System running slow

Checked the system battery?

Patrick.

It sounds like something's chewing up a large percentage of the CPU time! If you look at the "Processes" list with the Task Manager, can you tell what's keeping the system extremely busy?

Some of the possibilities aren't nice...Internet viruses/worms, for example. Is your virus protection up to date? Is there an unusual amount of network traffic on the machine, as seen by the network activity LED?

Jim

Thanks a lot.  I will try that.  Have a good day!

I always keep my virus protection on and update patches regularly.  I checked my task bar and it was doing it before I got DSL last week, but it seems like Tango Manager is doing something because I can't defrag with it running either.  It is running worse since I got that.  I went to msconfig and unchecked a few things I didn't have to have it seemed to free up some resources.  Someone suggested a I get more memory.  I have 128 now, but he said there are different types and I need to find out which I have, but I have searced every where and I can't see anything telling me if I might need ST or the other, but only listing 128.  Thanks for any help and have a good day!

You need to remove your computer cover and look for a flat lithium battery. (I believe there's only one model nowdays)
A wise idea is the have the new one handy when you do this, since if you take too long this can erase your BIOS settings.

Patrick.

You need to remove your computer cover and look for a flat lithium battery. (I believe there's only one model nowdays)
A wise idea is the have the new one handy when you do this, since if you take too long this can erase your BIOS settings.

Patrick

How do I check the battery?  My system is about 4 years old.  Thanks for helping me.

i'm assuming you have winxp, you can try this:

1. click on start
2. run
3. type msconfig
4. go to the startup tab
5. uncheck everything else except

• ScanRegistry
• TaskMonitor
• SystemTray
• LoadPowerProfile
• Your antivirus program (trust me, you won't have a hard time figuring out which one is your antivirus program. It is pretty obvious.)

Since you need these startup items to be running all the time in order for your computer to work properly, make sure there is always a check mark next to all of these startup items.

If you don't see one or two these items in your list of startup items, that's cool. For example, some people may not have a LoadPowerProfile while others may have two. The big thing to remember is that you don't want to uncheck any of these files if you have them.

The rest of the startup items, however, are completely optional. Whether you leave these optional startup items on or turn them off is completely up to you. A good rule of thumb is to disable only those programs that you recognize and don't need to have running all the time. When in doubt, leave it on. Or, better still, check out Paul "PacMan" Collins' huge "Startup Applications" list at http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm

 

Thanks rache623.  I have Windows 98 and I tried that by looking it up on some previous Dell help answers and that didn't work either.  I appreciate your help though.  It has been running funny for a few months, but I think I have narrowed it down to Tango Manger for DSL.  It seems to run a lot better when I'm not using it.  I think there is another program that I can use instead, so I guess I will try that.  DSL is just not what it is cut out to be.  I have a two line phone and if I put the filter on it, I can't use line 2 at all and now there is so much noise on line 1 that you can't hear.  Thanks and have a good day.

As you discovered, Tango Manager is a tool for establishing what's called a "PPPoE" connection to a DSL provider's system. Here's a short description of Tango Manager.

You could get rid of it altogether by using one of the small routers that supports PPPoE, such as the Linksys BEFSR41. Even if you have only one machine that's connected via DSL, you'll add security to your setup, since the Win98 machine will no longer be connected to the Internet.

HomeNetHelp.com has good tutorials regarding use of small routers in home networks.  Linksys also does.

Regarding the noise problem you're seeing -  DSL Reports has several excellent forums, some of which have ISP employees as regular contributors. SBC's forums have many people who are knowledgable in resolving DSL filter problems.

Jim

Thanks JimW.  I uninstalled Tango Manger and am now using something called Ethernet 300.  It is working a lot better and the noise isn't as bad either.  I don't see how that would have anything to do with it, but it is.  I appreciate your help.  Have a good day!

whether it's xp or 98 the msconfig can be found on both operating systems, only win2000 doesn't have it.  hope you get your pc fixed soon.

Looks like you already got your issue resolved but, for future refference you would probably bennefit from this website I found. Go to there Computers page and click on the link that says, " What's starting up with your system?" This is a great walkthrough! There are also many more tutorials on that website.

http://sourceport.tripod.com

Also if you have alot of unwanted or old programs you never use it is a good idea to go into the Control Panel. And then go into Add/Remove Programs and, only remove the programs that you know you are not using. That should free up alot of extra Hard drive space.

Hope that helps,

Neo Kinkade