I’ve got this new computer, see? An HP Pavilion mx50 with Windows ME in it. (It was on sale at Walmart when my old, trusty, generic whatever ate up it’s hard drive.) It has a huge hard drive in it with more space that I ever imagined possible. (My last one was 500 megs, this one is like 20 GB!!)
Now, my problem is two fold. First, when I crank it up, it has like 500 programs in the start menu that seem to power up all at once and, secondly, one of these programs bugs my players, like WINAMP when I use it. Like writing to the drive when a song is on creating a ‘skip.’
Now, can anyone tell me which of these damn programs that I can shut off that do not need to be started when I switch the thing on? I mean, it has lots of things in it that I do not use and do not plan to use, but I don’t know what the other things do anyhow.
They never give you an instruction book about what anything does on your new computer when you fire it up.
According to my start menu – like nearly every program in the machine starts up when I hit the switch. In my old computer, with Win95, the start menu only showed something like 5 or 6 programs that switched on when I turned it on.
A touch of assistance please? I’m not real computer smart.
There are two places you can readily got to find what loads on startup.
First, right click the START menu, then choose OPEN from the pop-up list. Double click the PROGRAMS group from the window that pops up. From the next window, choose STARTUP from the myriad of icons. This will open up a group of programs that load when Windows starts. Delete the ones you don’t want - but take care to use the recycle bin in case you need to restore them hurriedly.
Second, click the Start menu and choose RUN. in the dialog box type “msconfig” and click OK. If Windows ME is the same as Windows 98 in this respect, a dialog box should pop up with several tabs of details on your Windows configuration. Choose the tab marked STARTUP, then uncheck those programs that you don’t want loading on boot-up. You may be surprised to see how many are listed. If you need to restore any, come back to the same spot and recheck the box.
remember this , you’ll have to use it alot since WindowsME
has a bug in it similar to the win98 shut down bug where it is stuck between the shutdown safe message and the shutdown screen , since my PC also has auto power off it gets stuck for ages , and i have to config it this way win ME sucks ass
when the warranty runs out stick WIN98SE of WIn2K on it
The only advice I have to give here is to say that you should get a few books of computers and operating systems… You said that you are “not real computer smart”, well, none of us were when we first started. I learned by screwing my computer up royally a few times, calling tech support, fixing it, screwing it up again, calling tech support to fix it, etc. (repeat MANY times) I finally broke down and bought a copy of “Win 95 for Dummies” and life has been good ever since! More or less…
No offense, but IMO self-education is your best friend here unless you are rich and can afford to have a techie out to your house frequently…
The kind of computer troubles you are asking advice for is really hard to diagnose/troubleshoot from half-way around the world… too much information is needed by someone trying to help you (IE: you have Win ME? Which version? How much RAM? What are all of your settings for Win ME? Which port are you using for your modem? What are the BIOS settings? How much memory do you have dedicated to… What is your driver version for …? Etc. Ad Nauseum.)
These are all random questions that may or may not have something to do with your troubles… (which is the reason that you don’t get a manual with specifics when you buy your computer… there is no standard software set/settings/driver versions/etc. on any given system.)
Self-education! Bite the bullet and study up on it a bit, and I bet you will be able to figure out what you need to do with only a little time and effort.
Good luck, man! I’m sure there is a “Win ME for dummies”, don’t be put off by the title! Start there, and keep learning!
fdisk etc then install either:
win2K
win98SE (if you want to play games)
much easier with those OS as they jump start your CDrom unlike 95 which you had to mscdex your cdrom to install windows , that was irritating
Good advice from all!! (Thoroughly confusing me. )
I once had my old computer repaired when I screwed up during cleaning and put the chip back in upside down. Bet you can’t guess who much stuff I fried with that little stunt. Anyhow, after repairs, the guy switchred on my system, diddled the keys and a window opened up showing him what programs were running right then and he commented that I had a bunch. Afterwards, I shut down a lot of those running programs to improve the speed of the system, but it was so long ago that I no longer recall the keyboard combination he used to bring up this window.
So, here I just go to the start menue and see a bunch of programs but now I wonder if all of them are running like RIGHT NOW. Any ideas as to what that combination is? I hit CONTROL-ALT-DEL and another window opens which shows a much smaller list of running programs, like 14.
Somewhere is the running program that keeps interrupting all 3 of my music players on this thing at random times when they are playing. It even interrupts the AOL sounds now and then when they play. Whatever it is, it frequently is active.
There are things on it like RUNDL, MOTMON and OSD that I have no idea what they do.
AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!! (Sorry. Just frustrated.)
what are you talking about geepee
? she probably has a restore disk not a full operating disk. formatting & putting it on would just put all the crap back.
Good advice all. I followed the link to the poor poster who had a similar question and went into MSCONFIG, that got me more confused. WHY don’t they do something simple like explain what these programs do?
I shut down a few programs but I don’t know yet if I shut down the one that keeps writing to the hard drive and bugging my music players.
Question; What is a task manager and why would I need it? (I switched it off.)
in MSCONFIG the only things you REALLY SHOULD keep checked are “System Tray” and “ScanRegistry” …and probably your antivirus if you have any. The other things you can uncheck safely. When you look back a couple of them may be checked again (like PTSNOOP or LOAD =) Dont worry about them though.
Well, it did not work. Winamp still ‘skips’ when a song is playing and Scandisk still complains that something is writing to the drive when it tries to clean up everything. So, I’ll try again.
I think I got it!! I removed several more programs from the MSCONFIG and the Start menu and I actually played two whole songs on WINAMP without anything skipping on me!! That’s the first time I’ve been able to do that since I got the darn computer!!
Well, partial success anyhow. I used ScanDisk to clean up everything and it took forever because something kept writing to the drive while it was running. Now, I have to figure out which program was/is doing that and shut it down.
I used to have Windows Jukebox, which I liked but the computer came with Winamp and two others. I use Winamp because I’ve figured out how to access my Midi folder with it and it does not connect to the Internet every time I open it. Actually, Jukebox seemed just as good and easier to use than Winamp, even with all of the extras.
You have to run scandisk from DOS boot otherwise it takes forever. Then run defrag also form dos prompt if you can. defrag is the one that speeds things up.
CaveMike I’m impressed. I used the program you suggested and up popped everything that fires up when I start the computer. Tiny little program also, because it downloaded so fast I had to check to make sure there was actually anything in the folder.
Cool ---- except I don’t know what most of the programs are for. Like, what the hell is a FUD? One of the windows programs says something about FUD. (Elmer?) Then there are several ‘runonce’ programs. I figure they run once, but why and what for and can I dispose of them?
AARRGH! Isn’t there a book or something out to tell us morons (well, me anyhow) what these programs do?
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