Gridlock Mikey

few pointers as to how to speed it up again.

I mean that the computer is slower than hell whilst booting up, opening programmes and even shutting down takes decades

Now Hanslow (Bless Him) has tried to offer his help but apparently, the ideal process would take about 5 hrs to do now i don't want to take up his weekend and to be quite honest, i'm not crazy about the idea of sitting round his house for 5 hrs

Can someone out there e-mail me a proceedure that i can perform to cleanse my computer of 2 years worth of "stuff" to enable it to breath again.

I thought about the recovery disc route but have been told that that is NOT the way to go as it is only a tempory fix and not the way forward at all

In anticipation.........................CHEERS

Mikey

Nimbus

LOL. You're not a techie are you

Aaaar yes... The typical well informed helpdesk type query.

I'm assuming your friend is talking about de-fragmenting the disk. You don't need to be there when it's working. You can just start it and leave it.

You could try either...

Installing more RAM
Removing any unecassry programs (this could the be cause of slow start up)
De-Frag the disk
Up grade processor

I'm sue you will get more advice here..

Foot_Tapper

What operating system is it Gridlock ??
95, 98, NT, 2000, XP ????

Gridlock Mikey

Absolutley No Techie going on here

Its windows 98 at home on PC No networks or anything.

Done all that de frag stuff and uninstalled all me games etc, but nothing seems to improve the performance (Sounds like i'm talking about me scoob now ) It used to be fine and then suddenly it started to struggle. Some days it just sucks (Over 30 seconds to open a word document for example ) other days the same document will open as expected.

I'm sure you techies have a word for the process i need to perform but i can't remember it either

Help

Mikey

Nimbus

Mikey,

Next time it's taking ages to open an application, press CTRL-ALT-DEL together to bring up the taks manager. Select the processes tab and see if anything has a large Mem usage. Also check the application tab to see if anything is "not responding".

We sometimes have problems with PCs running slow and it turn out that FindFast was causing it. On the processes tab see if Findfast is running. If so, select it and hit End Task.

Let us know if this helps.

Brun

What are the vital stats of your system?
processor, ram. etc?

IanW

That a new feature in Win98 then Your thinking NT/2000 for the Processes tab.

Hanslow

Wipe it and reinstall ....only way to be sure.... (or is that nuking from orbit )

There comes a time when you have to do it and learn mate.....you won't look back once you have done it

DemonDave

iTrader: (13)

Hanslow,

I have given him the option of leaving it with me for a week or so. I'll plug it in to my spare port on the servswitch and fiddle whilst downloading .... but it does sound like a "Wipe it and reinstall", maybe update the OS as well . Just make need to make sure he backs up his stuff !!!

Mikey,

Can I just check what do you do for a livin !

Dave.

Foot_Tapper

Have you tried all the bog standard stuff Gridlock ??

Delete all temp internet files & History
Del ...all temp files from c:\temp or c:\windows\temp
Do you have a virus checker running.. if so diasable it to see
if it makes a diff.
Good old findfast from MS office....(if installed)
open control panel, double click findfast. Click on index,
uncheck "run when i log on", also click on index, then "delete index". delete any index's that may be there.

Your machine may have gone into "go slow" because of lack of disk space. How much left ?? bearing in mind windows uses a fair ammount
as a "swap file" (in 98)
phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
other than that give it to Dave

Dream Weaver

Format c:

bladerider

Have you tried Norton SystemWorks?

Nimbus

Ian,

I must admit, I was not completely sure if Win98 had a process tab

Hanslow

Dave, make sure you back up all his **** or he won't be happy

I think Mike has put so much general crap on there it needs a good wiping clean, install from scratch and getting back to basics

Make sure you charge him a decent rate Dave.....you know, about 50 quid an hour

I started to go through the process with him, telling him what to back up and where to find it, so that he could pop it over and I would wipe it and reinstall it for him.....but he got stuck at the backing up stage Good luck with the techno-retard



[Edited by Hanslow - 9/20/2002 9:52:40 AM]

Gridlock Mikey

Hanslow....you old duffer Least i don't crash cars at sub 30mph for no apparent reason I reckon you were turning ya hearing aid up at the time or ya bag split

Anyway's back to the point in hand, Thanks for the pointers but i think i'm gonna take dave up on his kind offer, there will however be NO exchange of money. I deal in Beer, **** and old EVO mags

Dave, i sell Digital Copiers for a living, I can tell you all about the benefits and how they work mechanically, that doesn't mean that i have to know how a companies network operates! or how computers work

We have had a computer engineer with us at work for about 3 days now and to be quite honest, he's in a world of his own. The system is no closer to being fixed and all he seems to do is phone his office and ask what to do next I could do that [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

At the end of the day he gets very animated when i don't sign his worksheet as i refuse to until the bloody thing works. Bah Computer engineers

You guys are ok though (Gulp got carried away there )

Mikey

Hanslow

Mike, you might want dave to do you a system backup once the basics are installed. That way, if it all goes kak again, you can just wipe it and dump the drive image off the CD back onto your machine and be back with a basic system.

Just a thought.....and to the hearing aid comment. I was refilling my pipe and adjusting my cap, whilst polishing my slippers

Gridlock Mikey

Could i not Bang in some more RAM?

That bloody hurt my head that did, ALL that Techie talk

Mikey

Hanslow

Yes you could, but I don't think you would see much benefit.

Seeing as it used to be OK, and now is pig slow, I reckon it's just typical bad housekeeping by a lot of the software and the owner

Give it to Dave and let him wipe and reinstall it....it will be like having a new engine (without the running in period )

SiCotty

Might have been said up above but try and run a program called ad-aware which is a freeware program to hunt out spyware. Hard drive on my machine used to never stop, now its very quiet indeed.

Simon

druddle

Mikey

Best choice would be a clean re-install, but if thats not possible you should look at doing the following:

* Add more RAM
* Review all your installed programs and if you need them
* Run a program called regclean. Its a MS program, and basically goes thru the Windows registry and clears out any key entries that are there for programs you have removed.
* Clear out c:/windows/temp directory
* Defrag hard disk - i found this works best on 98 if you reboot and run it straight after.

Dave

Tracey

A month or so ago my pc totally crashed and couldn't do anything with it, mine too was running so slow. So I decided to restore it back to factory settings, wiped the whole lot. Glad to say I did and it runs like a dream now.

Cheers.

Tracey