{OT} -- Computer Problem

On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:19:19 GMT, "Jeff Strickland"
> wrote:

>Nothing, that's why the Subject line says {OT}, which signifies Off Topic.
>
>I asked the question here because I happen to know that many of the gear
>heads here are also computer geeks.
>
>

Not sure if it's been asked already, but, has this computer *always*
run slowly, or was it a recent *change* in it's normal behavior??

....

If you have the orig XP disc you could have re-formated already and be
done with this.
Also you would not have to worry about trojan/virus/adware/malware or
whatever as the system would have been wiped clean.


You can try this free anti virus instread onMcafee
http://www.avast.com/





Jeff Strickland wrote:
> "L.W. (Bill) Hughes III" > wrote in message
> ...
> > 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.
>
>
> I did all of that already. That's what we call "the easy stuff" in the
> trade.
>
>
>
>
> > 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 Awa
>
> I took AdAware off ...
>
> One problem I have is, I'm not sufre what is a trojan and what is something
> I really need to have. I have found that SVCHOST is important, even if there
> are lots of them ...
>
>
>
>
>
> > 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
> > http://www.billhughes.com/
> >
> > "Jeff Strickland" > wrote in message
> > news:KBPrh.21233$wq.14150@trndny07...
> >> 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 ...
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >

That's the kind of stuff I was talking about when I said "non-Microsoft
software". This is not to imply, of course, that Microsoft software is any
good. I think Yahoo! has a search bar that you can download too. Everybody
seems to have something, whose only purpose is to look pretty (well,
somebody obviously thinks so, or they wouldn't have written it) and to slow
your machine to a crawl. Also, even well written software can "go bad" if
its data or configuration file gets corrupted. Maybe if you find that an
antivirus program was causing your problem, it will get better after you
uninstall and reinstall it.

I use MSN as my home page, not because it's any good, but because I assume,
perhaps falsely, that people are watching over it, because I am paying for
it as part of my Qwest Internet package, and because their technical support
has been somewhat helpful in the past.

Earle

"Jeff Strickland" > wrote in message
news:VTYrh.4017$hi7.680@trnddc08...
> Really!?
>
> I do not use Google as my Home Page, but it occurs to me that my b-in-law
> might have. I prefer Yahoo as my Home page, and I keep Google as a
Favorite.
>
>
>
>
> "Jeffrey DeWitt" > wrote in message
> ...
> > If the machine has Google Desktop on it you might try removing it. It's
> > nice to have but sometimes it goes nuts and slows the system to a crawl.
> >
> > Jeff DeWitt
> >
>

"noneofyourbusiness" > wrote in message
...
> On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:19:19 GMT, "Jeff Strickland"
> > wrote:
>
>>Nothing, that's why the Subject line says {OT}, which signifies Off Topic.
>>
>>I asked the question here because I happen to know that many of the gear
>>heads here are also computer geeks.
>>
>>
>
> Not sure if it's been asked already, but, has this computer *always*
> run slowly, or was it a recent *change* in it's normal behavior??
>


It ran good on the first day, but went from good to bad pretty much
overnight. It's been slow for quite a while now, so I can't call up any
historical events that can trigger any help.

"Jeff Strickland" > wrote in message
news:KBPrh.21233$wq.14150@trndny07...
>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 ...
>

I found a couple of legacy programs that should have uninstalled long ago.
They still remain in the Add or Remove Programs section of the Control
Panel, and they would not go away from there. I went into the Registry and
removed all of the "calls" to the errant programs, then I uninstalled McAfee
Internet Security Suite. Now the machine works like it should. Since we last
talked, I've loaded a dozen CDs into iTunes (this is a project that would
have taken days, assuming one would tolerate the pain that long).

Somebody here offered up WinASO as a Registry Cleaner. I bought a 5-site
license and am pleased with the product. Well, as pleased as one can be
after messing with something for a couple of hours. Thanks for that ...

