Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: The long Build on January 20, 2012, 08:18:20 pm
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For those Intersted in Computers, I hope you might be able to give some Advice please
I built my PC in about 2006
It is using a Destop Board D945GNT/D945GTP
With an Intel Pentium D Processor
3.40ghz
4gb Ram 3.24 usable
Also om 30mb Broad band soon to be doubled to 60 !! for free apparently by Virgin
My questions are, is this a pretty slow set up by comparison to modern systems ? and could it cope with 60mb BB as at times it seems to struggle.. Other times its faster than a club 500 on a new set of Batteries..
Larry R.
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1. Windows XP or 7?
2. Slow doing somethings (internet) or everything?
3. What Antivirus?
4. Download & run this - http://www.glarysoft.com/products/utilities/quick-startup/ (http://www.glarysoft.com/products/utilities/quick-startup/)
( Shows you how much crap your PC is running from startup! )
5. Even the fastest Broadband it a 100 times slower than your hard drive!
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Running on W7 Ie9
Using Norton and yes I know this does slow things down a bit, so before reloading it I stripped out Norton Completeley and loaded AVG, to be honest I saw no real difference..
Seems to get stressed out over the Internet, programmes seem ok.. Also varible times.
Early 2011 I had issues with the system overheating So I re-greased the Heatsink plate which stopped that happening, also I think at the time the unit was not as tight as it should have been.
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If you haven't done so already. it's worth vacuuming out the inside of the case as dust gets in and forms a blanket over everything which causes overheating.
Martin - I've had a look at that program you suggested but does it really do very much more then msconfig.exe?
Colin
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In my experience there are a few things which slow Microsoft systems down.
1 - a complex and messy registry. Comes from loading and unloading different software packages over the years. There are 'registry cleaners' but they are sometimes of limited value.
2 - a lot of 'spyware' and propriety toolbars loaded onto IE. Comes from clicking all those 'special offers'. Again, there are cleaners and products like SpyBot.
3 - Defragging is rarely of value, but is sometimes helpful, especially if you have fullish drives.
If you have built your own system then a rebuild might be the quickest and most reliable way to clean it up. Have two drives, keep your OS on one and your data on the other. Colin's point about dust - especially in the power supply grills and the various coolers on the motherboard - is also an important one.
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I loaded the programme, I think it shows the use more the msconfig ?
Recently vacuumed inside and out..
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Martin - I've had a look at that program you suggested but does it really do very much more then msconfig.exe?
Yes, a bit more, it allows programs to exist in the starup groups, services, scheduled but doesn't allow them to run, ie. you can delete things like quicktime, java quickstarer, abobe arm, realplayer, ms office starter, etc, etc, but it they just add themselves again.
(It's also safer than msconfig!)
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Cheers Martin, I have downloaded it to my laptop and PC. It is very easy to use. We will see how it performs..
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Used to run AVG but like many others, it clogs up the gears. Changed to Avast (free version) about five years ago and Ccleaner (another freebie), works for me.
Regards Ian
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Unless you're into gaming, have a look at Ubuntu Linux. I've been using Linux for a while now, and find it trouble free.
Fast boot up, no bloat and it costs nix.
I use Firefox browser.
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In my experience there are a few things which slow Microsoft systems down.
1 - a complex and messy registry. Comes from loading and unloading different software packages over the years. There are 'registry cleaners' but they are sometimes of limited value.
Should have said CPU and board Built 2006, Hardrive replaced as I wanted to keep XP available , so Put new HD for OS and separate for files
2 - a lot of 'spyware' and propriety toolbars loaded onto IE. Comes from clicking all those 'special offers'. Again, there are cleaners and products like SpyBot.
Never click on the special offers..and regularly get rid of any other propriety toolbars , but suppose they could be running in the background
3 - Defragging is rarely of value, but is sometimes helpful, especially if you have fullish drives.
