computer fix

[beagle man]

any computer gurus on here, I read some where there is a way to help the computer run faster on the start up. my computer crashed couple days ago, got it up and running but now it is slow real slow, eaven with the ATT air card, it was pretty fast till I reset to factory default, any help would be appreciated. thank you in advance.

[Joedog]

It could be almost anything, Michael....

When you say "crashed"....what ended up being wrong with it? Hardware or a problem with the operating system? (I'm assuming you're running some flavor of Windows?)

Just from your post (and a wealth of experience) I'd assume you got some kind of spyware/adware thing that jacked with your machine, but got it running again, except that now it runs really slow? That's just a guess from what I've seen a thousand times. But like I said to begin with, it could be anything.

[beagle man]

It just locked up had to shut it off, restart it you know f11 save files re set to factory defult, afte I did that it works fine and far as it is suppose to, but what I have noticed is it's not as fast as before switching from site to site or window to window, so guy told me how to shut down the start up programs, but I dont know just how he said to do it, went into the control panel but cant find the programs to shut them down. oh well no big deal thanks will keep working on it.

[TnRidge]

I cured my computer problems when I bought a Mac . :D

[bwillaub]

I cured my computer problems when I bought a Mac . :D

I'm starting to think that way myself.

[DMW1960]

Beagle Can You Tell Me What Windows You Are Working With? Xp Or Vista? Also What Is The Brand Of Computer You Have? I Am Not The Smartest Guy On The Block But I Have Been Able Over The Years To Do Somethings With These Darned Computers.

There Is A Windows Program That You Can Use To Speed Up Or Clean Up Your Hard Drive. Before You Start Close Down Your Internet Connection And Any Other Open Program Except Virus Protection Programs. Find The Folder Accessories Click It And You Will See Programs Like Paint, Calculator And There Will Also Be Another File Folder Called System Tools Click It. You Will Then See A Program Called Disk Defragmenter. Click On It, You May Have A Window Pop Up Saying That Windows Needs Your Premission To Continue. Click Continue, Then Another Box Will Open Up Click Defragment Now, Another Box Will Open Up Make Sure That There Is A X In The Box That Says All Drives. Then Click Ok And Then Leave Your Computer Alone It May Take A Few Minutes To A Few Hours!

What The Defrag Program Does Is Move Everything On Your Hard Drive To One Location. Remember When You Had One Of Those Old 33 Records With A Needle And It Started On The Outer Edge Of The Record And Moved Towards The Middle As It Played The Music. The Hard Drives On Computers Work Kind Of The Same Way. When You Store Something On A Computer The Needle Goes To The Largest Block Of Free Space And Stores It There. Well This Leaves Alot Of Different Open Spots On Your Hard Drive. Well When You Try To Open Up A Program The Needle On Your Hard Drive Has To Go All Over The Place Looking For This Program. What Defrag Does Is Takes Out All Those Little Open Spots And Puts Everything Closer Together. So This Will Make Your Computer Work Faster When It Don't Have To Work As Hard Finding Stuff.

I Hope This Makes Sense To You! Its The Best I Could Do To Explain It To You Or Anyone Else. I Am Not No Computer Nerd. I Have Not Had Any Schooling On Computers Except From The School Of Hard Knocks!

Hope This Helps!

[rugsrme]

Depending on what windows system you have XP or Vista probably, there is a way to "turn off" some start up programs. PM me if you want my number and I could try to walk you through it on the phone.
Dmw1960's idea should help too if you have had the computer for a while, I know windows 95 used to tell you when the drive needed to be de-fragmented.
If you do a "de-frag" make sure you turn off any anti-virus software and disable your screen saver before you start.
Not a "Guru" but I have been around these for a while.
By the way I solved my computer problems too.
I run a Linux OS, I hate Microsoft products.

[camo_boat]

all good advice listed so far. another thing to consider would possibly be how full your hard drive is and how much RAM you have. to know how much ram, right click my computer icon and click properties. to know how full the hard drive is, open my computer and right click the c drive and click properties. a hard drive that is almost full and/or insufficient RMA could cause "slowness". spyware-busting software tool, and defrag could also help for sure.

if you frequent the naughty websites, slowness should be expected :-) even if not, still a good anti-virus software tool should ALWAYS be used.

let us know what you find out and what fixed it, or if you still need some more help

good luck!

[zyrotec]

I believe the program you were looking for is winconfig. Just type that into the run box on your start menu and hit enter. It's been a while but I think the settings for all you start up items is to the far right. You can individually turn things off and on. Be careful not to turn too much off. A general rule of thumb is that it's pretty safe to turn off most anything that is located somewhere below Program Files.

Another thing could be your hard drive going south. In the last few years I have had two go out on me. The first sign was the computer just started to run very slowly. This would not be a bad time to back up your personal files, just in case. Good luck!

William
KD0IJA

[beagle man]

thanks every body, I will start working on these things, this all started when the hp guy told me to reboot the computer, ie f 11 set to factory default, I did and bam molassas slow and slower, run vista, this little lap top was just fine, fast as all get out not a problem till I reset it, man what a bummer, my air card wont eaven work now, got a new disc from ATT and am installing it as I type, hope to fish the air card problem this AM,If not, I have 26kdial up yey, smoking slow but faster than the post office, just barley. wish me luck,