I cleaned up hundreds of "registry errors" in three machines so far, my
wife's machine had 1750 total errors, more than 200 of them ranked as
"serious" by WinASO Registry Optimizer.


NEW QUESTION
The Registry has a structure. Are there any resources out there where I can
look up what the structure is, and then I would be able to do stuff to the
Registry with less stress. I've done surgery to the Registry on other
machines, and on one I turned the machine into a paper wieght. I'd like to
understand what I'm looking at when I poke around in the Registry. I'm
thinking a book titled Registry for Dummies would be what I am looking for.
(I resist the temptation to buy anything with "dummies" in the title ...)

Mike Romain wrote:
>
>
> Jeff Strickland wrote:
>> "Mike Romain" > wrote in message
>> g.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)
>


aCtually with XP, you may not be able to use any key. There are OEM keys
(Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.) that will not work with the standard retail
version of XP. It is not the same as Win98.

Chris

You might look at Microsoft Press's "Windows XP Registry Guide"
(http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Wind...=UTF8&s=books).
This will give you an idea of the structure, some of the XP entries, and
ideas about how to work with the registry. It is good. It is not anything
like a complete explanation -- and cannot be because of the registry's
nature.

Proceed with caution. The foot you shoot is likely to be your own.

Other ideas if you pursue this further:

You can check for invalid processes by looking at the Task Manager Processes
tab, Googling anything you don't understand, and sifting out the chaff.

You can also look at the Performance Monitor (Start-> Run -> PerfMon) to get
real-time statistics or create logs over time. Processor utilization, memory
paging, and physical disk usage are good starting points. PerfMon is on XP
Pro -- I don't know about XP Home.

Win XP on 128M sounds a little like Nicole Richie -- exists, looks cute, but
no one suggests it as a role model. It would take very little legitimate
work to overwhelm such a computer. 384M can do a fair amount as long as you
do not start up everything or work with much graphics. I have had happy
users running Office under XP Pro on 256M machines in a domain. They got
unhappy if they started up additional apps and got into page thrashing.

I don't know how you got Adobe Reader 3.0 on a computer about 1 year old. If
I really saw that correctly, you definitely should go through everything
installed because it does not sound like there was much thought process when
things were added.

I don't know if you did this, but definitely download Lavasoft's AdAware and
Spybot Search and Destroy and do spyware checks. A lot of sudden slowdown
situations are related to malware. Periodic scans are a good idea. These
checkers are free for personal use. Of course, antivirus and firewalls are
musts in today's world.

Good luck,

Joe M

"Jeff Strickland" > wrote in message
news:mu6sh.9$2n.1@trndny06...
>
> "Jeff Strickland" > wrote in message
> news:KBPrh.21233$wq.14150@trndny07...
>>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 ...
>>
>
> I found a couple of legacy programs that should have uninstalled long ago.
> They still remain in the Add or Remove Programs section of the Control
> Panel, and they would not go away from there. I went into the Registry and
> removed all of the "calls" to the errant programs, then I uninstalled
> McAfee Internet Security Suite. Now the machine works like it should.
> Since we last talked, I've loaded a dozen CDs into iTunes (this is a
> project that would have taken days, assuming one would tolerate the pain
> that long).
>
> Somebody here offered up WinASO as a Registry Cleaner. I bought a 5-site
> license and am pleased with the product. Well, as pleased as one can be
> after messing with something for a couple of hours. Thanks for that ...
>
> I cleaned up hundreds of "registry errors" in three machines so far, my
> wife's machine had 1750 total errors, more than 200 of them ranked as
> "serious" by WinASO Registry Optimizer.
>
>
> NEW QUESTION
> The Registry has a structure. Are there any resources out there where I
> can look up what the structure is, and then I would be able to do stuff to
> the Registry with less stress. I've done surgery to the Registry on other
> machines, and on one I turned the machine into a paper wieght. I'd like to
> understand what I'm looking at when I poke around in the Registry. I'm
> thinking a book titled Registry for Dummies would be what I am looking
> for. (I resist the temptation to buy anything with "dummies" in the title
> ...)
>
>
>
>
>

