In the past few days, my computer has become slow.  There is a noticeable pause, when typing, scrolling, etc.

I recently set up a new printer.

What could the problem be?

How can I determine what the problem might be?

Thanks.

I'm sure you've tried this, but have you tried unplugging the printer and using your computer?  Is this an HP printer?  Sometimes HP has software that starts at bootup and hides in the system tray (TSR's) that will slow the computer down.  Trying shutting down any HP printer software and see what that does.



toast

I uninstalled the HP software, and set up an Epson.

hmmm?

What version of operating system are you running?

Did you install any windows updates for internet explorer? For example, if you installed one of the languages, where the IME is installed in the system tray, browsing web pages, and typing in information may have a slight, yet annoying, delay since its trying to figure out which lanugage/font/input editor to use or something. Either disable those languages or uninstall them. I've seen this problem mainly on Windows 98 systems.

If you're running one of the versions of windows, check how much free space you have on your hard disk. If the free space is getting really low, this might be causing problems. Windows uses some of the free space on your hard disk to temporarily store things it's working on (not just documents, but system data it uses to manage itself while it runs). if the disk is close to completely full, have a look for junk on the disk that you don't really need any more and delete it.

Also consider defragmenting the hard disk once in a while (I only do it 2 or 3 times a year, but I try to always keep 1 gigabyte of free space on my 12 gig disk). As you create and delete files on the disk, they get spread across it so you end up with lots of small chunks of free space scattered all over the disk (this is fragmentation). The computer will run more efficiently if all those little chunks of free space are merged into one great big chunk of free space (this is defragmentation).

If you are running one of the windows versions, they all have a defragmentation program built into them, but it will need a certain amount of free space to work properly as it moves files around to merge all the small chunks of free space back together again. If your disk is really full, you'll need to delete some stuff just to give the defrag program enough space to work with properly.

If you have pleanty of free space on your disk, I have no idea what else might be the problem.

Windows 98.

That's unfortunate for a lot of reasons.

GarethB offered a lot of advice. Swap file settings may need adjusted, disk space may be getting tight, maybe you have a bank of RAM on the fritz, you could have contracted a processor consuming virus like FUNLOVE. There's a list of things that could be wrong.

Unfortunately, Windows 98 doesn't give you much of a task manager to see which process is eating all your resources which makes diagnosis even more difficult.

Everyone at work that had this problem you are descibing, was because of what I mentioned above, and they were on Win98. I bet that's the problem.

Oh, and I'd stick with 98. Its pretty reliable since its been around for some time. Just look into what I said about the IME and related stuff.

Well, since 98 didn't become usable until 98SE, which came out in 1999, you could take your "it's been around for a while" and apply it to XP as well. Win2000 (aka NT5) also came out in 1999, and XP identifies itself as NT 5.1

98 was usable WAY BEFORE 98SE came out.

98SE is a service pack to 98, unless you want internet connection sharing, then you supposedly have to buy the entire OS.

And no, its not the same as 2000 or XP.

Check your machine for "spyware"

[url]http://www.surferbeware.com/free-downloads.htm[/url]

Spyware installs with kazaa, gator, porn...and the others of the like.

I always check my startup menu, and win98 has the MSCONFIG you can type from start>run and it will give you a list of things that start with windows, and you can prolly remove some of those; you may have to do a search on some of those items to find out what they are  and if you need them or not.

My first avenue of approach would be to make sure the printer didn't leave some "daemon" running in the background after you removed the printer.

just my few cent

It was rather quirky before SE.



Of course it's not the same. Where did I say anything to the contrary?
I merely pointed out the the NT5-based XP has been around for pretty much the same time as 98.

XP is by far the most superior version of Windows ever to be released.

I've got it running on about 8,500 workstations across several client sites. Migrating to it has singlehandedly reduced helpdesk support calls by 50%.

You trying to put folks outta work...LOL!!!

I'm telling ya-- its the IME! The reason you have the pause when typing is due to the IME deciding what to do...

Get rid of all you .tmp files too.

Are you running MS Office? If so, open Control Panel and check if that POS "Find Fast" is running. If so, delete all its indices and disable it.

Good call!

Yeah that IS a good call. That half-assed attempt at Indexing Services Lite is a pain in the ass.

Well, I unplugged the USB cable from my printer....

....voila!

Fast again.
Why?
What's the problem?

Thanks again....

.......Computer Guy? What? Is someone injured in a freak accident?