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Post by kharnynb on Apr 23, 2014 6:05:31 GMT
Files, esp. games shouldn't just interfere with basic running, unless you are actively playing the game at that time.
Only things that run at start-up would do that. that is why ccleaner is very useful, since it has one field that shows you what is starting up at the same time the pc is starting.
You could copy all the programnames from there to this board and we could have a look what is causing that.
ps. a printer, even the worst printerdrivers i've seen shouldn't do very much for the basic operation of a pc. unless you've royally messed up the driver install.
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Post by OziRiS on Apr 23, 2014 11:57:13 GMT
ps. a printer, even the worst printerdrivers i've seen shouldn't do very much for the basic operation of a pc. unless you've royally messed up the driver install. Or your computer is so hopelessly old that it shouldn't even be running an OS capable of reading the driver for the printer...
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Post by Cybermortis on Apr 23, 2014 13:12:41 GMT
I was informed yesterday that support for MSE has ended (or at least for the XP version), and this has caused a bug for XP users. So if you are running XP and have MSE uninstall the latter.
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Post by the light works on Apr 23, 2014 14:20:37 GMT
OK. Thanks. I've come to suspect that the issue might have something to do with memory consumption. I've pulled off an old game I'm not playing to see if that will help anything, and there are two other games that I can yank as well. I also keep forgetting to install CCleaner. I need to get to that. The big thing that I'm looking at right now is that a friend of a friend is supposed to be a big computer guy. If I can arrange a face-to-face with him then I can try to see if I can get a quick assessment of what's going on. I'm crossing my fingers that it's a case of "I've got too much going on the computer", in which case I can delete files and alter my user behavior accordingly. how many shortcuts do you have on your desktop? my brother trained me to have as few as possible because each shortcut on the desktop means the computer is spending memory on them. similarly, multitasking, which Windows is supposed to be a master of, is also a bit of a resource hog. minimizing an application to the taskbar only gets it out of the way on the screen - the computer is still devoting resources to running it.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 23, 2014 14:23:25 GMT
Files, esp. games shouldn't just interfere with basic running, unless you are actively playing the game at that time. Only things that run at start-up would do that. that is why ccleaner is very useful, since it has one field that shows you what is starting up at the same time the pc is starting. You could copy all the programnames from there to this board and we could have a look what is causing that. One start-up file right here: No HKCU:Run Skype Skype Technologies S.A. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe" /minimized /regrun Yes HKCU:Run SpybotSD TeaTimer Safer-Networking Ltd. C:\Program Files (x86)\Spybot - Search & Destroy\TeaTimer.exe Yes HKLM:Run Acer Assist Launcher C:\Program Files (x86)\Acer\Acer Assist\launcher.exe Yes HKLM:Run Acer ePower Management Acer Incorporated C:\Program Files\Acer\Acer ePower Management\ePowerTray.exe Yes HKLM:Run Ad-Aware Browsing Protection Lavasoft "C:\ProgramData\Ad-Aware Browsing Protection\adawarebp.exe" Yes HKLM:Run Adobe ARM Adobe Systems Incorporated "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\AdobeARM.exe" Yes HKLM:Run APSDaemon Apple Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support\APSDaemon.exe" Yes HKLM:Run ArcadeDeluxeAgent CyberLink Corp. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Acer Arcade Deluxe\Acer Arcade Deluxe\ArcadeDeluxeAgent.exe" Yes HKLM:Run AVG_UI AVG Technologies CZ, s.r.o. "C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG2014\avgui.exe" /TRAYONLY Yes HKLM:Run BackupManagerTray NewTech Infosystems, Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\NewTech Infosystems\Acer Backup Manager\BackupManagerTray.exe" -h -k Yes HKLM:Run EgisTecLiveUpdate Egis Technology Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\EgisTec Egis Software Update\EgisUpdate.exe" Yes HKLM:Run HotKeysCmds Intel Corporation C:\Windows\system32\hkcmd.exe Yes HKLM:Run IAAnotif Intel Corporation C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\iaanotif.exe Yes HKLM:Run IgfxTray Intel Corporation C:\Windows\system32\igfxtray.exe Yes HKLM:Run iTunesHelper Apple Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe" Yes HKLM:Run LManager Dritek System Inc. C:\Program Files (x86)\Launch Manager\LManager.exe Yes HKLM:Run mcagent_exe McAfee, Inc. C:\Program Files (x86)\McAfee.com\Agent\mcagent.exe /runkey Yes HKLM:Run MSC Microsoft Corporation "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\msseces.exe" -hide -runkey Yes HKLM:Run mwlDaemon Egis Technology Inc. C:\Program Files (x86)\EgisTec\MyWinLocker 3\x86\mwlDaemon.exe Yes HKLM:Run NortonOnlineBackupReminder Symantec Corporation "C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\Norton Online Backup\Activation\NobuActivation.exe" UNATTENDED Yes HKLM:Run Persistence Intel Corporation C:\Windows\system32\igfxpers.exe Yes HKLM:Run PlayMovie Acer Corp. