sloooowww computer.

[Motu]

Cathy has come out of the closet about her lack of computer nouse - now it's my turn.A few weeks ago my computer went very slow,it's like it has no memory left to work on - I've had a big clean out and have 50% free,but feels like only 2%.I am on Jetstream and Explorer is almost unusable,Mozilla is faster,but if you leave it alone for 5 mins you have to hit keys and click mouse buttons to wake it up.Off line even a game of solitare is a slow-mo replay.Have done Norton scans and an online scan with no results.Sometimes the screen sorta moves a bit,this thing is definatly freaking out,something is in there I reckon - whatcha think eh?

[Mongoose]

'Puter Dr time methinks. Mine went wonky like that a while back and only a trip to one wot knows(and charges like they are the only one wot knows) fixed it. can't remember now, was it a trojan or was it a virus? Either way it was something Mr Microsoft did not intend to be there.

[jrandom]

It just feels WRONG to pay someone $80 an hour for something that you can fix by sitting down and doing yourself.

Says the man who's about to go to Colemans and pay a $240 servicing bill.

[geoffm]

Cathy has come out of the closet about her lack of computer nouse - now it's my turn.A few weeks ago my computer went very slow,it's like it has no memory left to work on - I've had a big clean out and have 50% free,but feels like only 2%.I am on Jetstream and Explorer is almost unusable,Mozilla is faster,but if you leave it alone for 5 mins you have to hit keys and click mouse buttons to wake it up.Off line even a game of solitare is a slow-mo replay.Have done Norton scans and an online scan with no results.Sometimes the screen sorta moves a bit,this thing is definatly freaking out,something is in there I reckon - whatcha think eh?

Firstly, Nortons is up to date - latest definitions etc?
Download (or often on the cover CD of PC World etc) Adaware and Spybot S&D. Install them and run the definitions updates, and run them. Prepare to be amazed what rubbish they find.
Do you have a firewall? The built in one in XP is better than nothing (just). I use Sygate personal firewall (www.sygate.com) - free. Zonealarm is another alternative. Helps stop nasties getting in, and unwanted programs accessing the internet.
Geoff

[aff-man]

yip man definatley sounds like good old spyware at work. Go to www.lavasoft.com download the free version of addware and see what it finds. If it's more than 100 then ummm welll that was the problem. Make sure you tick all the scan boxes in customize and select all files before deleting the trackers ect....

[Motoracer]

Resistance is useless. The computer virus/spam lords now rule the world.

I mean, when 2.5Ghtz these days runs slower than what 0.7Ghtz PCs used to run ages ago, you can notice the obvious. Pretty much everyone that I know of has got their computers full of bugs that slows the performance down and they can't get rid of it.

I suspect your PCs is full of viruses and spyware and wat not.

Then again, I know jack about computer stuff so this is just my uneducated opinion.

Goodluck.

[Aleph]

You have just joined the wonderful 4th dimension.
Just to be clear I am not a computer expert. I have had luck by loading down 2 items of free software - Ad-aware and spybot. Site is www.download.com.
Once downloaded you can run the software which locates and deletes all of the advertising and spy programs which your computer picks up over time and stores hidden away to send info to others on what you are doing. All sounds a bit paranoid but it is there. Removing these items may help.
The other suggestion is to run a defrag. To do this click Start then usually go to program files / accessories / systems tools / disk defragmentor . Click on defragmentor and follow the instructions. Not guaranteed but it does sometimes help.
I recommend a regular check on the Ad and spy programs and a defrag (of your computer that is) to keep lots of minor issues out of the way.

Good luck

[Drunken Monkey]

It just feels WRONG to pay someone $80 an hour for something that you can fix by sitting down and doing yourself.

Says the man who's about to go to Colemans and pay a $240 servicing bill.

Pish, that's a bargain. We charge $108 and we're considered cheap...

[moko]

I`m another Ad-aware fan,had the same problem as you Motu when I came across an item on Ad-aware in a computer mag one of my work-mates left laying around.Downloaded it and first scan found over 600 files that shouldn`t be there,wiped them off and it was incredible,all that crap was really slowing my system down.I run it every week now and regularly take off 30+ bits of crap,all this stuff running in the background saps your p.c. a lot more than you`d realise,particularly an older less powerful set-up like mine.I also use Fix-it utilities suite,tidies things up,takes out yet more crap e.t.c.,I find it very good but there are other utility programs on the market,all easy to use and again first time round you`ll be horrified at what it`ll find and fix.A good tip is to not overload your p.c.,keep as much stuff as you can on disks rather than filling your hard-drive up with stuff,again more relevant if like me you`ve got a lot less space than on more recent machines.treat your p.c. like your bike,keep it maintained and dont overload it and it`ll work a lot better.Incidentally I think you`ll find mozilla carries some kind of spyware program built into it,I`m a fellow numpty though and only going by what someone told me.

[Motu]

Pish, that's a bargain. We charge $108 and we're considered cheap...

I just love it when you guys moan about how much I charge to fix your car!

Ok,thanks for the insights,I'll try that tomorrow,seeing as it happened suddenly I think something has dumped me a lot of crap at once.Nice being at home now on my fast 'slow' computer!

[jrandom]

Says the man who's about to go to Colemans and pay a $240 servicing bill.

Make that $275 :weep:

[Motu]

OK - I downloaded Ad aware and Spybot....Spybot found a bunch of stuff and things speeded up heaps,but Ad aware kept freezing,deleted and downloaded again and left on all night - this morning it said it had found over 65,650 thingies!!!!! it was hard to wake it up to deal with it,but finaly did what it was supposed to and whoooo hoooo,things are back to normal.66,000 whatzits on my computer - WTF??? I's gunna do this every week now eh?

