A few questions...

mintymoneysaver

My Dell totally crashed a few weeks ago, and a very kind friend had a look at it for me. He fitted a new hard drive and did all sorts of clean ups and things. So he brought it back yesterday ( using it now) but just wanted to ask a couple of things.
It is starting up quite slowly, screen comes on and then icons appear a little while later. The internet is running pretty slowly, and if I go to minimise anything, it just takes ages to minimise, doing it a tiny bit at a time ( a bit like a shutter going down)
Now he's put a new 500gb hard drive in, he says the memory's not great, but okay for what I need. He's put lots of programmes on for me, and I wondered whether any of these were slowing it down, or what your thoughts on them are. They are
Spybot search and destry
Spyware blaster
AVG2012
sPECCY
wINPATROL
sOLUTO
File hippo updare checker
picasa
winrar
VLC media player
shutter
auslogics diskdefrag
comodo firewall
advancedsystemcare 5
Malwarebytes( which I had on my old system so quite happy to keep)
keyscrambler
ioBIT
uninstaller
ccleaner

We're also trying to sort out the fact that there is no sound at all. The speakers are working, as when I plug them in you can hear a crackle, . He put soundblaster back on as I still had all the original disks, but nothing. I have the green cable going into the green port at the back of the computer. He tried all sorts, but no joy. Soundcard is installed. Do you think there's maybe a driver he didn't put back on? I still have all the disks for that too. I only ask because we had to add a driver yesterday as the internet wouldn't work without it, and he hadn't reloaded that one as he'd assumed he wouldn't need to. When I first switch on a box comes up saying something about new hardware and if you still have the disk to install it, for Multimedia audio controller but I'm noyt sure which disk this is?

Glad of any advice so I won't need to bother him again!

OneADay

On the dell web site - look under support for specific sound drivers for your model.

Spyware blaster - you only need spybot or malwarebytes (not both) - well you don't need them all the time so disable plugins
AVG2012 - get all in one package like kaspersky internet security or something
sPECCY - not needed
wINPATROL - junk
sOLUTO - pointless (for me)
File hippo updare checker - definitely remove
picasa - ok as long as its not starting up google services each time you boot
winrar
VLC media player
shutter (no idea what it is)
auslogics diskdefrag - I would get rid of this
comodo firewall - get all in one package like kaspersky internet security or something
advancedsystemcare 5 - Big UGH
Malwarebytes( which I had on my old system so quite happy to keep)
keyscrambler - !!!!!!
ioBIT - get rid
uninstaller - if its windows uninstaller ok, if somethign else, delete
ccleaner

SteveJH200

OneADay wrote: »

On the dell web site - look under support for specific sound drivers for your model.

Spyware blaster - you only need spybot or malwarebytes (not both) - well you don't need them all the time so disable plugins
AVG2012 - get all in one package like kaspersky internet security or something
sPECCY - not needed
wINPATROL - junk
sOLUTO - pointless (for me)
File hippo updare checker - definitely remove
picasa - ok as long as its not starting up google services each time you boot
winrar
VLC media player
shutter (no idea what it is)
auslogics diskdefrag - I would get rid of this
comodo firewall - get all in one package like kaspersky internet security or something
advancedsystemcare 5 - Big UGH
Malwarebytes( which I had on my old system so quite happy to keep)
keyscrambler - !!!!!!
ioBIT - get rid
uninstaller - if its windows uninstaller ok, if somethign else, delete
ccleaner

Definitely get rid of AVG using their uninstall tool. Install Free Avast anti virus instead and use Windows inbuilt Firewall. If you bank with Barclays then they supply Kasperskey Free. Speccy, Auslogics and File Hippo update checker are really good tools and do not cause any problems.

With all due respect to your friend maybe he hasn't done a thorough job as a fresh install usually works wonders. I assume you're on XP so has he carried out out all the updates and installed all the necessary drivers. The drivers for the Soundblaster card are available from Creative.

