irfan said:
Please help me with this issue.
I apologize if I have posted this in an inappropriate group.
I bought an Acer Aspire 6 cell Netbook (Windows XP I believe) a few
months ago . It ran great for a few months. Now it is vey slow.
I did the following:
1. Did a run misconfig and deselected the programs I did not want.
( I get an error window that says:
An access denied error was returned while attempting to change a
service... but yet it seems to deselect the software)
2. Opened Chrome and Mozilla / Firefox and cleared history, cache
etc.
But it is still very slow.
I have not added /downloaded any software to the netbook nor changed
anything.
Can anyone please suggest what I should next ?
Thanks in advance for your input
irfan said:
I am sorry I should have mentioned the specs for the Acer Aspire One
netbook :
1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor
1024MB DDR2 SDRAM Single Channel Memory
160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
Windows XP Home (SP3), Up to 7.5 Hours of Battery Life (6-Cell 5200
mAh)
Also I should have mentioned that I am not a techie.
Okay. Thanks for the specs (not as detailed as I would like, but they get
us there.)
My questions still have not changed. ;-)
- What are you doing for backups?
- Have you checked the manufacturer's support web pages (downloads/drivers
in particular) for any updated hardware device drivers - especially chipset,
video and networking?
- What antivirus software is installed?
- Any third-party firewalls installed?
- Performed a CHKDSK on the hard drive?
- Performed a defragmentation on the hard drive?
- Instead of using MSCONFIG to deselect programs you do not use, have you
considered going through the "Add or Remove Programs" control panel and
removing completely the software you do not use?
I'll add some suggestions, good to make sure your machines is and will
continue to running at peak performance. It will take time and effort on
your part to complete the steps - but not a ridiculous amount of time.
My suggestions are pretty simple and generally free - other than time.
(There are a few places where I give a "cost" alternative to the
"free" suggestion. Not that one is better than the other, but...)
* Get rid of whatever AntiVirus solution you have (particularly if it is an
all-in-one type, unless it happens to be one of the two I am about to
suggest) and install either of these:
- Avira AntiVir (free)
- eSet NOD32 (AntiVirus only) (cost)
* Get rid of whatever AntiMalware solution you have (unless it happens to be
the one I am about to suggest) and install and occassionally scan with (or
purchase and use to actively protect yourself with):
- MalwareBytes
* Get rid of any third-party firewall software and utilize the built-in
Windows XP firewall.
* Uninstall all unnecessary software, particularly any search/toolbars you
do not use, any applications that run all the time that you never utilize,
etc. If you have some 'weather' desktop stuff - learn to look outside. ;-)
* CHKDSK
* DEFRAGMENT
Want more details, more stuff to do in order to optimize performance?
Reboot so you start with a fresh machine. For everything here you will
need to logon as an user with administrative (installation) priviledges.
Fix your file/registry permissions...
Ignore the title and follow the sub-section under
"Advanced Troubleshooting" titled,
"Method 1: Reset the registry and the file permissions"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949377
*will take time
** Ignore the last step (6) - you already have SP3.
You will likely see errors pass by if you watching, even count up. No
worries *at this time*.
Reboot and logon as administrative user.
Download/install the "Windows Installer CleanUp Utility":
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301
After installing, do the following:
Start button --> RUN
(no "RUN"? Press the "Windows Key" + R on your keyboard)
--> type in:
"%ProgramFiles%\Windows Installer Clean Up\msizap.exe" g!
--> Click OK.
(The quotation marks and percentage signs and spacing should be exact.)
It will flash by *quick*, don't expect much out of this step to get
excited about.
Reboot and logon as administrative user.
This time (and this is one of the more time-consuming steps) you will be
running (one at a time with reboots in-between each) three different
anti-spyware/anti-malware applications to ensure you come up clean.
Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan with the following
(freeware version):
SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/
Reboot and logon as administrative user.
Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan with the following
(freeware version):
MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/
Reboot and logon as administrative user.
Download and run the MSRT manually:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
You can un-install the first two if you want. I'd personally recommend
keeping MalwareBytes around.
Reboot and logon as administrative user.
Download/Install the latest Windows Installer (for your OS):
( Windows XP 32-bit : WindowsXP-KB942288-v3-x86.exe )
http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=5A58B56F-60B6-4412-95B9-54D056D6F9F4
Reboot and logon as administrative user.
Download the latest version of the Windows Update agent from here (x86):
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237
.... and save it to the root of your C:\ drive. After saving it to the
root of the C:\ drive, do the following:
Close all Internet Explorer windows and other applications.
Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemDrive%\windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /WUFORCE
--> Click OK.
(If asked, select "Run.) --> Click on NEXT --> Select "I agree" and click on
NEXT --> When it finishes installing, click on "Finish"...
Reboot and logon as administrative user.
Visit this web page:
How do I reset Windows Update components?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058
.... and click on the "Microsoft Fix it" icon. When asked, select "RUN",
both times. Check the "I agree" box and click on "Next". Check the box
for "Run aggressive options (not recommended)" and click "Next". Let
it finish up and follow the prompts until it is done. Close/exit.
Reboot and logon as administrative user.
You should now perform a full CHKDSK on your system drive (C
...
How to scan your disks for errors
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265
* will take time and a reboot
Reboot and logon as administrative user.
Time to clear up some space...
If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )
You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..
How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312
You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..
When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:
- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.
You can control how much space your System Restore can use...
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.
You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...
Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.
You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:
Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
Other ways to free up space..
JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html
SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/
Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.
In the end - a standard Windows XP installation with all sorts of extras
will not likely be above about 4.5GB to 9GB in size. If you have more space
than that (likely do on a modern machine) and most of it seems to be used -
likely you need to move *your stuff* off and/or find a better way to manage
it.
Reboot and logon as administrative user.
You should now perform a full Defragment on your system drive (C
...
How to Defragment your hard drives
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314848
* will take time
Reboot and logon as administrative user.
Visit
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ in Internet Explorer and
select to do a CUSTOM scan...
Every time you are about to click on something while at these web pages -
first press and hold down the CTRL key while you click on it. You can
release the CTRL key after clicking each time.
Once the scan is done, select just _ONE_ of the high priority updates
(deselect any others) and install it.
Reboot again.
If it did work - try the web page again - selecting no more than 3-5 at a
time. Rebooting as needed.
The Optional Software updates are generally safe - although I recommend
against the "Windows Search" one and any of the "Office Live" ones or
"Windows Live" ones for now. I would completely avoid the
Optional Hardware updates. Also - I do not see any urgent need to
install Internet Explorer 8 at this time.
