Revisiting my balky PC!

[Boomyal]

Interesting thing. I am still trying to nurse my PC along in spite of my determination that it needed an OS reload. I won't rehash all the symptoms beyond saying that nothing worked, nothing would finish opening and a shut down took forever.

What has become apparent is that if I boot the PC (which it does with no issue) and just let it sit there for a period of time, I can zip through all the functions and programs. I am not sure how long I need to let it stew but today it was several hours before I got around to trying things out. All zipped right along.

What could be going on?

 

[Cofe]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

A bunch of stuff could be going on with your PC.

I would start by removing any programs that you don't use anymore.
Get rid of Norton...Avg...or other types of virus programs.
Then download Microsoft security essentials and run a scan. Security essentials is now your anti virus program.
Download Ccleaner and install. It has a registry cleaning section that works real well. Run the registry cleaner, scanning for issues. Fix all issues, and it will find a whole lot of issues... and then it will ask you to back up the registry if you want. Your old PC will start purring again...

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

+1 on CCleaner. Also run the cleaner section to purge the disk of all the old leftover files. I've also noticed that Registry Cleaner should be run until it comes up with no issues, at times it take up to three analyze/clean cycles- for me anyway.

CCleaner link, free works great. CCleaner - Download

If you haven't tried, defragment the hard drive.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

Another thing I can suggest it to run trend micro house call its a very through scanner and cleaner.

Free Online Virus Scan - Antivirus Software - Trend Micro USA

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

Hey Boom,

I am in town right now, let me see how my schedule goes, perhaps I could drop by and take a look at it.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

Hey Boom,

I am in town right now, let me see how my schedule goes, perhaps I could drop by and take a look at it.

See PM, MT.

 

[dolluper]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

Shadow Storage maybe ......do a clean disc ifin it's Vista diffently change the shadow storage size or it will gabble up your hard drive ....you know windows updates with restore points until it crawls

 

[dolluper]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

What windows are you using bud???

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

What windows are you using bud???

Windows XP with all the SP's. The problem still persists. I fire it up and nothing works or opens (it might try but just hangs). Wait a while, everything (at least those that I try) opens right up and seems to work fine.

A case in point. I have a DOS based business program. I booted the computer this morning and did not want to wait to try getting into that program. I clicked on it and the main menu opened right up (with only a little pause) The I clicked on a function to check to see if there was anything open in the Deposit Detail. It must have taken 3 minutes to laboriously run thru all the files to determine that there was nothing there. (I do that in case I forgot to close out the previous deposit record. I do not want to be adding new receipts to the previous deposit record).

Normally, when I run the "print pending Deposit-check" function, if I had closed it out properly after the last deposit, it runs the search in the blink of an eye and reverts back to the main menu when there is nothing there to print..

This is the same pattern that exhibits itself on all other typical windows programs. The other day I opened up my HP Director to send a fax. The programed opened and I selected Fax. It brought up the fax info screen and I filled it out and hit 'send fax'. Nothing happened. I waited a few minutes and had to leave. I left the screen up and when I returned, later that afternoon, it had scanned and sent the fax successfully.....and so it goes!

 

[colbyt]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

How much memory you got? What size hard drive?

The swap file could working the system to death. The newer AV programs may not be supported by your hardware.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

How much memory you got? What size hard drive?

The swap file could working the system to death. The newer AV programs may not be supported by your hardware.

By AV, I assume that you are referring to Anti Virus. I am running Avast. My hard drive is an 80 gig that is partitioned 3 ways starting with the C: drive at 29.2 gb. I am running a P4, 2.40 GHz with 2.5 gb of ram.

Keep in mind, these problems I have mentioned are relatively new so all of the above worked well, prior. Also, I do not know about the swap file. What I do know is that when you try to open things too early after boot, not only do they not open, they will not close. A control/alt/delete shows 100% cpu usage.

Once everything has been running for a while, things will open right up, close right down and I don't get the program is not responding messages when I try to shut it down.

 

[bassman284]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

Sounds like old computer syndrome, Boom. I've got it. I have a Dell that I bought in March 2002. It's been pretty problem free except for a hard drive that fried itself about 2005. I keep using it because I really, REALLY prefer XP to Windows 7. I have a laptop with Windows 7 and I dont like it. Pretty sure I will like Windows 8 even less.

