TSGL: Dell Dimension - too slow

[The Computer Whisperer]

@glenn

Good anti-spyware/malware should detect such problems anyway.

Using anti-spyware you could tell which games were causing the problems.

anyway...

Justin


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On 12/10/06, Glen Bigelow <gbigelow at gmail.com> wrote:
> Tilman,
>
> I'll jump on the bandwagon with Don about the Kid's games...and you probably
> have to look no further for your problems.  I recently put a fresh build of
> XP on a system similarly configured to your friend's Dell.  The rebuilt
> system was being recycled for my good friend's 12 year old son.  So, I
> delivered it and then went over everything with the young gentlemen.
>
> The very next day, my friend calls and tells me the system is just
> crawling...takes it forever to open up programs and to open up the browser.
> I ask what had changed...had they installed anything after I left?  She
> says, "Well, her son had installed some games, but surely that wouldn't
> cause any problems"...yeah right!
>
> Anyway...long story short...I go over, remove all the games and the computer
> goes right back to it's zippy self.  I hate games!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: list-bounces at tsgserver.com [mailto:list-bounces at tsgserver.com] On
> Behalf Of Don Penlington
> Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 8:04 PM
> To: Tech Support Guy Mailing List
> Subject: Re: TSGL: Dell Dimension - too slow
>
> Tilman wrote:
>
> >The bootup process (and possible problems there) may
> >not have any relation with whatever reasons there are for an overall
> >slowness.>>
>
>
> But they often do. It's the first place I'd be looking for possible clues.
> A bad driver, for instance, can play havoc with performance, if it's
> neither fully open nor fully closed (does that make any sense?). Just
> sitting there in limbo, forever sucking up power trying to get properly
> operative.
>
> <<her kids have  got games on CD which - on second thought - might be worth
> scrutinizing
> more closely.>>
>
> That'd be my 2nd choice.  I haven't seen a computer yet (admittedly I
> haven't seen many) with kids games
> where performance has been AOK.  I think there are many games poorly
> written, or just not suitable for XP, where resources do not get properly
> released, even on reboot. Seems impossible in theory, but it happens.
>
> I su[pposxe you've had a careful look thru Task Manager at both Processes
> and Applications.  Remembering that XP retains settings on reboot, look for
> any running processes that are unusual.  A very common problem with games
> is an aborted or failed install continuing to run the installation process
> Msie.exe.  Often this fails to release, and continues to suck up resources
> which don't otherwise seem to show except that everything slows down to a
> crawl or gets stuck.  Often you'll find several instances of the same .exe
> running as the kids try several times to install something before giving up.
>
> Msie, contrary to popular belief, is not a Microsoft process, but a 3rd
> party installer available to programmers. It is prone to difficulties when
> it goes wrong, and this can sometimes be seen with many games
> installations.  I'd therefore rate your "kids games" as prime suspects.
> Look especially for any failed installations which may have left registry
> remnants behind, including startups. You might be in for some very tedious
> manual registry cleaning, unless perchance ERUNT happens to be on the
> computer and contains some early registry backups.
>
> In the end, you might well find it easier to reformat and reinstall XP.
>
> Don Penlington
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
> Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
> http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html
>
>
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http://www.whisperer.com.au

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Telephone: (03) 5979 1122
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