[Mongoose]

OK - I downloaded Ad aware and Spybot....Spybot found a bunch of stuff and things speeded up heaps,but Ad aware kept freezing,deleted and downloaded again and left on all night - this morning it said it had found over 65,650 thingies!!!!! it was hard to wake it up to deal with it,but finaly did what it was supposed to and whoooo hoooo,things are back to normal.66,000 whatzits on my computer - WTF??? I's gunna do this every week now eh?

Yup, you sure should do, and the *stranger* the sites you visit the more you will gert. :ar15:

[aff-man]

well i am surprised your computer didn't just die???? but it should be less now and if you get any type of Norton protection they block a hell of a lot of stuff.

[wkid_one]

Well fuck me - I haven't heard of many people having that many.

Go to www.zonealarm.com and download a firewall - that will prevent a lot of the issues from reoccurring and and anti-virus (plenty of free ones)

[Ghost Lemur]

OK - I downloaded Ad aware and Spybot....Spybot found a bunch of stuff and things speeded up heaps,but Ad aware kept freezing,deleted and downloaded again and left on all night - this morning it said it had found over 65,650 thingies!!!!! it was hard to wake it up to deal with it,but finaly did what it was supposed to and whoooo hoooo,things are back to normal.66,000 whatzits on my computer - WTF??? I's gunna do this every week now eh?

Welcome to the wonderful world of Windows. Hense one of the many reasons why I don't use it.

[wkid_one]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Windows. Hense one of the many reasons why I don't use it.
Nothing wrong with it provided you take a few small provisions for its flaws. Can prevent 99% of them by not using Explorer

[Motu]

Yeah,I got a bit of a shock when I saw the number too! Ad aware kept freezing at about 112,but there was some way to go.I don't go to porn sites,unless it's a link from somewhere else,but when ever I check Spybot,even after 10mins it has a site with the word girls in it,even if I haven't even started a browser.Because it happened suddenly I think it may have been a one time hit,but then maybe it reached a threshold and fell over?

[riffer]

Hmmm. Interesting. A lot of windows programs used to have problems with numbers over about 65,500 due to 16-bit coding.

Not too many 16-bit apps around any more but there legacy remains.

I discovered one: jpeg has a maximum pixel size of 65,500 x 65,500 pixels. I needed to make a file twice that size (scanned image 30 metres x 60cm @ 300 ppi).

[jrandom]

Hmmm. Interesting. A lot of windows programs used to have problems with numbers over about 65,500 due to 16-bit coding.

65535.

Hexadecimal FFFF.

Octal 177777.

Binary 1111111111111111.

AKA two to the sixteenth.

[jrandom]

I discovered one: jpeg has a maximum pixel size of 65,500 x 65,500 pixels. I needed to make a file twice that size (scanned image 30 metres x 60cm @ 300 ppi).

I wouldn't have thought that lossy compression algorithms would be suitable for document archival in any case.

[Edit: explanation - the JPEG image format throws away visual information to minimise storage space, which is why it can achieve such impressive image compression ratios compared to raw bitmapped data. Other 'lossless' formats maintain the precise value of every pixel, even when compressed to smaller sizes.]

[wkid_one]

65535.

Hexadecimal FFFF.

Octal 177777.

Binary 1111111111111111.

AKA two to the sixteenth.
Fuck - don't you have too much time on your hands.

[jrandom]

Fuck - don't you have too much time on your hands.

Not really. This stuff tends to be on my mind as a matter of course.

[sAsLEX]

its his job to know pointless shit like that!

[What?]

Nothing wrong with it provided you take a few small provisions for its flaws. Can prevent 99% of them by not using Explorer
Yeah, but sadly some websites just don't work on anything else. Quite why they display OK on IE but not on Netscape or Mozilla is a mystery to me...

[James Deuce]

Yeah, but sadly some websites just don't work on anything else. Quite why they display OK on IE but not on Netscape or Mozilla is a mystery to me...

I've been using Mozilla Firefox for about 3 months now and it is fine with everything I visit.

[Badcat]

Yeah, but sadly some websites just don't work on anything else. Quite why they display OK on IE but not on Netscape or Mozilla is a mystery to me...
no mystery.
just dopey web developers that are too inexperienced, self important or deluded to test their work on browsers other than IE.
wankers.

[jrandom]

I've been using Mozilla Firefox for about 3 months now and it is fine with everything I visit.

I believe the Mozilla developers have been busting a gut over the last several months to get the Microsoft 'extensions' working that previously caused non-IE browsers to screw pages up (of course, it was the web designers' fault in the first place for using non-standard 'standards', but I digress).

There are still sites that are stupid enough to check your browser's version string and redirect to a "please use Internet Explorer" page, though. Not much one can do about that.

Given the importance of the web these days, there's not much point using IE any more, since Microsoft has officially ceased development. The free/open-source browsers are just going to get better and better; it's arguable that they are already better in every respect than the last IE version.

I use Mozilla 1.7.1 at work and home.

[Badcat]

I believe the Mozilla developers have been busting a gut over the last several months to get the Microsoft 'extensions' working that previously caused non-IE browsers to screw pages up (of course, it was the web designers' fault in the first place for using non-standard 'standards', but I digress).

There are still sites that are stupid enough to check your browser's version string and redirect to a "please use Internet Explorer" page, though. Not much one can do about that.

Given the importance of the web these days, there's not much point using IE any more, since Microsoft has officially ceased development. The free/open-source browsers are just going to get better and better; it's arguable that they are already better in every respect than the last IE version.

I use Mozilla 1.7.1 at work and home.


i use safari - as i use macs.
bugger all virus risk.
no real threat of adware/spyware.
mac OS X - a REAL alternative to windows.
ken