Computer Help Needed-Vanity

me ^ | 6/10/05 | texasflower

[scars]

"If so I would again use the slave only, it will be easier for her, F it, and start over"

Did I miss her having a second hard drive? If so, I would suggest loading another NYFS operating system on that drive and saving her files. However, I don't think this is the case and XP will not let you load an operating system into another directory, the licensing forbids it. IMHO, Windows2K will be the Windows95 for a long time. If you remember, there were so many companies and home users using W95 way after it was "obsolete". The reason for this is that it WORKED really well. W2K has awesome resource management, combines the best of both worlds(i.e. device manager and plug and play for W95 leg and also Event Viewer and Disk Mgmt. and NTFS from the NT leg. ME was soooooo flawed I don't think we need to talk about it, XP has sooooo much overhead that it takes away 30-40% away. To me, Windows2003 is just about as innovative as 98 was to 95.
Nerds and gamers may have a different opinion, because both the OS's it hate were built with them in mind, but for the average user wants to browse the Internet and have some basic applications that everyone can be compatible with their friends.
If I'm wrong, flame me.

[js1138]

I haven't read every post, so forgive me If I repeat something. Several times I have encountered unexpectedly slow computers -- no viruses of spyware -- and the problem turned out to be a hard drive in the process of failing.

When a drive develops bad spots, Windows keeps trying to read them.

SMART drives are supposed to work around bad spots, but when a drive is failing, SMART runs out of spare sectors. Sometimes you see this as a message that flashes past while booting.

[scars]

Kudos, I stand corrected.

I don't want to fight, but a coder and a tech are two different animals. I think this is more within my realm.

[scars]

Another guy that knows what he's talking about! That's happened to me alot of times too, but don't you agree that there are a Very lot of things to check first. If I thought this was the problem, after checking several things within Windows, wouldn't it be so easy to run Scandisk and find out if there are any bad sectors?

[Malsua]

Thanks for the information on your homepage. Everybody ought to at least take a look at it. IMO.

Heh, thanks. I should really organize it better, but I'm too busy and too lazy :).

[ProudVet77]

We've actually been through all these things.
We checked processes, we checked the disk drives, did a defrag (not my idea, I knew it was a waste) Covered all the usual bases.
Fact is that she probably has a bad HP install CD. Unless she is running the install CD the computer works great. And she has 5GB on the CD drive.
Nuff said?
HP has a reputation for this problem.

[scars]

Wow, I read my post and I was really embarrassed. NTFS=New Technology File System, this came out with WindowsNT and provides many advantages in regard to file protection, encryption and efficiency. NTFS means nothing.
What I meant to say about XP is that it reduces your processing speed by 30-40 percent.
The last part was worded almost as if I'd been drinking...go figure.

[scars]

I see what you're saying, but how do we know what is being run in the backgroud? You're one of the guys on this thread that seems to have been around, but I still suspect Spyware. Nobody asked her alot of questions that may take a couple of minutes to solve.
If I had a nickel for every time someone told me their computer was toast when it wasn't, I'd be a couple dollars richer.

[6SJ7]

No quarter given to Wintel boxes.

Actually, I tip my hat to those with the patience and knowhow to deal with Windows.

[ProudVet77]

First start with task manager and look at the processes tab and click it twice to get the bad boys to the top. We already did it for her, and her biggest process was System Idle at 98%. (all processes show here, even background)
Second if you need to dig in further (which she does not need) go for perfmon. Depends on what windows system you have what you look for. When I worked with Redmond on problems we'd save it to a log file and send it back and forth. Typically looking for threads that went whacko.
But the truth is she has none of these problems. CPU is low, memory is low, no paging issues, the system runs fine till she puts the install CD in. Guess what the problem is?
Do you know about Occam's Razor?

[ProudVet77]

Well, whatever floats you boat. But you are adding to the cost of ownership of these computers. There are many ways to do the same thing for a lot less.
To save time make a system backup disk will all the upgrades to a CD. Will save you a lot of time. If you want a link I can send you one. It's one of the things I instituted at my last client. A rebuild went from 36 hrs (quad processor, 2 gig memory, Dell 6450 with major disk at the server level) to about 4 hours.

[VeniVidiVici]

I bad cd-rom drive exhibited similar behavior also. Several CDs would not install, kept getting to the same point and then halting.

Cleaned them, no go. Finally tried my dvd/cdrom drive and they worked fine.

Unless you tried it, maybe if you go to the HP website, download the driver(s) (I think they have the software too up there) and try to install that way.

[scars]

1) I don't think tex even looked for the way these things jump in and out in Processes(under taskman)and unless she clicks the heading for CPU, she won't see the most used processes.
2) Using perfmon in XP is like using winfile in W2K. Unless the system is upgraded from NT4.0, it's useless.
3)I can make a 133Mhz, with 128 RAM, and a 3 MB hard drive sing on Windows2000. I don't have to over-clock or anything, its just that good. We won't even talk about the plug and play drivers that it makes transparent.
4)I'm assuming you are speaking of a hardware problem. This may, indeed, be her problem but why would such a smart guy, such as yourself, put her through all these changes if that's what you suspect?
5)I've never heard of Occam's Razor. Is it a back-up utility? I'll do a google on it in a minute.
6)I don't know why you guys are so defensive. I started out just the same way you are. We can learn from each other, that's the nature of this beast.

[texasflower]

Thanks for your help with this printer install problem malusa.

I've also bookmarked your homepage. Great stuff there!

[texasflower]

Thank you for your help. That turned out to be exactly what the problem was!

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

I used 95 until Microsoft quit supporting it. The Windows 98 SE were great and raised to 2000. I have a friend in the used business and he personally uses 98s. I have heard about the XP overboard... and the sacrifices necessary. I'm curious how many people who understand this really back XP.

[texasflower]

Thank you for the advice on putting things on my D drive. I didn't realize I could do that.