shutting down

[jules]

Hello everyone.

I recently had the pleasure of trying to sort out my
brothers computer..a Packard Bell 10gig hd, I gig
prossesor, 128 meg ram running Win XP home, 18 months old
bought from Pc World.

Problems he's having are very slow shut down.approx 2
minutes from clicking shut down to switching itself off,
when clicking on icons..ie: control panel takes about 30
seconds to appear, and AOl won't start without updating
and configuring first.
The memory was checked and the computer is only
recognising 112 meg..instead of 128.

Grateful for any help

Jules

 

[Steve Parry [MVP]]

Hello everyone.

I recently had the pleasure of trying to sort out my
brothers computer..a Packard Bell 10gig hd, I gig
prossesor, 128 meg ram running Win XP home, 18 months old
bought from Pc World.

Problems he's having are very slow shut down.approx 2
minutes from clicking shut down to switching itself off,
when clicking on icons..ie: control panel takes about 30
seconds to appear, and AOl won't start without updating
and configuring first.
The memory was checked and the computer is only
recognising 112 meg..instead of 128.

Grateful for any help

Jules

Your disparity between the 128 mb of memory installed to 112mb in use is
probably because your PC is sharing its memory to the video adaptor.. which
is probably using the "missing" 16mb.

RAM is very inexpensive now try upgrading to at least 256mb ... preferably
512mb if you can.

As for the slow running, more RAM may well cure it but ensure all MS updates
are applied and a good up to date anti virus package is installed.

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

Get more RAM! The missing RAM is used for the video. MS suggests 128 meg as
minimum but everyone who uses the OS get a more enjoyable experience when
upgrading to 256 meg.

 

[rich]

-----Original Message-----
Hello everyone.

I recently had the pleasure of trying to sort out my
brothers computer..a Packard Bell 10gig hd, I gig
prossesor, 128 meg ram running Win XP home, 18 months old
bought from Pc World.

Problems he's having are very slow shut down.approx 2
minutes from clicking shut down to switching itself off,
when clicking on icons..ie: control panel takes about 30
seconds to appear, and AOl won't start without updating
and configuring first.
The memory was checked and the computer is only
recognising 112 meg..instead of 128.

Grateful for any help

Jules
.
the usual shutdown suspects

incompatible cd burning software,firewalls,av software.

if he upgraded to xp he may have not removed incompatible
software causing the issue, maybe scanner/camera/printer
drivers as well as any incompatible drivers.

always a good idea to
1 update av and run full scan
2 disk cleanup with all boxes checked
3 defrag hard drive
4 run spyware remover such as adaware or spybot search
and destroy
5 chkdsk /r from recovery console
6 from command prompt sigverif will list any unsigned
drivers
7 from command prompt sfc /purgecache and sfc /scannow
8 test safemode if it doesnt have issue with shutdown then
use msconfig clean boot tshooting and or disabling
nonessentail drivers in device manager

 

[Craqon]

Double that ram as the others have said.

You only said 1 gig CPU. Is that a Celeron or PIII?
Celerons don't quite fancy XP. If the PC definately
degraded in performance, then rather (after the ram
upgrade) check your software. Check for spam/spy appz,
unneeded files in startup, etc. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and
tell us what appz are running in memory.

And the same explanation counts for the Ram. Some is used
for the Display card.