If you have built your own system then a rebuild might be the quickest and most reliable way to clean it up. Have two drives, keep your OS on one and your data on the other. Colin's point about dust - especially in the power supply grills and the various coolers on the motherboard - is also an important one.
I defrag maybe once a year just for fun (takes a long time,)but have a 320os Hd and 1tb files drive.. Recently deleted 10,000+ photos/files %% %% they tend to get duplicated when posting on to sites as I only work from copies..
Also regularly clear out the fan filters and vac the insides.
The laptop uses exactly the same software but seems fine..CPU is I think Dual Amd so not sure if that makes a difference
Must admit not sure about swapping as I have always been a fan of MS despite the flaws.
I have Avg and Norton running , Wonder if that could be a conflict..
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I have Avg and Norton running , Wonder if that could be a conflict..
Quite possibly, it's not generally considered good practice to run two AV programs simultaneously as they can trip over each other and are frequently incompatible. (think acrylic and enamel ok2)
I rely on Microsoft Security Essentials and the extra protection given by the firewall in my router. Not had any problems so far touch wood! Every now and again I run one of the Ad Aware type programs as a double check.
Colin
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Must admit not sure about swapping as I have always been a fan of MS despite the flaws.
I have Avg and Norton running , Wonder if that could be a conflict..
Oooh, the colours!
As Martin said, whether it's good enough depends what you want the system for. Simple browsing should be fine. XP is starting to get a bit long in the tooth, at you will start to get compatibility problems as Microsoft starts to force people to change...
My experience over 20+ years of playing with Microsoft operating systems is that they all deteriorate and go slow, usually after 2 or three years, for a variety of reasons. Microsoft has been well served by this, because it has encouraged people to buy new systems (with a new OS) every few years.
I second Colin's suggestion not to run two AVs. I run Avast! on my Windows systems.
If I want a reliable system which won't slow down or need attention I use Linux. Ubuntu is now very impressive. You can simply set up your system to dual boot if you want, and have both OS on it. Ubuntu just works, doesn't need defragging or any of those other maintenance processes, because it's based on Unix (a mainframe OS) and so does things professionally...
Your machine will go back to the speed it had when you bought it if you clear the OS drive and rebuild it. I find that's much quicker than trying to find out what issues an old system has, clearing one and then finding the next...
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Dodgy,
For us non geeks/techno types, when you say rebuild it, are you referring to all the software programs and not physically rebuilding the PC.
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For us non geeks/techno types, when you say rebuild it, are you referring to all the software programs and not physically rebuilding the PC.
Just the software - not the physical bits.
To make a PC you:
1 - plug all the physical bits together. No need to separate these again unless a physical problem occurs
2 - load an operating system - typically from CD - onto your empty hard drive
3 - set up the OS the way you want it - network, screen drivers, patches, etc
4 - load each application and set up as you want
By rebuild I mean do items 2-4. An issue with MS Windows is a thing called the Registry. Briefly, a 'proper' system design would keep the operating system code quite separate from the application code, with the OS having the power to control and direct how the applications should run. Unix and Linux work this way, because they were designed properly, from first principles.
MS DOS was never designed with this level of sophistication, and as Windows developed MS needed to add some kind of application controlling process. They designed a database called the Registry which the OS could read to gather data about each application. But this design has a number of problems, and can easily get corrupted or filled with junk. I find that, if I load and unload software on a regular basis on a Windows machine, that it's a good idea about every two years to wipe my OS disk clean and then re-install the OS and applications. Other peoples mileage may vary...
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Just the software - not the physical bits.
To make a PC you:
1 - plug all the physical bits together. No need to separate these again unless a physical problem occurs
2 - load an operating system - typically from CD - onto your empty hard drive
3 - set up the OS the way you want it - network, screen drivers, patches, etc
4 - load each application and set up as you want
By rebuild I mean do items 2-4. An issue with MS Windows is a thing called the Registry. Briefly, a 'proper' system design would keep the operating system code quite separate from the application code, with the OS having the power to control and direct how the applications should run. Unix and Linux work this way, because they were designed properly, from first principles.
