General PC Health

[Andrew]

Basically, the past month or so, my PC has been running mighty slow, its also been kind of messed up I feel. I don't want to reformat because the burner on the PC has died and I'd lose a lot of stuff on here I've spent countless hours downloading such as illegal roms, Warcraft 3 that the Disc mysteriously vanished from and such.

I've run ad-aware and that kind of thing... but it doesn't seem to do a thing, and the errors seem to be a lot more frequent... I'll post stats from Belarc Advisor.. but erm, what's a good free virus scanner I can use, because I'd dlded that AVG whatever thing and twice it still hasn't given me an authentification code.. Damn Norton ran out ages ago.

600 megahertz Intel Pentium III
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
128 Megabytes Installed Memory

10.23 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
1.39 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

_NEC DV-5700A [CD-ROM drive]
IDE-CD R/RW 8x4x32 [CD-ROM drive]
Generic floppy disk drive (3.5")

Windows 98 SE (build 4.10.2222)

I've also got a hunch that the GoBack installed on this Gateway PC from 2000 is continually and never endingly consuming hard drive space on this PC.... Confirm/Deny?

So yes, I've defragged ect, what more can I do to fix these errors.

[fat man with a monkey]

"it is possible." I would recommend seeing if there's any choice on the gateway thingie to use more or less hard drive space, it seems like that's a commodity you could use.

[kainashi]

use AVG-1-21829062-HKD to register avg. check gobacks settings and stuff to see if anything is weird and whatnot. i would tell you to reformat but your cd burner is dead so...

[Andrew]

Thank you very much kainashi, I've found my first ever virus on my PC as a result. Lucky it was only one. Heh.

The only option for GoBack is to remove all the history it has... mind you, this thing takes an image of your HD every few minutes and according to the help file, can back up from several weeks ago. But apart from that option, there's nothing more I can do with GoBack. Its saved my ass once or twice, but not majorly used.

[kainashi]

is history all the images of your hard drive it has saved? and can you make it so it doesn't backup so much or so you can back up manually using it?

[Andrew]

is history all the images of your hard drive it has saved? and can you make it so it doesn't backup so much or so you can back up manually using it?

Yes, its all the images of my hard drive, as well as images accessed ect. There are no options to fiddle with, the only one being to delete all these past images and startanew. It leaves me thinking "WHAT IF I NEED TO HAVE MY PC AS IS FROM 6 WEEKS AGO?!"

[kainashi]

Yes, its all the images of my hard drive, as well as images accessed ect. There are no options to fiddle with, the only one being to delete all these past images and startanew. It leaves me thinking "WHAT IF I NEED TO HAVE MY PC AS IS FROM 6 WEEKS AGO?!"

do you really need an image of your pc from 6 weeks ago?

[fat man with a monkey]

he might need it if it has an image of his computer saved before it started sucking.

[kainashi]

he might need it if it has an image of his computer saved before it started sucking.

it won't make his performance better or worse...

[Goten Shy]

i know how to do this one!! ME ME ME ME! Pick MEEEEEEEE! You need to defrag it! If you have enver done it befroe, it could take two hours so leave it on over night..

To get to it, Click:

Start > Programmes (All Programmes) > Accessories >
System Tools > Disk Defragment.

What this does is orginizes all of your folders and stuff so the computer finds it easier to find them, and therefore easier to open. It shows u a diagram aswel. Then over the corse of the check, it will move all your folders (not actaully move them as of what you can see but that the computer can see). You should do it once a week aswel. That way your computer will stay runing nice and fast. My Computer used to take 5 minutes to sign on (litterally) but now it takes 30 seconds from signing in.

[kainashi]

i know how to do this one!! ME ME ME ME! Pick MEEEEEEEE! You need to defrag it! If you have enver done it befroe, it could take two hours so leave it on over night..

To get to it, Click:

Start > Programmes (All Programmes) > Accessories >
System Tools > Disk Defragment.

What this does is orginizes all of your folders and stuff so the computer finds it easier to find them, and therefore easier to open. It shows u a diagram aswel. Then over the corse of the check, it will move all your folders (not actaully move them as of what you can see but that the computer can see). You should do it once a week aswel. That way your computer will stay runing nice and fast. My Computer used to take 5 minutes to sign on (litterally) but now it takes 30 seconds from signing in.

So yes, I've defragged ect, what more can I do to fix these errors.

so no, you don't know this one.

