'll find the pics of all those hamsters.

More ram is the best solution however if it has slowed from a previously reasonable rate then chances are the hard drive is badly fragmented the solution is a bit involved to get the best results and I have written it down as it crops up fairly regularly on win 98 machines ( actually you can use it on xp as well.) I'll give you the first bit from memory ( no pun intended) first off is to delete everything in the directory c:\windows\temp

- it builds up garbage in here due to sloppy programs that fail to remove installation files when the job is done and windows checks the directory each time a program loads bigger it is the more checking has to be done. when you have done this do a search for files *.tmp these can also be removed you may find one or two which are in use pass these by. Next defrag your hard drive - twice ignore the message which say it doesnt need doing a second time . That will do for now and should give a marked improvement -I'll find the file for the next bit cos' Im lazy and it getting a bit late.

Derek

Derek

If it is a case of simply cleaning out try a free program called Ccleaner. It is usually on the PcFormat disc or type it in your search engine. One click, a few seconds and done.

I will get down to correctly setting a fixed size swap file once I find the dammed archive its an old gamers trick to prevent the dynamic resizing which is a POS but a cleaner disk is a help. Derek

In message , Dave R writes

Do you run a virus checker? If not why not, get one now (AVG from Grisoft is good and has a free version) and run it just in case ... Have you installed anything recently? Especially anything that might execute at startup. Probably first culprit. Uninstall and see what happens. Do you have Norton *anything* on it? Probably doing a little bit of houskeeping for you. Pain in the proverbials, dump it and run something,

*anything* else.. Do you use Opera or Zone Alarm? I mention those but there are other packages that have recently developed the ability to hog the CPU ... no real fix except change version or use a different package.

Yep, then get one of the Ad/Malware scanners, the window boxes here have Spybot installed which gets run every know and again. It's amazing what non-virus stuff you pickup just browsing the web.

Moning!

First, can you tell what the spec is for me? If its running 2k/Xp, go start -> Run and type dxdiag.If Direct X is installed, it should give you a pretty good description what its got.

Most important thing is Ram, Processor and Pagefile.

Second, Get this lot installed, and run it. Ive trusted it for years. Make sure you do an update on them all before you scan.

AntiVir Free antivirus (if youve not got a paid for one)

Crap Cleaner - This will remove all temp files that are not needed Spyware Blaster - This will actually mod the list of blocked sites to Ie / Firefox and stop the crap being downloaded in the 1st place SpyBot - Malware removal tool Adaware - Malware removal tool Windows Defender - Malware Removal tool - its actually quite good, but make sure its not set to run every time windows starts, as it is quite resource hngry

Most important to install is Scotty the windows watchdog. This app will sit in the system tray, next to the clock and monitor the services / startup items etc that are running. If something is added, it prompts for you to allow or deny. Its also really good for looking at what is in your startup list. It might be that its starting loads of unneeded software when windows boots which will slow it down lots!

Now, this post look nicely formatted, with all the links in the right place. I wonder what it will look like when its posted....

In Task Manager, click the CPU Uasge Tab to order the list and then reply back with what files are consuming the most, any that are in the

On task manager select the Processes tab and click the header of the CPU column to order them by the most greedy. Maybe you can see what process it is eating things.

I'd put money on Norton. I think laptop makers give it away to make sure you upgrade regularly. An installation of Norton, with all the features switched on, is very hard to distinguish from a sustained and determined denial-of-service attack.

nigelH

Absolutely, Norton in any guise is almost as bad as a real Virus infection. Bin it at your earliest opportunity and replace with AVG or my favourite, Avast.

[snip]

This is interesting, I have Zone Alarm, Antivir and Spybot running and I've just installed Winpatrol but any idea how I get rid of Norton? which happens to be the one provided by BTYahoo?

Regards,

Stephen.

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needed

place

tool

hngry

lots!

Evening Derek,

have done the dxdiag thing.