MS DOS was never designed with this level of sophistication, and as Windows developed MS needed to add some kind of application controlling process. They designed a database called the Registry which the OS could read to gather data about each application. But this design has a number of problems, and can easily get corrupted or filled with junk. I find that, if I load and unload software on a regular basis on a Windows machine, that it's a good idea about every two years to wipe my OS disk clean and then re-install the OS and applications. Other peoples mileage may vary...
Dodgy,
Thank you and understood. O0 O0 O0
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But, remember if reinstalling to a blank disc you need to make sure you still have all your original discs, and many programs will have updated themselves over the the internet, so they will then want to do that all over again.
Also remember that the personalisations will be lost, email accounts , any passwords that are automatically filled in, etc etc etc
Plus remember to save all you photos, data, documents that you have amassed over the years.
Allow a couple of days to get the computer back to where it was before you started
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Thank you.
Boy, I am glad I have a computer <:( <:(
I wonder what I did with my time before. :(( :((
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Also if you are able to, Put the OS on 1 hard drive and keep the files on a seperate Drive, makes life much easier..
Also REgardless of which option to save files on you should always make regular backups..
Emails can be backed up but is a bit of a pain, however if using any of the main Providers (Virgin, Bt,Tiscali) sure others do it, emails are also stored elsewhere but only receieved emails not sent ones.
I,m just going to clean and tidy bits and pieces , because the way my set up is I would have to reload, 98, XP and then W7 on the main system as the software is upgraded not stand alone, the laptop was upgraded from XP so there could be aroute cause to the problem there as the Laptop seems ok.
As RearArtygunner says Rebuilding or even building a PC is Very Easy, as All the bits are plug and play, I was quite dissapointed when I did it, but at least I had the set up I wanted..
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I,m just going to clean and tidy bits and pieces , because the way my set up is I would have to reload, 98, XP and then W7 on the main system as the software is upgraded not stand alone, the laptop was upgraded from XP so there could be aroute cause to the problem there as the Laptop seems ok.
W98 is quite different from XP. It's DOS-based. There is no 'upgrade' path - you would just delete W98 and then install a new XP. So if you do end up 'rebuilding', you won't need the W98 stage...
What OS disks have you got?
Oh, and it's easy to trial Ubuntu - you can just download it, copy to a CD, then boot from the CD and run it from there without altering your machine or hard drive at all. Runs slower this way, of course, but it's fine for a trial...
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W98 is quite different from XP. It's DOS-based. There is no 'upgrade' path - you would just delete W98 and then install a new XP. So if you do end up 'rebuilding', you won't need the W98 stage...
What OS disks have you got?
You would think.., However for the Xp Professional to work I have to have an original OS system enstalled, in this case I was upgrading from 98, once it detects that I suppose it probably deletes it but none the less it needed to be on, also as the W7 Ultimate is also an upgrade it needed to detect XP as it is only an upgrade from XP and or VIsta not 98..
As the Laptop came with the Basic W7 it was pretty straight forward.. :-))
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Oooh, the colours!
You should have seen it when I had it in orange.. Blue would have been better , but then the wraith of the almightys would have fallen down upon me :police:
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Yea but red don't arf rape the retinas. :o
Regards Ian.
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You would think.., However for the Xp Professional to work I have to have an original OS system enstalled, in this case I was upgrading from 98, once it detects that I suppose it probably deletes it but none the less it needed to be on, also as the W7 Ultimate is also an upgrade it needed to detect XP as it is only an upgrade from XP and or VIsta not 98..
Good Grief! I hadn't really considered those implications of Microsoft's continual efforts to trap people into only using their operating system before. And people actually put up with this?
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I,m just going to clean and tidy bits and pieces , because the way my set up is I would have to reload, 98, XP and then W7 on the main system as the software is upgraded not stand alone, the laptop was upgraded from XP so there could be aroute cause to the problem there as the Laptop seems ok.
