My Computer

I'm currently running a Compaq, Intel Celeron CPU with 1200 MHz, 256 MB RAM. I've had this computer for about a year now, but after a while, even with extensive maintenance,the quality of it's performance starts to suck until you can click on things from the desktop and they refuse to run, you get constant errors, whatever.

I constantly run AV software, have a personal firewall, they are configured properly, I don't think that's the problem. I do disk cleanups and defrags routinely, but after some time, things just don't want to work anymore. I try to limit the amount of data I store on the computer by saving as much little stuff as I can to floppy or CD. I thought it may have been too much embedded information in my computer, something like that, and downloaded Evidence Eliminator to clean any junk floating around in my computer. I've tweaked my startup resources so that there aren't too many things running, I don't know what the problem can be, but it eventually gets to the point where I have to completely restore the computer back to factory settings, and I'm getting tired of doing this just to have a computer that works. There has to be something that I'm doing wrong, but I can't for the life of me figure it out. It just gets extremely slow after a while, programs don't want to run...etc. Any ideas? If you need anymore information, feel free to ask.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I also want to add that I'm using Windows XP Home Edition, if that makes any difference. And when I uninstall anything, I'm sure to use the add/delete programs and I go through and clean up any fragments left over manually if I have to, and the Evidence Eliminator worked great to rid my computer of any additional fragments, very old old deleted files, and other various junk. I'm getting worried, because it's about due to happen again, almost as if my computer is on some kind of timer to get slow again and I'll have to start all over. I've partitioned my harddrive and am also running the newest version of RH, sort of a learning thing as I learn to program and such. I'm afraid that everything will be lost. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

You mention that you keep restoring back to factory defaults... in my experience, the "factory defaults" are absolutely terrible. I would recommend cleaning the computer and install everything you need from scratch. That way, you only have exactly what you need, rather than all of the crap that the restore disc installs. Many people I know use the restore disc and then manually remove programs they don't need, but they don't realize that many files and registry entries remain behind, taking up space and slowly compounding to cause a degradation of performance. If you want help and/or tips, you can PM me and I'd be more than happy to help you out. I routinely do that (every few months) for my main XP box and laptop, and maybe once every year or two for my NT, 2000 and Linux boxes (usually try to do them all within a week's time... that way, they are all up-to-date, with the most recent updates, etc. without misc. junk left behind from previous upgrades/updates). This, of course, is just my opinion, but after using a restore disc a few times on an old PacBell growing up, I decided to *never* go through that again.

AJ

Computers - are they suppose to behave :) I am no expert but sometimes installed software can conflict with each other causing problems - even though the distributors sale pitch will tell you otherwise. Hardware problems (not your fault) ??.

I had an old computer that became sluggish, opened the box to find it full of dust etc (lived in a very dusty area at the time)... quick clean out, getting air over the heat sink helped. I believe the newer chips can run very hot, more air across the box may help. Heat can be a killer so it might not be anything you have or have not done.

Very difficult to diagnose, maybe a local computer guru in the neighbourhood could help.

I have a custom built PIII 900 with 512ram running XP Pro (I am on now) running through a PII 266 with 394ram Mandrake Linux 8.2 box I use as a firewall/proxy server. I have found most of the problems I have with my computers are a result of PEBCAK ..... Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard ..... which is me :) ..... over tweaking and messing about in the pursuit of knowledge etc .... which is what I enjoy about computers.

Good luck.

I would gladly not use the factory restore disk that came with my computer but the problem with the way Compaq sets this up is that my XP OS is contained on that disk PLUS all the other stuff, drivers, etc. I would install it seperately, but it doesn't give you that option at all...It's all or not at all. And I certainly don't have enough money to drop to buy a new OS or buy XP seperately (I do like XP, I am not all anti-MS) and I don't use the Linux all of the time, I don't feel I'm ready to make it my sole OS, it still stresses me out a lot and I like the ease of my XP.

I'm going to use the suggestion of opening up my HD and try cleaning the dust out, I'm sure there's probably quite a bit with my animals and such, see if that helps any. If the problem still persists, I am going to probably call the local computer shop here and see what they suggest. I just can't believe that it gives me these problems. I make sure to check for compatibility issues when I download things, and I have had some problems, especially with older programs and XP, but at the same time, I don't have a whole lot of additionally 'large' programs on my computer, mostly Jasc software and Macromedia programs...maybe that's it?

Thanks for the input.

