Computer Help (Vanity)

me ^ | 3.24.04 | me

[jra]

Ok, computer geniuses...

I have a new (~4 months) Dell running Windows XP, connected to the web via a cable modem/router.

Here's the prob: My hard drive runs incessantly. It has gotten progressively worse over the last week or so. It has now gotten to the point where it is severely affecting the performance of the machine...programs take forever to open, web pages load reeeeeeeeeally slowly. Sometimes the machine can sit idle for several minutes, and when I sit down to surf, I can hear it running before I even touch it.

If I reboot, the problem diminishes somewhat, but will eventually get back to its old ways.

I've cleared my cache, run a checkdisk, updated and run my virus protection software, and nothing has helped.

Can anyone at least steer me in the right direction to look? Also, is there any way to find out what the HD is actually *doing* when it's spinning away???

[GeronL]

Me thinks you have too many programs running 'in the background', probably spyware and all that other stuff has been downloaded too. Everyone has this problem to some extent... even me.

[Varmint Al]

You might have all of your Internet Explorer temp file free space filled up and it has to delete a file before it can read a new one. Here is how to free the space.

Right click on the IE icon on your desktop and select Properties. The when the menu appears, click on the delete files button. That will dump all of the temporarily files that have accumulated on your hard drive each time you visit a web page.

Next you can compact your hard drive so it will read files faster. Run the defrag program?

Click on Start

Click on Search

Find the defrag.exe and double click on it.

It will put the files on your hard drive in a more compact order so that they can be read faster.

Hope this helps.

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

[SERE_DOC]

send it back and buy an apple. you won't be sorry.

I know that sounds trite but after 15+ years on windows pc's I have my first MAC and have had it for about 2 months 0 problems, 0 issues and it's reliability is incredible.

[AFreeBird]

A cable connection to the internet with no firewall and no anti-virus?

You like living on the edge don't you.

Not only have you opened yourself up to virus and spyware programs, but hackers may very well be having a field day with your system without your knowledge. As for wanting to find out whats kicking you harddrive so much you can try checking the task list. Not sure about XP but a CONTROL-SHIFT-ESC brings up the task list on W2K. Check your processes. Clicking on a column heading for CPU time will show you the most active process.

In any case; you HAVE to get a firewall. ZoneLabs has a freeware software version that you can download, in addition you might want to consider a hardware version such a Linksys. ZoneAlarm is good because it resides on your PC and monitors "outgoing" traffic as well as incomming. The hardware version is another layer of defense between your cable modem and PC. Quick frankly I recommend both and use both myself.

I would also suggest getting an anti-virus program such as McAfee. It is not free but it is worth the money. It might be a good idea to procure the anti-virus from your local CompUSA or Bestbuy (Good sources for firewalls too) so you have it on CD. I would be leary of internet purchases right now since we don't know what kind of virus/spybots may be on you system and could possibly intercept credit card numbers or other sensitive information.

And, I would seriously consider using something other than Internet Explorer. That is one of the weakest components of a Microsoft system. Ever since microsoft decided to "integrate" IE into Windows to win the browser wars, problems have gotten worse.

That's all I got for now.

Good luck!

[TommyDale]

"Run Ad-Aware, Spybot, Spywareblaster, et seq...."

And after that, run CWShredder. It picks up what the others don't catch. Also, if you have the program "Go Back" it can cause constant hard drive activity as well.

[expatpat]

Good suggestion.

[spunkets]

Dump the trash and defrag the drive. The disk is always spinning, but now it's near full. The files are all in little pieces all over the place and the system is trying to keep track and fit the new stuff into all the little holes all over.

[AFreeBird]

I seriously doubt that at 4 months old, his harddrive is that fragmented. And even if it were, it should not be running as much as he says.

He's got a problem, a problem I suspect that is not native to his system.

[Mannaggia l'America]

If you bought a new Dell you should have a years free Tech help. They will spend all the time you need on the phone with you.

He might as well just start reloading Windows now. That's how most of the tech support calls to Dell (and Gateway, HP, etc.) end up. When the person on the other end gets to the end of their script, it says "TELL THEM TO RELOAD WINDOWS SO YOU CAN HANG UP".

