Slow Load....

Hi folks;
You guys fixed my Pewter last year and it's worked fine ever since.

I don't think I'm Infected, but I've noticed the 'load' time on my browser and other applications is a tad slow. Not totally freezing up, but it will take several 'extra' mouse clicks to get a site to come up.

Several questions: I understand that Reg Cleaners are unnecessary. But I read about DeFraging the Registry? Is that a necessary service?
Could My mouse be defective?
How about the browser itself. I've used Firefox for the past 5 years,:FF: obtaining the latest versions when they come out. When I noticed the decrease in speed, I downloaded 'Google Chrome'. It's fast, but I still get that annoying Quadruple Click action :banghead:
A buddy of mine says 'It's time to wipe the box clean and start over with a fresh Hard drive'. Says he does it annually. Is that a valid option? My Box hasn't been wiped clean in 6 or 7 years. :sad:

Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600)
2.20 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 Processor, 160.04 GB Hard drive, Memory:Slot 'A0' has 512 MB, Slot 'A1' has 256 MB.

Any thoughts?:confused:

Not sure what exactly defraging a registry actually means but no doubt its a marketing term to sell services you dont need. Even a HD defrag is really not necessary with the speed of todays computers and HD's. You would not notice a difference.
I reformat/reinstall my Windows machine once a year. A new install can do wonders, but I install and uninstall loads of software over the course of a year. After 6 or 7 years it certainly wouldn't hurt to do a re-install. Of course this wouldn't do any good for a failing mouse.
You have to click the mouse several times to get a response?

Quote:

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You have to click the mouse several times to get a response?

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Yeah. When I double click the first time, it does not respond. I go to click it a second or third time, voila! It hesitates a second or two after opening.

I ran a 'Spy-bot' scan (Boy, you have to be ready for that too!) and found 9 potentially dangerous Registry entries that I could fix,and that seemed to solve the problem. But I think I'll take your latter recommendation and 'F-disk' the drive. (Do they call it that anymore?)

Any particular suggestions as to how to go about doing it? I mean, do you remove those programs that have no disks and save them somewhere to reinstall later? Or you've just lost them.

You would have to pull off and backup any content you created, like pictures, documents, video etc. These could be backed up to a usb drive, CD/DVD media online storage sites, a second hard drive etc, otherwise they would be lost.
As far as the operating system goes you may have a set of original installation media that came with the machine or a recovery partition on the hd. Software can always be reinstalled from the media. You might copy down any license keys you have for purchased software that may be needed when you install the software back on your machine.
The best place for information on how to prepare for and actually do a reformat reinstall would be the computer vendors website. Most have good FAQ's, and documentation/guides for such procedures. You can see whats actually involved and what you might need to actually do it. That would be the best place to start before doing anything.
If its a hardware issue like a flaky mouse then this wont help that situation.

Dont forget to visit Windows Update afterwards to get the patches if you go through with it.

Thanks Shelf Life. I'll follow your advice and wipe the slate clean. Any last thoughts on using a different OS? I like XP. Heard negative reviews on VISTA.

I'm not so much having problems with my mouse, but my computer in general seems to be very slow. It takes extended periods of time to load anything and freezes up repeatedly. Usually if I just get up and leave it for a few minutes, sometime longer, the issue seems to resolve itself. But it's almost impossible to do anything quickly. Can you help?

I'm not one of the tech guys here on the forum, so my advice is not valid. :lip:
I would recommend posting in the "Malware Removal" forum. Follow the instructions in the sticky "Before you Post" and in a couple of days you should get a response. These guys are great!:cowboy:

Vista did get a lot of bad press. I didnt have any problem with it. Vista system requirements are here.

Your computer I assume shipped with XP so that means all the hardware is supported. If you install Vista there may not be drivers available that support Vista. Windows does support a lot of hardware 'out of the box' and everything may work fine but for example if your sound didnt work you would have to hope that the needed drivers are available for Vista, if not you wont have any sound. Any USB devices like printers or scanners would also have to be supported in Vista. The same goes for Windows 7.
You might be able to find out at the computer vendors website if your computer will work ok with Vista or with Windows 7.
Read through and understand the procedures and what you need to do before starting anything.

The initial problems with Vista were primarily due to a lack of support by PC Manufacturers, since as Shelf Life mentioned they often didn't provide drivers for older hardware and when they did, they either worked badly or included other outdated software on the systems that caused stability problems. I know this because I finally had to re-install a Dell Laptop that shipped with Vista from scratch, leaving out all of the add-on software they provided and getting the most current drivers to keep it from crashing every few months. After this it was stable for over a year and still is now that I've upgraded it to Windows 7 just recently.

At this point Vista would be difficult if not impossible to find, since Windows 7 has officially replaced it for upgrades. Regardless, your computer specs are minimal for either version, since only Vista Home Basic supported 512MB and no version of Windows 7 sold in the usa will support less than 1GB of RAM.

"2.20 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 Processor, 160.04 GB Hard drive, Memory:Slot 'A0' has 512 MB, Slot 'A1' has 256 MB."

I can tell you from personal experience that 512MB with Vista is barely functional and 768MB wouldn't be much better. I personally recommend no less than 1GB for either operating system and preferably at least 2GB.

If you want to determine what else might be needed to support your PC with Windows 7, the best method is to use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and other information found at this Microsoft web page.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...e-advisor.aspx

The other links at that page will provide a good overview of Windows 7 versions and the upgrade options that exist for your current version of Windows.

In your case, I think I'd personally recommend waiting until you can simply purchase a completely new PC, since unless that's not going to happen in the forseeable future, it would likely cost you half as much as a new PC to bring that old one up to reasonable specs including the Windows Upgrade, especially if you already have a good flat screen monitor that you can use with the new one.

Bitman

Perhaps get a one GB memory module if they make one that could replace the 256MB one? (Even if you keep/reinstall the Win XP)