Problem is, it keeps getting slower and slower, especially in the last year or so. There is a conspiracy theory out there that claims that, for the last year or 2, Microsoft has been writing XP updates that actually slow your computer so that you'll update to the newest OS. I firmly believe this. And I have done a fair number of the recommended Clean-up, flush-out procedures commonly recommended with very bad results in one case. Suffice it to say, I will never again use a registry cleaner, don't care who recommends it.

I know from other threads that you're nursing this computer along for business reasons so good luck. Like you, I have noticed that I get better results when I fire up the computer and then walk away and let it churn for a while, at least 15 minutes. I mostly only run the Chrome browser in this but it's clear that things go better if I don't try to start Chrome right after boot. Let the OS solve all its administrative details. Open the Task Manager to the Performance button and wait til CPU usage drops into the 0-10% area.

Interestingly, I get a similar effect with my laptop running Windows 7. If I boot it up and try to open Chrome as soon as I see the desktop, it can take up to a minute or more to open Chrome. If I boot up and go have a donut or something, THEN click Chrome, it will open in an instant. The time frames are different, but the effect is the same.

 

[colbyt]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

Keep in mind, these problems I have mentioned are relatively new so all of the above worked well, prior. Also, I do not know about the swap file. What I do know is that when you try to open things too early after boot, not only do they not open, they will not close. A control/alt/delete shows 100% cpu usage..

Yes AV= antivirus

Mechanically the only thing I can say to you and to bassman is to crack open the case and look at the heat sink on the CPU. If it is full of dust and stuff clean it with a toothbrush, and old one or your wifes. The CPUs throttle back when they start to overheat and often run near max on boot.

That churning affect is also sometimes caused by things in the start bat file that no longer exist or out of date. Those can be be forced off via check boxes. We can discuss how if you like. Malware can also cause the churning. I find that running two or more Malware programs multiple times usually gets rid of them.

 

[britisher]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

When was the last time you did a defrag on the PC? If you go to System Tools within Accessories, you can do Disk Clean Up which will highlight bits that need to go, then you can defrag the C drive.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

I'm running XP with all current updates and it is running as fast as ever. I have it set up to do an automatic AV scan on boot-up and I do use CCleaner periodically to clean the registry and purge temp files. Once a month or so I de-frag.

I have had the thing turn into a dog a couple of times way in the past and doing the above always tuned her right up. I also went in and disabled unneeded services. To me XP is one of the best MS OS'es built and I have used PCs since even before pre-MSDOS. I have W7 on a laptop and don't care for it at all.

 

[colbyt]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

To me XP is one of the best MS OS'es built and I have used PCs since even before pre-MSDOS.

I fully agree. The lack of future updates starting in April caused me to upgrade when I built a new computer. I paid 2.5 times what I might have bought 8 for in order to buy Win 7. There are only minor differences between XP and 7. I'm not hearing many happy people using 8.

 

[dolluper]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

Boom check your hard drive; my computer.... see how much space is free also check your dvd player whatever drive it is for space let me know the numbers":. FULL VS USED

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

I think I have asked you this before but have you ever done a new clean install of XP?

If you ever want to really speed up your PC, get a solid state drive and have it boot the OS up off it. I wouldn't have another computer without one.

 

[dolluper]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

Boom /my computer/cursor over hard drive to get free and used space,then on your left under System tasks {left pane} click on view system information....new window click system restore tab...at this new window system restore check out the disk space usage....it's real safe to slide it down to 3000mb> 3gig's this will limit the amount of space used by system restore ...known as Shadow Storage

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Revisiting my balky PC!

Boom check your hard drive; my computer.... see how much space is free also check your dvd player whatever drive it is for space let me know the numbers":. FULL VS USED

dolluper, the harddrive is an 80 gig. It is partitioned 3 ways. 29, 29 and the balance. Seemed like a good idea back when. The current status of the C: drive partition is 29.2 total and 5.57 free. I know that is getting a bit skinny but I have tried to delete as much off of it as I can.

Not sure what you mean about the CD drive. It doesn't have a DVD player. Defrags are current.