Computer guru's....help???
 

Seems my computer issues are only when I'm on OSO. Everything moves VERY slowly....I can type something and then watch the letters print out one at a time. It took nearly 5 minutes to type this much into this post. I've tried some other sites and they seem to work fine.

I cleared my cookies. Didn't help. I've tried OSO on Internet Explorer and on the AOL page and both move slowly. And my IE will not show any pictures. Of anything. All the pics show up as boxes with a red x in them. Even the emoticons above show up as boxes with an x in them. This is an old computer that was given to me by a fellow OSO member. It's been fine for about 2 years and now it's messed up. Can't afford a new one, and can't really afford to bring it in to be fixed at this time. Anyone had this trouble? Anyone offer any suggestions on how to fix it?

Took about 15 minutes to make this post!!! Troutly will catch up with me at this rate!!!

'Foul

sounds like you have a major program running in the back ground, using alot of the processor and slowing everything down

Enticer, I've looked for that. Can't find anything. And like I said, other sites work fine. It just seems to be OSO. :(

You have NO DOUBT already rebooted. What OS are you running?

Sounds like one of three things,

1.) You have a lot of programs running in the background
2.) You are getting close to being out of disk space.
3.) You have acquired a nasty critter in your system.

If 1 or 2 are not correct do a full scan on your system with your anti-virus. If that turns up nothing check out the following

Pest Patrol
PC Pitstop

Once you get over 7993 posts..........all goes belly up........:D

Foul: How much memory is in that computer? The fact that IE doesn't show any pics points either to a setup issue (n/a if other sites display ok), or to a memory issue. Due to the many pictures on OSO, IE needs a lot of memory when OSO is in the browser.

Please:

Tell me how much memory you have (System Properties, "General" Tab.)

Now invoke Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Delete > Task Manager)

Bottom line, "Mem Usage: " How much?

If that number is close to the installed mem number (or even higher) then you are running out of memory, and it will swap to disk, which takes forever.

BTW, it shows you "Mem usage: 1111111 K / 2222222 K"

The first number is actual memory used. The second number is available memory INCLUDING virtual (swapped) memory. You can increase the second number by setting the swap file:

System Properties > Advanced > Performance Options.

Set "Optimize Performance" for Applications.

"Virtual Memory" Change .. to a higher number. Minimum should be the "Recommended" number.

Maximum size should be anything you think is right, a good number is twice the recommended number.

But remember: Swapping Memory is faking memory. It goes out to disk. Slooooow.

While in Task Manager: "Applications" tab.

What is running?

You should see an IE Icon with "Offshore Only Foums - Computer Gurus ..." next to it. If there are lots of other app icons, close those apps. Folder icons are ok.

Lastly, right click on your C: drive (assuming that's the system drive). Properties > Tools > Defragment Now ...

This creates contiguos disk space for all your data, most importantly the swap file.

Let me know how you are making out.

delete your history,temp files and mostly your recycle bin
do a disk cleann and then a refragement could be all mixed up in it has not been done in awhile

deleted everything Mnfast said too. Re-booted. Still having the troubles.

Says I have 84% free space on my 64 meg computer.

Try what Mn said.. do a Defrag and Scandisk...

I had some problems that Micro soft told me I needed a new hard drive.. but.. doing those two things fixed my problem..

Foul: Do what I said, please. Report your numbers, please.

Did you say 64 Megs of memory? Well, there you go. Not enough by a long shot. To watch this page, which doesn't have many pictures at all, Internet Explorer alone uses 27.3 Megs of memory.

Currently, my computer uses 237 Megs in total.

64 Megs was barely enough for Win 3.1 ten years ago.

Download and run Spybot. You can get it here:
http://www.webattack.com/get/spybot.shtml

You might be suprised to find out whats really running on your computer. IN the advanced settings, you can also set your startup programs.
Every time I go to the weather chanells website, they try and download spyware. There are other programs that find it on your computer, but Spybot is free and bocks it before its downloaded.

downloaded the spybot program. Won't run....says a .DLL file is missing. WTF??

peconic, call me please.

616-243-4805. I have to log off for you to do that though.

Ok, talked to Foul. Windows 95 with 64 Megs. Lots of disk activity during slowdown. Definitely a low memory issue. There's probably crap running in the background, but no way of telling from afar. Task Manager apparently wasn't a feature under Win95. Spybot won't install.

