CPU is bogging down....

[roberkd]

i have been having problems with my computer in the past year..i have to do a total restore twice cause the speed just gets so slow...i was thinking it was that i just had too much on my computer but it just seems to after a while the performance just gets real bad...i have gotten rid of any software that i dont use anymore...a computer guy came out and put a new motherboard in it and that doesnt seem to make a difference...i have WIN98....is there anything i can do to help the performance or the speed of my computer....

when i say its slow i mean it takes sometimes 45 seconds to a minutes just to close out a window sometimes...it seems to hesitate when i go over and press the start button...any thoughts out there

[saphalline]

Sounds like software bloat, alright. Maybe from Windows, maybe not. In any case, we need more info about your system. CPU type & speed? RAM amount? Video & sound? Updated drivers? Let us know.

[mjc]

If the problem keeps coming back, even after a change of motherboards, I think it is time to examine some of you computing habits....

Do you clear the temp internet files (browser cache) and other temp files?

Do you clear your Documents shortcuts?

What are some detailed specs...version of Windows, CPU speed, RAM, etc?

What do you have running at startup?

For that one download and run StartUp List (http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/index.html) and post the log, it opens in notepad so all you will need to do is copy and paste....

[jabarnutcase]

Couple other things come to mind also...Have you run Defrag lately? (Or ever?)
Also, do you use an anti-virus software?

And...When you said you had to do a "total restore" twice, by that do you mean you re-installed windows over itself twice, or did a complete format and fresh install? ;)

And of course, the other stuff mentioned above...CPU, Ram, etc. would be helpful to know.

One more thing roberkd- I would be very curious to know why or how the "computer guy" determined it was your motherboard causing the computer to slow down...Hope you didn't throw the other one away yet!
:rolleyes:

[roberkd]

thanks everyone for responding....i am using WIN98 and Compaq Presario...416mh....i believe its 8G hard drive.....64MD of RAm.....

as for maint. i do do a defrag about every two weeks....i am clean out temp file and such as well.....

as for start up i have done a msconfig and went to the start up tab and got rid of the unneccesary stuff...the only thing i have at start up is systray, explorer, and my Nortons anti virus.......

jabarnutcase...as far the total restore ..i did do a complete re format of the computer..it was like just came out of the box again...and for that "computer guy" ,...we had a 3 year warranty form CompUSA and they sent a guy out to come take a look at it...i really dont think he had a clue what was going on....and no i dont still have the motherboard...wish i did though....

oh and by the way i was doing some things last night and i got a fatal error message saying something like my "stack" was full i need to go to system.ini and make it larger...what does that mean...if i remember correctly this was the second time i have gotten this message in the past few weeks

i hope i didnt miss anything....

[Budfred]

You said: "64MD of RAm"

This is probably the bottleneck. This is a pretty minimal amount of RAM these days and many programs will bog down with this level. You may want to check with Compaq and see how much RAM your system can manage and then add more. I recently bought some 256Meg sticks for $25 after rebate, so the prices are pretty good these days. If you system can handle it, I would say go for at least 256meg.

I am not sure about the stacks issue, but the RAM may help with that as well.

Budfred

[jabarnutcase]

Yes roberkd-
I would agree with Budfred. Ram is cheap these days and it can make a huge difference in performance.

Not sure about the stack issue either, although I think it may have something to do with device driver errors- Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
Have you added any new hardware lately or updated drivers for anything? Check your device manager for the heck of it and see if you have any "problem devices".

But go for more Ram for sure!!!
Good luck.
:)

[sea69]

more RAM, get rid of all the comcrap duplicate drivers and "helper" programs.

You will find that you have software installed for hardware that may be non-exisitent on your machine.

mine did- before I totally abandoned the Restore CD and put in winXP.

**with a lot more RAM than came with this machine- 128- now have 512.



;)

[rahulkothari]

just check out whether you have disabled virtual memory (by mistake) my computer > properties > performance >virtual memory > check 'let windows manage..'

you may also want to check How to Troubleshoot Windows Internal Stack Overflow Error Messages (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q145799)
jabarnutcase, you have a look at it too...