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Acer Arcade Deluxe\PlayMovie\PMVService.exe" Yes HKLM:Run PLFSetI C:\Windows\PLFSetI.exe Yes HKLM:Run QuickTime Task Apple Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTTask.exe" -atboottime Yes HKLM:Run RtHDVCpl Realtek Semiconductor C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio\HDA\RAVCpl64.exe -s Yes HKLM:Run SunJavaUpdateSched Oracle Corporation "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Java\Java Update\jusched.exe" Yes HKLM:Run SynTPEnh Synaptics Incorporated %ProgramFiles%\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe Yes HKLM:Run vProt AVG Technologies "C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG Secure Search\vprot.exe" Yes Startup Common McAfee Security Scan Plus.lnk McAfee, Inc. C:\Program Files\McAfee Security Scan\3.8.141\SSScheduler.exe I ran CCleaner last night, and it pulled off quite a bit of stuff. Things were working just fine this morning, but then I got a notice stating that McAfee Site Adviser had been deactivated; McAfee wanted me to reactivate it, and then restart my browser. I did that, and got most of the way through checking my Hotmail account when Chrome stalled out while trying to open a message. Methinks that Site Adviser might be part of what's bogging things down. It was an XP machine and was at least 7 years old; my dad got it as a work computer for when he was called to assist with the Hurricane Katrina clean-up, and it wound up becoming the family desktop from there.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 23, 2014 14:26:27 GMT
how many shortcuts do you have on your desktop? my brother trained me to have as few as possible because each shortcut on the desktop means the computer is spending memory on them. similarly, multitasking, which Windows is supposed to be a master of, is also a bit of a resource hog. minimizing an application to the taskbar only gets it out of the way on the screen - the computer is still devoting resources to running it. I have a handful of programs, a handful of folders, and - admittedly - quite a few individual documents. Some of them can go, but the others are ones that I'm constantly tinkering with.
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Post by the light works on Apr 23, 2014 14:44:12 GMT
McAfee is one of my blacklisted manufacturers - my dad installed it on one of his computers in the past, and it rendered any possible virus redundant.
I make a habit of not saving any data I am not planning to get rid of in the near future to my desktop. (I.E. if I am downloading an installer, I will drop it on the desktop, and then get rid of it after installation. all my documents and stuff go to the file tree, where I know I will be able to find them. currently there are 8 icons on my desktop including the recycling bin and the inactive icons folder, and I am thinking I can dump a couple of the others.
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Post by GTCGreg on Apr 23, 2014 14:53:43 GMT
All that is running at start-up? I think I see your problem.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 23, 2014 15:23:31 GMT
Any idea what of that I can nix?
As it is, I'm getting further and further with each attempt on "Normal" mode; today I got as far as being able to check part of my e-mail.
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Post by GTCGreg on Apr 23, 2014 15:57:41 GMT
I'm not sure what everything on your start-up is doing, but there seems to be a lot of overhead. I'd start by removing any of the auto updaters. You can check for updates manually. If these programs are constantly going out looking for updates, it can really slow things down especially if they can't contact their own server for whatever reason. I removed all Adobe programs from my start-up list. If I want to run an Adobe program, I'll run it when I need it. I don't want them running in the background.
You seem to have a couple of different anti-spyware, anti-virus programs running at the same time. Pick one that does most of what you need and use just that one. I haven't used McAfee or Norton in years because of a lot of problems I had with them. I don't know how their current programs are.
If you only use Skype occasionally, get rid of the auto run part of it. When I had Skype on my old laptop, it really messed thing up every time I booted. I finally got rid of the auto-boot part and only would open Skype when I wanted to make a video conference call. Without the Skype start up, you will not be notified if someone is trying to call you. So if you use this feature, You'll have to leave it run at start-up.
iTunes also really slowed down my computer when it was just running in the background. I got rid of all the Apple junk on start-up. I still have and use iTunes for linking to my phone, but I don't let it run until I want to use it.
Again, I'm not sure what a lot of those other programs are for. You may want to google them and see what they are used for and if you really need them running on start up.
