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Archive through January 19, 2004

The TVClubHouse: Archives: 2004 January - Arpil: Computer Problems? Ask here... (ARCHIVES): Archive through January 19, 2004 users admin

Author Message
Draheid

Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 9:27 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Texannie: It is possible that you're having some sort of conflict with memory resources. If your system is already low on resources, the additional memory used when loading the java applets or cold-fusion programs on those two sites (and any others with as much varied content as that and CNN offer) could be causing this problem. When a lot of applets try to load, causing the browser to demand more resource memory, it's possible that is causing the mouse drivers resources to become confused or unavailable.

*IF* this is the case, I don't have any quick solutions to offer you at this time. Perhaps examine what other programs are loaded into memory at the times you encounter this problem and see if you can eliminate something to free up resources.

Let me know if this helps.

Egbok

Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 10:31 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
DraHeid my love, BINGO! It's got to be the AOL 9.0.
GRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......

If you wouldn't mind repeating yourself for the umpteenth time (as I'm sure you've covered this before), could you please instruct me on how to clean my hard drive of temp files, cache files, etc.?

And as I type this, I'm realizing that I can also contact AOL for instructions, however, *blush, giggle*, you explain it so much better...

Thanks for any suggestions or instructions you might be willing to offer!


EDIT: I also should tell you that now I'm realizing why my Norton SystemWorks keeps popping up to do a scan and fix on my computer! It also prompts me to get a live update, which I've been doing almost daily...

Texannie

Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 11:47 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Dra..I have 384.0 MB of Ram and 57% free.

Jan

Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 12:44 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I have learned through painful experience not to touch things or remove things on my computer so as not to create problems.

But this makes me a true packrat with copies of every program I have ever downloaded still on my computer (eg..I have every exe program for all the versions of Netscape and zone alarm etc etc etc.

I just ran regcleaner 4. It tells me to remove programs I no longer use. I have listings for
Aol
Aol Instant Messenger
Aol Instant Messenger Tm

also
Mozilla Desktop
Mozilla Netscape 7.01
Mozilla Netscape 7.1 (which I just installed)
Netscape Netscape
Netscape Netscape 6
Netscape Deinstall
Netscape Netscape Navigator

Is it OK to have all of these entries? Are there any I should remove? Does it hurt anything to be a packrat and just leave it all there?

BTW I have 256RAM and AMD athlon processor with 33 of 38GB's available on Drive C.

Thanks for any advice and have a good day

Jed245

Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 4:26 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Jan ... it's pretty much up to you. You should remove anything you don't need or use or want.

But, it won't hurt to keep it there. You seem to have alot of space cleared up so if you don't want to bother with deleting those files keep em. :o)

Jed. :o)

Draheid

Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 10:17 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
MsEggie: To clean your computer of unnecessary files, there are several methods. Probably the easiest is to use the tool that Windows provides. This is usually found under 'Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools' called 'Disk Cleanup' or something similar depending on the version of windows you are using. Of course, before you begin this process, you should close all other programs you have open in order to allow as much to be cleaned as possible.

After you have cleaned up the hard drive, it is highly recommended that you also defragment the drive. This is also in the same location under the name 'Disk Defragmenter' or similar.

After completing both of these routines, you should restart your computer and see if that helps.

If you need other details or information, please ask and I will be happy to help.

Draheid

Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 10:23 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Texannie: You have plenty of RAM and enough free for most programs you want to run. Unfortunately, there is a portion of memory that Windows uses called 'Resources' which is dedicated to certain functions. This memory is very limited. Each time a program is loaded and/or files are opened, small portions of this memory is used to track the file name and other pertinent information. Not all programs are efficient at releasing these resources when you close the program. Microsoft Word is known to be very bad at releasing these resources when you close it. Over time, these resources are used up and the only easy way to recover them is to restart the computer.

Hope this helps.

