Windows Explorer

[TCR]

HI, On my DELL laptop ia have Windows XP. When I open windows explorer (NOT internet explorer) it opens up the explorer windows and then a torch appears and it runs for while before I was able to see all drives.

Samething happens if I try to save via excel or word to change the folder , then it will hang on for a long time before I could see the drives and folders.

Any idea why this happening and appreciate any suggestions to resolve it.

Thank you

[kpac]

First of all welcome to Computer Hope!

I dont really understand your problem. Is it that no folders and files come up? And they do when you save a file or change the folder?

[quaxo]

Well, I understand the problem, but could you define "a long time"? 10 seconds? 10 minutes? What?

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

@ Kpac (Quaxo, you posted before me)

I think he means that the thing just freezes a lot. Is that right?

TCR,

Is this the first time or has it always been like this?

[TCR]

Hi All,

Thank you for your quick responses. basically when I fire up windows explorer it should show up all drives and folders. But in my case sooner the explorer opens up a torch staart to run and I would say normally it runs for about 3 minutes before showing up the drives and folders. I really don't know why that is happeneing.

Would it be the case of it searching for something then showing up the drives and and its contents?

[TCR]

@ Kpac (Quaxo, you posted before me)

I think he means that the thing just freezes a lot. Is that right?

TCR,

Is this the first time or has it always been like this?

It happens all the time.....

[TCR]

Well, I understand the problem, but could you define "a long time"? 10 seconds? 10 minutes? What?

I would say the torch runs for about 3 minutes before showing up the drives and its contents

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Woah that's a long time.

Any Background Processes taking up all your CPU power and RAM? (look task manager)

What is your processor speed and RAM?

[TCR]

I am not sure, how can I check any background processes and if so, can I stop them and how?
As I am not with my Laptop right now , I could check the processor speed and RAM tonight, but as this laptop is fairly new (not more than 3 years old), I guess there should not be any problems with speeds.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

You would be surprised what can happen in three years, my friend.

To check them, press CTRL + ALT + Delete and go to the Processes Tab.
You list anything that's taking up a lot of CPU and/or Mem Usage. (or everything).

I don't think a HijackThis log is necessary....at least not now...

[soybean]

@ Kpac (Quaxo, you posted before me)

I think he means that the thing just freezes a lot. Is that right?

TCR,

Is this the first time or has it always been like this?

It happens all the time.....

Has it always done this (always: meaning since the computer was new)?

What are the hardware specs on that computer?  How full is the hard drive?

Do you use any disk cleanup utilities such as Windows Disk Cleanup or CCleaner? 

Has that computer ever been networked with other computers?

[TCR]

@ Kpac (Quaxo, you posted before me)

I think he means that the thing just freezes a lot. Is that right?

TCR,

Is this the first time or has it always been like this?

When it was new, I didn't have any problems like this.....after about a year or so this started. Since then I have done disk clean and even I have done factory reset (means deleted everything and brought the laptop back to original set up). When I did factory reset, it started to work fine but after about a month this issue has started again. Only thing I did within that period is that I reloaded my microsoft softwares, internet softwares etc.

As I haven't got the laptop with me right now (I am writing this from work) I could not give you hardware info as requested. But I know it was 60GB hard drive and with I believe 1GB processor. But I would assume there would be about 40GB free space available in my hard disk.

It has never been network connected but has wireless internet access. It has a network card slot, but it has nothing in it, just a plastic cover provided by DELL. Hope I have answered your questions.
It happens all the time.....

Has it always done this (always: meaning since the computer was new)?

What are the hardware specs on that computer?  How full is the hard drive?

Do you use any disk cleanup utilities such as Windows Disk Cleanup or CCleaner? 

Has that computer ever been networked with other computers?

[TCR]

@ Kpac (Quaxo, you posted before me)

I think he means that the thing just freezes a lot. Is that right?

TCR,

Is this the first time or has it always been like this?

When it was new, I didn't have any problems like this.....after about a year or so this started. Since then I have done disk clean and even I have done factory reset (means deleted everything and brought the laptop back to original set up). When I did factory reset, it started to work fine but after about a month this issue has started again. Only thing I did within that period is that I reloaded my microsoft softwares, internet softwares etc.

As I haven't got the laptop with me right now (I am writing this from work) I could not give you hardware info as requested. But I know it was 60GB hard drive and with I believe 1GB processor. But I would assume there would be about 40GB free space available in my hard disk.

