[kittyatmu]

Okay, I'm not quite sure where this goes...so feel free to move this topic wherever you wish.

I'm having a severe issue with my computer, and it's only 1 year old, and a few odd months. I'm going to list some info about it below:

Hp Pavillion
CPU - 2.93 GHz
248 MB of RAM
Intel Celeron Processor
XP Home Edition (2002)
Service Pack 2

It's been having some issues with lagging/crashing/freezing lately, EVERY chance it gets. I've been looking into buying more RAM and maybe an external harddrive for it, but I figured I'd come here first, and ask what might be a good idea. It doesn't have many programs on it that take up a ton of space, except for one. It's a 3D instant messenger named IMVU, and it takes 395.00MB to run. This program just recieved an update, so it runs a little better now on my computer, however, it still manages to control the speed at which certain other programs will load when I run it. I don't think IMVU is the issue though. Lately, when I run ANY program, a bubble will come up telling me I'm running "very low on discspace" and it will bring up a cleaning tool. I've gone into Safemode SEVERAL times, and have deleted SEVERAL files and misc. items to free up RAM & space, yet I'm still recieving this warning. It's now lagging to the point of crashing where I have to turn it off VIA soft-off. Does anyone know if getting more RAM would help, or anything hardware'ish installed would help? I'm already at a minimal amount of software programs (some that are from the factory...and let me tell you HP includes a LOT of crud on their stuff...I'm too scared to get rid of any of it, for fear I don't know what it is). If anyone has any ideas, please help.

Thank you
Noekh

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It seems kind of wierd that you bought a HP computer running at almost 3 GHz and they only gave you 248 MB of ram.. They usually give you 512 or atleast a gig. I would suggest an update on RAM. Also you could always referre to the Maleware section and they could help clean up some problems using HijackThis and help you uninstall usless features.


http://www.geekstogo...hp?showforum=37

Hope this helps.

Edited by Burton1, 15 March 2006 - 08:42 AM.

[Burton1]

It seems kind of wierd that you bought a HP computer running at almost 3 GHz and they only gave you 248 MB of ram.. They usually give you 512 or atleast a gig. I would suggest an update on RAM. Also you could always referre to the Maleware section and they could help clean up some problems using HijackThis and help you uninstall usless features.


http://www.geekstogo...hp?showforum=37

Hope this helps.

Edited by Burton1, 15 March 2006 - 08:42 AM.

[kittyatmu]

Do you know HOW to update on RAM? I was told that I have to find a chip that's compatabile with this comp. I'm no techie, so I don't know anything about installing and whatnot with actual hardware...if you know anything, it'd help a lot. ^^;;

[Thebinaryman]

yes thats very little ram for a system like yours. ram will help much. but i would first recommend doing some major cleanup, and even maybe a reformatting of your hard drive. run "msconfig" from the run menu, and go to startup items. post how many things are listed there, you may have alot of crap running at startup that you dont even know about slowing your system down. oh, and 395mb is way too much ram for a messenging application to need. even high end graphics programs dont use up that much ram.

[kittyatmu]

Okay...programs at startup are:
-AshDisp
-WHSE
-Qttask
-Jusched
-MSNMessenger
-Ctfmon
-MSmgs
-YPager

(there are also a million other things listed here, but not checked: I'll write these down too)
-AGRSMMSG
-AIM
-AXLCMNTR
-Ares (from when I had it, since deleted)
-RUNDLL32 AUNPS2
-Ctfmon
-Hkcmd
-Hpcmpmgr
-Hpztsb10
-Hpsysdrv
-Igfxtray
-Msmgs
-Msnmsgr
-RECGUARD
-Jusched
-Dumprep 0 -u


((I just turned off the MSN, Yahoo and MSMessages, BTW, so startup doesn't take a half an hour like it normally does.))

Some of this stuff, I have no clue what it is, so I don't wanna fool with it. Also, doing a system reformat and whatnot requires that I back my stuff up onto disc. I have NO floppy disc drive, nor do I have a CD Burning drive...like I said before, this was FACTORY bought from WalMart, so you KNOW it's a POS. And yeah...I completely agree that that's too much for their messaging system...but it's still in Beta form, so I GUESS they're working on it..I'm not quite sure. Anyway, let me know what I can do. Thanks again, you guys are awesome.

Edited by kittyatmu, 15 March 2006 - 12:08 PM.

[Thebinaryman]

the list you posted seems quite normal, if thers like 10+ things running then i would get picky, and if there was like 20+ things you definately need cleaning, but lets try this anyway... (this wont hurt any programs or anything)

try (temporarily) under the first tab you see when you run msconfig, select "diagnostic startup", and restart your computer, see if there is a dramatic speed increase. (note some programs may not function properly). but see if the freezing persists. when you are done testing around, run msconfig again and select "normal startup", and restart the computer, everything will be back to normal, and tell us if the comp was faster/less freezing. if it did run much faster, then we know that you have some programs in the background hoging up resources, if it runs about the same, then the problem is something else.

[kittyatmu]

You do NOT want to know the horrific trauma that just put my machine through. So I went to do it, and tried to run IE so I could post again...nothing. I hit some other programs...nothing. Nothing would load, it was COMPLETELY unresponsive. I redid normal mode, and for SOME reason it now had everything checked off on the above list, so I had to turn off quite a few things. After restart again, it became the MOST unresponsive I've ever seen it, with the little balloon coming up again that says "you're running out of disc space". I'm about to just take a sledge hammer to this machine, and be done with it. Something is WRONG.

I don't have Hijack this, and am not downloading it because honestly and frankly, I'm scared to death my computer will DIE. I even pulled out the owner's manual and warranty guide...nothing in there either. Didn't someone say the amount of RAM was WRONG? Shouldn't this be the factory's fault? The only programs I have (and have EVER had on here) are Yahoo IM, MSN IM, and IMVU...that's it. I don't have ANYTHING else...I don't know what to do (I'm obviously frustrated)...is it time to call someone in to look at it? Or should I just go ahead and buy a gig of RAM and PRAY it works?

[warriorscot]

Right okily dokily then lets see if we cant get you sorted out to see if you def need more RAM(which you do but it should still run ok without it) or if you have a more deep rooted problem.

A system slowing up is often a malware problem and i think it would be a good idea to get your PC checked out on that front at least:
Please go to the malware forum in my signature and follow the instructions at the top....Especially the CLICK HERE .

That will give you several steps that will help you clean up 70 percent of all problems by yourself. If at the end of the process you are still having difficulty--and you may not be-- then post a hijackthis log in THAT forum.

If you are still having problems after getting a clean bill of health from the malware expert, please return to this thread.

They should be able to give you a clean bill of health or not as the case may be. You shouldnt have to reinstall windows that is the very last resort on here(and only staff members should reccomend that drastic an action) although sometimes neccesary/easy route.

To check your exact system specs, you can use either sysspec which is in my sig, or you can use PCwizard(its a bit more detailed) just google for it.

Those should make sure you have the amount of ram you say you have and tell us of any other hardware you have that perhaps might need looking into.

Did you do or install anything at the time when it started acting up specifically, if you remember the rough date you could try windows restore if its a "soft" problem that might clear it up, if its hardware the problem will persist.