Almost no response from windows 7..angry wife

What is the performance like?

After every change you never report what the overall performance of the OS is before you run off to randomly reinstall or reimage.

Overall performance is different from isolated issues like Updates causing problems that can be sorted if focused on before going on another reinstall/reimage binge.

I would do the Updates in batches with priority first, then any Optional drivers one-by-one. You'll have a restore point set that can be rolled back if there are any resulting performance issues. Take this slowly to test performance after each group. Same with program installs, set a restore point before each.

Hold off on any new impulsive reinstalls or reimages until you sort the issues, as long as overall performance is satisfactory.

Of course, there may be horrible drag or hangs but we don't know that because you never report on overall performance even after asked multiple times.

OK so the failure to create a system image isn't a show stopper. I assumed that I was important to have this base line position saved before adding anything else as several people including yourslef said to do this before starting to add things. I haven't reported any perofrmance as have used any applications yet.

Will do as you say and see how it performs and not work about backing anything up.

Still no report on overall performance.

For all we know it could be taking 10 minutes to start up and 5 minutes to respond to clicking on anything.

Can you understand that while you reinstalling/reimaging repeatedly we are being left to guess the reason why?

Ah I see

Booting up: 1 minute to login
Logging in: 15 seconds
Everything opens almost immediately
Time to load home page on IE8: 8 seconds
So fresh start up works perfectly. will report on how/if things change once it's bene running a while

I have 2 questions:

1. Since I only have IE8 installed it is hard to beat the machine up to simulate real activity. The old OS was always fine for a few days and then slowly fell over as it got used. Is there any tool that can simulate usage a bit like they do when test new cars?

2. Performance is a bit subjective so is there any testing software worth installing that I could run after each app/driver is added which would give some consistent measure?

Unfortunately, I don't know of any software myself, I am sure there is some, like 3dMark is suppose to be a good video benchmarking one.

The thing is, you have mentioned you run into specific issues that you wanted to fix and saw the problems, which suggests to me that you have something to verify, not just 'over time'.

The way some troubleshooting happens is that if you can 'repeat' and 'see' the problem happening, you can diagnose the problem. But if it is 'hit and miss'... No one can diagnose the problem, because it becomes a perception issue.

Case in point. I have had a person who kept insisting that the internet is slow for loading up a web page on IE for our company. It took about 9 to 12 seconds to open up one web page. He insisted it should take LESS than that.

I told him that is not true. We both had the same ISP provider at home... We timed it. We both got around 8 to 10 seconds. We were comparing a T1 digital line with 90+ users going out to the world versus a Cable Connection with maybe 2 or 3 users going out to the world.

I would recommend noting when you have these problems, to pay strict attention to what is going on with your computer. Look at the drive lights, note what applications you are running at a given time and what you were doing at that moment when the problem happens.

As you can see, we put out many possible reasons certain problems happen, but the problem is, without more details as to what is going on, we can lead you down the wrong solution.

Well the "specifc issue" was the pc just completely seizing up eventually such that you had to power off. It just got progressively worse over a few days. This was running IE8, Outllok 2003 and odd use of itunes, word, excel etc. So could be any of those or as was pointed out drivers etc. Problem is the pc would run just fine for several days usage after a reboot. So in order to isolate the issue should I wait several days between adding extra items or would say drivers have an immediate impact?

The next thing to do is having Office installed so I can give it back to my wife so it gets used properly. Then each week I can add back a program and see how it does. Any all seems to be fine so far so fingers crossed.

masplin said:

Well the "specifc issue" was the pc just completely seizing up eventually such that you had to power off. It just got progressively worse over a few days. This was running IE8, Outllok 2003 and odd use of itunes, word, excel etc. So could be any of those or as was pointed out drivers etc. Problem is the pc would run just fine for several days usage after a reboot. So in order to isolate the issue should I wait several days between adding extra items or would say drivers have an immediate impact?

The next thing to do is having Office installed so I can give it back to my wife so it gets used properly. Then each week I can add back a program and see how it does. Any all seems to be fine so far so fingers crossed.

Well, that makes it a bit harder to pin down. It may not just be a hardware issue but a possible software interaction issue. In all technicality, Office 2003 should not do anything problematic, nor should IE8 by itself. And you say several days of usage, which also is another factor that plays into the whole thing because is this computer left on 24 hours, X days? Are these programs constantly running or closed out and reopened?

The problem now becomes a little more complex because of the simple fact new variables are being introduced constantly. But again, when we were looking at the driver side of the issue, you did seem to come back within a day stating problems were still there. Which suggests you were doing something consistent each time when doing things.

Again, when trying to find a problem, be consistent. Do EXACTLY what you have done to recreate the very condition you are trying to resolve.

Outlook and IE8 would remain open 24/7 with pc usually only being rebooted due to windows updates (before it started freezing up). That's what I do with mine and have no issues. Is that bad practice?

It isn't 'bad'... But the question is more of what is running on the computer. Remember, this is about 'consistency'. Noting what is going on. Simply IE8 and Outlook alone isn't the problem, something must be opening or being accessed. And more to the point, it happens over a Period of time. Which means, over time, something is bloating the system. At this point, you should be looking not just hardware but what is going on in the system. What is being viewed on IE. Are sessions in IE left open all the time?

You have to remember, even though you aren't doing something on a web page, does not mean the web page isn't doing something. Sites will have 'reloading' content. You could also have malware getting put on there which could cause the problem if you haven't put on MSE or some sort of AV protection on your system. Again, there are too many variables because not enough information to narrow it down. Are you the one doing the stuff on the computer or is your wife? Cause again, that is another factor. I can't make your computer do the problem without knowing what, EXACTLY, the person having the problem is doing on said computer because I could go browsing around for weeks and not have a problem on a system.

Again, as I harped many times before, Troubleshooting is being consistent, trying to make it happen. You make a change, try to make it happen again. The important thing is to find what is causing it to do EXACTLY what happens. The only way to do that is to repeat every thing that lead up to that incident.

If anything, start from the beginning, at boot up... Write down what you are doing each time, it is tedious, I know, but important to know what you did, where you went. When it happens. STOP. Restart again, do EXACTLY what you did before and see if it happens again. If you can get it to happen, make a MINOR change in what you do, like doing the last thing first, see if it happens again. If it does, you know 'that' is your problem area and you narrowed it down. If not, do the 2nd from last thing and work from there. This is the key points of troubleshooting, trying to find what sets up the circumstance. Once you know what sets it up, then you have the basis to find out what is creating your problem and also a case of how to recreate it to see if the solution is there.

Mind you, there are billions of possibilities. We only gave you one possibility based on what we commonly see, but it isn't the only solution. This means more information is needed to determine what it could be.