Slow Program Response

Alright, here we go… I have a computer being used by one of our salesmen that is experiencing an odd problem. MS Office (2000) just takes FOREVER to work. He can open up a file and work on it fine. But when he tries to save it, it'll take a long, LONG time before it completes. We're talking maybe 9 minutes or so!!! And it only seems to happen in Office… Everything else works like it's supposed to.. His laptop is a Dell Latitude D610, Pentium 'M' 1.86 GHz, 1.6GB memory and an 80 GB HDD, running XP SP2… He's up to date on Spybot, AdAware and his Symantec Anti-Virus. Scans on all of these show nothing… The hard drive has been de-fragged numerous times, and all unnecessary files have been deleted. Just to let you know, this is my 2nd attempt at finding out what's going on… Previous posting on HJT/Malware forum showed nothing wrong… His HJT log showed nothing abnormal. He ran ATF cleaner and Silent Runner… Again, nothing out of the ordinary was found… Performance and Processes listed under Task Manager also show nothing 'abnormal'… Anybody have any ideas??? I'm confused…

Hi Coyote_9 Seems to me like this may be a compatability issue, or the system just isn't powerful enough for running that version of Office. I would suggest (if you can), that you uninstall Office, then try re-installing it, sure it might take a while, but we'll go from there and see if it's improved at all. We'll need to know what spec of PC you're using too. Thanks! Bob

Run the Full Tests over at http://www.pcpitstop.com
Post the Results here in this thread.
Maybe we'll be able to spot a bottle-neck.

best regards

Thanks for the reply… I have forwarded the info to the user this AM and am now waiting for his response. Once received, I'll post back…

Wow, this is quicker than I expected… Anyway, here is the link to his computer info:

http://www.pcpitstop.com/techexpress.asp?id=9HV7HWX198VSGTGW

I already told him about the battery recall and he is working on that portion…

Hi Coyote9,

The laptop "series" is listed as having installed from "some" batches of potentially hazardous batteries that are now subject to recall.
that doesn't mean that this laptop specifically "does" have a battery on the recall list.
Search via Battery 'name model and serial number' found on the case of the actual battery.

be sure to give your salesman the standard safety recommendations regarding laptops and batteries.
"All" batteries are prone to heat and heat related problems.
Having the battery physically installed in the laptop, even when running the laptop via A/C adapter, creates more heat than with the battery physically removed.
Heat from the battery also raises the temperature of the laptop environment.
As with any computer, heat is the enemy.

When possible, remove the battery from your laptop and store it inside of a bubblepwrap or static free wrapping.
As much as possible, run the laptop from A/C adapter, except when actually mobile and away from A/C resource and of course when charging the battery in anticipation of using the laptop remotely.

Laptops shouldn't really be thought of as "lap" tops.
Many owner/operators tend to get rather "casual" about their laptop, allowing them to be run from the seat of their car, on top of the motel bedding, on cluttered surfaces.

**. Laptops should always be operated from a "hard", "flat" surface to optimize air circulation and cooling.
__________-

You have a fairly strong machine, with adequate CPU speed and better than average installed RAM for similar machines.
_________

You have a "very" large number of processes and application running from the StartUp menu.
Most of the items running from StartUp appear to be business related, but not all of those business related items need to be running automatically from Startup. Other items appear on most all machine, but do not need to be running at all times.
(Software writers have an enlarged sense of how valuable their own software is and should be treated. Therefore software writers tend to include scripts in their software to attempt to make the software proinently available and visible to the owner/user (for the owner/users convenience, of course).

You can investigate which of the StartUp items you can "disable" from the StartUp menu by "clicking" on the item from the Pit Test Windows Results Page. Ordinarily, items with Purple background are purely "optional". In this specific case, some of those items are likely prominent parts of your business activities. Only you will be able to make final decisions about what should be running, and what can be disabled.

You also have a very "resource intensive" antimalware suite - Norton/Symantec. You can get an idea of how much of your machine's resources are being consumed by Norton/Symantec by simply counting the number of programs and processes in Startup. (thirteen [13] ) on your machine. There are other equally competent protective utilities that are not such resource hogs.
Check with your IT consultant, who may have a reason/rationale for having so many items running from StartUp and for using Norton/Symantec.
________

So what do you get if you disable some of those items?
You will recover CPU and RAM resources that will help your machine perform more briskly.
___________

Do you have a specific Microsoft Office 2000 related problem? – Probably.
But you will also probably notice an improvement in overall performance just by attending to the StartUps, as per above.
___

You should consider a Microsoft Office "detect and repair" procedure.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/264625
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HP052372001033.aspx

Follow the other "Tune-Up Tips' from your Pit Test Results.

Keep us posted with your progress and any other specific questions.

Best Regards

Doug - Thanks for the detailed response. I have forwarded the info to the user. Let's see what his response is to all you have said… In response to the Symantec application -> this is what my boss (IT Manager) wants. It's a choice he made years ago, and is sticking to it.. Many a user (both internal and external) have complained about it being a 'hog', but… Couldn't really tell you if he or our network administrator have looked into other applications, just for that reason… So we learn to live with it… Once the user looks over your response and acts on it, we'll concentrate on the MS Office 'repair'… Only bad part is it'll be tough to work on it, as he lives in another state / time zone…

Does your IT pro utilize Remote Access for deploying software and/or repair/maintenance of your company's machines/network. Your IT person may be the best person to assist, if your salesman runs into additional obstacles. I'm not trying to make you go away. Just trying to be respectful of your in-house IT professional. Best Regards