Yes, this is part rant and part question.
This week and next, I’m temping at this office which doesn’t have much IT support.
The computer I’m using is nearly painfully slow. I mean SLOW. And it’s not just the internet connection, the damn thing takes over a minute to open a Word document. I don’t know what kind of computer it is but it’s running Windows 98 and I’m sure I remember Commadore 64s that went faster than this.
I have seen this sort of thing before, and I was under the impression there was something you could do (defrag?) to clean the crap out of it and make it run a bit faster.
Can someone tell me how to do this, and guarantee that it won’t wreck anything?
Is the hard drive constantly running? If so, you’re probably short of memory and a memory upgrade is needed.
The first thing I’d try is to go to Start|Run and type msconfig. Go to the Startup tab and uncheck any software that doesn’t need to be running. Reboot and see if things get any faster. If you have any problems just run msconfig again and re-check the items.
Check for malware and viruses by running Ad-aware, Spybot S&D, and Housecall.
Deleting all files from C:\WINDOWS\Temp can speed things up if it’s extremely cluttered.
Running Regclean can also help. It creates an undo file which you can double-click if anything goes wrong.
You can defragment the C: drive by right-clicking on it, hitting Properties, going to the Tools tab and hitting Defragment Now. It’s best to boot into Safe Mode and start this before you leave at night; depending on the size of the drive it can take hours to complete.
Oh, and make sure that the C: drive has plenty of free space. Windows can get awfully slow if it doesn’t have enough room to create a swap file.
I can tell you that I’ve gone through all of these steps many times without any problems, but guarantee? With Windows 98? No way.
RealityChuck:I’ve figured out the routine.
First, when I click on something, everything stops. The cursor changes to the appropriate shape (arrow, hand, whatever) and it all stalls for a moment or two while it thinks silently about what to do.
Then, the hard drive fires up and the window starts opening, piece … by … painful … piece.
And then, sometimes, it all stops again. Although the window is open, you can’t click on it (or anything), the cursor remains a hand (or whatever) as you pass it over unresponsive buttons. Sometimes the hard drive is running and sometimes not.
And sometimes the hourglass appears for no apparent reason.
Now, for instance, as I type this, the hard drive pipes up now and then.
Number: thanks for the tips ! I’ll get going, maybe by next week I’ll be able to get some of those things open !
I guess I shouldn’t complain too much, after all, my Dopage has gone up since I stated working here, but still.
[Homer Simpson]Thirty seconds? I want it NOW![/Homer]
The C: is over half full.
And the C:\Windows emp file is pretty full as well (as is C:\Temp) - is it okay to delete those? (I won’t ask for a guarantee - empty platitudes will be fine!)
Over half full is not a big deal as long as there are a few hundred megabytes free.
Don’t delete those folders themselves, but delete all the files out of them. If you want to be extra safe you can leave any that were modified in the last couple of days (this is easiest to see if you go to the View menu and select Details).
Done ! Temp files (last modified 1998) cleaned out. It seems to be running much faster now, but a few icons have disappeared from below the clock in the corner. Although I don’t remember what was there to begin with.
Oh well. We’re moving offices in a few weeks and this thing will probably be cleaned out anyway.
Thanks for the help !