Help...with computers

[OtherHD]

As some of you may know, my comp has been screwy for a while. Up until last week, anytime I had more than 2-3 programs open at one time, the comp would be very sluggish and I would get a lot of Not Responding messages. It got so bad one night that just having Pirch open basically killed my comp. I got EIGHT Not Responding messages that night...I must have rebooted about 10 times in one hour...and these weren't standard reboots. Another problem was that I couldn't shut down! Everytime I went to do a standard shut down, I would be left with a blank black screen with just a little white line blinking on the monitor. I talked to someone and they told me I needed more RAM. So I got some and went from 128MB to 255MB. That didn't help at all. I got the same problems. So I went to school and they said that I needed to clear my harddrive and reload my Windows CD. They also said my OS was a piece of garbage...I have Windows ME. Don't laugh.

Then it hit me. I may have had a virus. I didn't have a virus scanner on my comp so I downloaded one and it found 4 viruses and killed them. Voila! My comp was working much better, but it still is not ideal...

I now am able to have more than 4 programs open, provided that they are smaller progrmas. If I have Kazaa, Real Player, Pirch, Internet running, then my comp slows down. I no longer have to reboot as much, but it still is not as good as I'd like it to be. When my comp is running for long periods (ie over 4 hours), my comp slows down. As I am typing, every 2 minutes or so my comp does a mini freeze and nothing I type shows up on the screen. It's annoying. Oh. My comp doesn't shut down still either.

I asked around in the chatroom, and I was told that I needed a new processor (mine is a celeron), preferably a pentium, and that I could get one on Ebay. My friends have told me that I need to upgrade to XP. My dad can get a CD from his work so I can install it. I am also told that I need to wipe and reload my harddrive (which sounds like a huge pain).

So what should I do?

Note: I am NOT buying a new computer. So don't say I need a new one.

If you have any other questions, just ask in this thread.

Thanks guys.

[Stormsfury]

Part of it could be how much actual space you have left on your hard drives ... the more space used, the slower the PC will run as well ...

As you may know, I have a new PC up and running which is much more powerful .. but I, too, only have ME ...

Also occasionally clear out your temporary files ...

Clear out any unnecessary programs you don't need or use ...

Even though, you may have the most storage space in the world doesn't mean you need to use it (I have between the two hard drives - 60 GB to work with and I'm barely using maybe 5 GB)...

I've kept a lot of my files on writable CD's to keep the drives from being cluttered.

The other suggestion ... if you want to upgrade to XP (or reformat your drive with ME) .. is to backup your necessary files and restart from the beginning ... it is time consuming (from experience with the switchover from the old PC which I've had for 10+ years and still works to the new PC currently used) but the overall result ended up being worth the time consuming aggravation.

SF

[Rainband]

Lyle i found out the same thing after I removed two viruses. I had to reformat my drive. NOW my puter works great and I have less ram than you. I also installed diskeeper lite..free and better than windows defrag. AVG anti virus free and better than most pay progs. I had two viruses mcafee had quar. AVG deleted them and adaware free spyware removal tool. With that said reformat worked for me. Save all your programs to floppy and reinstall them later. Good Luck

[Colin]

Well, my computer was extremely sluggish and got lots of errors like you...and had to reboot and crap like that, until I got cable internet...I can have a LOT of programs open and it doesn't freeze at all...do you have Dial-Up? Maybe that's your problem, or am I just bragging about cable net again?

[coriolis]

Hey OtherHD, I'm running ME too (get it, Me too?)
It is tempermental, but you can work with it

Here's one thing you can do to help get a handle on the problem.

click on:
Start
Programs
Accessories
System Tools
System Monitor

that will open a window with charts or graphs on it.
The best ones to look at are
"Kernel - Processor Usage" which shows how busy your processor is.
"Memory Manager - Unused physical memory" which shows how much RAM is available for use.

If you don't see either of these charts or graphs,
go to the toolbar at the top and click:
Edit
Add Item
Kernel
Processor usage
Ok

Then repeat for
Memory Manager
Unused physical memory.

These two bits of information will tell you whether its a processor issue or a memory issue.

You can keep it on top and see when your computer slows down.
One thing about windows ME, is that the memory manager is funky.
When you "close" a program, it remains in your RAM, taking up space.
You'll notice this with the system monitor that when you open a program, your unused memory goes down. When you close it, you don't get the RAM back. Supposedly, this is to help programs load faster when you open and close them alot, but what it really does is make RAM unavailable for other things. If more memory is needed, windows, will store stuff on your hard drive in a swap file, but that is REALLY Slow compared to RAM.

Unfortunately the only way to get the RAM back is to reboot your computer. There is memory management software out there that works.
Back when I only had 64 megs or RAM, I downloaded Memoryzipper. They give you a free trial, and then you pay about $20 after a month.
It's a nice little program with some other nice features. It takes unused data out of RAM and puts it in a swap file. Then when you want to open or use something else, the RAM is available. Since I upgraded to 256 megs, I really don't have serious memory issues. but I don't use any real memory sucking applications either.

PS, if you open system monitor and there's no toolbar, just double click in the window and the toobar will appear.

