I think my chances of getting my wife to write down everything she is doing on the pc over a period of several days with 3 children is pretty slim! I understand what you are getting at though. As you say could be her browsing habits so that will show up with just IE8 and Office installed. thanks agian for the valuable advice
Well, I can understand the children issue, but the simple fact is... Just telling us applications and again, not much else other than 'It didn't work' is like taking a car to the mechanic and telling him there is something wrong with the car and that's it. Without knowing the specifics or how to recreate the problem, they can't fix it. Now unlike unscrupulous mechanics, we won't charge you and say it was fix... We will flat out tell you, we need more information to work on. And, to be honest, got to get your wife to do the same. She can't expect you to get it fixed, but if she is also dead set on getting a new computer, I would state the following:
"We can get a new computer, but I will take the new computer, you can have the one I have that is working fine with no problems. If you are having the SAME problems with this computer, then it is time to do what some of these guys on the forums are saying..."
Because right now, if you have a perfectly working computer right now for you... None of these problems she is having right now, and she starts having the same problem... It isn't a hardware issue, and partially a software/user issue, which again, needs to be addressed by finding out what she is doing to create the situation.
Leaving IE open is going to cause bloat. Leaving Outlook open may as well. Close apps when they aren't being used.
i cant believe this thread is still going and without going through every response still think this either Anti virus or firewall related.
there certainly (if all hardware options are exhausted) a sofware conflict in my opinion.
was there a clean install of OS ,just a thought PC's normally come with a partition with the original set up and trial versions of various software by some coincidence could there be remnants of a pre installed anti virus application lurking in a protected parition of the hard drive or was this a "total" hard drive wipe?
my gut feeling is that anything that drags software down is often security software owing to the nature that it works and most operations go through this first.
also withouth sounding patronising are you sure she is not just being impatiient.
i recall on a work PC that often office applications would not launch as quick as i would like.
impatiently i would double click the icon again ...hmm did i do it the first time...i'll try again?
it is possible with IE to launch several times therefore if the PC is lagging it finds itself in situation where it is trying to catch up with itself and delays everything else.
just another thought.
what Anti virus/firewall are you running?
have you tried when the system slows launching the programs with the modem switched off? and without AV program running.... also whilst without internet connection?
good luck!
(buy a new PC sell the other on ebay)
You have to also remember, the description of the problem also precludes AV and Firewall issues as well as the focus seemed intent on it being a hardware issue. The problem here, though is not just that it could be an AV/Firewall issue, but some of it can also be hardware as well and that things being described was not clarified but generalized.
One thing to note, for other people, the forums will not necessarily have the answer to the question if the question is too generalized. And AV/Firewall would not necessarily cause a system to 'freeze up'. While I have seen AV slow a system to a crawl, there are other indications that go along with that, such as a system with very little physical memory to begin with, using a 'latest' version of an AV software and heavy disk activity would do that. But it could also be made worse with not having the right drive controller drivers, making disk access inefficiently slow.
As I told Mal here to do, give us more details of what is going on. There are a lot of factors that could also not be an AV related issue, and again, I have never heard of an AV solution that will literally FREEZE a system as he has described.
Wise advice Keiichi25. Will work on as much detail as possible.
take your point keiichi .
and i do agree we need some basic info ,have we ever seen a breakdown on what the entire machine specs are? (apart from being a dell)
owing to all the posts there seems an incentive to forget the very basic (like in a car check all the fuses first is ther fuel in the tank)
i appreciate that hardware could be at fault and one of my earlier posts were sugestions to either the power supply or perhaps temperature both which can build up an effect over time.
my support to software option is that the PC starts ok and slowly and then declines in performance hinting at possible one of the above or a software conflict that slowly chokes the processes (although this should be evident in task manager)
with my mobo i have a utility to monitor processor ,ram,temperature ,fan,voltage etc.
although i am not certain there must be monitoring apps to record/see if the hardware is struggling at some point.this might well eliminate or identify general hardware issues at start and during use.
i think some sidebar gadgets are available although a dedicated monitorng program would be best.
from my recollection the system is not freezing /locking up, just being very slow or unable to open software due to "lack of memory".
if its completely locking then i would think its hardware or drivers.
very poor performance over a defined period time i think could lean to software as you say more detail.
i think a divorce would have been quicker to resolve
Hi Sheppitydawg. The problem ranges form slowing down such that the pc takes 15 seconds ot resond to a mouse click to completely freezing so you can't even get to the start button to shut down and have to pull the plug. As you say sometimes there are error messages says short of disk space or memory which are patentently untrue. In task manager I have never CPU high or memory above 40%. If something is hogging the resources shouldn't it show up in taks manager.
I did find a little progrma to monitor the motherboard as several people have mentioned overheating. I was reluctant to install as it was a 2004 app.
if I didn't love my wife I would have chosen the divorce option by now!!!!
mike
Use MS Security Essentials with Windows Firewall.
Install the rest of the programs slowly enough to test performance after each. Remove all but AV and gadgets/stickynotes from msconfig>startup so they don't freeload on RAm/CPU.
Clean and order the HD with CCleaner and defraggers,
Let your wife use it normally. Monitor Windows Updates for newer drivers, keep an eye on Event Viewer to google repeat errors to resolve them over time.
It may well be that the clean reinstall solved your OP so let's wait and see.
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