(*LOL* I just read over Penguin's post again and caught the last comment he made, maybe it is something I'm doing. I try and use the built in guides whenever I change things, the startup wizard and such to change startup resources, try to keep it simple and stuff. I'm not a complete newbie when it comes to Windows, I'm very experienced with it's features, this is the first time I've run into the problem with any computer, this being my first time with XP, which took me a while to get used to, but I still feel I've gotten in down pretty damn good. The only thing I'm not running now that I used to in my previous restores is Kazaa, and I thought that might be part of it, it screws up my computer something horrible.)

hi

personally, i'm not happy with windows XP, and don't really know many people who are (please note this isn't an anti-windows thing, i'm pro-linux but i do use windows frequently - albeit mostly for games). my suggestion is to downgrade, perhaps win2000 or win98/me. or perhaps do a complete reinstall of XP? that seems to fix many weird problems windows (any version) has.

regards,
mark.

Your restore disk as the i386 directory on it, correct? With that, you will be able to automatically reinstall XP yourself. Use a DOS boot disk (such as a Windows 98 boot disk) and start the computer into MS-DOS mode with CD-ROM support. Format the hard drive. Then, go into the i386 directory on the recovery disk (just cd into it) and then type "winnt" without the quotes. That should do it for ya. During the installation, you will be given the option to convert the partition to NTFS if you wish. Hope that helps. One of my friends is having problems with a brand new Compaq laptop and their support is absolutely awful (that is, if I'm lucky enough to even get someone who can speak English). That's what I did for her laptop, but she's also having hardware issues (though Compaq swears they're software....) Good luck with it.

AJ

hi

this is just a note in relation to my previous post...

reinstalling from scratch is usually overkill. but then if you back up your data all the time, then you kinda get used to it, even up to the point that it gets to be habitual and you can format and reinstall windows in your sleep!

regards,
mark.

Greekgoddess, I just reread your post, and noticed that you discussed cleaning out your HD... that's something you definitely *don't* want to do. Opening the CPU case is fine, blowing that out, vacuuming it out with a soft brush, cleaning off the fans with compressed air, etc., but make sure you don't take apart your hard drive and try to clean that out, for you may cause irreparable damage to your hard drive.

Also, in response to secretagent, I don't believe that reinstalling from scratch is ever overkill. It's the only way your guaranteed to be clear of programs and files which you never use.

AJ

Do you mean to have to reinstall your OS? Because I was thinking, many times system resources are not realeased when a program is exited and as a result you can get ram that you can't use and things like that which will degrade the performance of your computer. The only way to get those system resources back is reboot your computer.

hi,goddess,have you tried to use a registry cleaning program.i find that this often gets rid of unwanted embedded files still left behind on your system even after uninstallations which rarely gets rid of all their related installation files.

regards
v/man

Don't worry, I'm not going to attempt to take my HD apart to clean it...just open up the case and use some compressed air.

And to answer some of the questions here, my system restore disk is issued by Compaq, I don't have a seperate disk for XP Home Edition. I would downgrade, but I do like XP and personally, I don't have the cash to afford me a new MS OS. Now, I haven't tried avdvens suggestion of using the CD from DOS, etc. I am going to try cleaning out my registry, see what happens. I got a great defrag program to try, and additional advice, thanks to micael.

Rebooting does not solve the problem. It's just that after a while, from a fresh start (going back to a factory restore) my computer starts to lose it's performance, I get tons of error messages, and I don't do anything to get them, after a while, some programs refuse to open, freeze, it's as if my computer just slows down and dies after some time and the factory restore is the only thing that seems to solve this. This is the first computer ever that I've had a problem like this with. This is my first Compaq, and my first time using XP.

One problem that I am going to run into is that my computer hasn't started to slow down yet, but I know it will soon, so I won't be able to tell for sure if the suggestions are working, I guess it will be a matter of time to see if my system performance starts to decrease. Another thing that gets me, is that I LOVE this computer...It's a really nice computer, exactly what I wanted, but Avdven was right again in saying that Compaq support is crappy. They don't seem to really care now that I've bought their product. But, it was what I could afford, and there were so many bonuses to the package I bought, the software, additional hardware I received at no cost....But if the problem persists, I'm going to work through it this time instead of getting frustrated and factory restoring, if that means I have to spend a little cash to let a tech look at what's wrong, then so be it. I really shouldn't be having these problems. I wanted to get input and try to fix the problem though before I started if it was something I was doing wrong. I should know very soon whether or not it was not doing one or more of the things that you suggested.

Thanks for everyone's help!!! I really appreciate it.

GG, not everything need's to be bought..... especialy Digital information.
I am saying nothing now, and I said even less before ;)

- Noia
PS: Formating is always a plus, if you can that is.....