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Post by OziRiS on Apr 23, 2014 19:09:27 GMT
Here’s what I’d get rid of altogether, as in "delete the program entirely":
Yes HKCU:Run SpybotSD TeaTimer Safer-Networking Ltd. C:\Program Files (x86)\Spybot - Search & Destroy\TeaTimer.exe
Yes HKLM:Run Ad-Aware Browsing Protection Lavasoft "C:\ProgramData\Ad-Aware Browsing Protection\adawarebp.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run Adobe ARM Adobe Systems Incorporated "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\AdobeARM.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run mcagent_exe McAfee, Inc. C:\Program Files (x86)\McAfee.com\Agent\mcagent.exe /runkey
Yes HKLM:Run NortonOnlineBackupReminder Symantec Corporation "C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\Norton Online Backup\Activation\NobuActivation.exe" UNATTENDED
Yes HKLM:Run vProt AVG Technologies "C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG Secure Search\vprot.exe"
Yes Startup Common McAfee Security Scan Plus.lnk McAfee, Inc. C:\Program Files\McAfee Security Scan\3.8.141\SSScheduler.exe
Like GTCGreg said, do yourself a favor and find one anti-virus/anti-malware/anti-spyware program and scrap the rest. Which one you prefer is up to you, but I would NOT go with McAfee. I’d either take AVG or Avast if you want a free program (Avast is one of the best free programs out there and I’ve heard that the paid version is also among the best, easily competing with the likes of Norton) or something else that you buy. I’m sure someone else here (perhaps SD) is more qualified to advise you on any paid program.
There is one of those that you need to be certain of before you remove it and that's Adobe ARM. It's Adobe's update manager and if you use Adobe's programs frequently (open pdf's for instance) and you're not that into checking for updates maually, you might want to leave that one alone, since Adobe's programs are constantly being probed for vulnerabilities by hackers. If you choose to install Avast as your anti-virus you can still get rid of it, since Avast has a built in update checker that will notify you if there are updates.
Here are some programs that I’d just leave out of the start up process:
No HKCU:Run Skype Skype Technologies S.A. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe" /minimized /regrun
Yes HKLM:Run BackupManagerTray NewTech Infosystems, Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\NewTech Infosystems\Acer Backup Manager\BackupManagerTray.exe" -h -k
Yes HKLM:Run EgisTecLiveUpdate Egis Technology Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\EgisTec Egis Software Update\EgisUpdate.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run iTunesHelper Apple Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run PlayMovie Acer Corp. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Acer Arcade Deluxe\PlayMovie\PMVService.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run QuickTime Task Apple Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTTask.exe" -atboottime
Yes HKLM:Run SunJavaUpdateSched Oracle Corporation "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Java\Java Update\jusched.exe"
As for the rest on that list (except for everything that says “Acer”), if you don’t know what it is and what it does, Google it and find out. If you’re still not sure, ask here. If you’re still not sure, leave it alone. Other than that, if you can find out what it is and does and can determine that you can just open that particular program when you need it, instead of having it run in the background constantly, get it out of there.
That should set you up pretty nicely.
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Post by kharnynb on Apr 23, 2014 21:29:54 GMT
These shouldn't start automatically:
No HKCU:Run Skype Skype Technologies S.A. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe" /minimized /regrun
Yes HKCU:Run SpybotSD TeaTimer Safer-Networking Ltd. C:\Program Files (x86)\Spybot - Search & Destroy\TeaTimer.exe
Yes HKLM:Run Acer Assist Launcher C:\Program Files (x86)\Acer\Acer Assist\launcher.exe
Yes HKLM:Run Ad-Aware Browsing Protection Lavasoft "C:\ProgramData\Ad-Aware Browsing Protection\adawarebp.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run Adobe ARM Adobe Systems Incorporated "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\AdobeARM.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run APSDaemon Apple Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support\APSDaemon.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run ArcadeDeluxeAgent CyberLink Corp. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Acer Arcade Deluxe\Acer Arcade Deluxe\ArcadeDeluxeAgent.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run iTunesHelper Apple Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run mcagent_exe McAfee, Inc. C:\Program Files (x86)\McAfee.com\Agent\mcagent.exe /runkey
Yes HKLM:Run MSC Microsoft Corporation "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\msseces.exe" -hide -runkey
Yes HKLM:Run NortonOnlineBackupReminder Symantec Corporation "C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\Norton Online Backup\Activation\NobuActivation.exe" UNATTENDED
Yes HKLM:Run PlayMovie Acer Corp. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Acer Arcade Deluxe\PlayMovie\PMVService.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run QuickTime Task Apple Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTTask.exe" -atboottime