Draheid

Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 10:26 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Jan: It would appear that the installation for each new version of the programs you are using was not successful at removing the old version. I have upgraded through the same versions on most of the programs you are using and currently have only one instance of each in my add/remove programs utility.

Since it appears that these are not causing you any problems, I would suggest that you do not need to do anything unless you feel it necessary to do so.

Hope that helps.

Juju2bigdog

Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 10:49 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Dra, clearing cookies seems to have cured the Yahoo e-mail problem. I just did it by using Tools, Internet Options on IE. Thanks!

Texannie

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 7:51 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Dra..I very rarely use word and never have it open if I am on the net..why would it predominately freeze up at this one site? Confused!!

Draheid

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 10:07 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Juju: Yay, glad to hear you figure it out.

Texannie: Word was only an example. Other programs have similar problems which lead to resources being used then never released eventually using them all which then causes problems when opening other programs.

Let me ask this. On the site you are having problems with, have you tried visiting that site first thing after rebooting the computer, before you do anything else on the computer? Does that seem to work better then if you visit after you're computer has been in use for a while or does it act the same way whether it's the first place you visit or not??

You might also try this: When you visit the site and experience the problems you describe, immediately clear your cache and reboot the computer. Then go directly to the site again and see if the same problem occurs at that point.

Let me know what you find with these and we might be able to get a little better idea what is happening.

Texannie

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 10:28 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Dra, that's what I have been doing and it's helped. It's a site with tons of posts and I find if I stay there "too long", I will freeze.

Juju2bigdog

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 11:12 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Got a just general question out of curiosity, not a problem. You know I am at my friends house, using his fairly new Compaq desktop computer with a 2.4 Ghz processor. I am also using my four year old laptop with a 500 Mhz processor. The laptop is WAY faster in doing tasks (as is my 633 desktop at home) than my friends "fast" computer.

Why would that be?

He doesn't have a lot of stuff on the computer, uses it very little, actually. I defragged it upon arival. He probably has 37 of 40 Gig free. Doesn't have a lot of extraneous stuff in Startup, already checked that.

Egbok

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 11:18 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
DraHeid: I cleaned my computer of unnecessary files with your recommendation of "how to". I've also defragged as you suggested. I must say, when I restarted my computer and clicked onto AOL, the process moved a lot quicker. So I'll play around on the board and with AOL and see if the freezing action has stopped for now.

Thank you for your help.


Kaili

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 11:35 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Juju- I have a Compaq with a 2.5 Ghz Celeron processor and 632 RAM and a Gateway with a 750 Mhz Pentium 3 processor and 512 RAM. The Gateway is faster. I think just the fact that it's a Pentium makes a difference. Like the lower speed Pentium is still faster than a faster speed Celeron. If that makes sense. I don't know if that is the real reason, but it's my reasoning :)

Jed245

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:17 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Juju Celeron processors are a little slower then pentiums... And you have to consider ram. It could be just that his settings aren't really optimized for speed.

Jan

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:56 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks for all the help Dra and Jed. I will take your advice and leave well enough alone. I think that is safest.

BUT now I have a hardware problem!!! GRRRR!!!

I FINALLY attempted to put in the Norton CD to create some emerg disks before installing the Norton Antivirus (as per their instructions). Thank God I attempted that BEFORE I UNinstalled McAfee!!!

I cannot open my CD drawer to load the CD. I keep pushing on the button but nothing happens.

I do remember that the last time I had a CD in there (a few days ago), when I hit the button to CLOSE the thing after removing the CD, it would not close. I finally had to tap the holder itself to get it to close.

HOW CAN I OPEN IT?????? Is it ruined? Can I use the other drive in which I burn CD's instead???

I wish I were more of a techie and mechanically minded. Sorry to be such a nuisance :)

Costacat

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 3:16 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Jan, look closely at your CD drive. Somewhere near the CD ray will be a tiny little hole. This is the not-so-secret eject button... unfold a paper clip and stick it in the hole, pushing it in until the CD tray opens. This usually does the trick if it's gotten confused in any way. Once the tray has opened, press the close button to close it. This should reset it.

