programs freezing and error reports

[creative]

ive been experiencing some problems with running programs on my computer lately, i know that they are installed properly and i have msn and avg that open up automatically when i start my computer up so its not that they are taking long to open because there are too many things running. sometimes a program will freeze and just not open at all but stick on that it is not responding, what could the possible reasons for this be?

[Slyce]

It could be almost anything. Windows machines tend to get that way after a while...

• Uninstall problematic or newly added apps
• Use msconfig to set which apps start up with your computer (Be very careful here as you can cause harm)
• Try a free registry cleaner
• backup, format and reinstall windows
• Google: Windows machine cleanup process

You could uninstall some programmes

[creative]

shot slyce that seems to be quite a few things that i need to look at, are you sure the windows machine clean up process and the free registry cleaner will be ok, i know that ther are a lot of virus going around especially with msn and facebook. so im a bit reluctant to download something off the net without a clear knowledge that its safe to use. any suggestions on specific programs?

[creative]

or anyone? would be a great help!

[Dave A]

so im a bit reluctant to download something off the net without a clear knowledge that its safe to use.

I think you are far from alone. My best tip is to Google whatever product you are thinking of using before you install. Generally if there is a problem, it tends to show up somewhere. And if there is not a lot of discussion on the product on geek forums etc., it might be a good idea to avoid it until there is some sort of identifiable reputation.

[creative]

great thanks i will do that, suppose you should never do anything in life before you have full knowledge on it first, will google problems and maybe that wilkl help

[Dave A]

When it comes to Wikipedia, I tend to bear in mind that the content can be edited by anyone. I prefer reading what is up in the forums. You tend to hear real life experience...

[creative]

so i have done some research and my best bets are that its taking so long for things to open up because i have too little RAM or i need to defrag. i dont understand how my RAM could have decreased though, so do you think i should just defrag my hard drive?

[GlitchFreak]

Hey Creative

Your RAM doesn't physically decrease, it just gets used up more and more with every program you open. When this happens, your machine uses your hard drive as "virtual memory" which slows things down. You'll notice that if your harddrive light will stay on when the pc freezes, it's usually due to a lack of memory.

So as a first suggestion, maybe get more RAM for the machine. Secondly, try not to run too many applications at the same time.

As for a defrag, it should help slightly, but won't give you the boost that you want. But it's good to run in any case.

As for software, a good antivirus is key. You are running AVG which is good.

Try CCleaner http://www.ccleaner.com as a housekeeping tool. It'll remove temp files, wrong registry entries etc. which might make a difference.

Hope this info helps.

Disclaimer: Info above offered as advice, and no responsibility is accepted by author in the event of a system problem

[wynn]

I recently had a window pop up saying I need to install windows firewall, I did and a lot of my freezing problems started then.
I also uninstalled and reinstalled AVG before switching windows firewall off and everything is running so much faster now without freezing.

When do I need a firewall? How does it help me? Shouldn't one be part of my original windows installation?

Is AVG not enough for the everyday infections?

[Dave A]

I reckon the firewall is more important than the anti-virus when it comes to connecting to the internet.

Windows comes with a perfectly acceptable firewall - it's just the AVG one is a bit better on the intuition front as to what to allow and what to block.

Did you just upgrade to AVG 8?

[Jaco]

Creative, if things became worse all of a sudden, I'd recommend the following:

• If you haven't done so yet, check for viruses and spyware.

• Uninstall any application you have installed lately and see what happens.

• Check your disk space - you may have run out of space for your page file.

• Assuming you're running Windows XP, Pres Ctrl-Alt-Delete and select the Task Manager, select Performance and check you Physical Memory Available - if below 100000 something may be using too much memory.
  If that's the case, click Processes tab and click the Mem Usage column twice to sort the processes from most hungry to lowest. Look for something using up a lot of Memory. To give you a guideline, IE or OUTLOOK should use between 10,000 and 70,000K of memory, depending on your configuration. If you see any suspicious process, just google it.

Also check the CPU on the Performance and Processe tab in task Manager the same way as you did for the Memory.

Hope this helps, otherwise buy a new PC

Good luck,
Jaco

[wynn]

I upgraded to AVG8 when it first came out then recently I uninstalled and then reinstalled it after I had installed the windows firewall.
Since then I have switched windows firewall off and everything boots up and uploads so fast compared to before.
Perhaps AVG8 and the windows firewall are incompatible and used too much RAM causing the problem?
I will check out the rest as I go along, then try switching the firewall on again and see if the trouble persists.

[wynn]

Jaco,
I checked the task manager and found the following
physical memory
total 506604
available 147847
system cache 140600

When I double clicked mem usage the highest users are
Apache.exe......system........00.........9476K
then it is repeated
Apache.exe.......system........00.........11296K
the really big users are
Easyshare.exe...Wynn..........00.........17784K
and the worst
avg.exe...........system.........00.........40248K

is there anything I should worry about

I am going to switch the firewall on again after I scan the C drive

[wynn]

There is definitely something wrong with the firewall! I switched it on again restarted the computer and it froze within three minutes.
Restarted it switched the firewall off and everything is back to normal I hope.