[Goten Shy]

.....Do it more than once? Use the disk clean up under the same thing? One of those Spybot Search and Destry thinggies... Ummmmmm...........

[kainashi]

.....Do it more than once? Use the disk clean up under the same thing? One of those Spybot Search and Destry thinggies... Ummmmmm...........

he said he also ran adaware, which is pretty much the same thing as spybot search and destroy..

[Goten Shy]

But its not THE same thing OOOO, what about windows Washer?

[Chris]

But its not THE same thing

It is.

OOOO, what about windows Washer?

From the Window Washer web site:

Here’s how Webroot Window Washer protects your privacy and improves PC performance

* Simply, safely and easily wipe clean your online and offline tracks for complete privacy
* Wash away excess useless files that clog your PC's hard drive
* Shred function includes bleach to completely wipe out data
* Free plug-ins instantly detect and clean up more than 60 popular programs
* Custom wash cycles put you in control
* Automatic cleaning saves you time

Since that feature description is devoid of any actual information about the program whatsoever, I can't say that I think it'll help him much...

I'd go with John and say GoBack is the offender for the hard drive space problem. A nearly-full hard drive can degrade system performance greatly, so clear out any GoBack images that are over a week old, and use either System Restore or GoBack (not both) to save on space.

Also moving to Misc, because this has nothing to do with the vB.

[kainashi]

system restore isn't in windows 98 so i guess he's stuck with goback.

[Goten Shy]

no, the disk clean up, it gets rid of stuff and makes more room free. I dunno if more room would be better but...

[kainashi]

no, the disk clean up, it gets rid of stuff and makes more room free. I dunno if more room would be better but...

it wouldn't clean up enough to really make a difference. maybe up to 100mb, at most.

[Goten Shy]

Well im clearing about 15MB everyday with Windows Washer XD I have an idea! Email microsoft lol.

byw, kainashi, that avatar is hillarious!! had to be sed

[Sarcastic Assassin]

Since lack of HDD space seems to be the main culprit (a memory upgrade might not hurt though, if there's room), here are my recommendations.

-Clear out your browser cache.
-Go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs..., go through the list of programs, and ask yourself: do I really need this program? If not, uninstall.
-Buy a new CD burner, to burn all your roms/games/etc.
-Alternatively, if your PC has the room, buy another hard drive.
-Also, look at the system tray (the area around the clock in the lower right hand part of the screen). Are there a lot of programs running there, that you don't use? Close them, and if they're running on start-up, go to Start -> Run -> msconfig. Then click Startup, and uncheck what's not needed.

[Roarkiller]

Get a bigger harddisk. And more memory. That should solve most probs bout slow computers that doesnt have anything to do with funny programs.

Or u could get a new PC. Urs seem slightly outdated, so maybe its time for a new one?

[Andrew]

Hold on Roarkiller let me just pull two grand out of nowhere ~)~;

I don't mean to sound whingy, but I think the point of this topic was ways to help fix the PC Without spending my hard earned dosh as a Uni Student.

Sarcastic As. Thanks, but the only one I really used was the remove some startup programs lols.

GotenShy - Erm... sounds like... an interesting program...

I've cleared GoBack's memory, but it didn't seem to do a thing, amusingly. Heh.

I'm planning on Emailing all my MP3's that are pretty dodgy to Gmail, then dlding them all and using the Uni Burners.

[Water Pokemon Master]

Besy Buy has a mail-in rebate deal thingy now that if you buy a 256 mb USB Flash Drive, you get a $10 mail in rebate, which means in total it is only $40. You could use that to save the files you want or to move them to someone else's PC, then reinstall Windows.

[Craig]

wpm: he is from australia.

he also said he didn't want to spend money, learn to read please

edit: also, learn how to think.. 256 mb ? I have more storage than that on my digital camera.

[Water Pokemon Master]

I did say you could use them to move the files. WinZipping would make them smaller to move, too.

Yeah, that Australia thing may be a problem.

[Yoh Asakura]

wpm: he is from australia.

he also said he didn't want to spend money, learn to read please

edit: also, learn how to think.. 256 mb ? I have more storage than that on my digital camera.

256 is the standard size for a portable memory stick. 128 being there for small jobs such as college students and 512 for people who just wanna show off or have a lot of stuff.

Couldn't you just get yourself a small HDD say an 8 Gig and used it as a slave, dumping stuff onto it?

[Chris]

If shipping was cheap enough, I'd send you my old 40GB drive...