I used to do something similar, 97 to 98, until I got XP now I just reinstall XP.
XP, works fine for me, including Office XP and IE8, but then I am not that computer literate and need to seek guidance from time to time from a guru.
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It might be possible to make a "slipstreamed" installation CD for XP. I did it for mine (not an upgrade - it was an OEM disc) which installed it with SP1, SP2, SP3 and a bunch of updates in one go, rather than spending several days waiting for several hundred updates to install themselves.
The best way involves a bit of hindsight - when the system is stable and running happily, I clone the system partition. If anything 'orrible happens, I boot from the recovery disc for the cloning program, and 22 minutes later, I have the lot back, working as well as the day the clone was created, just the updates to run after, and if the clone was not too old, not too many of them.
An important thing to bear in mind is that XP is losing support from MS, any presents you might buy for the system might not have XP drivers. Before long, getting a replacement drive might become a problem as the world moves away from PATA onto SATA and the standards for video cards change. A box with W7 pre-installed becomes a simple answer. Goes against the grain having to take the big step, but......... :((
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An important thing to bear in mind is that XP is losing support from MS, any presents you might buy for the system might not have XP drivers. Before long, getting a replacement drive might become a problem as the world moves away from PATA onto SATA and the standards for video cards change. A box with W7 pre-installed becomes a simple answer. Goes against the grain having to take the big step, but......... :((
You can get very cheap SATA/IDE connectors, but you are right - I am having to buy SATA DVD drives now as motherboards start dropping any IDE channels. But it will 'go against the grain' for a lot of people to have to buy a new computer because they have a new printer, and it doesn't come with XP drivers.
Of course, you would still be able to use that new printer with Ubuntu. I wonder if the move away from XP will result in more people swapping to Linux...?
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Dumped IE 8 for Google Chrome, and man what a difference!!
Way faster and no probs...so far, and that was 7mos ago. :-))
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I have installed Ubuntu on my laptop alongside W Vista for now but it wants firmware to connect firefox to my wireless sky broadband router.
Help!!!
Ned
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What is the error message?
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For those Intersted in Computers, I hope you might be able to give some Advice please
I built my PC in about 2006
It is using a Destop Board D945GNT/D945GTP
With an Intel Pentium D Processor
3.40ghz
4gb Ram 3.24 usable
Also om 30mb Broad band soon to be doubled to 60 !! for free apparently by Virgin
My questions are, is this a pretty slow set up by comparison to modern systems ? and could it cope with 60mb BB as at times it seems to struggle.. Other times its faster than a club 500 on a new set of Batteries..
Larry R.
HI mate, weather 3.4ghz is slow or fast really depends on your needs. a huge number of people have got PCs that will never be pushed to anything like what they are capable of.
yes there are CPUs out there that are a lot faster but you need to ask yourself if you will use the speed it offers? remember simply browsing the net wont push your current CPU to anywhere near what it can do, the raw power is utilised when running more complex programs or gaming. if your PC is slow to start, open programs or is slow on the internet then it needs to be reinstalled! a 3.4GHz is plenty fast enough for most every day tasks.
overheating can be caused by a number of things. firstly, as has been mentioned cleaning out dust from inside is needed now and then, get a brush and make sure you clean out all the dust from the channels between the cooler veins, unless air can pass down these channels it cant do its job properly!.
another reason for overheating is the CPU getting pushed to its max all the time by bugs in your system, spyware, viruses and badly written software etc. my wife's laptop is in a real state in that department and is running so hot you could fry eggs on it and thats when its idle and been restarted! it is so slow you click on something and go make a cup of tea whilst you wait lol but an identical unit run by me as a file server with a totally healthy install is running so cool the fan rarely comes on and runs 10x faster than my wife's and thats no exaggeration.
in my view, unless your going to be running software that requires a faster cpu, you have no need to replace it.
