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Posted: 4/6/2001 11:31:15 AM EDT
Why is my piece of sh*t computer using so much resource? I wish I knew what half of you guys know about computers, that would make my life a lot easier. I spend more time on the tech support line than I do on the internet. I am about to junk this computer and go back to my kids room and fire up my oldie but goodie. Help![:D]
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Posted: 4/6/2001 11:31:25 AM EDT
A high percentage of the Gateways that I've run across over the years have CD roms that are crap. The video cards also go ape $hit if you run intense graphics through them. Try running msconfig.exe and turn off memory resident programs to see if it helps speed up the beast. |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 11:35:34 AM EDT
Thanks levi, I am willing to try anything at this point.
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Posted: 4/6/2001 11:43:14 AM EDT
Is the memory that low right after you restart your computer?
Also something I do is change the "File system" to Network Server from Desktop. This is a gaming solution. Hunter out... |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 11:44:56 AM EDT
Sounds like a sweet system actually.. the slowness can all be attributed to installed software. Computers these days come with loads of programs that run that you don't really see that just sit and eat resources. There's probably a good number of icons down in the tray, on the bottom right.. If it were my computer I would format it and start over with just the OS.
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Posted: 4/6/2001 11:48:10 AM EDT
Once you run msconfig you can go to the start up tab and see all the files that your machine goes through as it boots. Buy unchecking the boxes you can select what you want to start. The more things in this box the slower it is. Also the more things here the more likely you are to have conflicts. My experiance with buying already built systems is that the companies install everything they can find on them.
Good luck Scratch |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:01:48 PM EDT
There is a number of different things you can do to tweak some speed out of your system.
No. 1 hit ctl-alt-delete and see just what you've got running in the back round. All you really need running to have the system operating ok is systray and explorer. You can then use msconfig to keep unwanted programs from loading when you boot your system up. There is also a program called End it All that will close any uneeded programs with one click when you really need to free up all the systems resourses when you need to. A couple of other little tweaks that will gain you some speed are turn off your cursor animations and turn off any sound scheme you might have running in windows. Programs like systems restore used in window's ME use up resorces and anti virus programs can slow you down also. And defrag your system regularly. |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:02:20 PM EDT
MindHunter- Yes it is low right after boot up[left]Santyth- I do have a sh*t load of programs installed.[/left][left]Scratch-I got your meaning, I will remove as much as possible from the list.[/left][left]I have 12 icons in the sys tray on the lower right side. I had more but I didn't use them so I took them out but 12 is too much, Right?[/left]...Thanks guys for your help, I will let you know what happens...[:D]
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:08:36 PM EDT
12 Icons????? whoah Cowboy!
With my modem connected I have 3 on a like system. Sound-Modem-Antivirus software. Hunter out... |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:15:28 PM EDT
I can fix your problem.
Press the start button, select run and type in msconfig Let me know what items are ckecked. You can pull the plug on about half of this crap. Having it running in the background is sucking up your resources. |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:16:00 PM EDT
sounds like you got too many programs-Uninsstall as much as you can/dont need anymore. programs, when installed add a bunch of shit to your HD and registry. if these programs add a lot, they will slow things down. DO not just delete the folders-try to uninstall them in control panel-add/remove programs or sometimes, the program will have itws own uninstall program in its start menu. This may not even help because some programs leave piles of shit on the HD and registry even after uninstall. Then you are stuck saving all the important data (resumes',documents, turbotax data, etc)NOT GAMES to floppy/zip and reformat the drive and start over. do not do this without someone that knows what they are doing as you could loose something you may need. Start with the uninstall first.
Note: some programs that use memmory in the background: realplayer, antivirus programs, just about any multimedia programs direct cd, etc. |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:18:16 PM EDT
Well I was going to start my own [b]help[/b] thread but I'll just add it here if oneshot doesn't mind. I have a problem with forwarding attachments using nutscrape 4.77 Right out of the blue it stopped sending the attachments when I forward an e-mail. the only change I made to preferences that I can remember is changing my setting for cookies to prompt me. Anyone have this happen to them? I e-mailed tech support and they can't help. Of course if I ponyed up $29 US they would probably be full of answers.