You mentioned a few times about defragging your hard drive. What defrag program are you using? I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that within Windows 2000 and XP, nearly all of the defragmentation programs (such as Norton Speedisk and a few others) are all just the built-in Windows Defrag program with a new wrapper. I personally use Executive Software Diskeeper (www.diskeeper.com) and it works wonders for me. They claim that it is the only 2000/XP defragmentatino program which has been approved by Microsoft which uses different technology then the built-in Defrag. There is a 14 day (I think it's 14) evaluation available from their site... I recommend trying that. I think you'll get better results.

AJ

GG,
It appears to me that if you can completly eliminate the hardware from the equation, then the issue must be with the compaq restore disk and the image that is created from it. As far as removing apps and such, I wouldn't trust an image even if you manually remove all the applications/files that you do not use. We all know how Windows can run or not run once "key" OS/manufacturer components have been removed. Would it be possible for you to give a more detailed description of the error messages that you receive? I am curious as to the error messages that XP is giving you. I have had many issues at home and at work with restore "cd's" Please follow avdvens advice as that looks like the only way for you to do a clean restore. Good luck.
Captfb

Hey GG, All the the above are correct like reinstalling from scratch cleaning the registry but I will also try something with the hw, I dunno what model of Cpq do you have but I'll recommended to anybody who has a Compaq Computer to Upgrade to the lastest BIOS, cuz in my experience working with those puters solve a lot of problems and is the first thing they will ask you if you call support at compaq. They calles ROMpaq and each model has one
if youneed some help with that free feel to ask
:)

i can't say that i'm a huge fan of compaq's, i was once working on a friends machines with the case door off....until it started to smoke :) you can safely eliminate hardware as your problem though.

i haven't used windows xp on my own computers yet, but my experience with windows products in general is that you need to reinstall the operating system every 3 or 4 months. reformat the hdd, start from scratch, just give yourself a fresh system entirely. i hope this helps.

It really does annoying me that you have to reinstall windows or whatever everyonce in a while to keep the pc at a decent speed, In an ideal world you would'nt have to do this. I mean it does get annoying that every few months you have to reinstall the os and everything, then have to redownload all the windows updates and so on. If you don't do it for some reason the windows file seems to get bigger and bigger, on my dads pc which as been running for 3 years with windows 98 and the windows file is over 1.5gb(why does it do that) Problem is he won't let me reformat it for 3 months whist he gets all his stuff off.
I have'nt really been using windows xp for long on my laptop, so i am not really sure how that copes with the problem.
Anyway I wish you good luck with sorting out your pc

Try this http://www.symantec.com/nu/nu_9x/
Also works on xp

Trial for free.

Restore cds have been the same over the past 10 years...they have proprietary stuff by said company that they force onto the machines and whatnot to make sure everything's there, including specialized drivers and other important stuff. This being a compaq, this surprises me none. You can't just go get a copy of XP Pro/Home off the shelf and install it because unfortunately, the copy you have for your compaq is made for it and those 'specialized' drivers won't be there when you reboot, hence half your hardware will disappear. This happened with 98 and 98SE...

Even though XP is supposedly better with memory management, I would suggest getting Cacheman from www.outertech.com and using that for free (or register it for 10 bucks). Actually, I'd do the following:

1: rebuild from restore cd, bailing on everything you don't want/etc if you can...which I doubt because it's a restore cd and you're at their mercy.
2: go into it after it's all said and done and remove everything you don't need.
3: defrag at this point. This preps the disk for anything new you put on.
4: lay down all the new programs. Because of said disk defrag, it'll all be nice and orderly (or should be at least).
5: install cacheman and set them using the wizards to get your swap file, memory usage, etc etc all set up. This monitors and frees up your memory as needed as well as unloading dlls no longer being used. Windows completely SUCKS at memory management. Period. End of story.
6: go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com and patch the ***** out of the machine.
6: defrag one more time and reboot clean.

You should be VERY good at that point. Memory will now be monitored/cleared (and can be done manually), nothing in startup is being loaded that's not needed, your disks are clear and clean...

Hope this helps. PM if you need more help/assistance.

I make it a habit to format and reinstall about once every 6mo. I've gotten pretty good at using my burner for back-up :) And there is nothing like a clean registry to brighten your day and speed up your computer. Same with your font folder. Loading gobs of fonts on your computer can also cause it to slow down.

Oh yeah...that's another thing I forgot...go to www.zoneutils.com and get RegHeal 3.2.2 and use that to clean out your registry. The unregistered version only clears 10 at a time but it's worth it. I bought it so I don't have to worry. What this prog does is go through your registry and get rid of anything that doesn't fit anymore....uninstall programs aren't known for their great cleanup and the registry is super-easy to tip over.

