Re: slow Dell system

Tech-Archive recommends: Speed Up your PC by fixing your registry

Please CROSSPOST in the FUTURE!

TRABEM wrote:
> My punchbox is slower 'n molasses on a cold winter morn.
>
> System is a Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, XP Home, 2.3 Ghz with 256 MB of
> ram, harddrive is 30 GB with only 10 GB in use. I have 2 users on the
> system, both with administrative privileges. We always log off when
> switching users, so the problem is not due to another users programs
> running.

Celeron?
Ick if so - that will make a lot of things seem slower right there.

> We have all the Microsoft updates and only use the stock Windows
> firewall. We have DSL and our download speed is slower than our
> neighbors..we've swapped modems and computers......the 30 percent
> slower download speed is due to something in the computer itself and
> shows up as a data light that does not stay continuously lit during a
> download....it stops for 5 or 6 seconds every minute, then resumes.
> Again, we've confirmed that our neighbors system does not act like
> this (same ISP).

Updated the drivers for the NIC? Tried a PCMCIA NIC from someone else -
wireless even?

> I have Norton SystemWorks, which is a virus checker. I use adaware,
> have purged the startup folder so no applications run at startup now.
> I've stripped the software down to the bare minimum, taking out some
> software that insists on occupying resources by running in the system
> tray (notification area). I've taken out all the Dell specific utility
> programs as recommended by independent sources familiar with the Dell
> setups.

You do some things.. Not enough - but some. That's good.
Norton SystemWorks may be using up some of your valuable resources though.

> Sometimes when I boot, it's so slow that it gives me notices that so
> and so system program couldn't start and wants me to send a
> notification to Bill G. The same thing happens often when I shut down,
> or during routine use.

That's not slowness, that's other problems.
Ran any CHKDSKs?

<snip>

> I've defragmented the harddrive to death (almost), a freshly
> defragmented drive shows a slight improvement......but it's not the
> problem. I've cleaned the internet temporary files, the cache and the
> internet history shortcuts.

That's good. Could be a hardware issue. Bad RAM, bad hard drive, etc.
Have you flashed the BIOS? Upgraded all the hardware drivers? (NOT from
Microsoft - from DELL in this case.)

> Norton one button checkup software often finds an activex error in the
> registry, and fixes it......OBC and Win Doctor do not find problems.

Ick. One-Button Checkups.

> There is one hint, which might be meaningful (or maybe not). When I
> attempt to run Norton Disk Doctor, the software tells me that "the
> operating system or another process has exclusive access to this drive
> or some of it's files. NDD cannot continue with the repair under these
> conditions. A repair can be scheduled to occur the next time you
> restart your system".

No - you have Windows XP and likely NTFS - it guards the file system.

> When I tell it to perform the reset and scan, it does a dos scan,
> finds no errors and restarts windows.

Well, that's good and answers the question about the CHKDSK.


I would wipe it. Back it up first and then wipe it and return it to the day
you bough it status. Dell can help you do that.
SP2 it before ever connecting it to any Internet.

Then see how it reacts. If you can bring it back to "as sold" status and it
is still defective - Dell will replace things on it - if under warranty.
Who knows - could have a bad memory module, bad motherboard, bad hard drive,
or just lots of spyware. heh

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


.

Quantcast