Thanks Striker |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:19:54 PM EDT
Striker- use outlook express
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:25:50 PM EDT
Cleatus I had a friend suggest that. but...
a) all my addresses are in netscape b) when I open outlook it keeps asking me for a password. I've tried every password I've ever used and some I haven't and no go. Eventually I can get into outlook but it is a pain to go through the password thing everytime. Plus I don't know how to make it my default e-mail[%|] |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:32:43 PM EDT
SteyrAUG:
I can fix your problem. Press the start button, select run and type in msconfig Let me know what items are ckecked. You can pull the plug on about half of this crap. Having it running in the background is sucking up your resources. |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:36:21 PM EDT
he's right so right, I do tech support, do it man!! Good to see a brother with a prob solved
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:41:59 PM EDT
I'm not sure if it will help but you might try running Defrag on the drive once a week. Windows 98 had a nasty thing about leaving stuff scattered all over the hard drive.
good luck Ron |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 12:59:22 PM EDT
OK guys here is my run/msconfig/startup list:[left]MoneyAgent[/left][left]MSMSGS[/left][left]MirabilisICQ[/left][left]ScanRegistry[/left][left]TaskMonitor[/left][left]SourcePath[/left][left]MultiFunctionKeyboard[/left][left]CriticalUpdate[/left][left]gator[/left][left]LoadQM[/left][left]NAVDefAlert[/left][left]NVQuickTweak[/left][left]RealTray[/left][left]LoadPowerProfile[/left][left]NortonAutoProtect[/left][left]EnsoniqMixer[/left][left]Pointer[/left][left]GoBackPollingService[/left][left]TrueVector[/left][left]Minilog[/left][left]LoadPowerProfile[/left][left]ZoneAlarm[/left][left]SchedulingAgent[/left][left]DescriptionOfShortcut[/left][left]MicrosoftOfficeStartup[/left][left]MSNQuickView[/left][left]AOL6.0TrayIcon[/left][left]GoBackTrayIcon[/left](5 More in a few minutes)
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Posted: 4/6/2001 1:00:34 PM EDT
I will be back in about 30 minutes...Thanks a lot guys.
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Posted: 4/6/2001 1:06:51 PM EDT
Holy smokes thats alota shi$!!!!!I donna thinka you needa alla thosea!
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Posted: 4/6/2001 1:10:01 PM EDT
[left]MoneyAgent[/left]lose it
[left]MSMSGS[/left]not sure, what it is [left]MirabilisICQ[/left]lose it [left]ScanRegistry[/left]keep it [left]TaskMonitor[/left]keep it [left]SourcePath[/left]not sure [left]MultiFunctionKeyboard[/left]not sure [left]CriticalUpdate[/left] [left]gator[/left] [left]LoadQM[/left] [left]NAVDefAlert[/left]lose [left]NVQuickTweak[/left] [left]RealTray[/left]lose [left]LoadPowerProfile[/left]keep [left]NortonAutoProtect[/left]keep [left]EnsoniqMixer[/left] [left]Pointer[/left] [left]GoBackPollingService[/left]keep [left]TrueVector[/left] [left]Minilog[/left] [left]LoadPowerProfile[/left]keep [left]ZoneAlarm[/left] [left]SchedulingAgent[/left]keep [left]DescriptionOfShortcut[/left]lose [left]MicrosoftOfficeStartup[/left]lose [left]MSNQuickView[/left]lose [left]AOL6.0TrayIcon[/left]lose [left]GoBackTrayIcon[/left]keep (5 More in a few minutes)[/quote] Ok I noted the ones you want to lose and keep the rest were left unnoted or not sure. Since you paid for Tech support with your system call them it is a free 800 number. Pull the plug on everything you don't want running all the time. You won't lose it or anything, you just won't be running it all the time. |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 1:30:09 PM EDT
You can also use the System Configutration Utility listed under System Tools in the Accessories menu, just uncheck anything that you think that you don't need and restart your PC. If you unchecked something that Windows needs all you have to do is go back in and recheck it.
Another thing you can do is in the Control panel menu, click on System, then click on performance and at the bottom click on file system, at the top it is going to say hard disc and just below that it will ask the typical role of this machine, it probably says Desktop computer-change this to Network Server as this is supposed to help speed things up. There is alot of information on tweaking windows if you do a web search for Windows tweaks. Good luck. |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 1:51:27 PM EDT
OK guys I am back. The last five items listed in startup are:[left]IomegaStartupOptions[/left][left]IomegaWare[/left][left]IomegaDiskIcons[/left][left]QuickSync[/left][left]IomegaBackupSchedule[/left][left]That is it, I think 33 items in all, If it would help I want to eliminate anything that is not necessary for everyday usage[/left]...SteyrAUG What about removing some of these? I want to thank each of you personally for helping out a man who was about to use his computer for target practice. You may have saved my puter from certain doom! I will keep you informed of what happens... THANKS
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Posted: 4/6/2001 2:17:46 PM EDT
ok whens the last time you performed a disk scan & defraged your hard drive? do you regulary wipe clean temp file / temp internet file & also cookies.