Thanks for the additional information and links. I'm trying out all of the suggestions, starting with ones that don't require me to wipe everything out and start all over again. I'll see what happens with that, and if I'm still having the problem, try Vorlin's approach and maybe that will work. I'm sure that if the problem persists, I'll post again with additional information, but until then, I'm on my own...

Thanks again!

If you do get to the point where you need to reformat, I suggest that you repartition your hard drive with FDISK. Create 3 partitions. One for the OS (5GB min.), one for programs (5GB min.) and one for your data. This worked wonders when I was still running Win95. (Not by choice.) I believe I crashed my work computer(s) 8-10 times in three years. I finally got a PC with a large enough HD to partition and I didn't crash it once. I still had some issues due to me constant testing, but nothing major.

GG.. Vorlin and the others have already given you some great suggestions..
I'll just offer one more..

Once you do get things set up the way you want.. use Norton's ghost to make an
image of your drive/partitions (and you can make it bootable) so that in the future it'll be
a snap to restore things back to just the way you want it.

good luck...

GG,
Here are a couple of things you can try (used to work in Win2k - don't know about XP cuz I've migrated to linux)
Get a copy of regclean from MS' site (or pm me and I can send a version that works from 95-2k). Run regclean until no more problems/errors show up (alternatively, you can search for any registry cleaner - they should all work basically the same).
You can also try to increase your swapfile and registry sizes. To do this in 2k (XP should be similar), right click My Computer, go to Properties, click the Performance Options button, and the Change button. I would recommend 2x your physical memory for your paging memory (swapfile, virtual memory, etc.), and 2x your current registry size for the maximum registry size.

A note of warning here (learned the hard way from 2k, 2ksp1, and 2ksp2 which precipitated my migration to RedHat linux): Chech your registry size regularly - especially before installing any new applications. If your registry size is approaching the max size limit, you run of the risk of your registry getting compressed to fit in the maximum size allocated which in my experience trashes the registry. This was a known bug in 2k that was supposedly fixed in sp2, but I can verify that the problem still exists, and since XP is based on the 2k kernel, I would suspect that the same holds for XP as well.

Anyway, the trick is to keep your registry and swapfile as lean and clean (and defragged) as much as possible. The available defrag utilities and registry cleaners should do just that and keep you from having to 'restore' your system.

Cheers,
Bob

I agree with all of you that reformat and reinstall the OS every so often, heck it can actually be good practice if you are interested in that MCSE stuff. I mean you need to know how to do an unattended install and what not. From my experience, things never work out like they are supposed to like they do in the books...

Put in a 2nd HDD d drive and keep all your personal data there. set a static page file on each drive. for example... c drive initial size 1536 and max. size 1536 and d drive initial size 1536 and max. size 1536. works wonders. remove any programs you don't use, if you don't install too many programs that conflict with each other it should work fine. look at the event viewer to find out what is going on. use that information to search the ms knowledge base to fix the problems. clean installs are the best. period. but you shouldn't have to reinstall periodically. i have 2 servers and 2 clients all w2k that run like a champ. downloaded and tried xp a couple of times back when it was beta and it never ran as fast as 2000. all the bells and whistles...

IMHO, adven has given all the advice you really need.


Although, there's one thing I'd do to really increase performance. Back up all your important data....then....

format c:

Just do a fresh install. It'll be running like "new" in no time!

Also, here's a little registry hack if you don't want to format...

Windows Explorer caches DLLs (Dynamic-Link Libraries) in memory for a period of time after the application using them has been closed. This can be an inefficient use of memory.

1. Find the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer].
2. Create a new DWORD sub-key named 'AlwaysUnloadDLL' and set the default value to equal '1' to disable Windows caching the DLL in memory.
3. Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

I tried this after running a intense program, then watched the task manager; memory recovered it self.


Tweak written by or based on information submitted by allen

Copyright © 2001-2002 TweakXP.com


As you can see, this isn't my brainchild. It comes from the brilliant site TweakXp...Check it out. It has countless perfomance improving tweaks.....