Recommended to invite a nerd friend, give him some chips and a Pepsi and have him add a stick of memory.

Mike, AFTER doing a scan disk and defrag, you should be able to find this under start menu:programs:accessories:system tools
right click on 'My Computer' icon on hte desktop, click on properties then 'Performance'. It should tell you 'System Resources' in use. if it is less then 50% you have alot of background running programs.have you dowloaded anything lately from someone or something you do not know?
Hate to think of added programs :(
you can also go to your control pannel and then to add and remove programs. If you see anyhitng in there you dont know aobut, remove it.

Win 95 does have a task manager, well sort of. Pressing CTRL - ALT - DEL at the same time gives a list of programs running (not processes) If it worked OK a week or two ago and no major upgrades to IE or other programs I doubt memory alone will be the issue. I agree 64 MB is not much but win95 does not take advantage of memory as well as the newer OS's Most likely you have a corupt swap file which would affect any memory intense program. Another possibility is the registry has gotten bogged down with lots of junk from programs or as was mentioned the disk is getting very full. Adding memory is still a good idea just to avoid some swapping of memory to disk.

God, I hate to think what could be wrong. If I remember right, Win95 had three kinds of resources, and if they were gone, all the memory in the world wouldn't save your butt.

I stand by my recommendation to buy a nerd friend a bag of chips and a Pepsi. He'll figure it our in 5 minutes.

Anything more from our end would just drive Foul foulmouthed.

As much as I hate to say it, it almost sounds like he just needs to give that puter up. It will cost just as much to bring that thing up to speed as it would to buy a new one. I know $ doesnt grow on trees but a new Dell 2.2 ghz, 128mb is 499. It almost sounds like he has a 586 or a 133 puter. Enough to do the word processor stuff but not enough to keep up with the tech advancements

Foul, this sucks as I just gave a stick of memory to my bro in law that you could have had. Memory is cheap...try Sams if your a member.

Any time my IE starts acting up I check for spy-ware. Run a program called adaware download make sure you update in the program by clicking the the world icon at the top. Trust me if thats not the solution it will solve future problems .

I doubt he is using Sdram or DDR I would assume he still the older simm strips I have a bag of them in the Lab at work 60ns 70ns

I have a p3 500 board with chip 100.00 installed
30 more for 265 ram and 30 more for a 32 meg Nvidia card
50 for 10 gig drive would include XP pro and Office pro
Mcaffee virus scan , full version of Ad-aware6 pro
and Adsgone Pop up pro , no OSO puder would be right
without Photoshop and Dyno 2000 :D

assuming you have ATX case CD and floppy
I would scrap the drive cause is PO mode 1 very slow
you need a UDMA tranfer rate is way faster
I would save files and copy over to the new drive
in a new folder called MY former Puder :D

I am software engineer and I agree with Troutly.

I know very little about computers, and I agree with Troutly!!!

I've been thinkng about the Dell deal I keep seeing on T.V. It took over 5 minutes to type this post. AGGHH!!!

I'm a Network Engineer and here's my two cents...

All of the advice posted are valid points in troubleshooting your issue(s). The question you need to ask yourself is how much effort "you" want to put into fixing/patching your problem. Judging from the description of your setup, your computer is 4 years old at minimum. Without implying you have not tried to keep your system maintained and up to date, I am assuming that patches and service packs for the OS and installed applications are also way behind (this is not always easy even for the most diligent puter user).

Adding memory and doing some maintenance could improve your performance and be acceptable for a little while, but I would bet that in a short order you will be having problems again. Your hardware setup is one problem, and the "outdated" OS is the second. You could probably invest in upgrading the existing system (hardware), but also really need to upgrade the OS after doing so.

You can probably do this cheaper than F1-00's suggestion (just purchase a new one), but it would probably be pretty close to a wash after considering the money and effort involved, not to mention the solutions would not be a more permanent one.

Bottom line is that I agree with F1-00's suggestion in just buying a "new" system. Save whatever data you need from you current system, start clean with the new, and donate the old one somewhere for a tax write off. You'll be set for the next three years (typical lifespan a computer these days)...

Sorry for being so long winded and good luck with whatever you decide...