It has never been network connected but has wireless internet access. It has a network card slot, but it has nothing in it, just a plastic cover provided by DELL. Hope I have answered your questions.
It happens all the time.....

Has it always done this (always: meaning since the computer was new)?

What are the hardware specs on that computer?  How full is the hard drive?

Do you use any disk cleanup utilities such as Windows Disk Cleanup or CCleaner? 

Has that computer ever been networked with other computers?

Further yesterday's info I confirm hard disk size is 80GB and 53GB free space left. 1 GB processor and it has 1.5GB RAM. Hope this helps.

[TCR]

You would be surprised what can happen in three years, my friend.

To check them, press CTRL + ALT + Delete and go to the Processes Tab.
You list anything that's taking up a lot of CPU and/or Mem Usage. (or everything).

I don't think a HijackThis log is necessary....at least not now...

Hi on the process tab I saw quite a lot of programs running. What do I need to do? Are they important or not? Do you think that is what causing the problem? PLease advise.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Anything taking up a lot of Mem Usage or CPU? Also, open Windows Explorer.


Right on the Next Tab, it would be helpful to know what the CPU Usage is and PF Usage when Windows Explorer is open.

[TCR]

Please see memory usage as shown in the attachment (4 pages of images) and please advise me what I should do, Thank you for your help.

Sorry I forgot to do the 2nd request (performance tab) which I will do tonight and send it to you tomorrow.

If you are unable to open the attachment, please let me know. Thank you.


[recovering disk space -- attachment deleted by admin]

[kpac]

I dont think there are any large processes running which dont have to be.
The larger ones like explorer.exe is alright because it is used often.

The rest of the processes are quite small.

[TCR]

Thanks, if you reasons any other reasons for this issue, please let me know.

[TCR]

HI,

As per your request the other info you have requested is attached. Would appreciate your help.

best regards

[recovering disk space -- attachment deleted by admin]

[TCR]

As I receive no further guidance, I guess I have to live with it I suppose......

[Calum]

As you appear to have been abandoned I'll step in.
You have an awful lot of processes running.
I suggest that you go to start, click run, and type msconfig, then hit enter.
Now go to Startup, and check through the list of programs there.
Any that you don't know if you need, either search Google or ask here.  Do not disable any security programs.
Uncheck unneeded programs and reboot when asked.  That should free up some resources.

[TCR]

Thank you Calum for stepping in. If I uncheck unneeded programs, will I be able to use those programs if I need those later? Also for example, Itunes I don't want them to run everytime I switch on my laptop but I need it for updating my ipod say once in 2 weeks. In that case, can I uncheck that too? PLease advise.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

If you uncheck Itunes from startup, it will still work when you start the application. All your pretty much doing in MSConfig is preventing it from starting up automatically.

Also, I suggest getting CCleaner and clearing out the System's Temporary files (you can uncheck anything you don't want but keep System --> Temporary Files checked.

Also, go through the registry a few times with CCleaner.

[Calum]

You may find this thread useful - http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,22078.0.html - if you try CCleaner.

[soybean]

You may find this thread useful - http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,22078.0.html - if you try CCleaner.

That reference is a little out-dated but still helpful.  The Issues button is now named Registry. 

[Calum]

That's actually mentioned in the guide now, edited in by CBMatt.

[TCR]

I did as what you said, msconfig - start up and tried all options to disable unwanted softwares, but that hasn't resolved the issue I have. But I went into the next tab 'services' and tried disabling applications and after doing various options I found out when 'Windows image acquision' is ticked, firing up windows explorer is very slow and when I remove the tick windows explorer coming up almost instantly as how it supposed to work. I am not sure why WIA is causing problem with windows explorer. I have currently diabled windows image acquisition(WIA) and it is working fine. When I checked on Google, is says WIA is to do with digital cameras, scanners etc. My concern is if I can continue keep WIA disabled and will it cause any problems when I connect digital cameras or scanners. PLease advise what I should do......Thank you for your guidance to make me to focus into the appropriate area to resolve the issue.

[Calum]

My advice would be not to use the msconfig tool to edit service settings, as whatever you uncheck is then disabled.
Undo what you have done in msconfig and go to start - run - type services.msc and press enter.
Find WIA and set it to Manual - this way, it should only start when needed.
WIA is useful if you want to see your camera as a camera rather than a mass storage device, or if you use scanners.  It's possible to just start the service manually via services.msc if you need it.
Good luck.