[ppalmer10]

I have a computer that was donated to me so I really know very little about its contents. The monitor that came with it will drive you up the wall. Using an optical scrolling wheel, the screen jumps up or down in pieces - sorry, best way I can think of to describe it. I have attached a monitor to it that I know is sound and it did the same thing. What I don't know now is what needs to be fixed? New monitor? New video card? New motherboard - it is elderly and slow, but it doesn't have to do much - some easy web surfing, word processing, simple spreadsheets. Any direction would be appreciated.

Pat

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Curious, what happens when you just click a webpage's right hand scoll tab, does it do the same then if you bring the cursor down normally, are we talking about overall visual movement slugishness or just the wheel movement of the mouse? Also, old as in which os and roughly what type of computer?

[fleamailman]

Curious, what happens when you just click a webpage's right hand scoll tab, does it do the same then if you bring the cursor down normally, are we talking about overall visual movement slugishness or just the wheel movement of the mouse? Also, old as in which os and roughly what type of computer?

[ppalmer10]

It's all over sluggish, scroll wheel or scroll bar. I really have no idea about years but I'd guess 4-5 years. It has XP and its a no-name brand. I can't get to it right now to even tell you what kind of harddrive or anything else about the interior. I'll look tomorrow and post it here. Thanks.

[wannabe1]

Hi ppalmer10...

This sounds like a memory issue...as in not enough RAM. How much physical memory does the machine have?

wannabe1

[fleamailman]

A free program that is stand alone would help you and us.

http://www.alexnolan...are/sysspec.htm

Could you post back the log it gives. I too think that it is lack of ram but let's see the log.

btw this tool is great for just quick checking comps since it is free and stand alone(non installing) hope you like it.
instuctions: download, double click on it, press the scan botton on top of window, copy, paste back here or to text file.

Edited by fleamailman, 29 March 2006 - 06:07 AM.

[TakeBK]

Try Start /Settings / Control Panel / Display >>> Settings Tab / Adavanced >>>>Monitor Tab

Under Monitor Settings/ Refresh Frequency. Make sure the box next to "Hide modes this monitor can not display" is checked off. Then in the drop down box , hit the arrow to drop down your choices and choose the highest setting there 70hz ,80hz,85hz ect..

The higher the number the faster the screen will refresh the information on it .The lower (Well you can figure that out )

Note:: If the box "Hide modes this monitor can not display" is not checked and you choose a setting to high for your monitor to handle it could cause damage.Please check it off.


As people stated above memory is probably one of the problems.

Regards,

TakeBK




EDIT:::::


Since it is a donated computer you might want to go through and do a little cleaning in the ADD/REMOVE Programs for anything you dont need. ie..Kiddy games,AOL if you don't use it, ect.....Empty your temp internet filesand Delete Cookies.Go to start /Run type in " msconfig " without the quotes and uncheck any startup items you can research that you dont absolutley have to have start up on boot ie. MSN,AIM Messaging programs,They can be started when you want them, no need to have them running everytime the machine starts.Do a System Defrag on it afterwards.Who knows when that was donelast


Good Luck Again





.

Edited by TakeBK, 29 March 2006 - 09:37 AM.

[Mr.Chow]

Could be Video card drivers, that are not installed. I know that when me drivers arn't installed that my scrren will move in "blocks".

[fleamailman]

I think Mr.Chow is suggesting the following:

press: windows botton with r botton
type: devmgmt.msc
see under video adaptors if there is a little yellow triangle..

(The triangle would mean that that driver is missing)
righthandclick or F10
uninstall it
top of window press: action
press: scan
direct the prompt that comes up to your cd with the driver
pray: that it works
postback here.

[ppalmer10]

Thanks to all of you for your responses and suggestions. To answer some of your questions:

RAM - 192
CPU Speed - 590.4 MGz
Display Adapters - NetMeeting driver/RDPDD Chained DD (this is only reference to driver I could find)
Screen Resolution - this was at 1024 x 768, I changed it to 800 x 600 24 bit. Seemed to help some, but that might be my mind working on me
BIOS - S3 86C362 Trio3D2X Video BIOS. Version 2.0C.10
Technology - Raster Display
Font resolution - 96 dpi
pixel width - 36
pixel height - 36
pixel diagonal - 51
Hard Disk - 14.3GB
Hard Disk - free - 11.3GB

I printed out four pages from the System Specification test (thanks for the heads up on that one!)

Learned that the power surge also did something to my scanner, because I printed out four sheets from the reports, but couldn't them scan them into this computer to send them to you. So I typed above what I thought you might need to be able to tell anything. (Spent 30 minutes onlilne with HP about the scanner, they finally decided I need to contact Dell to get an upgraded BIOS - haven't done that yet - did I mention I'm a tax preparer? I don't need this right now...grrrr)

To TakeBak: We had the drive "shredded," because the original owner was emphatic that there be no risidual data like you're talking about. It came from a medical office, so they were understandably security conscious.

I haven't had a chance to try changing the refresh rate, no access to monitor right now. Will check it as soon as I can though.

Thanks again for all of your feedback and suggestions.
Pat

[wannabe1]

RAM - 192

More RAM would make a big difference on this machine. Windows XP likes at least 256MB RAM...it will run on less, but you start seeing issues like those you are experiencing.

CPU Speed - 590.4 MGz

The processor is getting a bit old, too.

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 02 April 2006 - 01:24 PM.