Newbie needs Help Please!

Hi janak,

With regard to your initial problem, please be patient and follow through with instructions that you will receive from a Trusted Advisor over in the HJT Forum where you posted. They are busy people and a wait of a few days does happen. Hang in there.

Until that work in your HJT Post is completed, it would not be a good idea to start making other changes from recommendations you might receive here.

I'll give you one general and one specific reason to delay any other work or changes until the HJT work is complete:
1. Too many cooks in the kitchen can spoil the meal.
2. Adding and removing utilities, particularly making new installations or downloading updates to your System Files or a particular Application program is unwise if your machine may be infected. Always make sure your machine is clean before installing new programs and utilities.

So For now, be patient and follow the instructions you receive in the HJT Forum.

As for RAM and Hard Drive.
Yes, if you are going to be doing video editing and DVD creation, you will need more than 512 RAM and 40gig Hard Drive.

Think of your Hard Drive as a large manufacturing plant's warehouse where everything that could possibly be needed for development, repair, production, packaging and shipping, is housed for easy access to the workers. Think of your RAM as the work bench of any one worker.

If your Hard Drive is not large enough, you will have difficulty creating a container large enough to contain your work while it is being worked on.

If your RAM is limited, it is like giving a worker good tools and a fun challenging project, but not sufficient energy resources to make tools run, or to "handle" the projects product.

Both RAM and Hard Drives have come down in price and are excellent upgrades for most machines.
You'll notice the difference.

This page at Crucial will help you identify the RAM you need and what your machine can handle.
http://www.crucial.com/

For purchasing a new/second Hard Drive, consider www.newegg.com

Post back with your progress and any new questions you may have after completing your HJT Work.

Best Regards

Dough, Thank you so much for your pleasant and knowledgable reply. Yes, of course, I will be patient and wait for a reply from the hjt forum, especially before I start trying to change things myself. I realize that you guys have got to be extremely busy and I just want to thank you and all for providing us with this site/service. I feel like Im not alone out in this big 'ole computer universe anymore Loved your analogy of the manufacturing plant,,,, very cute and informative, thankyou. I was researching the Dell parts site and have come up with a cple items that I will purchase and install (when hjt is done) in order to upgrade both of them. I will also check out the sites that you posted as well,,,,,, just as soon as I get back from my errands today. Dont know exactly what I'll be getting into with the dvd movie thing, but I just had someone make a 15 min one with pictures and video clips that I provided for my daughters hs graduation…. It was great, but at $250,,, I thought that maybe I could try and learn to do these myself for future projects and events. Hmmm, we'll see if I have the patience for this type of stuff. Thanks again for the info….. have a great day!!!!! janak Oops, forgot to ask something…. Task Manager shows that I have 46 items running, is this a normal amount???? I understand too many things running in background also tends to slow down a computer. Would this be something that I should address on the hjt forum when I get a reply over there? Thanx

Running/background processes "can" be malware, and if present will be dealt with in the HJT replies. However, most "store bought" computers (and yes even Dell) have a ton of junk running from their factory installation setup. The extras, add-ons, specialty programs, and such are placed by Dell as part of their corporate contracts with various other providers. In short, they're making money off of putting stuff on your machine that (hopefully) you'll never use. This junk is sometimes referred to as "bloatware". Bring this issue back here to this "other computer problems" forum after you finish with HJT. By the way, 46 is not an abnormal number of programs and processes running. But some of the StartUp items are minimally a waste of your time and your computer's resources. I'm sure you'll get some helpful recommendations when you post. For your own study, take a look at: www.blackviper.com www.answersthatwork.com Pacman's startup list hosted at CastleCops. Run a PCPitstop Full test over at PCPitstop.com — very enlightening! Best Regards

Hi Januk,

Regarding your interest in video editing, I just stumbled upon an interesting resource Forum over at GeeksToGo. You might find some useful ideas and utility resources there.
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?showforum=87

Best Regards

Hiya Dough, Sorry I wasnt able to respond any earlier re your "bloatware" post, I came home last nite from my errands and my TWC (internet and tv) were out!!!! Called this am before I left for a wedding i had to attend and they said they'd send a tech out to check into it. Well whoever wired this apt complex did a HORRIBLE job….according to my daughter the tech told her that our place was disconnected by mistake cuz of "mis-labeling and mis-wiring". Apparently people behind us moved out and they were supposed to turn their cable off instead of mine. I bet if Time Warner did a full blown audit on this entire complex they'd be very surprised who was actually recieving their services, lol. Anyways, about the "bloatware", yeah my son told me that Dell was pretty bad about that and he tried to remove as much as possible when I first got this rig. Dell is pretty stubborn about some of the stuff though,,,, wouldnt go away, lol. And thankyou so much,,,,, just went to the video forum a took a quick look and if they are 1/2 as informative as you guys are here…. it will help me ALOT !!! Although I have to admit,,,, I'll never get anything done Im so busy at these sites reading and learning…… I reallly enjoy it though!! And what really makes it extra nice for me is to have someone like yourself that already knows the "good" sites to visit share this info, that way I dont have to go "wading" thru all the junk out there that gets pulled up when I do searches. Keep up the good work for all of us computer challenged folks!!!!!!!!!!!! janak

Janak Thanks for deciding to become a Member. Read, question and learn as needed, then help when you can. Best Regards, Doug