laptop is bogged down ever since...

[joepinger]

I have an Acer Notebook 5100 Aspire.  It is running on Windows Vista Home Premium and it's supposed to have 4GB of RAM but when I look to see it says I only have 2GB.  How can that be?  Also for X-MAS I received an IPOD and downloaded the information onto the laptop and now the computer runs slower than ever.  I looked into some of the program files and found out that there are some files that have 10,000 KB and some with a little bit lower ones.  It shows that I only have 10 percent space available.  How do I find out what files are junk and what files are good?  I think the IPOD from Apple downloaded some junk into the hard drive and now the computer is turtle slow.  Any help is appreciated thank you.

[talontromper]

Have you done basic disk house keeping? (I.E. Disk defrag, disk cleaner) As far as the laptop only showing to 2 gigs of RAM where is it showing that your laptop has only 2 gigs of RAM? if its the task manager, under the performance tab, that shows how much RAM is in use as well as how much total RAM the system has....

[Allan]

1) Apple does not install "junk" on your computer. In fact, you always have the option what to install.
2) Download and run treesize to see where the space is being consumed (http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml)
3) Look in SYSTEM PROPERTIES - how much ram does it show?

[jason2074]

Try going to System Configuration Utility. Go to start, type msconfig then click ok. Under General menu, you may see you have 3 options normal, diagnostic, selective. Try clicking the circle besides selective starup click apply then click ok. Close the System Configuration Utility and it will ask you to reboot. Restart your computer. Make sure also that you have emptied your recycle bin of your previously deleted files.

[Allan]

Try going to System Configuration Utility. Go to start, type msconfig then click ok. Under General menu, you may see you have 3 options normal, diagnostic, selective. Try clicking the circle besides selective starup click apply then click ok. Close the System Configuration Utility and it will ask you to reboot. Restart your computer. Make sure also that you have emptied your recycle bin of your previously deleted files.

Toward what end? Why do you want him to do a diagnostic startup?

[jason2074]

Toward what end? Why do you want him to do a diagnostic startup?

I think i posted Selective Start up....http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/msconfig.htm

[Allan]

Same thing. What's the purpose?

[jason2074]

It's also a telling point that even though you have a high memory or RAM and eventually slowed down your computer, the programs that are running in the background even though its not being used when you open your computer and using it will also contribute to the inefficiency of your computer. By managing these programs on the SYSTEM CONFIGURATION UTILITY[/color, it will give you the option on how your computer perform based on the user's need.

http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/msconfig.html

[Allan]

1) msconfig is a diagnostic utility only and should not be used to manage startup processes for other than troubleshooting purposes
2) startup items have nothing to do with the problem at hand here

joepinger - there is no reason for you to do ANYTHING with msconfig for the questions you posted.

[joepinger]

1) Apple does not install "junk" on your computer. In fact, you always have the option what to install.
2) Download and run treesize to see where the space is being consumed (http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml)
3) Look in SYSTEM PROPERTIES - how much ram does it show?

I looked into system properties and it says I have 2GB, when in fact I have 4GB.  I since uninstalled the IPOD from my computer to see if it would give me more room and no it didn't.  Still at 10%.  I have some questions on some of the program files and things.  How do I know which ones are important and not important?  Here's an example of one of the files. MOVIEMK.dll 10,671KB, omdBase.dll 8,878KB, omdProject.dll 4,041KB, CaptureWizard.exe 2,876KB, DVDmaker.exe 1,917KB, Pipeline.dll 1,560KB, PipeTran.dll 1,465KB these are some of the big files.

[Allan]

1) You uninstalled the ipod? How do you do that?

2) We're not going to go through all of your files.

3) If System Properties says you have 2GB ram, that's what you have.

[joepinger]

I actually uninstalled the files in which when I connected the ipod to the computer for the first time the information in which it installed on the computer I took out like the Apple Application Support, Bonjour, Quicktime and Apple Software Update.  I put in 4GB awhile back it said so on the RAM I installed on the bottom of the computer inside next to the hard drive.  How do I know which files are good and which ones aren't?  Apparently some of those big files are loading down the computer.  Thanks again.

[Allan]

Are you talking about itunes? No matter, you uninstalled what you uninstalled - that's fine.

Did anything ever show that the system recognized more than 2Gb ram after you installed the additional ram?

You can go to ADD/REMOVE and uninstall whatever you like.

[BC_Programmer]

Yes- if you delete any programs, do so through Add/Remove, do NOT go futzing about and deleting files at random in some misguided attempt to free space. If you do, you will probably learn not to do it again.



Also, How much disk space do you have? You've mentioned the amount of RAM you have as well as how much you think it should have, but both are largely irrelevant to the problem that you only have 10% free disk space.

[joepinger]

I have 10% disk space available right now.  It does fluctuate thoughout the day from 10%-20% when I write up new documents and things.  I do need to mention that I do have alot of computer issues in the problems and reports section.  That might be a factor do you think?  Reliability and Performance says this:ERROR SYMPTOM "A service is reported as having an unexpected error code." CAUSE: "One or more services has failed." "The service did not stop gracefully, suggesting the service may have crashed or one of it's components stopped in an unsupported way." "Service exited with code not equal to 0 or 1077." System service checks failed.  It doesn't recognize my anti virus product Webroot. "Acer.scr stopped working and so on. Thanks.