Do this first, and report back.

[stormchazer]

I work for a computer firm and might be able to help. I am by no means and expert but judging from the issues you reported this is what I would do if it were my computer.

Agreed that if you do not want to spend any money now, then upgrading your RAM is best. A 256mb mod of ram cost about $50.00. There are issues here. Make sure you purchase the proper speed RAM for your system. Tom's Hardware has good online info on this. Also if you know your board manufacturer, Kingston.com has a good tool which will tell you what memory is compatible with your system. Be careful to get the right memory or your problems may get worse.

If you are running a Celeron, then you may consider a new motherboard and processor which likely will mean a new memory mod too. I just purchased an ASUS board with a AMD 2700+ processor and 512mb RAM for about $340.00. I am running great as I am running WinXP. The purchase I made was a very high-end board with premium memory so it can be done cheaper.

The minimum I would do after seeing your post is format (erase) your hard drive. I would re-partition the drive and reinstall Windows. A lot of virus corrupt the Master Boot Partition which initializes your drive when your system boots. It also controls how your Hard drive handles storage clusters and virus software are created to keep you running but not necessarily at optimum performance. I highly recommend if you upgrade to WinXP and it is the full version, that you format your drive and then install XP, not install it over the top of Win98.

I realize this may sound daunting, but there are good books you can buy that will tell you how to do the whole thing. Just don't be afraid to do it. Also, the memory software mentioned in other post works well but can be done manually if you know what you are doing. There are several magazines you can get that talk about optimizing systems that will tell you these tricks.

Finally, you can take it to a tech. They usually charge about $75 to diagnose and do most software optimizing. You may find it a worthy investment. PM me if you want to talk further.

**PS..The problem Coriolis could be indicative of a memory leak. These are common with freeware and internet programs. You might uninstall one at a time, if you have them, and see if this helps.

[OtherHD]

Coriolis...THANKS A MILLION. I'll let you know what happens.

[OtherHD]

Thanks chazer, ill try coriolis's way first lol cause its shorter. If that doesn't help ill take yalls advice and reformat. Thanks everyone.

[coriolis]

OtherHD, you didn't say what your processor speed is. I have a creaky old 500 mhz. Kazaa, IExplorer, and Realplayer together will keep my processor going at 100%. I don't know what Pirch is.

Here's a couple of other ideas:
-Are you using Kazaa 2.0? that puts spyware on your 'puter. Try Kazaa lite - no spyware.

-do you have spyware software? Spyware can slow things down when it "phones home"

-Do you have a firewall? That will stop things from trying to get into your computer. It will also stop spyware from getting out.

-Is your virus scan configured to be "on" all the time to scan emails, downloads, etc automatically?
I inadvertently set mine to scan "all" files on opening. That will scan every file in every program when it is accessed. That really slows things down and it's not necessary.

-check this out:
Click:
Start
Run
then type in msconfig
click on the startup tab
A window will open up that shows programs that can start up automatically when you start your computer. The ones that have an x in the box load and run every time you start your computer. there's only about 3 or 4 of them that are really necessary for your computer to run. If they're all x'ed on, that could be part of the problem. You can screw up your computer with this, so don't go unchecking items if you don't know what they are. the column all the way to the right gives an idea of what the programs are for. If some are clearly 3rd party software programs, you can probably uncheck them safely.
Best to ask before you act, though.

[stormchazer]

OtherHD, you didn't say what your processor speed is. I have a creaky old 500 mhz. Kazaa, IExplorer, and Realplayer together will keep my processor going at 100%. I don't know what Pirch is.

Here's a couple of other ideas:
-Are you using Kazaa 2.0? that puts spyware on your 'puter. Try Kazaa lite - no spyware.

-do you have spyware software? Spyware can slow things down when it "phones home"

-Do you have a firewall? That will stop things from trying to get into your computer. It will also stop spyware from getting out.

-Is your virus scan configured to be "on" all the time to scan emails, downloads, etc automatically?
I inadvertently set mine to scan "all" files on opening. That will scan every file in every program when it is accessed. That really slows things down and it's not necessary.

-check this out:
Click:
Start
Run
then type in msconfig
click on the startup tab
A window will open up that shows programs that can start up automatically when you start your computer. The ones that have an x in the box load and run every time you start your computer. there's only about 3 or 4 of them that are really necessary for your computer to run. If they're all x'ed on, that could be part of the problem. You can screw up your computer with this, so don't go unchecking items if you don't know what they are. the column all the way to the right gives an idea of what the programs are for. If some are clearly 3rd party software programs, you can probably uncheck them safely.
Best to ask before you act, though.

Great suggestion!!

[Josephine96]

Just for the record I have XP not ME lol.. sorry just thought I'd let that be known..

[kmanWX]

Well your best beat is to do an reformat the drive and perform a "CLEAN" install on the drive. To get all the bugs out there. ME is crap it is just like 98 and i remember that BSODS everywhere. To think about it ME is 98 just a slight MOD version of the OS core. XP should be more stable since it is on an 32bit platform. Compare to the mixed 16bit and 32bit core of the 98 os. Anyways you need the FULL version of Windows XP not the upgraded version. The Full version when i brought it over an year ago cost me a $200 to purchase it. Now what are the specs on your machine?

