SWMBO's Packard Bell Laptop is running like a dog.
I've run the chkdsk which found and fixed some issues (or so it said).
CCleaner has done what it could for garbage and the registry
Windows defrag simply goes on for ever and ever in normal mode, defraggler has managed to sort everything other than some odd 'user' files
Tsize pro never finished in normal mode either, it reports errors in some folders or folder names. It runs without errors in safe mode, and worringly, over half the used space on the disk (ca 5Gb, IIRC) is actually taken up by windowsusers (when run in normal mode, windowsusers is always the bit it never gets to finish)
and running defrag/tsizepro/CCleaner has pushed my technical knowledge to its limits.
Anybody got any clever ideas ?
p.s. I don't know if it has any bearing on the windowsusers thing, but I dont believe she has ever deleted an email in her life, and she does get quite a lot, so I wouldn't be surprised if wherever outlook stores its emails was the biggest file on the system. Is there an easy way of finding out how many emails she has on the system ?
p.p.s 1GB ram
cheers
B
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This thread is about backing up Outlook files rather than locating as such, but the info is relevant in terms of file location and size:-
www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000457.htm
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Wed 7 Apr 10 at 17:57
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Is Windowsuser the user data bits (My Documents etc?). If so, I'd back up what I could to a data stick then make sure I had it on the stick then delete those bits I'd backed up then run the defrag then restore the data.
You can use Windows Find (Windows key/F) to find files, then do it by attribute, e.g. size, if you want to find out what files are over a certain size. Treesize does it better, but as a rough and ready guide it works OK.
I've never considered EMail files being large as a real problem, but I can imagine on an older system it might have an effect on performance. Somewhere in Outlook there is a Compact File button IIRC - this might run for a long time. It will save some space but not loads, I would guess. Ideally to reduce email file sizes, the user deletes mails before you do the Compact.
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Bora,
the first thing that strikes me is that you're "running", if that isn't too kind a word, Vista and you only have 1GB. When I got Vista I found that the page file was being hit all of the time. Upgrading to 2GB made an enormous difference.
It may not help but one of Vista's peculiarities is that it places no limit on System Restore points. It may be worth checking how many you have, how old they are, do you need them, delete 'em if not. CCleaner is your best bet for doing that just go to Tools, System Restore.
Have you checked what junk gets loaded at startup time? You know how to use Msconfig to check? Ccleaner can help (again) but I prefer to double check with Msconfig. If you don't know what something is just Google it.
After that I'm stuck I'm afraid. I did everything I could to a Vista pc and it still took ages to start. Bought a new pc and Vista started pdq. Though I subsequently trampled all over it with W7, big improvement but not much help in this case.
Hope some of that helps.
JH
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>>
>> Have you checked what junk gets loaded at startup time? You know how to use
>> Msconfig to check? Ccleaner can help (again) but I prefer to double check with Msconfig.
I know how to get there, buty i'm not sure what I'm looking at when I arrive :-)
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borasport,
ok, you're in msconfig at the Startup tab? The "Startup Item" column is the critical bit, it names each program loaded at startup time. Some of them will be blindingly obvious to you, you'll know what they are and you can instantly decide you do want that (maybe your AV software!) or you don't (maybe a self important bit of software that you use once in a blue moon). If you don't know what it is just Google the program name. I usually type "What is xxxx".
If you decide you don't want something loaded at startup time and you know what software it relates to the best thing is to start up that software and have a poke around. Look at "Option", "Preferences", "Configuration", that sort of word. Very often there is a tick box which says "No thankyou, please don't load bits of yourself at startup time". That's the best way to go about it. However. failing that just untick the startup item box in MSconfig. I suggest that you do just one at a time. I've never hit any problems and it does warn you when you reboot that you've made a change and you have to tell it you want to keep the changes.
The sort of things you can turn off (looking at my list); Canon My Printer, Groovemonitor (part of Office 2007), Omnipage (OCR), Cyberlink, CNSLMAIN, SSBkgdUpdate (I have no idea! I must have checked at some point) and so on.
Good luck
JH
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Vista is a dreadful O/S. Have to use it at work and the laptop often times out and goes belly up doing basic things like doing a search. This laptop has 2 or 4 gb of ram. 1gb is way too small for a bloated thing like vista.
Easiest answer is to wipe it off and stick on XP or if you want to find a fast OS bung on ubuntu linux :-) Will solve the outlook email problem as she won't be able to use it on linux :D
You could also have picked up a virus or spyware so run one of those seek and destroy type things too.
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Thanks for all the suggestions so far, none of which I had time to investigate last night, but i've no doubt this will run and run.
