screen build up

[Guest]

hi, i was wondering if anyone had any ideas on my problem. When i have a few
applications open(internet, limewire and media player for example) and i
change between them sometimes the screen kinda builds up in areas until the
full screen is displayed. this is especially bad if i have left the computer
idle for a period of time.

I use spybot, adaware, norton, registry fixer, winsockxpfix and microsoft
antispyware. I have also cleaned up my local drives and defragmented them,
my PF usage in task manager is 332 Mb! Any ideas?

Any help solving this problem would be great, cheers!

 

[R. McCarty]

332 MB is the key. How much physical memory does your PC
have ? Also, is your Video a AGP/PCI peripheral card or one
supplied by the motherboard (using system memory) ?

Also what Screen resolution and color depth are you using ?

With the Applications you note - a normal XP system shouldn't
be at 300+, you might need to check your Startups & Watchdogs.
The system loading seems to be high. Also, Limewire - isn't that a
P2P (Peer-to-Peer) sharing application. Any application like that
always raises a flag.

 

[Guest]

PC= 2.08Ghz 256Mb DDR 80Gb hard drive.
I think the video is supplied by the mother board but im not 100% sure.
Screen resolution is set at 1024 by 768 pixels and the colour is set to
highest(32bit)

Cheers for your help again, youve already helped me before and the problem
has been partially helped, cheers again!

 

[R. McCarty]

Are you using Fast User Switching & multiple user profiles ?
If so, that could be where some of your system resources are
being used.

Your system is running in excess of Physical memory, so it is
making use of the Pagefile. In this environment, any type of
focus change (Screen Refresh) is going to lag as applications
and services are swapped into Physical memory.

Download/Install & Run Everest Home Edition. This inventory
tool can tell you specifics on your hardware & software. You
need to be sure you are using the latest Video driver. But until
you get your quiescent memory footprint down, you're going
to continue to experience screen lag.

With the cost of memory, you'd be well served to add 256 Meg
to your machine, unless you can trim things back to a more
realistic value (170-230).

 

[Guest]

the fast user switching box contains no tick as there is only one account on
the machine, mine. will download Everest Home Edition and see what happens
from there.

 

[R. McCarty]

When you run Everest, Expand the Computer Category and click
on "Summary", you're interested in the Display specifics.

 

[Guest]

This is what appears in the display option!

Video adapter=radeon 9200(secondary)-128Mb
Video adapter=radeon 9200 - 128Mb
3D accelerator= ATI radeon 9200(RV280)
Monitor=HP F1523(15"LCD) (CNC32306N5)

 

[R. McCarty]

You've got a very capable Video card. 128 MB should handle
normal activities very nicely. I would download & install the ATI
Catalyst driver. Before installing, I would go through Add/Remove
programs and uninstall any existing driver package first.

Version 5.2 Catalyst here:
http://atitech.com/support/drivers/...&prod=productsXPdriver&submit.x=15&submit.y=8

Once you get that squared away, I'd still investigate the system
loading and try to trim back your system loading.

 

[Guest]

in add/remove i found the following drivers, which should i remove to make
way for the one you advised?

ATI display driver
Intel(R) extreme graphics driver
NVidia windows 200/XP display drivers
S3 display

Thanks for your help!

 

[R. McCarty]

No wonder you're having Video issues. You should uninstall all of
them. And while you are at it, I would go to Device Manager and
click "View" and tic/check "Show Hidden Devices". Then expand
the Video adapters category. You may have "Phantom" or orphaned
video adapters (shown as grayed out). If any exist, Right click them
and Uninstall. You should only have a single or perhaps duplicated
entry for your ATI card. (Support for multiple outputs).

Good Luck - I think you're on the right path to get this fixed.

 

[Guest]

hi, took your advice and removed all those drivers and installed the one you
recommended, it has made a big difference thanks but i was wondering how to
get into the device manager you were talking about so as i can finish this
clean up, cheers!

 

[Guest]

hi, took your advice and removed all those drivers and installed the one you
recommended, it has made a big difference thanks but i was wondering how to
get into the device manager you were talking about so as i can finish this
clean up, cheers!

 

[R. McCarty]

Right Click My Computer, Left Click Manage. When the
Microsoft Management Console opens, maximize the window.
In the Left Pane Click Device Manager. The Right Pane will show
the Categories. Click the "View" text option and check "Show
Hidden Devices". Then Click the + besides Display Adapters.
Indented entries will appear below the heading. Any phantom
devices will be shown grayed out.