Thank you

[OtherHD]

Coriolis, what prgrams are absolutely necessary at start up? Theres about 50 that were checked and I know I dont need all of them lol

[VanceWxMan]

bottom line if you are not running 2000 or XP your going to hurt regardless of what you do.

Here are some suggestions

Take your RAM multiply it by 3 and set this as your virtual memory(swap file).
Right click my conputer icon and select properties
then click the performance tab
then the virtual memory button
then choose "let me choose my own virtual settings"
then take your physical ram amount and multipy it by 3 so if you have 128MB x 3 = 384MB put this into both boxes. This will make your SWAP file 3 times as big as your physical RAM and your computer will run faster since after it uses all your physical RAM it will now have 3 times what it just used up. (you need space on your HD to do this but its worth it if you won't upgrade)

Now you need to modify another file to TELL your computer how to use your RAM.
Click Start/Run
type sysedit
then press enter
this will open a text editor that will help you edit the file that we want to change
open the system.ini file and look for this

Code: Select all

[386Enh]

heading
You will find a few lines that say things like device=*vpd
at the BOTTOM of the list in that heading add this line

Code: Select all

ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

This will make sure that your system uses all of your avail RAM before using the swap file/virtal memory.

Some systems like this setting..if you notice that you have problems just remove that line. I have used this and it worked very well and I am a HUGE gamer!

I have a few other tweaks that you can make to your System.ini file but will hold off for now. If you want them just Holla!

Also You can also find free programs such as Ramidle that will run your virtual ram as well as your physical Ram.

Virtual ram(a swap file) is the computer using some of your HD space to help it run resources on your system.

Aaron

[VanceWxMan]

Oh yeah CHECK THIS SITE OUT

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist ... sklist.htm

want to see what your puter is running and what you can shut off... this site tells all.

In Windows 95/98/ME you can bring up the Task List by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del. In Windows NT4/2000/XP you bring up the Task List by right-clicking on the Task Bar and choosing "Task Manager" or hitting Ctrl + Shift + ESC at the same time

Aaron

[coriolis]

Oh boy, now I'm going to get you in trouble!

You want SystemTray to open

Mine has a file called EM_EXEC which runs my laser mouse. If you have something like that you want it to run (look in the column at the right for a reference to a mouse)

Theres also startup items for my virus scan and firewall to start automatically. I want them to run.


I have the following ones unchecked and my machine works.

Money Agent (opens microsoft Money in the background)

ScanRegistry (I believe it scans the registry when the computer starts. Probably a good thing, but your computer will run without it)

LTSMMSG (I looked it up once. It's a windows thing, but is not essential)

Task Monitor (Ditto)

OEMRUNONCE (ditto)

Hidserv (ditto)

LoadPowerProfile (I believe that this is related to the power saver/hibernate feature. Who needs it!)

PCHealth (a windows thing. Computer will run without it.)

sp (not sure, but the computer runs without it)

Quick Time Task (this launches Quick time or at least part of it when you boot. I feel its a waste of resources to have this running all the time)

TaskMgr (not sure, but the computer runs without it)

Real Tray (similiar to quick time)

SSDPSRV (not sure, but the computer runs without it)

LoadPowerProfile

SchedulingAgent

StateMgr

Screen Saver Control

WinZip Quick Pick

load= (sounds like a window thing, but again, the computer runs fine without it.

Those are the things you could uncheck and still be able to restart the computer. I'd imagine that the windows items are not real resource hogs. But if there's a lot of things running in the background, it does add up.

If there's any items that you want more information about, just do a google search and type in the name of that file. Chances are, there's something out there to give more information.

Keeping fingers crossed.

[coriolis]

Hey thanks Vance! I see that I have some things turned off that are better on.

Don't listen to me, OHD. Listen to Vance!

[OtherHD]

What NOOOOOO LOL.......I just unchecked half of the files in start up...oh boy...this is going to be a long nite. :-?

[streetsoldier]

One other thing you might want to investigate is Ad-Aware...it detects and eliminates both pop-ups and spyware, and it's a free download.

The newest version is "Build 181"...think about this one AFTER you get your system up, OK? (BTW, I use XP Home, and it's compatible; it also opens on all three desktops we use, and I employ it regularly to keep my hard drive as space-free and clean as I can, along with the usual Delete History, Delete Files, including Offline Content, Delete Cookies [all in your Tools on your upper taskbar], and disk defragmentation.)

[kmanWX]

Dude more than likely there are probably to many programs on your hard drive and that could have spark up to many bugs on your computer which prevents it to shut down. Face it your os is corrupt and my advice to you is to perform an clean install so you can start from starch and this time keep a montiar of all the stuff that goes on your hard drive. So if you install an program and your os don't act the way it supposed to you can delete from there and then. Or it could have been an virus that render undetect through your anti-virus software see if there is an update available. I don't think it is spyware that cause it but it never hurt to get an spyway program like "SPYBOT: and that will detect the spyware and delete it.