Hi Jeff,
You would not have made a paper weight if you had exported the file
every time you worked on it. Like, remember the rules of computing, backup,
backup, and backup. Think of the registry as just a batch file.
God Bless America, Bill 0|||||||0
http://www.billhughes.com/

"Jeff Strickland" > wrote in message
news:mu6sh.9$2n.1@trndny06...
>
> I found a couple of legacy programs that should have uninstalled long ago.
> They still remain in the Add or Remove Programs section of the Control
> Panel, and they would not go away from there. I went into the Registry and
> removed all of the "calls" to the errant programs, then I uninstalled
McAfee
> Internet Security Suite. Now the machine works like it should. Since we
last
> talked, I've loaded a dozen CDs into iTunes (this is a project that would
> have taken days, assuming one would tolerate the pain that long).
>
> Somebody here offered up WinASO as a Registry Cleaner. I bought a 5-site
> license and am pleased with the product. Well, as pleased as one can be
> after messing with something for a couple of hours. Thanks for that ...
>
> I cleaned up hundreds of "registry errors" in three machines so far, my
> wife's machine had 1750 total errors, more than 200 of them ranked as
> "serious" by WinASO Registry Optimizer.
>
>
> NEW QUESTION
> The Registry has a structure. Are there any resources out there where I
can
> look up what the structure is, and then I would be able to do stuff to the
> Registry with less stress. I've done surgery to the Registry on other
> machines, and on one I turned the machine into a paper wieght. I'd like to
> understand what I'm looking at when I poke around in the Registry. I'm
> thinking a book titled Registry for Dummies would be what I am looking
for.
> (I resist the temptation to buy anything with "dummies" in the title ...)

Hi Earle,
What programs did you write for your buddy in Washington State?
God Bless America, Bill 0|||||||0
http://www.billhughes.com/

"Earle Horton" > wrote in message
m...
> That's the kind of stuff I was talking about when I said "non-Microsoft
> software". This is not to imply, of course, that Microsoft software is
any
> good. I think Yahoo! has a search bar that you can download too.
Everybody
> seems to have something, whose only purpose is to look pretty (well,
> somebody obviously thinks so, or they wouldn't have written it) and to
slow
> your machine to a crawl. Also, even well written software can "go bad" if
> its data or configuration file gets corrupted. Maybe if you find that an
> antivirus program was causing your problem, it will get better after you
> uninstall and reinstall it.
>
> I use MSN as my home page, not because it's any good, but because I
assume,
> perhaps falsely, that people are watching over it, because I am paying for
> it as part of my Qwest Internet package, and because their technical
support
> has been somewhat helpful in the past.
>
> Earle

No, it's not using Google as your home page that's the problem. Google
has some software called "Google Desktop". It indexes your hard drive
and then you can do a Google search of your system. It's amazing the
stuff it can find, and its fast, but in addition to some possible
security issues sometimes it can really slow the system down, especially
in an older machine.

If you have loaded the "Google Pack" you probably have it, along with
some other goodies like "Google Earth" and six months of either Semantic
or Norton anti virus (I forget which). It's really a nice package of
software, and the price is right (FREE!), but there CAN be problems with
Google Desktop.

Jeff DeWitt

Jeff Strickland wrote:
> Really!?
>
> I do not use Google as my Home Page, but it occurs to me that my
> b-in-law might have. I prefer Yahoo as my Home page, and I keep Google
> as a Favorite.
>
>
>
>
> "Jeffrey DeWitt" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>> If the machine has Google Desktop on it you might try removing it.
>> It's nice to have but sometimes it goes nuts and slows the system to a
>> crawl.
>>
>> Jeff DeWitt
>>
>