Computer has become very slow for 'other' reason

At least, I think so… I finally upgraded to a new computer with Windows XP Professional, which was running fine until just recently. However, it's now slowed down an awful lot, probably either to do with a bunch of Creative drivers or Windows Messenger. The only actual error message I've had referred to Windows Messenger having fallen over; I don't use this program as far as I know, but I understand that it's a bit buried in the system. However, I'm more worried about this: I tried to install the drivers &c to run my aged Creative Nomad Jukebox which threw up Windows Logo Testing Errors. I asked Creative for an up-to-date xp-happy version and they said, basically, "Oh, you can trust us, go ahead". I imagine a bunch of groans at this point. Its uninstall program has left files and folders on my c drive and a bunch of bobbins in the registry. I'm a bit scared of the registry. So: should I be trying to get rid of the Creative stuff first? The Messenger? Could it be something else? I have scanned - and come up clean - with both Norton AntiVirus and AdAware over the weekend. Apologies if I'm in the wrong forum. Hope someone can help. All best - Andrew

First off, you are in the right spot. Secondly, and rightly so, being leary (at best) of the registry is a good call on your part. Now, dont misunderstand that. Its just that unless your some what familiar with the registry its best to ask first/play later. As far as messenger goes, the best thing to do there is disable the service from running. With the newer line of Microsoft operating systems, they have done away with alot of the old startup issues (msconfig). Go to "Control Panel" and click on "Administrative Tools". Then click on the "Services" icon. Expand that window so that takes up the screen (so you can see what your doing) and scroll down till you see "Messenger" service. Right click on it and choose propeties. Under the "General" tab, in the drop down menu (were it says startup type), choose "Disable" and then click to "stop" the service. Then click "Apply". Now, under the "Log on" tab, highlight (right click) on "Profile 1" then left click on "Disable"…. click "Apply"… then click "ok".. Now that will take care of the/any messenger issues. Close all that stuff out now and get back to desktop. Click on Start… then Run… type msconfig and press enter. Under the startup disable everything (keep in mind here that your not uninstalling, or deleting anything… just keeping it from starting up with windows.) Click "apply" then click "ok"… it will ask you to reboot and do so. Now, when it boots back up to desktop you will receive a popup saying that your using a diagnostic utility…etc..etc. Pace a check mark in the box in the lower left hand side that says "do not show this again"… now, play around with that and see what, if any, difference that makes as far as performance. With the creative drivers issue. Its ok and you did right to click to "go ahead and install unsigned drivers"… thats happens quite frequently and you have to do it with alot of hardware/software (I look at it like this, if I have some hardware I market and sell… I am not real sure but I would tend to think I would better know my product than Microsoft…. make sense?) Any how.. you did right there… If you notice something is not right, or not the way you like it or no edge performance wise.. or just whatever.. if u just dont like what you just did. Simply click on start … then run.. type msconfig… and re-enable everything. Click apply and ok and reboot once more and your back to where you started.

With the creative drivers issue. Its ok and you did right to click to "go ahead and install unsigned drivers"… thats happens quite frequently and you have to do it with alot of hardware/software (I look at it like this, if I have some hardware I market and sell… I am not real sure but I would tend to think I would better know my product than Microsoft…. make sense?) Any how.. you did right there…

add a little more to wat he said, creative software/hardware arent tested by windows itself. you may get something like 'not tested by microsoft window logo' whatever it is saying it will cause the system failure in the near future and stuff. its ok, just go ahead with the installation

all the best, hope to hear good news from ya

Thanks ever so much for these so far; getting rid of Messenger seems to have helped a little, but I'm not seeing much of a difference with the various Startup things unchecked. I'm not sure when those startup things kick in - the problem might be earlier, in that I'm still seeing it take nearly ten minutes to start up. I get about thirty swipes of those little blue boxes on the XP screen, and the progress to a useable desktop is slow too. It also turns out I have less memory than I thought I had - just 256 Mb - which would explain why it was slow, but not why it was slower. I'm tempted to throw more RAM at it, but if there's something eating it all up then that might be foolish, yes? With the Creative thing: even when I installed it, it didn't quite work appropriately. I'll keep it going with my old machine for now, but - as its uninstall program didn't work properly - can I delete that tree from the registry? Do I need to? Will it do anything if I leave it there? Does this belong in a different thread? Please excuse me if I'm breaking etiquette rules. Best - Andrew

No, your in the right spot.

256mb huh..? thats cutting it pretty thin. Thats the minimum amount of ram required for xp to run.. and, as I am quite sure you know by now, thats about all it will do is run. If you add ram, make sure (absolutly positive) that you add the same type.. for instance.. if your running pc2200 …or pc133 … then if you ADD you MUST add pc2200 or pc133..


oh and by the way, the startup items kick in at startup..lol. Being that you have so little ram, you need to get your services under control. In order to do that.. you need to follow the directions (down to the tee…) just as given to you here at Blackviper's .. (this is cached page yall, his site still not back yet)

That looks very helpful. I'll get on with that once I'm back home. Meanwhile - how do I tell which kind of memory I have? Thanks for all your help. A

well.. you'll have to open it up. Just shutdown comp… and unplug it… then yank the side cover off the tower (or pull the whole thing off.. however you have to do it) and pull a/the stick of ram out. it will say on it.

