Xp problems for me..Grrrrrrrr

[Marg]

I'm  having  mega  problems  with  my  xp  ,it  runs almost  all  the  time even  when  I'm  not  trying  to  go  to  a  web  page,this  started  about  a  month  ago  after  we  did  a  windows  update  and  have  checked  to  see  that  was  ok. We (my  husband  &I ) have  defraged,virus  scaned, spy sweeped  and  went  through  a  number  of  digonistic  checks. We  have  even  tried  to  reatore  the  computer  to  3 (three)  earlier  dates  but  the  computer  will  not  do  that. Can  you  give  me  some  advice  what  else  to  try  before  my  husband  throws  the  computer  out  the  window.  We  have  NOT  added  anything  new  during  or   before  this  trouble  started.

It  also  keeps  telling  me  I'm  low  on  virtual  memory  yet  I  have  little  in  the  computer.

[Neil]

In the control panel, look into system. Go to the advanced tab, and click the performance settings button. On the new Window that appears, click advanced. Look at the virtual memory box. How much is listed?

[dl65]

Marg.........   Perhaps you could clarify what the problem is .......

I'm  having  mega  problems  with  my  xp  ,it  runs almost  all  the  time even  when  I'm  not  trying  to  go  to  a  web  page,this  started  about  a  month  ago  after  we  did  a  windows  update  and  have  checked  to  see  that  was  ok. We (my  husband  &I ) have  defraged,virus  scaned, spy sweeped  and  went  through  a  number  of  digonistic  checks.

Because XP is the operating system , it is what runs whenever the machine is turned on .

More info on the specific problem would be helpful.

dl65  

[Marg]

In the control panel, look into system. Go to the advanced tab, and click the performance settings button. On the new Window that appears, click advanced. Look at the virtual memory box. How much is listed?

  If  I  looked  correctly    it  says " Total paging  file  size  for  all  drives  449MB"  I  don't  know  if  thats  good  or  bad  I  deleted  some  pictures  and  it  went  from  352  to  449 MB


DL65  I  use  internet  explorer if  thats  a  help  when  we  turn  the  computer  on  starting  since  about  July12th  instead  of  taking  5  minutes  to  come  on  line  (  I  have  broadband)    it  now  takes  upwards  of  ten  minutes.  and  then  seems  to  run  all  the  time.  I  have  Compaq  2.5ghz 256 mb  80gb    sorry  if  I  take  long  to  answer  but  it's  getting  to  the  problem  of  just  trying  to  go  from  one  page  to  another  takes  time.

[GX1_Man]

Do you have a real WIndows CD to reload if necessary? That would certainly fix it quickly. I am sure you have malware problems involved, even though you think you don't if nothing else has changed physically with the machine, no playing in the BIOS, etc.

Of course more RAM would dramatically improve performance in a properly behaved machine, but I think there are other issues at work here.

[Marg]

GX1..... I  think  you  are  correct  that  or  I've  a  virus  that  is  not  being  picked  up.  I  have  all  the  cd's  that  came  with  the  cpmputer  and  have  sugested  that  we  try  that  but   my  man  thinks  that  doing  that  I'd  loss  all  my  information  I've  in  my  computer  , I've  a  few  files  that  are  rather  important  to  me  and  can  not  just  save  to  dic. So  my  question  is  if  we  were  to  put  in  the  recovery  cd's  can  I  be  sure  I'd  lose  nothing ?

[GX1_Man]

Absolutely not, you would probably lose everything. THis depends on the computer manufacturer and the way the system restore CD's are set up, but in any case it would be best to back up important files before proceeding.

What hardware do you have? A CDRW drive? How big are the files in question? Small enough that you could save them on a pen drive?

Who is the manufacturer of the computer and what do the discs say on them exactly?

[Neil]

How much free harddisk space do you have?

On the bottem right of the start menu bar, look at those icons. Are there a lot? Try looking in some of their options and disabling automatic load up at startup to speed up loading (but not virus scaner etc of course)