Help for my Mom (PC)

[mikefly]

Heya,

I`m visiting my mom and her PC is running poorly -- I`ve run Spybot S&D and a defrag, but this hasn`t helped much..

Anyone have any other advice, or a good PC forum to refer me to?

MODS -- if this post isn`t kosher, please let me collect the answers before deleting!

Thanks,

Mike

 

[jordygreen]

try running cc cleaner, avg, then just deleteing documents and progs she dont use.

 

[jsw]

I don't think there's anything wrong with asking. Be warned there will probably be a few "buy a Mac" replies which you can just ignore.

If she has all of her software disks - and verify this! - I'd highly recommend backup up her data (this is good advice in any event) and then reinstalling Windows. I say that because I'm guessing it's never been reinstalled, and even on Macs it's occasionally needed (on some Macs, under some circumstances). On a Windows system, especially if it's getting slower and slower and may have been compromised, I'd start from scratch. Just be sure to get the virus/firewall stuff up and running before reconnecting to the net.

And, as mentioned above, then only reinstall the apps she uses.

 

[mikefly]

reinstall

this sounds like good advice..

Just curious though -- if I reinstall all her old programs and files -- won`t these carry the evil **** over with them?

Also, I have the feeling that backing up a PC will be super challenging - aren`t all the files scattered over the hard drive in random places?

as for buying the mac -- I already have! Every time I visit my mom she asks for help with her PC.

Mike

 

[zblaxberg]

Run a disk cleanup and get rid of any programs that she doesn't use. Make sure there is no spyware or viruses and if none of that works I would just do a clean install....or get a mac??

 

[clevin]

1. what do u mean by "running poorly"?
2. whats the specs of the pc? CPU/RAM/how much freespace on Harddrive/what OS?
3. does it have any AV software installed?

if the computer has reasonably goo specs. then I would just goto msconfig and disable all the junks and restart it.

 

[Vidd]

Try typing in "msconfig" in the "run" box and deactivate programs that are opening on start-up if you don't want to delete them completely.
What sort of specs does this machine have?

EDIT: Creepy - I basically just repeated what clevin said but I didn't see his post until after I had made mine.

Also, if you're worried about backing up things, just search for certain file types and click and drag those onto an external hard drive or whatever.

 

[clevin]

lol, u did give more details about how to do that, which I didn't.

actually, if the computer hardware is ok, no virus or spyware. I would do msconfig first, and then I will goto regedit and clear out trashes, but I only did regedit twice in past 4 years, lol

 

[mikefly]

sweet

cool -- I had no idea about this stuff. What is regedit?

--Have run virus checkers, spyware checkers (couldn`t find malware checkers), defrag, and disk cleanup..

The following are running on startup (msconfig) -- many seem superfluous -- however, I don`t know what they are. --ALSO, do I need to clean up any of the other tabs (aside from startup)?

I have no idea what most of these are.

Thanks again for your help.

Mike

Updreg
RUNDLL32
Opware32
NeroCheck
dumprep 0 -k
iTunes helper
qttask
ashDisp
jusched
zlclient
ctfmon
msmsgs
--BLANK-- (This has got to be bad)
Google toolbar notifier
Exif Launcher
--Then two apps with box characters (also must be bad)

 

[clevin]

u need to check the path to each of the item to see what program they are associate with, uncheck whichever not important.

for start, I would advise u to uncheck iTunes Helper, qttask, nerocheck and opware, which I know is corresponding to iTunes, Quicktime, Nero buring and Opware, unchecking them will NOT affect their ability to work, just reduce their existence in the system memory and speed up booting process.

also, exactly how much memory do u have on the computer? try right click on "my computer" and click "properties".

 

[AlexisV]

Do a search for Hi Jack This. Run it and post the log file back here.

 

[mikefly]

hmm

heya all,

thanks for the help -- hijack warned away novice users, so I skipped it, but on top of ad-aware & spybot S&D - I ran CClean - which seems to be an excellent little app.

I suggested to my Mom that she pick up some RAM (currently 256MB with a P4 1.6 Ghz) -- Hopefully this will help speed things up. -- I`ll have to pop the puppy open and see if I can even recognize the RAM -- hopefully there will be some free slots.

Mike

 

[Aperture]

heya all,

thanks for the help -- hijack warned away novice users, so I skipped it, but on top of ad-aware & spybot S&D - I ran CClean - which seems to be an excellent little app.

I suggested to my Mom that she pick up some RAM (currently 256MB with a P4 1.6 Ghz) -- Hopefully this will help speed things up. -- I`ll have to pop the puppy open and see if I can even recognize the RAM -- hopefully there will be some free slots.

Mike

If there aren't any open spots, you might look into getting higher capacity sticks to replace that of whatever is already in there. Also, even though it might seem a big task, I would do a reinstall. It is good to do this on PCs (And sometimes Macs alike) at least once or twice a year.


Best of luck

 

[clevin]

i can assure you 80% of the slowness comes from that 256Mb RAM, Windows XP is really too much for 256MB (I assume she is using XP, 256MB should be enough for win98/me), especially when u don't clean the system from time to time.