Yes Startup Common McAfee Security Scan Plus.lnk McAfee, Inc. C:\Program Files\McAfee Security Scan\3.8.141\SSScheduler.exe
Should run: Yes HKLM:Run Acer ePower Management Acer Incorporated C:\Program Files\Acer\Acer ePower Management\ePowerTray.exe
Yes HKLM:Run HotKeysCmds Intel Corporation C:\Windows\system32\hkcmd.exe
Yes HKLM:Run IAAnotif Intel Corporation C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\iaanotif.exe
Yes HKLM:Run IgfxTray Intel Corporation C:\Windows\system32\igfxtray.exe
Yes HKLM:Run AVG_UI AVG Technologies CZ, s.r.o. "C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG2014\avgui.exe" /TRAYONLY
Yes HKLM:Run BackupManagerTray NewTech Infosystems, Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\NewTech Infosystems\Acer Backup Manager\BackupManagerTray.exe" -h -k
Yes HKLM:Run LManager Dritek System Inc. C:\Program Files (x86)\Launch Manager\LManager.exe
Yes HKLM:Run Persistence Intel Corporation C:\Windows\system32\igfxpers.exe
Yes HKLM:Run PLFSetI C:\Windows\PLFSetI.exe
Yes HKLM:Run RtHDVCpl Realtek Semiconductor C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio\HDA\RAVCpl64.exe -s
Yes HKLM:Run SunJavaUpdateSched Oracle Corporation "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Java\Java Update\jusched.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run SynTPEnh Synaptics Incorporated %ProgramFiles%\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe
Yes HKLM:Run vProt AVG Technologies "C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG Secure Search\vprot.exe"
Debatable: Yes HKLM:Run EgisTecLiveUpdate Egis Technology Inc. "C:\Program Files (x86)\EgisTec Egis Software Update\EgisUpdate.exe"
Yes HKLM:Run mwlDaemon Egis Technology Inc. C:\Program Files (x86)\EgisTec\MyWinLocker 3\x86\mwlDaemon.exe
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Post by kharnynb on Apr 23, 2014 21:30:42 GMT
I would use ccleaners uninstall feature to remove all norton and mcafee products, since they only would conflict with the avg software.
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Post by OziRiS on Apr 23, 2014 22:21:39 GMT
Except for the fact that I advised him to either keep AVG or find something else, aren't you just basically repeating everything I just said?
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Post by kharnynb on Apr 24, 2014 6:42:47 GMT
Not really, i wouldn't uninstall spybot s&d nor ad-aware, just disable the startup part.
Also, i've checked the acer stuff, what needs to run and what not. the Egis one is debatable, since i don't know if he uses the encrypt function or not.
Plus, I would never remove the auto-update for java on an endusers machine, that can lead to serious security holes.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 24, 2014 15:08:57 GMT
iTunes helper, Skype, and Security Scan Plus are all now disabled as far as the start-up goes; I disabled Skype yesterday, and just now got those other two.
I'll be tinkering with the others as I go.
Between deleting games I'm not playing, pulling files off of my desktop, and going through things with CCleaner, I'm now slowly getting to the point that Windows is loading consistently.
Thanks guys.
However, things still choke when I go to pull up Chrome. I usually get as far as the home page - MSN - but going any further (such as to Hotmail) is a roll of the dice. I'm coming to suspect that something about the browser itself is memory-intensive enough to where it's causing things to choke when I pull it up in "normal" mode.
Is there any way by which - short of opening up the computer itself - I can tell how much memory I've got aside from what's on the hard drive? I still need to run MemTest, but short of going through every last process I might need to do something to upgrade things.
Thanks again.
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Post by GTCGreg on Apr 24, 2014 16:50:38 GMT
If you open task manager and click on the "performance" tab, it will tell you how much physical memory your system has and how much of it is currently being used by processes.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 24, 2014 17:16:09 GMT
I've got it up now.
It says that I have 1.05 GB of memory.
My "safe mode" specs for physical memory are 4024 MB total, 715 MB cached, 2940 MB available, and 2268 MB free.
Kernal memory (also under "safe mode" is 164 MB paged, 40 MB non-paged.
I have 38 processes going, which represents 26% of my physical memory and a varying percentage (1% to 10%) of my CPU usage.
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Post by kharnynb on Apr 24, 2014 18:06:46 GMT
Your main goal to speed things up is to remove mcafee and norton, since they will be messing anyway as competing virus/firewalls tend to cause weird behaviour. (on disk stuff, such as games, should not impact your pc performance, unless the c: drive is totally full and trying to swapdrive there)
You could try to install mozilla firefox(www.mozilla.org) and see if that behaves better than chrome, to exclude a bug/bad install of chrome.
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Post by ironhold on Apr 24, 2014 18:09:16 GMT
I *did* have Firefox in place, but I uninstalled it (tried to, at least; don't know if I got it all the way) shortly after I first started having problems. I had a lot of sensitive info in place - such as stuff with my paid survey groups - that I didn't want getting out if I had to take the system to a repair shop but which wouldn't go away no matter how many times I cleared the cookies or told it to delete my browsing history.
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