Posted on 06/10/2005 1:09:43 PM PDT by texasflower
I sure could use some help for a couple of problems I'm running into. My dad died a few months ago and I'm trying to make sure my mother's computer stays updated.
What I am finding is that everything new programs install very slowly. Last night she bought a new HP all in one scanner, printer etc.
Last night, I tried to install it and in 12 hours now it has only 31 percent installed. It is still trying to install, but it is just so slow.
I would take it out and start over, but the install screen has no cancel or X button. I've tried to shut down the computer but it won't shut down while this is in progress.
Other minor things seem to install, like virus updates etc., but they also run slowly. Not this slowly of course.
What can I do about this?
I have run all of the virus scan and spyware scans I have available.
Spybot Search and Destroy
Ad-Adware
Norton Anti-virus
AVG anti-virus.
Spyware Doctor
Zonealarm is the firewall.
I'm thinking this must be an installer driver or something like that but I don't know anything substantial about computers.
Also I would love to get rid of a dead program on here called pc-cillin, but the add and remove program thing won't let me do it. Any ideas?
So, if you have an answer or suggestion, you probably should baby talk me through it.
The computer is a SonyViao running Windows XP.
Oops. One more thing, for some reason there is an external zip drive attached to this computer. Shouldn't the computer be able to unzip regular files?
Try something easy.
Unplug that Zip drive from the computer and from the wall.
Reboot the computer.
I have the same printer, and I recently had to go through the pain of reinstalling the software for it recently. Be sure you have the latest installation software for the printer. Go to the HP website and check. It is critical to have the latest software. You can download the latest software from the website if you need it.
They also have a program you can download to "scrub" your PC to remove all traces of the HP software in the system. Apparently, the uninstall doesn't quite do the trick.
Lastly, use their technical support if you can't get it to work. You paid for it, use it!
Remember g=c800:5 ? lol
If you will tell me how to find that I will be happy to let you know. I don't know what they mean.
Tammy
Broadband. So you think I can ditch this external drive?
My dad knew less about computers than I do.
Any Vaio should be able to run XP and this scanner.
Okay I checked that. It says system idle 98% What does that mean?
Please report your CPU useage as requested earlier using the task manager. Click the performance tab and tell us about the CPU use. If it is over 60% click the process tab and then click on the cpu column twice. That will put the higher percentage CPU processes at the top. Please report the names of the image name of the top two or three and the percentage of cpu used.
While defragging the disk is always useful I doubt it is your problem and if you have a CPU intense process will take forever.
Feel free to contact me via FReepmail, I do this kind of thing for a living, and am always happy to help a fellow freeper.
Yes, it's factory Viao with XP. I'm confident it should be able to do this.
So, just turn off the computer manually and then clean up any fragments that might have installed already?
It might be worth keeping for making backups.
HP printer/scanner software can be flaky.
If the machine is running windows XP and only has 128mb ram, that's your problem. You've probably got a dozen helper applets running(many of which show in the system tray at lower right) and with 128mb of ram, you're swapping out to the disk to make "virtual ram" and the machine turns into a giant sloth.
If you've got more than 128mb ram, disable and/or uninstall anti-virus software and try again.
It could also be a spyware issue, but it just doesn't appear that way based on what little information is known.
You could get hijackthis and run a log. There's a link to hijack this on my FR homepage, click on my name it's about 1/4 the way down. You can freepmail me the log and I can give you an evaluation and suggestions.
Remember g=c800:5 ? lol
Debug command to run a low level disk utility located on the hard drive ROM at physical address c800. Useful for changing the interleave.
I have a buddy in Brooklyn who does that. He gets married, and then he says "F-Dis" every year or so and gets divorced. He's on wife number 6.
I don't know if you saw it. It said system idle 98%. But I don't know what that means.
You are likely fragmented and almost out of space on the partition windows resides on (C: ?).
Verify that the drive is almost full (windows explorer on the root node of the drive should tell you how much space is left). If almost full put on you funniest hat and make like Stalin, purge those drives (I recomend removing unneeded software with Add/Remove programs). Then defrag. Then try again.
"Computer Help Needed-Vanity"
Vanity? well, if your computer is ugly there are plenty of pretty after-market cases or even the Macintosh to choose fmr.
(haha)
I found with my HP all in one that the factory drivers didn't work with XP, but the XP drivers work just fine. HP had a technical directive on the subject.
If you do a ctrl-alt-del and look at the performance tab, it will show you how much memory is being used. That might tell you alot. Mine says Physical Memory Total is 1047532 and available is 491812 and I am using 599Meg.
What does your's say?
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