[spunkets]

Depends. If he stuck software on, it could be quite bad, because it was never done once. Also, regular cleanups might not have been done. All those little frags take up much room depending on the cluster size. I it's XP and the memory is smaler than 256M, then the drive will really be bad and the computer at a dead crawl.

[Mannaggia l'America]

Lots of the other suggestions are good, especially about running Adaware AND Spybot Search & Destroy. Download and run BOTH. After installing each, be sure to use their "download updates" buttons.

If you are a little savvy, click on Start/Run and type "msconfig" and click OK. Go to the Startup tab - this is a list of programs that your computer starts up automatically when you log in (there are others in the Services tab, but most spyware that runs at startup installs itself in the area shown by the Startup tab, because that is common between all Windows 9x/2000/XP systems).

Take a look at the list and uncheck anything that looks suspicious. If you want to get investigative, it shows you the name of the .exe in the Command column - go find that file with Windows Explorer and right-click on it, choose Properties, and look on the Version tab. It shows information like the company name, etc. embedded in the file. If you don't see a company name or recognize the name, uncheck it or do a search on it at groups.google.com to see if you can figure out what the file does.

BTW, there were a lot of responses that said "get a firewall" or "get a router". The original post said he has a "cable modem/router". While a router is not necessarily a firewall, generally any type of router will give your PC a private IP address and protect you somewhat.

[potlatch]

Sorry, but my husband and I have had good success working with them on the phone, they stayed on as long as we needed.We haven't got ahold of any foreign ones so far.

[proxy_user]

You have the tool you need already.

Open the right-click on the task bar and open the Task Manager.

The 'Performance Tab' will show you how much memory you are using, and how much physical memory is free. If you're using a lot more memory than the physical memory installed, and the available memory is low, you're paging.

Now go to the Processes tab. Add columns 'Mem Usage' and 'Peak Mem Usage'. Try sorting on these columns. That will show you what processes are using too much memory if you are short.

If you are not short of memory, add the 'I/O Reads' column and sort on that. That will show you what processes are doing many write to your disk. Search Google to find out what the associated program does.

If you suspect you are Trojaned, open a command window and type in 'netstat -an'. That will show all your network connections. If you are only doing web browsing, the 'Foreign address' colum to only be to port 80 on web servers.

Good luck.

[AFreeBird]

Well, I've had this new laptop since last October. Defrag analysis reports total over all fragmentation at 22%, with file fragmentation at 44% and my harddrive is not incessantly active. It recommends I de-frag and I will when I get around to it, but it's not killing my system and while I'm not sure what you define as regular cleanups; I'm pretty sure I don't do them. Add to that the latest in drive geometry and electronics and built in cache; fragmentation is the least of his worries.

As for memeory, yea, more memory is always better as it reduces the use of the swapfile. Still I would hope given how cheap memory is these days, that an XP system would come with at least 256MB of ram if not 512MB.

[InvisibleChurch]

i just did the adaware thang ... now my computer goes zoom! thanks

[Drango]

If you bought a new Dell you should have a years free Tech help. They will spend all the time you need on the phone with you.

WORD! Built into the price of his computer is FREE tech support...why ask here?

[zeugma]

Well, since noone else has suggested the obvious...LinuxISO.org

[witnesstothefall]

There are good suggestions here. Also, try unplugging the cable modem when the problem is bad and observe any changes. If the hdd stops, the spyware/spambot angle is probably the culprit.....

[potlatch]

Well, there is always a lot of good help here. I have bad hearing and I actually hate to have to call tech, never know what accent i'll get, LOL>

[Gracey]

I have a Logitec Optical mouse w/USB and PS/2 capability and my computer has 2 each ports.

In the last few weeks, my optical mouse keeps going dead, more and more frequently. If I unplug and replug it might work but lately it's getting more and more difficult for the light to come back on. I've tried using the PS/2 port, it helped for a while but now doesn't work at all. The USB port is about dead.

I plugged the mouse into an old CPU using PS/2 port and it works fine... no problem.

What's my problem and can I just change out the box that holds my mouse and keyboard? The keyboard is working OK.

Any help appreciated.