Dell Laptop Grrrrrr.................

[itsaboattime]

We have a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop with XP service pack 3, that has developed a VERY interesting issue. It takes forever for the desktop to load and we are having trouble connecting the wireless network adapter.

We have Malwarebytes, Avast antivirus, and advanced system care. We have ran the microsoft software removal tool.

I'm about ready to throw it through the wall.

any suggestions??

Thanks!!

 

[Moody Blue]

Re: Dell Laptop Grrrrrr.................

Call Dell tech support. It is simply the best tech support I have ever dealt with. I have a Dell Precision M90 laptop and have called tech support twice over the last 2 years. They are quick, and effective at resolving the problems and, its free !!!

 

[PiratePast40]

Re: Dell Laptop Grrrrrr.................

It's quite possible that you have a couple of things working against you. To start with, only have 1 piece of antivirus software running at one time. At best, they slow everything down by doing scans, at worst, they bump heads with each other and see the other software as a virus itself.

Go up to the toolbar and click on tool and then internet options. Get rid of all the tracking cookies and temporary files that are clogging things up.

Do a defrag to help seed up the hard drive.

Run a virus scan in safe mode with the bluetooth/wireless connection shut off. That's the best way to find and quarantine or delete a virus.

Depending on the brand of hard drive you have, see if there are free diagnostic programs available. Seagate has the Seatools diagnostic that does a number of tests see if your hard drive is going south on you.

If you've just added a new piece of software, it could easily be running in the background and slowing things down. Do a control/alt/delete to bring up the windows task manager and see if there is any certain oprogram constantly running and using processor resources.

As you can see, there are many things that can slow your computer down. The periodic checks and maintenance will give you a better chance of tracking down the problem.

 

[i386]

Re: Dell Laptop Grrrrrr.................

Assuming you've ruled out virus/malware problems.

One way to track down a problem like the OP has it to start is by process of elimination.

First do a diagnostic startup. Start -> Run -> msconfig<enter>

If it starts up normally then you can enable startup items one at a time.

Start -> Run -> msconfig<enter>

Change to selective startup, then click the startup tab. Uncheck everything there and reboot. Upon each successful reboot, enable one item and reboot. If the problem is one of these programs you'll know it.


You may also try temporarily disabling your network adaptors. A problem with them could also slow down your bootup because one of these devices is "timing out".


Defrag is never a bad idea like others have said. I use CCleaner and Defraggler to keep my xp puter clean and defragged. They're both free and from the same company.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Dell Laptop Grrrrrr.................

Call Dell tech support. It is simply the best tech support I have ever dealt with. I have a Dell Precision M90 laptop and have called tech support twice over the last 2 years. They are quick, and effective at resolving the problems and, its free !!!

Been helpful with my laptop as well.
Go for it.

 

[jollymon]

Re: Dell Laptop Grrrrrr.................

I hate to sound like a smart *****, but your description is a lot like telling us you are not feeling well, what kind of medicine should I take to feel better.

Now for a little more helpfull information.

There is a long list of what could be causing your problems, but the long and the short of how to fix it, may be to start over.

Assuming that you have all of the original software that came with you laptop, you can get it back to what it looked like the day it left the factory. I do this for friends all of the time, friend will complian the PC sucks, I can not stand it anymore. I want to get a new one. If the PC worked well when you got it, and you have not changed any of the software, there is no reason it should not work after you restore everything.

One word of caution, make sure you back up all of your data files!

If you need more info let me know, I will guide you thru it, if you were local I would say swing by and I would even help you with it.

 

[PiratePast40]

Re: Dell Laptop Grrrrrr.................

There are quite a few good ideas listed here but the song Jollymon sings may be your best bet in the long run. Periodic reformat sure gets rid of tons of old registry errors and programs that you don't want or need anymore. Just make sure you start the firewall and AV software before you go back on line to update your software afterwards.

Of course, it's allways a good idea to try customer support and see if they'll help you. It's a mixed bag but worth a shot if support is free.

 

[v1_0]

Re: Dell Laptop Grrrrrr.................

We have a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop with XP service pack 3, that has developed a VERY interesting issue. It takes forever for the desktop to load and we are having trouble connecting the wireless network adapter.

We have Malwarebytes, Avast antivirus, and advanced system care. We have ran the microsoft software removal tool.

I'm about ready to throw it through the wall.

any suggestions??

Thanks!!

Hmm... The two could be related - the PC does try to access the network during start up (even before you get the desktop stuff up). Having limited availability is actually worse than no availability - if the PC doesn't see a network it doesn't try to connect (it can figure this out fairly quickly). If it sees a network, naturally it attempts to connect, in which case it looks like you may be timing out. (This takes a bit longer, as it 'waits' for a reply and eventually times out).

I'm guessing there's a misconfiguration somewhere between your router and PC.

I'd take a look at how your network is setup. Things to look for is how your computer is aquiring an IP address - directly set in your network (tcp/ip properties) or optain automatically. Your DHCP and default gateway settings (same - on the PC).

If automatically, check your DHCP server settings for 'sanity' (ie: subnet mask matches network, starting IP in the range, etc.).

Check your firewall, make sure your DHCP server (usually the router) is in a 'trusted' network, and that ICMP commands are allowed.

Do you have two 'networks'? One wireless, the other a hardline (LAN)? This could cause a bit of a problem if not configured correctly as well. Your PC would actually have two IP addresses, be on two networks...

Some helpful commands (from the command line) would be: ipconfig - allows you to see your setup. ("Ipconfig /all"). "Netstat /a /o" will show you all your connections and who (pid) has the connection. You can use taskmgr to see more info on the process (pid). If you have something funky, could be you have some malware. Tracert will show you how packets get to somewhere - so something like "tracert www.yahoo.com" would show some statistics on how long things are taking. They should show your router somewhere on the list (first or second entry).

-V

 

[642mx]

Re: Dell Laptop Grrrrrr.................

I've had nothing but bad luck with Dells... I switched to Toshiba laptops a few years ago. No problems so far... I've had a couple of them.

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Dell Laptop Grrrrrr.................

what is your system resource like? SP3 uses a lot more memory to run then SP1 or SP2. Odds are you have recently installed something that starts on boot up so it slowed down your boot up time. Those usb wireless adapters are a PITA. I think your problem is your hardware can't handle the current workload.

 

[itsaboattime]

Re: Dell Laptop Grrrrrr.................

Found the trouble.

We recently had downloaded an updated version of Avast! antivirus from savemybutt.com. I went back to that site and found that that version was creating conflicts.

Uninstalled the program and the problem is gone.

Thanks for all the input.