Dan Schulz

Computer Problems

Tuesday, April 24, 2007 9:05:38 AM

My computer has been running very slowly as of late. I don't know why (everything is checking out just fine), but for some reason it's taking forever for programs to open and close (even simple ones like win32pad), Opera and Internet Explorer are caching external files and refusing to update them (while Firefox grabs the latest versions just fine) despite having the cache disabled and being set to check for updates automatically, and now I am having a lot of difficulty even connecting to the Internet from my machine.

Anyway, I got this PC four years ago, unused and in mint condition. It's gone through a power supply since then, which forced me to swap out the compact case for a white box, but I've been happy with it. In case you're wondering, my PC is running an ASUS TUSI-M motherboard with an Intel 933mH P3 processor (x86 family) and 512MB of SD-RAM running Windows XP Pro/SP2 on a 20GB Maxtor hard drive. The PC is about 5 years old (like I said, I got it unused), and aside from the power supply blowing a couple years ago, it's served me very well.

I don't have a broadband connection, having to suffer through dialup hell (with NetZero being my "ball and chain" ISP). Why it insists on setting Internet Explorer as my default browser (even though Opera is set as the default and apparently retains its state) I'll never know, but if I could find a way to change that in the settings, I'd do it in a heart beat. The computer is also armed to the teeth, running the Windows Firewall (I have a local testing server installed), AVG Anti-Virus, Ad-Aware SE, Spybot Search & Destroy, SpywareBlaster and of course the best browser ever made (Opera). IE is used only for testing Web pages I create, and the occasional time I need to go to Microsoft.com but other than that, it never get used (except when a program like Trillian needs it or my POS ISP connects to the Web). Bear in mind I never actually open anything with Trillian (the email alerts are nice, but I just go to the tab the email account is in - yes, I use Web based email rather than Outlook or Thunderbird or even the built-in Opera Mail client), and every bit of spam I get is deleted without even batting an eye.

Which means that either my ISP is mucking up my PC (wouldn't put it past them), something managed to get past my defenses and is chewing up memory, or I have a hardware issue. Any thoughts before I have the PC taken in for repairs? I'd like to just say "screw it" and get a new computer, but I'd also like to move to a better part of town sooner rather than later, so saving up for that has to take precedence over getting a new computer - even if that PC is my main source of income.

Setting Up ShopWelcome to New Earth

Comments

Unregistered user # Friday, April 27, 2007 11:48:42 PM

John Woz writes: Hey Dan - I imagine you have done something along these lines but in case any of these didn't cross your mind: 1. Run Windows Defender full scan - same for Ad-Aware (spybot breaks a few things so I don't use it) 2. Run a full virus scan if you use Norton or something similar 2. Old drives start to flake with bad sectors (that the OS hides well for awhile) so I would do a full error check with the all the checkboxes for attempt to recover yada yada yada checked and run it by restarting then do a full defrag Like you said you may have some other baddy but at least you will have a a cleaner slate after doing the above. If this still doesn't get your pc healthy again... I have recently used dban to resurrect some old drives with some success (after backing up what I needed too, doing an error check and defrag via the OS and then reinstalling the OS after wiping the drive). I wiped the drives, reinstalled the OS (added some RAM and a DVD burner from newegg in the case of my old celeron emachines and she is better than new :). I have a laptop that I did the same for (p3) and it was resurrected for awhile (3 months or so) but the hard drive decided to take a permanent nap about a week ago - it far outlived my expectations of life expectancy but it did eventually fail for good in spite of my best efforts to inject some extended life. FWIW, Knoppix seems to do well if installed on a machine that can no longer run windows and is less finicky on old hardware than any flavor of linux I have used and I have tried most of them. I swear by knoppix hacks as an admin tool for windows machines. My external hard drive is 120gigs (much bigger than the old internal on my emachines - the external was a solid xmas present from the rents 2 years ago) so I basically just use the windows backup utility to copy over my documents at intervals. I hope that helps - I know how frustrating it can be to have your computer bog down, whatever the reason.

Dan Schulz # Saturday, April 28, 2007 4:54:36 AM

Unfortunately I don't have another hard drive I can use for that purpose, so I'm kinda between a rock and a hard place. I was able to borrow a spare computer from a friend of mine (which I am using to type this comment), but I don't know how long it'll be before I can get mine fixed - if it can be at all.

I'll keep you posted though.

Unregistered user # Saturday, April 28, 2007 4:19:35 PM

John Woz writes: That really does suck - sounds like a bit of a pickle. The only other thing that pops in to mind on the quick is using a large flash USB drive to backup your files and then bringing the files over to a friend's with a DVD burner to back everything up (piecemeal if need be) and then doing the error check, defrag, dban wipe, and OS re-install. This way you can salvage as much created work as possible (and have it archived and ready to go when you are back up with a new system) and know that your new install is as pristine as possible. With the ever larger size of flash drives these days maybe there is one around that is big enough to be helpful. Maybe a friend has an external DVD burner you could just plug into your box and backup everything - even easier than sneakernetting the files via USB drive. If Windows is playing so rough that it won't let you drag folders to the USB drive or burn a backup DVD than there goes that but I thought I would throw the thought out there. I just don't want to see anyone (least of all someone that does work of your caliber) lose their stuff. I am sure you will come up with something. If nothing can be done, it sounds like you are prepared so that is good in that at least your expectations are reasonable (no fun to be hopeful for no reason). Best of luck resolving it.

Unregistered user # Wednesday, May 2, 2007 9:42:56 PM

ggoodwin writes: I am going to give you the crappy half baked response. Time to get a new computer and broadband :) I have had many problems with hard drives though, at one point my system was bricked because my windows hard drive went bad all of a sudden. Took me forever to figure that one out. (Replaced a GFX card unnecessarily in the process). Sometimes it's just best to backup anything important and do a complete format and reinstall of WinXP.

Unregistered user # Friday, May 11, 2007 4:00:19 AM

raymo writes: Make friends with Norton Ghost. I don't recommend the new v10 though. Go the old legacy (bootable) versions.

Unregistered user # Friday, May 11, 2007 4:04:47 AM

raymo writes: I should also add that Ghost won't help with your current problem, it will only help for issues in future where you suspect some program or OS data has gone funny / corrupt, or where software has installed unremovable data, or in case of nasty viruses. I find being able to go back to a previous backup is invaluable. You need to have your hard disk partitioned if you only have one disk. This should be done regardless of Ghost though. C: for windows & program files; D: for your data.

Dan Schulz # Friday, May 11, 2007 4:20:30 AM

I trust Norton about as far as I can throw the Brooklyn Bridge - which says a lot. I was able to borrow a computer from a friend of mine. Doubled the available memory on it and even got a DVD+ RW drive on there, so I'll go ahead and hook my hard drive up to that PC as a slave, and then try to copy all of my files over to DVD os I don't lose anything.

Thanks for the advice though.