My computer,(HP) has gotten really slow,
I chose to run the maintenance wizard,
I started yesterday 3/28 09:30,it went through scan disk ok,but it has been sitting on defrag till today 3/29 08:30 and has not been passed 01%,it goes to 1% and then 0.
I have no programs open that I can tell, unless the things on the task bar are holding it up.
It's been some time since defrag, could this be the reason for it taking so long.
Thanks,
Kenny
Maintenance Wizard ?
Moderator: Wiz Feinberg
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Kenny Forbess
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- Location: peckerwood point, w. tn.
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John Gretzinger
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- Location: Canoga Park, CA
Kenny -
Something is just wrong with the program. It should either fail, giving you an error message or keep on truckin'. I doubt you have a hard disk big enough that it would actually take that long to run up to 10%.
If restarting it does not make it run completely - do the scandisk again, turning on the advanced or indepth complete surface scan and see what happens.
jdg
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MSA D-10
'63 Gibson Hummingbird
16/15c Hammered Dulcimer
Something is just wrong with the program. It should either fail, giving you an error message or keep on truckin'. I doubt you have a hard disk big enough that it would actually take that long to run up to 10%.
If restarting it does not make it run completely - do the scandisk again, turning on the advanced or indepth complete surface scan and see what happens.
jdg
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MSA D-10
'63 Gibson Hummingbird
16/15c Hammered Dulcimer
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Jack Stoner
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- Location: Kansas City, MO
I start windows in "safe mode" when I do a disk defrag. It's much easier to do that then to try and figure out what you can close and what you can't. In safe mode only the essential items are loaded at startup.
To get into safe mode, when you first boot the PC, hit F8 (maybe a couple of times) and a DOS menu with come up. Select "safe mode" from the menu and it will startup in the safe mode. After you're done with the defrag, restart windows normally.
I just defraged my HD yesterday and that's what I did. I have a 10GB hard drive (with about 80% full) and it took about 2 hours.
To get into safe mode, when you first boot the PC, hit F8 (maybe a couple of times) and a DOS menu with come up. Select "safe mode" from the menu and it will startup in the safe mode. After you're done with the defrag, restart windows normally.
I just defraged my HD yesterday and that's what I did. I have a 10GB hard drive (with about 80% full) and it took about 2 hours.
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David Pennybaker
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SOMETHING is running, causing the defrag program to keep starting over and over again.
Usually, the culprit turns out to be a screen-saver. Make sure you have any screen-savers turn off.
You can also it Ctrl-Alt-Del (once only) to bring up Task Manager. It should be safe to remove everything except Explorer and Systray before you run a defrag.
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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons
Usually, the culprit turns out to be a screen-saver. Make sure you have any screen-savers turn off.
You can also it Ctrl-Alt-Del (once only) to bring up Task Manager. It should be safe to remove everything except Explorer and Systray before you run a defrag.
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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons
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John Paul Jones
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- Location: San Diego
Kenny,
The reason your computer doesn’t defrag is because there are programs that
are loaded on startup that continually exchange information with Windows even
though the program may not actually be running. Each time there is an exchange
of information the defrag program starts over from scratch.
You can be assured that this happens even when your computer is supposed to
perform maintenance automatically on a pre-programed basis. In other words, it
is most likely that your computer has never been defragged. That will contribute
most to your computer being slow.
To get your defrag program to work properly you must disable the startup
programs. I’ll give you a step-by-step guide that will also allow you to do this
easily in the future.
Step #1
Click on: Start / find / files & folders.
Type in ‘msconfig’.
Click on ‘Find Now’.
Maximize window.
Right click on the ‘msconfig’ application file (in C:\Windows\System).
From menu click on ‘Send To’.
Click on ‘Desktop (create shortcut)’.
Sign will say ‘The new shortcut will be placed on the desktop’ Click ‘OK’.
Close screen. ‘msconfig’ will show on your screen.
Step #2
Click on: Start / Programs / Accessories / System Tools
Right click on ‘Maintenance Wizard’.
From menu click on ‘Send To’.
Click on ‘Desktop (create shortcut)’.
Sign will say ‘The new shortcut will be placed on the desktop’ Click ‘OK’.
Close screen. ‘Maintenance Wizard’ will show on your screen.
Step #3
Right click anywhere on Windows screen.
Click on ‘New’.
Click on ‘Folder’.
Name new folder ‘Computer Maintenance’.
Put mouse pointer over ‘msconfig’ icon. Click and hold down left mouse button.