Just to make it more awkward - it's a laptop! There's a flap on the bottom I can add memory to, but I don't think the first one is there. I'll check when I get home though. Are those the two options? pc2200 and pc133, I mean? So I know what I'm looking for. best - Andrew

Funny… for some reason that very same thought went through my head as I was typing that.. Yes those are two seperate ones.. ram comes in (and forgive me i miss one or two) pc100, pc133, pc400, pc800, pc2200, pc2700, pc3200, pc4400…. etc..etc There is a little square plastic cover that covers your ram on a laptop.. prolly only got one or two screws holding the cover on.. the ram is a stick (only about half the size and twice as expensive) and there will be two silver prongs with titties (for lack of a better analogy) that holds the ram down and in its slot. use both thumbs and push outward on the chrome arms and the ram will "popup"… then gently grab each corner and pull up and away to free it from its slot

Good recommendations in all of the above.
This may add an additional piece of information for you.
There is a tool called Everest 2.20 that will "inventory" your computer and give you a read-out that you can even print for future reference, of all your machines hardware, operating system, and installed software.

I offer this suggestion, because I have had difficulty physically reading the writing on the actual RAM chip to figure out what type (pc2700, etc.) and what brand-name the chip is.

Everest will detect and print out the details for you, even before you open the case.
You can get Everest 2.20 (free) at: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
It's an excellent utility and you'll probably continue to find a variety of uses for it in the future.
It will even give you a read-out of Temperatures and voltages of components for which your machine has sensors.

Additional note. Notebook RAM is easy to access, as Crow described, but some notebook manufacturers actually put RAM in two different physical locations. The one is under the access panel as Crow described, and the other is sometimes installed "under the keyboard" and can be much more difficult to access. Please don't ask "why" they do this. Somebody may know, but in my experience, it's just a fact of life with some notebook manufacturers. To identify the location of the "hidden" RAM stick, you can go the the notebook's manufacturer's site and look at their schematic drawings to see how to disassemble the keyboard and get access to it. Don't "force" any clips or enclosures. There's always a "right" way to open up a laptop, but sometimes it's like figuring out a Chinese puzzle box. Additional note: If the RAM stick under the keyboard is installed, and the RAM under the access panel is not, use Everest to detect and get specifics of the one under the keyboard, without bothering to open up the keyboard and stuff, then just add additional RAM to the easy access panel location. Might save you some headaches.

You'll do better if you get both the same type RAM (pc2700, etc.) and the same Brand-name of RAM (Crucial, Kingston, etc) With that said, if you get a significantly better price on a different Brand-name of the same "type" of RAM (pc2700, etc) it will work, but purists (performance users and gamers) will argue that you can get more out of an exactly matched "Brand-name" plus "Type" pair of RAM sticks, than you can out of two sticks of the same type (pc2700, etc.) that are made by two different Brand-names.

Best Regards

EDIT: To get the read-out on your RAM using Everest, just download Everest and click on the Everest.exe to install it.
With the Everest utility opened,
Click on:
MotherBoard
Then click on:
SPD
The RAM type and usually the Brand-name will be displayed in the large white column on the right side.

Thank you both - especially for saving me prising out bits of hardware (was a bit scared of that too). Here's what Everest says: Memory Module Properties Module Name Hyundai HYMD232M646D6-J Module Size 256 MB (2 ranks, 4 banks) Module Type Unbuffered Memory Type DDR SDRAM Memory Speed PC2700 (166 MHz) Module Width 64 bit Module Voltage SSTL 2.5 Error Detection Method None Refresh Rate Reduced (7.8 us), Self-Refresh So I'm matching to PC2700 - do I have to match the speed too? Also it tells me that I have five USB ports, rather than the two I have - four of them being USB1. Is that usual? Thanks again - Andrew

Naw, just get some PC2700. Both sticks will run at the lowest speed allowed by either of the two. USB? Well I doubt that you suddenly have 4 additional USB sockets, physically adorning the outside of your laptop case. Everest may be identifying various USB controllers, USB Hub configuration, and devices that have been installed as peripheral (printer, mouse, scanner, other USB connected devices that accomodate either USB 2 or USB 1.0.) After a while you'll probably start making more sense from the information provided by various diagnostic tools like Everest. Just take it one step at a time. Heck, it even took me quite some time to begin understanding what Spybot Search & Destroy was trying to tell me in its spyware detection scan report. Best Regards

Here's an interesting wrinkle: it's just crashed and on restart told me: 1780 disk 0 failure 1781 disk 1 failure to which I believe the response would just be a sequence of asterisks on a friendly forum like this. Currently HP have me running the HDD self-test on the setup - this came back with the quick test having succeeded and the comprehensive test is still running. I have ordered the memory like I said, but it's not here yet - an existent problem. Could a dying hard disk have caused the above? It's also a removable hard disk - never removed, though. on a scale from calm to despair, where should I be?

curiouser and curiouser; the HDD passed all the tests, and after running the setup check, I came out and Windows loaded after all. Still slowly, of course, but at all is a relief. Backups tonight! Andrew