When posting here it is always a good idea to give the model of the Dell, the Service Tag number, the operating system being used and other relevant info such as the amount of RAM installed.

waddler_8

OneADay wrote: »

wINPATROL - junk

I've got to disagree - It's a wonderful little program!

debitcardmayhem

OneADay wrote: »

On the dell web site - look under support for specific sound drivers for your model.

Spyware blaster - you only need spybot or malwarebytes (not both) - well you don't need them all the time so disable plugins

wINPATROL - junk

Spywareblaster is passive not a plugin, only runs when you want to update the definitions

Winpatrol is not junk

GunJack

if your mate has put all this on your pc based on what he's got on his pc, you should be able to draw comfort from the fact that his is as slow as yours :rotfl:

closed

if you want to speed it up

uninstall spybot, spyware blaster, avg, winpatrol, filehippo update checker, auslogics, commodo, advanced system care, iobit, shutter, keyscrambler, soluto

stop any of the other programs you mentioned from running at startup using msconfig, startup tab

install avast free and cleanmem and startuplite, links are here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

reboot, then post a hijackthis log, installed physical ram from task manager, and if it's xp, the commit charge (from task manager). post the model of the machine and operating system

if they installed the resident version of malwarebytes, you may wish to uninstall and reinstall without the resident trial, and manually run scans instead.

have a look in device manager to see which drivers are missing - it may possibly need kb888111 from microsoft

When you have finished, backup using disk imaging software.

winpatrol and soluto usually add things to startup, which undermines the objective (removing bloat) somewhat.

if you are low on ram, check the price of an upgrade - www.crucial.com/uk

mintymoneysaver

Thanks all. I do understand that he is well meaning, but that obviously something hasn't gone right. I will look at everyone's advice today, and go from there.

robmar0se

Most XP machines have at least 1gb of RAM these days. Your comment@

The internet is running pretty slowly, and if I go to minimise anything, it just takes ages to minimise, doing it a tiny bit at a time ( a bit like a shutter going down)

Is always a sign that you do not have enough RAM (and by definition virtual memory) to do the things you ask of it.

Doing the things suggested by others above will reduce the resource demand, and maybe you will be fine for a while, but if you do have 512mb of RAM or less then the problem will creap up on you again.

I would also do a couple of things:

1. Use the Crucial website to identify what RAM you need and the cost (and the max yr system can handle) - relatively cheap these days.

2. If you add RAM, always remember to change the Virtual memory (the bit that handles the RAM overflow), should have min of 150% of the amount of RAM. Here is MS's info on how to check/update it:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/sysdm_advancd_perform_change_vmpagefile.mspx?mfr=true

mintymoneysaver

Hi, just updating with a bit more information as asked. It's a Dell with service tag 63vzj1j (dimension 5000) I have looked at the crucial website nd it reccomends 2gb of memory. I remember my friend telling me I had two sticks of memory in there, so think they must be the 512 type. I will certainly look into getting more, and it seems fairly easy to install from their video.
It actually seems a little bit faster today, but haven't installed/ deleted anything just yet as I want to try to get to the bottom of the sound problem first in case he comes round and realises I've deleted half the things he put on!

So, sound problem. When the computer powers up it says 'Welcome to found new hardware wizard Multimedia audio controller. Then if came with a disk install now or search software.
Now I have ( as far as I know) all the original disks but I'm not sure whether to install one. I have all the Dell set up disks, the soundblaster disk ( which he said he'd put back on) Should I delete the soundblaster that he's put on, and try it again? Or is this a different disk that I haven't got? I managed to get into the creative test thing ( though I can't remember how!) and it ticked all the driver test things.
How do I check if something might be missing, that is meaning it's not working? Again, thanks for your help!

SteveJH200

You need to go to Device manager via Control Panel and see if the Creative Sound card is there. If there are any yellow indicators in Device Manager then it means the drivers are not installed.

If you click on Start, Programmes see if you have Microsoft Update installed. If so, then run it at a custom level as sometimes it will find missing drivers. If MS update is not there then click on Windows update and follow the instructions on high priority updates.

If you download a little tool called Speccy - it will also tell you what's on the system.

Try these for now and see how you get on.