Move ‘msconfig’ directly over the top of folder named ‘Computer Maintenance’.
Do the same with ‘Maintenance Wizard’. Both the files are now moved to the
‘Computer Maintenance’ folder.
The above steps only have to be done once.
The following steps should be done weekly.
Step #A
Double click on ‘Computer Maintenance’ folder.
Double click on ‘msconfig’.
Maximize window.
NOTE - A check on the left indicates that the program is loaded on startup.
Un-check all programs by clicking on the check mark.
Click on ‘OK”.
Your computer will prompt you to re-start. Do so.
Step #B
Double click on ‘Computer Maintenance’ folder.
Double click on ‘Maintenance Wizard’.
Click on ‘Perform Maintenance Now’.
Click on ‘OK’.
Since your computer has probably not been defragged since you acquired it this
will a little time. Subsequent maintenance -- I reccommend once a week -- will
not take as long.
Step #C (When computer is finished with maintenance)
Double click on ‘Computer Maintenance’ folder.
Double click on ‘msconfig’.
Click on ‘Startup’ tab.
Click on the squares to put the checks back in so that the programs will load on
startup again.
Click on ‘OK’.
Your computer will prompt you to re-start. Do so.
Note - Once a week run this procedure from Step #A through Step #C.
Good luck.
John Paul Jones
The reason your computer doesn’t defrag is because there are programs that
are loaded on startup that continually exchange information with Windows even
though the program may not actually be running. Each time there is an exchange
of information the defrag program starts over from scratch.
You can be assured that this happens even when your computer is supposed to
perform maintenance automatically on a pre-programed basis. In other words, it
is most likely that your computer has never been defragged. That will contribute
most to your computer being slow.
To get your defrag program to work properly you must disable the startup
programs. I’ll give you a step-by-step guide that will also allow you to do this
easily in the future.
Step #1
Click on: Start / find / files & folders.
Type in ‘msconfig’.
Click on ‘Find Now’.
Maximize window.
Right click on the ‘msconfig’ application file (in C:\Windows\System).
From menu click on ‘Send To’.
Click on ‘Desktop (create shortcut)’.
Sign will say ‘The new shortcut will be placed on the desktop’ Click ‘OK’.
Close screen. ‘msconfig’ will show on your screen.
Step #2
Click on: Start / Programs / Accessories / System Tools
Right click on ‘Maintenance Wizard’.
From menu click on ‘Send To’.
Click on ‘Desktop (create shortcut)’.
Sign will say ‘The new shortcut will be placed on the desktop’ Click ‘OK’.
Close screen. ‘Maintenance Wizard’ will show on your screen.
Step #3
Right click anywhere on Windows screen.
Click on ‘New’.
Click on ‘Folder’.
Name new folder ‘Computer Maintenance’.
Put mouse pointer over ‘msconfig’ icon. Click and hold down left mouse button.
Move ‘msconfig’ directly over the top of folder named ‘Computer Maintenance’.
Do the same with ‘Maintenance Wizard’. Both the files are now moved to the
‘Computer Maintenance’ folder.
The above steps only have to be done once.
The following steps should be done weekly.
Step #A
Double click on ‘Computer Maintenance’ folder.
Double click on ‘msconfig’.
Maximize window.
NOTE - A check on the left indicates that the program is loaded on startup.
Un-check all programs by clicking on the check mark.
Click on ‘OK”.
Your computer will prompt you to re-start. Do so.
Step #B
Double click on ‘Computer Maintenance’ folder.
Double click on ‘Maintenance Wizard’.
Click on ‘Perform Maintenance Now’.
Click on ‘OK’.
Since your computer has probably not been defragged since you acquired it this
will a little time. Subsequent maintenance -- I reccommend once a week -- will
not take as long.
Step #C (When computer is finished with maintenance)
Double click on ‘Computer Maintenance’ folder.
Double click on ‘msconfig’.
Click on ‘Startup’ tab.
Click on the squares to put the checks back in so that the programs will load on
startup again.
Click on ‘OK’.
Your computer will prompt you to re-start. Do so.
Note - Once a week run this procedure from Step #A through Step #C.
Good luck.
John Paul Jones
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Kenny Forbess
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Jack Stoner
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I'm confused. If you uncheck ALL programs in the startup file, the PC will not run.
But then, why go through all that when starting it in safe mode, whenever you want to defrag, is a lot easier. That way you don't have to get into any system setup and don't stand a (good) chance of screwing something up. After defrag finishes it restarts the PC anyway.