Tabbyking

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 3:27 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
right now, son finally emailed his JAVA assignment and the first thing we saw was that ds (even though he is a good speller, aaaargh!) had spelled 'author' as 'auther'...which is probably what will give him an "f" on this assignment. he did tell us it would not put his name into the assignment and he IS the author...so that may be what the whole problem was.
we suggested he re-do the lab and email it to his prof if it works out okay with this word/area corrected. he might explain, although he did submit the assignment on time on friday, he realized something wasn't correct and continued to work at it until he got it right. even if he doesn't get actual credit for it, the prof may be pleased that ds continued to try at something even past the deadline, and was concerned enough when he didn't have it right that he still worked on it.

Tabbyking

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 3:38 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
well, that wasn't it. i am going to email to draheid what ds sent us. it absolutely does nothing for me!

Jan

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 3:44 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Costa..I found a tiny hole right under the DVD/CD tray on the right hand side. I stuck a paper clip end in but nothing is happening. I am afraid to push too hard..can I hurt/break something? ETA I pushed really hard...nada. Is it well and truly scr$#$d??

I NEVER realized before that there were headset jacks and volume controls beside each of the drives. Who knew?? Thanks for getting me to look even if it didn't open the tray:):)

PPS I opened the CD player software dialogue box and clicked on eject there as well a few times but that did nothing also

Bob2112

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 4:11 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Tabbyking: That misspelling could very well be the problem and I think that it's not only good for your son to verify that it will work, but also to resubmit it to the professor. That extra effort made a difference to me when I was in grad school grading students assignnments and programs.

Edit: Tabby, I guess that was not the problem. If you want to email the code to me as well, I would also be willing to look at it.

Jan: You should also be able to use your CD burner to install the software, but it may not autorun (depending on the settings for that drive). If it does not run automatically, you can select Run from the Start menu and then Browse to that CDW drive. Typically there will be a file named setup.exe. Double click that and the setup will run.

Juju: Besides the MHz or GHz, the amount of cache and the bus speed between the cache and the CPU will have a great impact on the speed of the computer.

This cache is very fast memory and sits between your RAM and the CPU. The CPU looks into the cache first before accessing the slower RAM when executing a program or accessing data. The larger the cache, the more likely the CPU will find what it wants in the fast memory. Back in the Pentium II days, the Celeron actually came with no cache.

The amount of Cache on the Celerons is typically 128KB, while Pentium 3, Pentium 4 and AMD CPUs typically have 512KB or more of cache. The bus speeds can vary but are usually faster on the Pentium 4.

A comparable speed Celeron CPU will sell for about half the cost of the Pentium 4. AMD would probably fall somewhere between these prices, but it's getting hard to find computers with AMD chips (HP is only one that comes to mind) unless you are building your own computer.

Costacat

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 4:57 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Jan, shut down your computer, and then try to use the hidden eject "button" for your CD tray again. Push firmly (but not so hard as to bend the paper clip! <grin>).

Tabbyking

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 5:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
bob, i have emailed what my son sent to me...

Draheid

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 5:06 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Tabby: I received your e-mail and looked at the information you provided. Unfortunately I don't have the developer tools I would need to actually try to compile and test the code. It appears that the 'auther' portion is inside a 'comment' delimiter and would therefore be ignored by the code anyway so the spelling shouldn't matter except for how the instructor grades on that aspect of the project.

I have an idea on what is wrong with the rest of it, however not being able to test it, I am hesitant to comment on it at this point. If Bob2112 is willing to look at it and has the tools and familiarity with java that I lack, I would suggest you send the same to him (or I could forward it if you prefer) for his evaluation.

Let me know what you would prefer.

Edit to add: Again, remind me to refresh before posting! lol Good luck Tabby.