Computer Problems

[cashmoney]

Ok I have a HP Media Center computer. It has a AMD 64 Athlon 3400 processor, 200 gb hd, 512 mb mem. The problem I am having is it is starting to really lag. What I mean by this is like for example if I hit the Internet Exploror to open up the internet it takes about 45 sec for it to pop up. For any program I try pulling up it takes like a min to pull it up and its jus too slow. Could anyone tell me what my problem might be? I have run Norton Antivirus, CCleaner, and Ad-Aware and nothin is showing up as far as virus's and other things. If anyone could tell me what my problem might be and how to fix it I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

 

[Trotter]

First-
MSCONFIG (when used with the RUN command) opens up the System Configuration Utility. Most of the stuff in there you don't want to mess with unless you know what you are doing or have detailed instructions.

Click the STARTUP tab. The list that it pulls up is everything that you can choose to start up when Windows does.

Why is all of this stuff in the list? Because every program designer thinks his 'creation' is so indispensible that no one could possibly want it to NOT start up with their computer (yeah, right), so they set it into the list and have it to do just that.


Once you're at the list, look it over and see what all has a check mark. Every program that does starts up when Windows loads... EVERYTIME!

If something is checked, but you don't know what it is, Google it and find out.

Once you have seen what is there, uncheck everything that you don't need or want. Keep your firewall, antivirus, broadband drivers, graphics drivers, whatever you absolutely have to have, but uncheck everythign else.

Once you are done, click APPLY, OK, then reboot.

When your computer starts up, you'll get a grey box about the System Configuration Utility. Check the box about 'Don't run on startup' then OK.

If you had a lot of stuff checked, then your comp ought to start up faster and run more stable.

Second-
Download and run AdAware, Spybot, and possibly Microsoft AntiSpyware.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ad-Aware_SE_Personal_d506.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/SpyBot-Search_&_Destroy_d2471.html
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en
(All are free. Be sure to have each one update itself before you scan.)

Third-
Uninstall any unused or unneeded programs you have on your hard drive.

Fourth-
Download and run TweakNow to clean up your computer's registry.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/TweakNow_RegCleaner_d4134.html

Fifth-
Run Disk Defragmenter START- ALL PROGRAMS- ACCESSORIES- SYSTEM TOOLS- DISK DEFRAGMENTER).

Reboot your computer and see if it cranks up a bit faster, plus it ought to have a lot more zip to it as well.

Norton is also known to sometimes be a resource hog.

Try the other two anti-spyware apps and see if they find anything.

You may also want to try a free online virus scan to double-check Norton. Look here:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
You have to use IE or Mozilla to use the scan.

 

[reggie_da_man]

Pull out the old Windows XP CD and let format. Or in your case the HP recovery, should be in the start menu or something like that.

 

[JKnPA]

Cash.....
Good advice by Trotter.

* In reference to step#1 in Totter's post: Make a note of all the programs checked(write them down)....... if you have a memory like mine. I would uncheck them one at a time to see which program is the problem, otherwise you might have to go back/forth to isolate the exact program.

 

[Arnack]

Try reformating, or doing a virus scan.

 

[Trotter]

Not everyone is willing to just dump everything and reformat. I for one, am not if there is any way to fix it.

 

[cashmoney]

ok I ran the disk defrag. and all virus scans and it fixed it and everything was running fast again but now its back to bein real slow and I ran defrag. again but it didn't help this time.

 

[reggie_da_man]

Trotter, your right. I only use re-formating as a last result but in this case, if it takes him 45 seconds or so to open ie i think some major cleaning is due.

 

[JKnPA]

Cash....
Now that you did step#5........
Try steps#1......... then #2............@Trotter