Sudden slowdowns/lock-ups...Help please

[Ian Harrison]

Hi,

I'm running Win XP Home (SP1) on an HP Pavilion with 1Gb DDR-SDRAM and a
120Gb HD.

I'm getting a problem with sudden extreme slowdowns of response or total
lock-ups. I discovered the problem during normal usage, but I know how to
induce it now. If I open Word and then open the Help a few times, it will
happen. Also, if I am using IE and it calls the Adobe Acrobat Reader
plug-in, I can get away with it once or twice, but another call to the
plug-in will crash the PC. This happens even if I have previously closed the
programs and opened them again.

I have disabled sgtray, the Windows File Indexer, HP BackWeb and a monitor
application for the printer. I've also tried allocating more CPU time and
also memory to background tasks (via Control Panel | System | Advanced),
along with allowing for a 4Gb page file and although there is some
improvement, it still happens.

Does this sound like some kind of memory problem? Are there any Registry
tweaks I can apply?

Windows, IE, Office and Adobe all have the latest updates.

Thanks in advance.

Ian

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Ian

Ian

Adobe Acrobat Reader is a weighty programme, which probably tests the resources of most computers. Unfortunately it is widely used and until some competitor decides to put forward a better alternative we have to live with the down sides of a monopolistic situation.

Have you checked to see whether your Word normal.dot template has corrupted?
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm

Are there any clues in Event Viewer?

Make an exact note of the precise text of any error message. Minor discrepancies can
make it harder to search for information about the error message.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer.
When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source
and Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&Product=winxp

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you should double click
for further information and you can copy using copy and paste.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double click on the
error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a button resembling two
pages. Double click the button and close Event Viewer. Now start your message
(email) and do a paste into the body of the message. This will paste the info from the
Event Viewer Error Report complete with links into the message. Make sure this is
the first paste after exiting from Event Viewer.

Links giving some information about specific Error Reports are:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/support/ee.asp

http://www.eventid.net/search.asp

These links, however, do not contain information about each and every Error Report.

In Event Viewer there is no facility to print Error Reports. A workaround is copy and
paste the Error Report into an email, send it to yourself and print off the copy in your
Inbox or your Sent Items folder.

--

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

"monopolistic" you mean as in Microsoft?

-----Original Message-----
Ian

Ian

Adobe Acrobat Reader is a weighty programme, which

probably tests the resources of most computers.
Unfortunately it is widely used and until some competitor
decides to put forward a better alternative we have to
live with the down sides of a monopolistic situation.

Have you checked to see whether your Word normal.dot template has corrupted?
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm

Are there any clues in Event Viewer?

Make an exact note of the precise text of any error

message. Minor discrepancies can

make it harder to search for information about the error message.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start,

Administrative Tools, Event Viewer.

When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source
and Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en- us;308427&Product=winxp

Part of the Description of the error will include a

link, which you should double click

for further information and you can copy using copy and paste.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double click on the
error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a button resembling two
pages. Double click the button and close Event Viewer. Now start your message
(email) and do a paste into the body of the message.

This will paste the info from the

Event Viewer Error Report complete with links into the message. Make sure this is
the first paste after exiting from Event Viewer.

Links giving some information about specific Error Reports are:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/support/ee.asp

http://www.eventid.net/search.asp

These links, however, do not contain information about each and every Error Report.

In Event Viewer there is no facility to print Error

Reports. A workaround is copy and

paste the Error Report into an email, send it to

yourself and print off the copy in your

Inbox or your Sent Items folder.

--

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Ian Harrison" <[email protected]>

wrote in message gui.server.ntli.net...

 

[Gerry Cornell]

No I was referring to Adobe Acrobat!



~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

---> Whizzzz <--- That was my point, going right over
your head.

 

[Ian Harrison]

Thanks all. I'm experimenting with disabling some of the nVidia stuff on the
PC, it seems to be better.