Lately my computer has been running real slow when online, message boards take forever to load and when i try to scroll down they wont at first then jump when they finally move. When typing(such as this post) the letters dont appear for a small amount of time.
I have defragged recently and dont seem to have any bots or adware slowing it down( I have used both adware 6 and spybot in the last few days.
My machine is a 1999 celeron by hp
I have 383 MB of ram
a 6gig main drive that is @ half full
a 20 gig which is mostly full(music and pics)
Most people say its too full but that would make sence if the mp3s were on the same drive as windows and Internet explorer. I have run scan disk and it shows nothing, although I dont believe it.
Does anyone have some tips I can try or some do it yourself computer tune up things that might help. I dont think taking it in would be very good considering the age of the computer and the fact that I have driven the FOrd Escort of computers like a Porshe for the last 4 years. I am pretty sure my baby is dying but I want to keep her for a few more months
A common reason for a progressively slower computer is a bunch of stuff loading at startup. Find everything running at startup and kill everything but the essentials.
You don’t mention OS (ahem), but see if you have MSConfig and run that. It can tell you what loads at startup with checkboxes for disabling them.
I have seen machines loading up 30 different programs at boot. Egad…
Other causes: the swap file is the wrong size and/or fragmented. Ordinary MS defrag doesn’t defrag the swap file. If you don’t have a good defragger, do this: Defrag your 2nd drive. Set it to hold your swap file and reboot. Defrag your first drive. Set it back (if you want to) and reboot. The swap file should be set to 2 or 2.5 times the size of your actual memory. Don’t let it grow or change size.
Also, could be settings or driver problems. Check that optimum settings are still in force, e.g., DMA access for HDs. The latest driver for your video card, etc.
Your computer is sufficiently new that you should be quite happy with it for some time unless you choose to: a. Be a game geek or b. Do video processing.
I check the start up programs regularly, just to make sure that nothing funny has gotten in there, so that is pretty much ok. Only like 9 things load on start, I am not totally sure what they do but seem to be things that might be needed. Just for reference they are
MDM- Machine debug manager
msgloop - No Idea
systray - System tray
msg 32 - ?
navapw - norton anti virus
point 32 - Mouse?
rnaap - no idea
zone alarm
explorer
as for the swap file, I have run across somehting about adjusting the size, but i cant remember where that was. if you can point me in the right direction I will give that a try.
I was also wondering about cleaning the registry, I am of the understanding that doing that is somehting for the more experienced and that is why I havent tried it.
Is there some special reasons you haven’t told us the OS yet???
Definitely do not run NAV on startup. There are at least 5 programs listed that I wouldn’t be running.
You’ve recommended defragging the registry in another thread. Everything at Download.com costs around $30 after an initial free trial. Know of any freeware that works well?
ALSO THIS FOLKS: McAfee’s various “startup items” (mcagent, mcupdate, msvsshld, mcmnhdlr) are listed on startup when I run msconfig, as are: Direct CD, NeroCheck, and RealPlayer, and then these 3 mysteries: igfxtray, hkcmd, and DSentry.
How many of these should be in the startup for my XP-based 2 gig/520 RAM PC?
Try running Adaware if you don’t already do so - it’s amazing what garbage it’ll find on your drive. You’ll find Adaware (the basic version is freeware) on the lavasoft website (sorry I don’t have the URL to hand but google should get you there).
first hit start/programs/startup and see what programs are there with shortcuts. you could right-click on unnecessary ones (program will not delete but shortcut will and it should stop starting up automatically when you turn your system on).
on xp machines it’ll be start/all programs/startup
next, hit start/run then type in msconfig and hit ‘ok’.
you’ll see several tabs across the top. go all the way to the right, usually, to ‘startup’. this will list programs that run at startup. how do you know which are necessary, which are optional, which are unnecessary resource hogs and which might even be malicious or viruses? go to the ‘start-up applications - index’ link that cletus provided us. I just did this and found some very eye-opening stuff, including spyware, adware (if there is a difference!) and some stupid resource-hogging things like windows messenger, which I’ve never used, and hp center, which came with my hp pavilion 310n computer and is another resource hog to sell me stuff I don’t want.
P.S. thanks, cletus, and all else who have been so helpful!
Thanks, Bromells I got rid of Kazaa and several other programs that were running and I think there’s not much else I can do to get a better performance for this woefully slow computer.
Go to www.pcpitstop.com and run their free tune-up tests. There is a link on the right side of your test results that says Share or Email Test Results that will give you a link to your results; post it here so we can have a look at what is going on.
Saintnobody, I didn’t see ‘msgloop’ or ‘msg 32’ on that index. Try googling for them to see what turns up.
Like you said, be careful when your mucking about with the registry. Even with a program like RegClean be sure you know what your removing before you remove it. Google for it if you don’t know what it is. If you still don’t know what it is, just leave it in there.
Is your computer slow and stuttering only when your on the internet?
Sorry was out of town for a week, I found out the MSgloop and msg32 are for the rockwell message service, I will assume rockwell makes my sound card.as for shutting them down I have no idea about that, they have been there since i got the computer and dont seem to affect it much
I do have a question about things i found in the registry that are for programs i have deleted(properly or improperly). Can they be taken out if the program is no longer on the machine?
BTW I am running win98segoing to do the pcpitstop right now and see what happens
You have 384mb of memory,. which should generally be adequate, but unfortunately win98 can only properly use 64mb of it. But if it used to be fast and is now slow, and you’re sure you’ve added nothing, that can’t be the problem.
You seem to be saying it’s only online performance that has suffered? For instance your typing problem only happens to a site, not into a local document?
If so, tell us about your online connection - dialup, cable, ADSL, or whatever. What upload and download speeds are you getting? What did you used to get before the problemn started? Have you talked to your ISP about this problem?
Try googling for them to see what turns up.