Kevin Dubrow

Hi, I am having many problems with a friend’s computer. He gave it to me to speed up which I have a little bit, but it would be great if I could get some help from you guys. These are all of my problems; any help would be greatly appreciated.

When I make changes to the scheme (wall paper, screensaver, and icons on the desktop) they don't remain that way after a restart or shut down. What do I do to make the changes stay?

The error message "Error Loading C:\WINDOWS\cfgmgr52.dll The specified module could not be found". How do I get rid of this?

After much work on the computer (virus scans, chk disks, defrags, disc clean up, ad ware clean up), it still runs slower than I think it could run. Do you have any suggestions to make it run faster?

Start up is incredibly slow even after canceling much start up programs with "msconfig". What can I do about that?

When the computer starts up the Start menu is opened as if it were clicked. How can I get this to stop?

All these problems are normally easily fixed by me; I am very good with computers, but this one doesn’t even budge with my work. So any help would be great. Thank you for your time and sorry about the long post!

kiteandcamera

Sound to me like it is time to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the OS and apps. I am no computer genius, but I have found that I wasted qute a bit of time trying to tweak a machine in the condition you describe. Hopefully the computer is new enough and shipped with a restore disk. That always makes the process much faster.

Kevin Dubrow

Yea, there’s a problem. We no disc for the laptop; I hope something comes up because the thing runs well besides the problems above...which doesn't say much , but its either this gets fixed or he buys a new one, which he doesn't want to do.

Gizmo

What are the specs of the laptop such as, proccessor, memory, etc.

I mean, was this thing ever fast?

The reason I ask is because if it's a decent laptop don't you think it would be cheaper to buy a new copy of Windows?

Sorry I can't offer help to fix it but I agree with the other post. You'll save time in the long run with a format and new install.

Good luck.

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Kevin Dubrow

Its specs are:

Pentium 3
256mb of RAM
25 GB hard drive


Sorry the info is pretty vague; I've almost given up on the thing and it takes 5mins to load up. Yea it would be cheaper, but the thing is literally held together with tape.... I believe it once was fast because after the incredibly long start up, everything will run pretty well. Ill tell him about your suggestions when I get back from Mardi gras vacation on Thursday. Thanks a lot for your help, everyone!

Gizmo

Just for the heck of it, here is a link to a program that allows you to control the programs that start whenever you start Windows:

Startup Cop

Or, try this:



Maybe you could see if this helps your friends computer before he decides what to do.

Edit - I'm sure you've already run anti-virus and spyware detection software, right?

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Kevin Dubrow

Ok, ill try that. I have run an anti virus and spyware software, but they are not up to date, thats next on my mental list . And a question, I have run msconfig and unselected many programs, but not all. If i were to umselect all and find that some were needed, how would I re-select them in the event that the computer does not start back up?

Gizmo

That would be bad!

Here is a link to a guide of Windows XP services:

http://www.ss64.com/ntsyntax/services.html

It will tell you which are needed and which may be safe to disable. Print it out for reference.

Good luck!

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My Evolution:
Pilot
Palm Pilot
Palm V
Clie N760C
Treo 650
Centro

Gizmo

Just to clarify: When you run msconfig there is a "services" tab and a "startup" tab. I'm pretty sure you can safely uncheck all the startup items and Windows will still boot. You may lose funtionality of some programs and you might even get an error message when Windows starts, but I'm pretty sure it will boot. It's the sevices that will cause major problems if you disable the wrong one. That's why I provided the link above.

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My Evolution:
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Palm Pilot
Palm V
Clie N760C
Treo 650
Centro

shieldvideo

have you removed some start menu items like the office quickstart thingy? I find most "quickstart" thingys to be resource hogs. EG: not needed.

Also, google the 'missing' file and see what program uses it.

Plus, get and run REGCLEAN. It will remove unused registry entries. this should help speed up the boot sequence.

Lastly, goto http://www.pcpitstop.com and run the tests, it will diagnose many problems, tell you about fixes... it even has some autofixes. I run it periodically on all my PCs. It has helped me fix problems like this. Actually, this should be the first thing you try!!!

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Kevin Dubrow

Thanks a lot for your help...but I think I think there’s an easier way now. He found a Windows Pro CD and he told me I could completely wipe the HDD with the exception of everything in "My Documents" folder. The problem is that I don’t have a Jump Drive big enough to save the files, and it only has a DVD drive. What’s the best way to save these files so I can just start from scratch again? Thanks for all of your help!

shieldvideo

1. you could use a utility like partition magic to make a secondary partition large enough to hold the files.
2. you could upload them to another PC using the internet connection and sharing or using a parallel cable and windows commander. [a free app]
3. connect a USB drive or burner and save them off there.
4. buy a large enough jump drive.
5. get a laptop drive adapter to IDE. about $5. and install the laptop drive as slave in a PC, then just move the files, put the drive back, install the new OS, reinstall the drive to the PC and move the files back...

Either way, you should keep a backup of important docs. Look into a CDRW/DVD drive for that PC or get a bigger jump drive. It's worth it.

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PDAs:Casiopia>PalmIIIXE>N710C>N760C>NX60+Treo600
FAV APPS: Zlauncher, UTS, VFSI, Solfree, TCPMP, PalmFiction, datebk5, 3xcom.
my video site
Katherine McPhee: still my FAV!!