UNSOLVED
4550 acting up
Hello,
My Dell 4550 has been acting up lately. Sometimes when it is turned on I get an error
message. Don't remember the message right now because it has been awhile since
that happened. Once I turn it back off and then back on, it boots with no problem.
Now some of my programs are freezing up when they didn't use to. One of them is
Paintshop pro which freezes doing certain things. I was told on a message board that
it might concern the ram. Just now I was trying to do an "ipconfig" on the "run" line
and it just popped up for about two seconds and then disappeared. Is there a way to
check and see if something is wrong with my ram. Sorry I am not techinically oriented.
Bill
55
0
Posted October 6th, 2006 01:00
I know how to do "ctl" "alt" "del" and bring up task manager.Right now Norton is running and I have 342mb paging file.Under the processess side, I am not sure what I should turn offbecause I am not sure what each one is.Bill55
0
Posted October 6th, 2006 01:00
I have scanned the computer using adaware.I am scanning with Norton right now, so I will have to wait until it stops before Itry the f12.What is the best way to see if too many things are running in the background?And I have done a "chkdsk".Thanks for the reply.Bill55
0
Posted October 6th, 2006 03:00
Norton did not find anything.I did the F12 thing and everything passed except I got two error messages.However, I believe that was when they were checking the cd-rom.The error code was ofoo.133D msg. ide device failed: incompatible CD for testing.I have been told you can clear the page file on shutdown but don'tknow if this is a good idea.BillMessage Edited by wayneout on 10-05-2006 11:44 PM
55
0
Posted October 6th, 2006 19:00
If there was no CD in the optical drive(s) you'd get that error message from the diagnostics. If optical drives are working OK, I wouldn't worry about those messages.
When you look in Task Manager, is some process, other than System Idle process, using a lot of CPU time?
To see what's running in the background:
Click start>run
Type in: msconfig
Click OK
Click Startup tab
That tab will show you everything that loads when you boot the system. You can uncheck everything EXCEPT things related to antiviral software, firewall, mouse, video card, monitor. If you don't know what something is, google the name and decide whether you want it to start every time you boot. Things like acrobat, quicktime, realplayer, jsched, sgtray. myDVD, MusicMatch can certainly be unchecked. Exit msconfig and reboot. Put check in "don't show this again" box that will appear on reboot.
You can also run a windows system file check:
Click start>run
Type in: sfc /scannow
(space between sfc and /)
Click ok
Insert XP CD if sfc requests it; reboot when it's done.
Next time you get that error message, copy it completely and post that so somebody can help you find/fix the problem.
RonMessage Edited by RoHe on 10-06-2006 01:06 PM
RoHe
12 Elder
•
45230 Posts
•
172625 Points
55
0
Posted October 5th, 2006 23:00
Have you scanned for malware lately? Have you run chdksk to fix file errors on the hard drive lately? Are there too many things trying to run in the background?
Ron