[Joyce L]

My operating system is XP. I am having two continual problems on my computer. The first is the "Not Responding" issue with Mozilla Firefox. The second is no response when I try to type an email. There can be a delay between the time I hit a key and when the type shows on the screen, to the point that I have to give up completing an email. I stopped using IE 8, because my ISP told me that there were compatibility issues with IE 8 and MSN email. I have a computer which is seven years old, so I need to know if these issues are related to this old computer, or if these are browser issues. I am also having other issues, such as being unable to exit out of a window, etc. When all this starts, everything slows, CTRL/ALT/DELETE doesn't really help, and I finally just have to restart the computer.

Thank you,

Joyce

[Advertisements]

1.Have you "defragmented" the hard drive recently? If not, do it now:
Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> Disk Defragmenter

2. Keep your Startup items (items that start everytime Windows Starts) to a bare minimum.
"Ccleaner" is an easy way to see what these items are, and allows you to disable/enable any of them.
Install "Ccleaner", open it, click on the "Tools" icon, then click on the "Startup" button.
Ccleaner also incorporates a "Registry Cleaner" but do not use it unless you have a full backup image of your Windows installation.
Get "Ccleaner" here: http://www.piriform.com/

3. Don't install too many online security apps, and those you do install make sure there RAM requirements are modest.
Some of them consume ridiculously large amounts of RAM & will slow Windows down very noticeably on older computers.
This is especiialy important with apps that will be running all the time, such as antivirus & firewall apps.
You can find out how much RAM is required for a particular product on that developer's website.

Edited by phillipcorcoran, 12 December 2010 - 09:02 AM.

[phillipcorcoran]

1.Have you "defragmented" the hard drive recently? If not, do it now:
Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> Disk Defragmenter

2. Keep your Startup items (items that start everytime Windows Starts) to a bare minimum.
"Ccleaner" is an easy way to see what these items are, and allows you to disable/enable any of them.
Install "Ccleaner", open it, click on the "Tools" icon, then click on the "Startup" button.
Ccleaner also incorporates a "Registry Cleaner" but do not use it unless you have a full backup image of your Windows installation.
Get "Ccleaner" here: http://www.piriform.com/

3. Don't install too many online security apps, and those you do install make sure there RAM requirements are modest.
Some of them consume ridiculously large amounts of RAM & will slow Windows down very noticeably on older computers.
This is especiialy important with apps that will be running all the time, such as antivirus & firewall apps.
You can find out how much RAM is required for a particular product on that developer's website.

Edited by phillipcorcoran, 12 December 2010 - 09:02 AM.

[devper94]

Have you tried Firefox in Safe Mode ? If this alleviates the problem, then the culprit is either a buggy extension or plugin. If not, then it may be an OS problem.

To open Firefox in Safe Mode: click Start - All Programs - Mozilla Firefox - Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode)

[Joyce L]

Phillip,

Thank you for your suggestions, and I apologize for taking this long to respond.

re: disk defragmenter: "Analyze" said there was no need to defragment the volume.

Because I was also having problems with Microsoft Security Essentials, I thought perhaps that could be the culprit with using too many system resources. Supposedly I have enough processor speed to handle MSE. On Dec. 16, I contacted MSE support with the error codes which I was getting, and the problems I was experiencing. We have been troubleshooting ever since, and nothing has been resolved. I see that Geeks to Go recommends MSE as being easy on system resources, so I now think it may be the start-up items causing the problems, as you suggested. I must have programs running in the background which need to be disabled, or deleted.

re: CCleaner. I downloaded and ran. I have several programs listed, but I am unsure about what some of them are, or whether to "disable" or "delete." I thought I had been able to remove an old SpyBot Tea Timer, but is is showing on the start-up. I copied the results in "Notepad," so that you could advise which ones should be disabled and which deleted. I have attached the file.  startup.txt   4.25KB   215 downloads Some are old programs which are no longer even supported.

Regards,

Joyce

Edited by Joyce L, 27 December 2010 - 05:30 PM.

[Joyce L]

Thanks, devper94. I will try it, and see if there is a difference.

Regards,

Joyce

[Amlak]

If I were you, I'd have all the startup items disabled except for the MSSE one.

The Spybot one definitely needs to be disabled!

[devper94]

Did Safe Mode solve the problem?

If I were you, I'd have all the startup items disabled except for the MSSE one.

The Spybot one definitely needs to be disabled!

I would be really careful if I were you. Some startup items are very important. If you can't solve the slowdown, you should either see the Malware or Windows XP forum. The experts there will take care of your computer.

[Amlak]

Disabling the startup items won't damage her computer. In fact, I strongly recommend she disable at least the Spybot one and then restart her computer.