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All good stuff but W7 really wants more than a Pentium D and 3.24GB for speedy operation. (Despite what Microsoft might allege when trying to sell their OS!)
If a good clean out, defrag and reinstall of XP doesn't sort things, then I'd say that 6 years is a good innings for a PC, so time for a partial or total rebuild? Mine's only 4 years old but with a 4-core CPU so it still flies with most things. It gets a fresh XP install every year or two. However, the demands of new software will mean upping to 64 bit W7 and that needs around 8 or 16GB RAM in the existing machine or, more likely, a new build.
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If you're still using old software an old system will be fine. But it is true that a lot of modern software is written for multi-core systems, and when your system is doing several things at once, dual-core or more does make quite a difference...
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Steveboatnoob, meechingham & DG, Some intersting reading there as well as all the other contributions are definetly good pointers.
I think for the moment I will just have to suck it and see, with a cleaning out, a rebuild is out for the moment, particulary as the CPU and mother board (more the cpu)are the expensive bits.. This board will only take 4gb memory and not all of that is usable.
Regarding Virus checkers, When I was on XP I loaded Rapport from the bank, that almost killed my pc..although it might be better know,
Strange however, at the moment it's quiet as a mouse..
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What is the error message?
'Firefox Cannot connect to ubuntu'
If I go into settings and try to configure wireless setup I get the message that Firmware is missing.
Ned
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'Firefox Cannot connect to ubuntu'
If I go into settings and try to configure wireless setup I get the message that Firmware is missing.
Umm...!
This message sounds very odd. You get it on your laptop screen when you try to talk to the router? Have you called the internet connection or the router 'Ubuntu'?
The message about 'firmware missing' makes me think that you have not got a wireless card in the laptop, or that it is not configured correctly in that operating system...
Can you connect normally through your laptop to the wireless router (and then on to the Internet) when you boot in Windows?
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Not called the router anything Just loaded it stuck a password on and on switch on select ubuntu
Click on the Firefox icon and the first message comes up.
Click on settings and try wireless option and the firmware message comes up.
I am using the laptop wirelessly to access the net at the moment.
Ned
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What's the laptop make and model number? And what Ubuntu are you using - Oneiric Ocelot?
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What's the laptop make and model number? And what Ubuntu are you using - Oneiric Ocelot?
Oneiric Ocelot?... you got a bad cough :} :}
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It's a Compaq 6735S
I don't know the ubuntu version.
I had uninstalled it before you posted.
I got it straight off the ubuntu site together with
an app to run with windows.
On startup I was offered the choice of booting with
window sor ubuntu.
Ned
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Oneiric Ocelot was the version
Ned
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It's a Compaq 6735S
I don't know the ubuntu version.
I had uninstalled it before you posted.
I got it straight off the ubuntu site together with
an app to run with windows.
On startup I was offered the choice of booting with
window sor ubuntu.
Ned
Your laptop is a 2009 model. Did you try loading Ubuntu in 2009/2010? The latest on (OO!) is 11.10..
I ask because Linux distributions have occasionally had trouble working with some systems in the past - the manufacturers have refused to provide interface data for items like wireless cards to free operating systems... but this machine uses a Broadcom card which the boards say should work with the latest Linuxes - they released their drivers to open source last year, but apparently the firmware is still under copyright...
The HP-Compaq 6735S has a Wi-Fi button on it which, if pressed, will turn the card off for Linux. Did your Wi-Fi light change to blue during booting in Ubuntu, or did it stay red/amber?
A model boat forum is not the ideal place to do laptop troubleshooting. Demarcation disputes! Luckily there is an active Ubuntu forum here: http://ubuntuforums.org (http://ubuntuforums.org)
Go there and query on 'Compaq 6735S wireless' - you will find a fair bit of explanation, such as this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx#b43%20-%20No%20Internet%20access (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx#b43%20-%20No%20Internet%20access) . I am on the forum there under the same name as here - but you will also find lots more knowledgeable specialists anxious to help you... %% <:( O0