Bear in mind it ain't my laptop (guess what - mine had vista removed and XP installed !) and SWMBO has an idiosincratic approach to computer problems - she 'hadn't been able to use it' yesterday as the printer wasn't working (reboot pc with printer attached, nothing to do with laptop) and the icons on the games and printers folders had dissapeared (presumably CCleaner doing something odd, reseting the views brought them back)
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Good luck Bora, I've been there :-)
One last thought. Mrs tooslow tracked down something that was clobbering her laptop on a regular basis with the sysinternals tools. Just type sysinternals into Google and it will pop up a Microsoft technet website. The process monitoring tool somehow managed to survive the 100% cpu use by the nuisance and identified it as being auto update running for 10 mins or so several times a day. I'm not suggesting that is the problem in your case but it may help to identify what it is.
JH
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The otehr well known performance hitter is Indexer.
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She's still manking on about it, though these delays and hang ups rarely appear when I'm around.
Is there any benefit to be gained by upgrading to Windows 7, or would that be the computing equivalent of go-faster stripes and massive spoilers on a 998cc mk1 fiesta ?
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My gf's dog of a laptop has been transformed into a lovely to use machine by upgrading to 3Gb of RAM and Windoze 7.
Upgrade on Sisters laptop to 3 Gb of ram only has also rendered a machine they were going to get rid of utterly useable. Is the single best thing you can do.
Ram made a bigger difference than the OS, but Windows 7 is a revelation compared to Vista.
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Always been the way with computers of all kinds - best upgrade of all is usually more RAM
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I have found that, even after using CC Cleaner, Comodo finds a whole lot more. I am deleting up to 5000 items a week with Comodo on its first pass and without using CCC first.
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>>Is there any benefit to be gained by upgrading to Windows 7, or would that be the computing equivalent of go-faster stripes and massive spoilers on a 998cc mk1 fiesta ?>>
No. Windows7 is first class and leaves the bloaty Vista for dead, although I'm still a big XP Pro fan.
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It must be down to the hardware.
I run W7 Ultimate 64bit on a Sony Vaio i3 and have more bother than with VistaSP2 HP 64bit on Core2Quad.
Going back to XP feels like driving a 4 speed manual these days.
Last edited by: gmac on Tue 16 Nov 10 at 22:42
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Going back to XP feels like driving a 4 speed manual these days.
>
> is that a compliment or derogatory?
the older i get i really come to the conclusion the monkeys solved the problems of all books written and we really are going backwards to find new ways to keep people in jobs and spend the money they really shouldnt be earning
no offence to you its an open observation
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None taken. You're Dad probably said the same about radios in cars or heaters.
XP works but things move on. I remember working with Windows 3.1 which was stable enough for me then moved to NT which again did the job.
Sometimes I wonder what people do to provoke these systems into failing. I used to write software and really take the Michael when testing it deliberately trying to break it. Seems the Universe is winning with it's bigger and better idiots.
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Ah but you were doing a proper job g. I did much the same, though on mainframes. With a freshly written program that had got as far as running I'd start by just hitting enter, to see how it coped with no input, and carry on torturing it from there. One guy I worked with only tested that his code worked with good input data. So if you typed in "30th February" - he'd never tested that. Unbelievable but true. And there is some truly awful code out there. It is amazing really that pcs stand up as well as they do.
John
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>> Ah but you were doing a proper job g. I did much the same, though
>> on mainframes.
Ah How are your JCL and JES memories holding up?
DDname anyone....
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I just got the hang of COND after 20 years and they went and introduced conditional JCL. Phah! DCB= anyone?
John
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Used to teach this stuff :-(, along with PL/1 programming and IMS database design......
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I'm impressed, though I was an Assembler person myself, COBOL when needs must. As for IMS, I have memories of the operator dropping the phone handset on the exposed "Power Off" button on a 4300 at 17:00 one night. My IMS forward recovery routine was still in development. By 04:00 the next morning I had it working :-(
John
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I remember when taking a system snapshot was exactly that - we had a camera with a giant hood to put over the screen so that we could photograph dump messages.
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I have had Windows7 Home Edition 64bit for nearly six months on a new Dell system (AMD three core) and it's never missed a beat to date.
XP Pro proved virtually as reliable over around seven or eight years.
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Chkdsk and defrag will do nothing for the performance of the machine when up and running.
Standard 32bit Vista needs 800Mb RAM without a truckload of bloatware loading at startup.
Sounds like you need to setup some postboxes in Outlook to move the emails to locally served files.
Superfetch (indexing) is probably hammering you as has been suggested so stop that service and sort out which disks and folders you really need indexed.
Do you use user accounts ? There are index.dat files dropped all over the place. Ccleaner and the likes may clean up the content but the physical file on the disk keeps growing. You need to delete these to reset them.
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Wht version Vista are you running ?
Have you done the SP2 upgrade?
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Vista, Outlook and speed ! - spamcan61