Hello GG,
I have been working with the general public with their computers since the early '80s when windows first saturated the market I knew that this was the end of friendly submissive hardware, then came plug and play and to my horror every hardware manufacturer retooled their factories and dove into the bandwagon headfirst without a snorkel. When Win98 was realeased I was still using my good ol MSDOS and never had any problems, but, (you knew that was coming) I am an avid gamer and the software companies followed the hardware companies blindly into the fray...hence my system has 3 OS's win98 for games because it is the most compatable with my favorites, Win2000pro for my work and number crunching, and good old UNIX for administering my networks via CLI. As for XP I have had soooo many problems with it on my customer's computers that I refuse to even acknowledge its existance!!
Your hardware is ok, heat is most likely not a problem ,although it does not hurt to knock the cobwebs out once in a while, don't use compressed air though as my experiance has seen components blown right off the pc boards, a soft brush like you would find in a ladies makeup kit is all that is needed and close your eyes and blow the loose stuff out the old fashioned way. As for the suggestion about the ROMpaq's offered on the Compaq web site that is a definate MUST DO first before doing anything else that may be the only problem....also XP does not get along wel with Office 2000 it wants you to spend more money and purchase Office XP...if you have Office 2000 or any of its individual programs, Word, PowerPoint, etc remove them now...that is your problem, and any program not specifically written for XP. If you want XP you will have to sacrifice downward compatability as XP will show no mercy. My suggestion to you is to dump xp and install Win 2000 for reliability, or do as I did and install removable drive bays on your box and buy another hard drive and when you want semi-reliability use the win 2k hd and soon you will see that XP no longer exists.

Sorry about the book I wrote you, but your problem is not unique. Anyone who buys a computer a a dept. store with a brand name on it is having this problem. M$ is forcing (somehow) the computer manufacturers to install XP, I build my own computers and don't listen to M$, I install what I want and what my customers want not what Bill Gates wants...

Good Luck on this, You will need it.

Feel free to contact me on this post if you have any questions or need any help.

I use RegClean V4.1.7364.1 :D

Ummmmmm my only suggestion is to DUMP XP. Go back to Windows 2000. I have very little maintenance problems.
I also might suggest (although some may disagree) Norton Utilities. Its seems to do a great job of defrag and perfromance issues.

I notice a lot of people said to downgrade from XP to 2000, though I don't really see the reason. A lot of them say stability, but my XP installation is just as stable as my 2000 machines. Also, as for aeallison's claim that Windows XP doesn't like Office 2000, I have had absolutely no problems running Office 2000 in my XP machines. If I were you, since you have the driver CD from Compaq with XP drivers, I'd just stick with XP for the timebeing.

AJ

Lets clear this up....

Quote:

---

as for aeallison's claim that Windows XP doesn't like Office 2000, I have had absolutely no problems running Office 2000 in my XP machines

---

I have been in this business for a very long time and have been dealing with the general public the whole time. I may be anti-XP, and anti-MicroSoft, But I also have too many boxes to choose from, and some of them are running XP. I have to know these systems because my customers depend on me to get them back up and running in a hurry. You are obviously an experienced and educated user and I respect that, I am sure that you regularly update your systems and maintain them religously, and that is the sign of a great mind with a definate future in this field and I commend you on your hard work. On the other hand, the general and even advanced user that is not in this field is not so inclined to do these things and you know as I do that if you don't properly maintain your system and have little or no training in OS's and programming that strange things will happen to their systems , and their efforts to correct these problems usually amplify the problem rather than fix it. You are well founded in your advice as that is what you would do in a similar situation, but just imagine your Physician or auto mechanic what they would do in your place....

I hope I don't offend you with my rantings but I was developing telecommunications equipment that you may have found in your textbooks, while you were still wearing diapers.
And I have never stepped a foot into a college, and I dropped out of high school in 1975.

I just had to say this I could not help it.....still friends??

I Got A compaq and i got some problems with it too dont know if it has anything to do with compaq (actually don't think so) but removing all those useless programs that run at start worked good for me.. its not running great but it did help..

Good luck..

ThaVolt

GG,
there are a lot of great sugestions here and I'a like to offer one or two more.
If you want a nice, easy to use registry cleaner, among other things, check out www.Toniarts.com
he's got a good one there with specific win XP patches. It's free and easy to use.
CHECK your drivers!!!
I had some XP issues with older drivers, updated them and everything was hunky dory.
Use the windows update feature to make sure everything is up to date!
XP does haev it's share of flaws, but you can make it dance to your tune with patience and a bit of work.

I am really unhappy with Windows XP in its performance. I tested out my machine which was running windows 2k and upgraded to XP. The day that i upgraded is the day my machine went down the tubes. I constantly found myself losing device drivers and it was slower than frozen molasses. I wiped it out and went back to Windows 2000. Haven't had trouble with it since.

Looks like you have too much advice already, just one thought. Has anybody tried the System Restore option in XP? In Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore is supposed to give you the ability to create a restore point when your system is running optimally and then when you have a problem you go back to that state. ?