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OS slow down

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by tmp2347

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I have a client that is running an HP Pavillion,with 384 megs of ram. Whenever the client opens a word doc the system resources drop dramatically ( 84% free to 61% free), and the machine slows to a crawl. I have disabled everything that is unnecessary that was running in the background and checked the condition of the ram. It seems that programs are not releasing memory cache or something. I have also tested the mainboard and cpu with Tough Test Pro software and all checks fine. I am at this point at a loss. any help would be appreciated.

thanks,

Trevor Peterson MCP, A+

10 replies

by zlitocook

There are a few things you can try. You did not say if you cleaned the computer, delete tmp, gid and chk files. Delete the cookies, temporary internet files and history files. Then defrag the drive and run scan disk. You can try some of the shareware programs like memturbo to free up memory. Or after a few months to a year windows becomes too big and corrupt you need to format and reinstall. Of course back up all needed files first.

by ann777

Considering that this is MS... I also recommend that you do a search for ~*.* and delete all of those too. You may find hundreds of files ~*.doc that were never closed.

You might also try renaming normal.dot to oldnorm.bak and then restarting Word. The *.dot files sometimes get filled with trash and Word will not work optimally thereafter.

by tmp2347

I should also state that I fdisked and formatted
the HDD and reloaded windows and all software without any positive results.

by isys

Does he use Outlook? Be sure to turn off journaling and deleting the journals wouldn't be a bad idea.

by xanderoth

Trevor,

I have decided from my days working with Pavilions, that I hate them and so should everyone here.

The fact you fdisk, format and reinstall with no results seem to further cement that idea. I still have 4 pavilions on my network that Icant seem to eject- and they have similar problems.

Cheap components can cause catastrophic computer craziness.

by phillip.d.johnson

Unfortunately, the people writing the code in redmond do not set memory optimization at the top of their feature list. With the drastic drop in ram pricing, the former is compounded. You could have 1.0 gig of memory in the system, and the user resources would still hover around 70 - 80 percent. Thats just part of windows 98, me, and yes, XP. The kernel take pecentages of memory rather than actual amounts. Switch to 2000 if you wnat more control over it.

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