Viewing Thread:
"Processor Problem?"

[Also posted in pc forum but nobody seems to be posting at the moment]

My computer just froze (which happens to most machines from time to time) so I manually restarted it and came to the main desktop. I tried to open Internet Explorer to come back online, but nothing happened...

I waited a bit and tried again. Nothing.

I then opened word just to check stuff was still working. Word opened.

Then a couple of seconds later everything else I had clicked (explorer windows and messenger) all popped up at once.

Is this a lag with my processor or something? I have just had an AMD 2.6+ installed, so I assume it should be rather fast.

Any ideas whats up with this tart of a machine I am running?

Thanks Biggles, it was a bit simplistic but still helpful.

I was going to run a defrag last night, and I have limited my startup items, and I seem to be running fine now.

Just the problems of hotmail login (I think it is an SSL problem, but I know nothing about these things) and also why macromedia shockwave doesnt download (I think it might be an active X problem)

Cheers for everyones help thus far.

Yes I know that a lot of people are not computer literate, after all if we all were it would negate call centres and tech support. It's like asking a car mechanic to fix the most basic of problems, and then ask them to explain what went wrong. Que thoughts of the mechanic ABC, if you know what I mean, but to every one else he wouls seem to be very knowledgeable.

All about different areas of expertise.

And I realise I'm not explaining myself well, but I'm in programming mode

There is a difference between patronising and simple. Paradox indicated that he doesn't know terribly much about computers, hence rather than just tell him do this, this and the next thing, I tried to explain it to him, to show the value of doing those things.

Perhaps he knows and fully understand them all, in which case great, no harm done. Far better to be fully informed and not need it, than to be needing information and not have it. Never assumethat a user/client etc has a certain level of knowledge without evidence to support it.

As for steam, it's a pain. Or at least it would be if it actually installed things every time. In theory it is great, you just download what you need. Everytime it runs it checks for an update first. But in practise it is slow and irritating. But hey, for free it isn't all that bad. In time I imagine they will get it sorted out a bit more. It certainly is better than when it launched and it keeps everything fairly tidy.

I don't know of any way round it, but I'm sure there is somewhere. Check the forums on the steam website.

NB what do you think of Steam? I checked it out when I got my Half Life 2 voucher with my graphics card however I wasn't impressed. Having to connect to the net to play an offline game I thought was a bit pointless. Is there anyway around it?

He could of done that alot shorter...

Icarus wrote:
> Having read what NB said

Having read what NB, I found the wording really patronising to read, even though it wasn't aimed at me. Guess it shows how much of a geek I am

EL ® ö B ì Ñ wrote:
> Not the processor.
> I have to wait about 15 seconds after i turn my computer on to wait
> for all the apps to start up, eg: Norton

Yea it does.. unless he's changed the startup items.

Wow Ali! Bit technical there!

Right from the top Kylie: this just started or has it always been like this? If always then it COULD be a hardware problem. If just recently then it is software related.

Now I'm inclined to think it is simply software at this stage. I have a few suggestions that might help. These are just simple things that you can do in Windows that are completely harmless. But there is a lot of reading.

It might help if I explained a bit about computers, really simply.

When you install something, normally it adds bits of information to the registry, a sort of database that windows has that stores information about programs and settings etc. Over time as you install stuff, un-install stuff etc the registry can get a bit bloated and sometimes it gets to a point where it can be a factor in slowdown.

Also you should get rid of the junk. Uninstall things you don't need, and empty the recycle bin etc. Any old files you don't need... Start > All Programs > Accessories > System tools > disk cleanup. This will help you get rid of needless files.

Another thing is the way the hard drive works. You put files and programs on it. Think of it as like one big book shelf. You have some stuff on it. And in time you might bin some of it. And this leaves you with gaps between other books etc. Now the computer will just fill up any space with data. If a space is too small to fit something fully in, the computer splits the file up and puts in bits. If files have bits scattered all over the place it takes longer to piece together. The technical term for this is fragmentation. Which is why you run disk defragmenter from Start > All Programs > Accessories > System tools.

What this does is shove all the files up together so you have more space at the end of the "shelf" and no gaps between files.

Yet more stuff.... When you turn your PC on, a whole pile of programs get started up that you often don't need or want. That obviously slows things down. Take a run up to Start > All Programs > Startup. Just see what is there. Do you need these to start up when you first turn on? If not, just right click them and delete. It is only a shortcut, it won't delete the program. But.. that doesn't show all the things that actually do load when you turn the PC on. Some are hidden. Start > Run, type msconfig. Then click the start up tab.

On my PC I have InCD, which is burning software; steam, which is Half Life related; qttask, which is Quicktime; and a few other things. If I was to uncheck those inessential items it would mean they wouldn't load at start up, making the PC faster.

You said you have 1192 Mb of space for temp internet files... waaay too much. It isn't about the size of the files, that is up to you. But it will just store a whole load of old ones which will never get used. No point in having the PC search through all that stuff everytime you go to a website. It won't make a big difference, but it frees up space and might shave a few microseconds off web page loading times.

Hope some of that helps.

Thanks for your help everyone.

I might not be online for a while as I'm stressed to bits with computers, I really need to relax this half term before I have a stroke.