if you want to delete a program first see if it has it's own uninstall wizard built in. if it doesn't your might have to delete parts of the program from different areas on your computer in order to rid it of all the files for that program b.t.w. you have plenty of ram. the problem is to many programs are running in the background and putting a drain on your system. most programs you can adjust so they only need to use ram when thier opened for use. |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 2:35:46 PM EDT
Quoted: OK guys I am back. The last five items listed in startup are:[left]IomegaStartupOptions[/left][left]IomegaWare[/left][left]IomegaDiskIcons[/left][left]QuickSync[/left][left]IomegaBackupSchedule[/left][left]That is it, I think 33 items in all, If it would help I want to eliminate anything that is not necessary for everyday usage[/left]...SteyrAUG What about removing some of these? I want to thank each of you personally for helping out a man who was about to use his computer for target practice. You may have saved my puter from certain doom! I will keep you informed of what happens... THANKS I'm not sure, the don't sound important, but seriously, when you bought your gateway it came with free tech support. You paid for that service, use it. |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 3:02:17 PM EDT
The first command I run on any new PC is FDISK... :)
While uninstalling software or preventing some "TSRs" from running on startup will make an improvement, most software installs a bunch of stuff that, once installed, can't easily be deleted. Though an Uninstall routine will do the best job, most are written to leave certain things behind, and some are just so poorly written that lots of junk is left scattered around your drive. In addition, you may have a driver installed for a piece of hardware that is buggy and needs to be updated. Video cards are the biggest offender, with sound cards the next common. Last, I'm pretty sure the Conexant modem is of the "WinModem" variety. In order to save money, they omit a controller chip (UART) from the modem and instead install drivers that use the CPU to perform that functionality. That means that whenever your modem is being used, your CPU is having a bunch of processing cycles eaten up just running the modem. By replacing the modem with a nonWinModem, you might see a decent improvement. Oh, and DUMP AOL. Not only should you not be supporting this anti-rights company, but the AOL client is a resource hog, and has been known to spy on your files. If all else fails, you can format the drive and reinstall Windows. You'd be amazed at how fast your PC will be. You'll also notice that as you reinstall additional software, you'll see the speed drop. Certain applications will be very noticable (for example, I hate the RealPlayer app, which takes forever to start and bogs things down). Anything that isn't vital to performing a specific task should be avoided; especially screen savers and the like. Good luck! -Troy |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 3:39:38 PM EDT
all you need is
systray and explorer running in the background |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 5:32:21 PM EDT
I have a question maybe someone can answer.I have a problem with losing harddisk space.It seems I lose about 20-30 megabytes over 7-10 days time.I do empty my cookies,temporary internet and windows temp folders.But I still do not recover the space.This happens when i'm on the internet.Over the last couple of months i've lost about 100 or so megabytes.I remember that in older versions of windows there used to be a file that was hidden called something like index.dat that you had to delete in DOS mode.I suspect that that is where my space is going, but I have no idea where or what it may be called in windows ME.If anyone knows how to reclaim the lost space or where this file may be or knows anything else I can do please help.
Thanks for any help |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 6:17:17 PM EDT
Quoted: all you need is systray and explorer running in the background I would leave the Norton Anti Virus and Go Back files up as well. |
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Posted: 4/6/2001 6:26:49 PM EDT
what steyr said sound good he know his stuff good
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Posted: 4/6/2001 7:31:03 PM EDT
Update on computer problems: First and foremost I would like to thank the members of Ar15.COM for their generosity and time. I just got back from an emergency at work so I did not get to try out all of the recommendations yet. However I did run msconfig and eliminated about 1/2 of the entries on the startup tab. The results were very impressive to say the least: I went from 12 systray icons down to 5. My resources when running windows offline jumped to 81%, and right now while online my system resources are at 68%. These are huge gains. I have not seen these kind of numbers since I got this computer, and I know that I can improve on that as well, with your help of course. I know I have to do some more things, and if you don't mind sharing your experience, I may have to ask a few more questions tomorrow. I will also contact Gateway Tech support. I thank you again and I must get some sleep as I have to be back on the job tonight at 4:30-5:00am. I am bushwacked. I can barely type this update. Thanks everyone, and good night.[sleep][sleep][sleep]
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Posted: 4/6/2001 10:17:21 PM EDT
Iomega
Are you using a zip drive? Miribilis / ICQ - may need this [u]if[/u] you are using ICQ, but it may be posible to take it off your startup & just have a shortcut Zone Alarm - see [url]http://www.zonelabs.com/[/url] Quick Sync - Are you using a Palm Pilot? Think this is for syncing the handheld and the desktop [size=4][red]P.R.K. |
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