[JIM]

I have an AMD K6-2/500 with 128 meg ram. Lately it has been running like a real snail. Even opening up Microsoft Word locks up the mouse for about 10 seconds. If I look at the little clock on the bottom right of the screen, it is about an hour slow. I can fix the time, but then it falls behind by an hour in 1 day, but if I just reboot the system, it comes back on with the correct time. What the heck does that mean??
Thanks,
Jim

 

[JIM]

I am running Windows 98. The problem is worse, a lot worse if I have McAfee running in the background. But it never used to be this way, that is what I don't get?? The only little icon on the bottom right side of the screen is the volume control button. I have turned off everyhting else. It does help a bit with everything off, especially McAfee, but it is still painfully slow for some reason. I did scan disk and defrag about 2 weeks ago to see if that would help, but it made no difference. I wish this was as simple as a valve adjustment or degreeing a cam.
Jim

 

[JIM]

I just checked the "start>run>msconfig>startup" thing. Nice, I always wanted to know how to get to that screen!! Thanks. Anyway, the following items were listed there and all of them had a checkmark next to them. Which can I safely turn off?
ScanRegistry
TaskMonitor
SystemTray
LoadPowerProfile
ATIKey
ATICWD32
LoadQM
MoneyStartup
RealTray
LoadPowerProfile (again?? like the one above)
AOL 8.0 TrayIcon
Thanks,
Jim

 

[JIM]

Guys,
Thanks greatly for the many and quick responses. After all this is a Chevelle site and not a PC troubleshooting site

OK, here is what I have:
This PC is not tied to a network.
McAfee was checking every single file, so maybe that was why it was slower with it enabled. But it is still slow without it too.
I typically delete all of the cookies and temp files about every week.
HD is an 8 Gig and I still have 6 Gig free.
I don't have any screensavers or wallpaper that did not come with Windows originally.
Hard drive does not appear to be running constantly. I can't hear it and the light is only blinking when I save or access new files.
I am going to "un-check" everything from that config start-up selection except for LoadQM, because I have no idea what the heck that does. Money is my Microsoft Money software and I can start that from the normal desktop icon. I will have to reboot for the changes to take place, so if you never hear from me again..... then I must have "un-checked" one too many boxes. I will see how the clock runs overnight.
Thanks again,
Jim

 

[JIM]

Joe,
Yes it says 128 meg of ram during bootup and also on the "performance" screen when I check properties of "my computer".
Anyway.....after turning off all of the things that were previously checked for start-up and disabling McAfee, the clock kept perfect time overnight. I also show 96% system resources. The system seems fast again. So it looks like I was bogging down memory. The biggest drains seem to be having MonsyStartup,AOL Trayicon and RealTray selected for start-up. I turned them on on at a time and rebooted each time and those three were the ones that made the system run slower and dragged the resources down to about 75%. If I turn them all back off, it goes back to 96%. But I want virus protection, so I left all of them off and turned McAfee back on. I now have 85% resources. That seems to be a big load on the system also. I installed McAfee about 2 months ago, Upgraded to the new version of Microsoft Money a month ago and then I upgraded to AOL 8.0 a few weeks ago, Looks like all of that together really slowed down this PC. I will leave McAfee on overnight and see it the clock keeps time. Perhaps another 128meg of ram would help. Especially if 90% is the goal for system resources. It's on sale at BestBuy now.
Thaks to all for the help and suggestions. There appears to be hope

 

[JIM]

Bob,
I wasn't aware of that. I just assumeed that the resources number was directly correlated to the ammount of RAM I had. I guess it can't hurt to slap in some more though.
Thanks,
Jim

 

[JIM]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by OrrieG:

Last night I downloaded ad aware software and found 162 skyware related files on the computer! Its free and loads pretty fast, scan takes about 20 minutes and you get a detailed log. Took another hour or so to delete the files. That might be something you want to look at because Nortons and McAfee don't pick them up.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

What the heck is skyware? I am not as PC literate as I am pistons and cam literate

------------------
Jim
My 70 Chevelle
427 + (.125")
4-speed
Best ET 12.53@110.3
BSE Power

 

[JIM]

I just downloaded AdAwarwe 5.83. Ran it and it founds 52 "suspicious" files. I deleted them. So far so good. Still making progress!!

Jim