Ram is: 502mb (memory) / also says page file;- 442mb used, 748mb available. Processor: Genuine Intel (R) CPU T1350@1.86Ghz Pagefile: 442MB used, 748MB available.

I will now try and run through the links that you wrote down. Wish me luck. I have tried to defrag the disk (any point in doing this?) but it just sits at 1% for bloody ages.

On a brighter note I also managed to knock a big lump off my brake caliper. Not having a good day. I can neither drive my truck, or order bits for it overthe internet. Arse.

Right, here goes!!

Thanks again, we'll see what happens

Dave

Yep the reason it is taking so long is probably you have something running I should have mentioned that- disable the anti virus, screensaver, firewall or any other sheduled events to prevent them launching and if you have norton I would do an uninstall - it is a nightmare. I should have asked what version of mickeysnot windoze are you running so I can tell you the procedure for setting a permanent swap file ( my posting version has disappeared in to the ether.so I will be saving it this time where I can find it. ) but for XP after your first defrag open settings > control panel > system then open the Advanced tab and select performance button>.open advanced tab and at the bottom is Virtual memory .click change button> tick custom size and set it fairly low say 50 mb >OK>apply . ok now defrag again this gives the makes the area for the Virtual Memory or swap file one block (geek speak = contiguous ) once this is done repeat the instructions but set the VM both initial and maximum size to about 2.5 x the actual ram you have on board in practice

1024Mb is good unless you have a honking huge hard disk in which case 2048Mb (remember any problems you can increase the size unlikely unless you are doing ginormous spreadsheets or rendering large movie clips). The upshot of doing this is it prevents windoze wasting time continually changing the size of the swap file at each instruction it simply does what its told- probably wont work in Vista then. Derek

Get those apps installed, and run them - It will probably help a lot.

Also, the VM is lower than i would recommend. As derek said, 2.5 times actual ram is good. So set it to a min of 1200, max of 1500. To do this, hold the windows key, and press the Pause/Break key (its near the top left of the keyboard) -> Advanced Tab -> Performance -> Change Button. In there you can set the VM size that windows will use. It might differ from 2K to XP, but it should get you close.

If you are still having problems once you have installed and run everything i suggested, Start WinPatrol (Little Dog next to clock) Click Options Tab, then click the Full Report Button.

This will export a list of everything that is running on your PC. If you can mail it, or host it somewhere, we can have a look and see whats going on!

Im going to Egypt for a week later tonight, so wont be able to reply but someone else should be able to help!

Winner

Norton provide a removal tool that removes all their products!

nice! im going to remember that! Ive got a new laptop to set up here which i can test it on!

Couple of comments, having done a lot of this stuff recently in a (futile) attempt to get my lapdog running better:

Zone Alarm is a brilliant program - I haven't had any virus or such like of any significance since I've been running it. However, it hogs RAM like nothing else - it seems to take between 15 and 20MB of my measly 256MB just to sit there.

Getting rid of Norton is a bit of a chuckle. First, uninstall it using add/remove programs. This will remove the most obvious elements. If you then do searches on your C drive for words like Norton, Symantec, NAV etc, you will find hundreds of little folders and files that Windows "forgot" to remove. You can spend many a happy hour on a rainy afternoon doing this.

One point - if you remove your AV software, *be careful*. Download (but don't install) your new AV program FIRST. Then disconnect from the interweb before uninstalling Norton. Run the new exe file to install your new AV program. Then reconnect to the net. Think of it like safe sex: if you've got no protection, even for a second, don't think of going in there.

I've found a combination of ZA, Grisoft AVG and Diskeeper Lite (which seems to be a much better defragger than the Windows one) and regular sessions with Adaware and Spybot S&D to be very effective in keeping me free from problems, but together they seem to take a lot of resources. I need more memory or, even better, a new lapdog (can you hear me, Santa?).

Mark thanks for that shortcut its one I hadn't seen before - don't you love the look of amazement on users while working on a computer when you launch actions without using a mouse. Derek

Ctrl Shift Esc Task Manager?

Add that to your list. :)