At my help desk, my techs would avoid reconfigurations with users unless it was absolutely necessary.
But then, why go through all that when starting it in safe mode, whenever you want to defrag, is a lot easier. That way you don't have to get into any system setup and don't stand a (good) chance of screwing something up. After defrag finishes it restarts the PC anyway.
At my help desk, my techs would avoid reconfigurations with users unless it was absolutely necessary.
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FIONA TOMANY
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Kenny Forbess
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- Location: peckerwood point, w. tn.
Well guys, you were right,
my son had a real jukebox and real player sitting on the task bar and I had no idea they were sitting there chattering and restarting the defrag.
finally i got a msg saying " there is a program open,talking to the system-- defrag has restarted 10 times", maybe not those exact words but it got the msg. across and I started looking .
I closed them out, restarted and the maintenance Wizard took 1hr and 55min. to complete the whole program.
Thanks a bunch fellows for the advice, I have a folder I keep all of it in for future references.
Kenny
my son had a real jukebox and real player sitting on the task bar and I had no idea they were sitting there chattering and restarting the defrag.
finally i got a msg saying " there is a program open,talking to the system-- defrag has restarted 10 times", maybe not those exact words but it got the msg. across and I started looking .
I closed them out, restarted and the maintenance Wizard took 1hr and 55min. to complete the whole program.
Thanks a bunch fellows for the advice, I have a folder I keep all of it in for future references.
Kenny
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Richard Bass
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Jack Stoner
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- Location: Kansas City, MO
Kenny, RealPlayer, as with many other programs that want to install a startup command and put an icon in the task bar, do not have to be there. They do that so the program will start faster, but the "faster" is not really that much faster. Everything you have like the realplayer in the task bar takes away from system resources and can eventually slow the computer down or limit the number of windows you can have open at any one time, even in a fast computer with lots of memory and hard disk space.
I keep my task bar programs to a minimum and then manually open anything else that I want to use, such as AOL instant manager, etc.
I keep my task bar programs to a minimum and then manually open anything else that I want to use, such as AOL instant manager, etc.
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Al Marcus
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Jack- How do you clean up a task bar with all those icons on it? What ones are needed there at all times? There is musicbox, Mcaffee,jukebox,all kinds of stuff I hardly use usually. Can't I just clik on programs on the start icon when I want one? These softwar engineers can still make the programs more automatic and have the computer take care of a lot of the thinking involved They still have not gotten there from what I am seeing. I appreciate all your advice and help on these posts on Computers.....al
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Jack Stoner
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- Location: Kansas City, MO
Al, there is no "rule" on what needs to be in the task bar. There are certain programs that must be there and others that don't have to be there and that varies with the brand of PC or the version of Windows. Many S/W programs want to put an icon in the tray and load at startup so the program starts faster when it's needed. That's nice but having all those unnecessary programs there takes away from system resources and as you say, you can start them whenever needed or in the case of some such as RealPlayer it will automatically start if you click on a realaudio file anyway.
You mention RealPlayer. That's one that does not have to be there. RealPlayer has an option to enable or disable the realtray loading. Some of the other programs you have may also have a setup option to disable the loading at startup. AOL, AOL Instant Manager, ICQ, Winamp, etc are all programs that do not need to load at startup. Programs such as your virus program should always be running and they will put an icon in the task bar. Almost all have the volume control (speaker icon) and there may be others. Adaptec disk detect (Direct CD) is in my task bar to detect when I load a writeable CD into my burner (this one probably could be eliminated too but I left it in the startup as it has minimal effect on system resources).
There are also many other programs that load at startup that do not put an icon on the task bar. If you run MSCONFIG you can display all the programs that load at startup. You can select not to load something from the MSCONFIG but you have to be careful that you do not disable something that has to be running.
You mention RealPlayer. That's one that does not have to be there. RealPlayer has an option to enable or disable the realtray loading. Some of the other programs you have may also have a setup option to disable the loading at startup. AOL, AOL Instant Manager, ICQ, Winamp, etc are all programs that do not need to load at startup. Programs such as your virus program should always be running and they will put an icon in the task bar. Almost all have the volume control (speaker icon) and there may be others. Adaptec disk detect (Direct CD) is in my task bar to detect when I load a writeable CD into my burner (this one probably could be eliminated too but I left it in the startup as it has minimal effect on system resources).
There are also many other programs that load at startup that do not put an icon on the task bar. If you run MSCONFIG you can display all the programs that load at startup. You can select not to load something from the MSCONFIG but you have to be careful that you do not disable something that has to be running.