Check out some similar questions!

mitchsc · Oct 12, 2008, 04:25 PM

For those of you who may remember my questions about buying a new ZT computer with XP pre-loaded, this question is actually related.

I bought the damn ZT and am very disappointed. Yes it has XP pro, but the PC itself seems like it's been built in a garage. The fans are so noisy, they sound like a vacuum cleaner. The front USB ports are on the very bottom of the case, so very difficult to see / reach. To be fair, it does work, but I wouldn't recommend it.

In my disappointment, I got to thinking. My 6 year old Compaq still works just fine, and has XP. I somehow got myself convinced that I needed a new PC since XP was disappearing from new systems.

Besides having a lot of mileage, the only real problem I'm having with my old Compaq is it has gotten VERY slow over the last few years. I'm diligent about doing monthly maintenance such as defrag, disk cleanup, check disk, and of course spy and virus scans.

But it is still running very slow. It is most apparent when I use my fairly new laptop which by comparison, is lightening fast.

So... the only thing I've never done is a reformat and complete reinstall. I've heard that this can make a huge difference, but I really don't want to go through all that if it's going to be minor.

In seaching the web for answers, I have found a wide range of opinions as to it's effectiveness. I do remember my PC running much faster in the past.

The Question: Will reformatting make a significant difference in speed? If so, I'll give it a try, and return the ZT. See if I can squeeze a few more years out of my Compaq. The answer is probably obvious to many of you, but never having done this, I just don't know.

I had a local computer guy tell me that he reformats every 6 months!

Thanks for any feedback on this.

Credendovidis · Oct 12, 2008, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by mitchsc

Will reformatting make a significant difference in speed?

Yes it will. It will be so fast that you hardly recognize your own computer again !
I do it approx. every 2 years, and - if properly done - it takes less than 2 hours.
The problem is caused by the Windows OS saving everything ever done with your computer - even when the original actions or data were removed already a long time ago - and frequently checks that info. It is a common problem with all Microsoft software, and reason for the British Government to remove all MS Word applications from all it's computers, as the (often unknown) saved information remains available for inspection by third parties.

Just make a proper back-up of all data, email info, preferences, bookmarks, etc. etc. etc.
Save that either on another harddisk or on another partition.

If you still have a Win98 start-up disk, run a format c:/u and afterwards an additional format C:/s.
If not use Windows XP for a format C: After that run the Windows XP CD and follow instructions.

Note : If you have partitions with software, try to find the original software you may have used when the system was installed originally. Including the various drivers.

Success, and expect to be very surprised about the excellent results!!

:)

.

seahwk83 · Oct 12, 2008, 05:42 PM

You can have 2 approaches on this, format with info posted above or try and get what you have there run a little faster

Here is some suggestions that will make a defference, but you would have to decide that after trying to see if this would be enough of a help for you

I have a post here that will help speed up system, it is the 5th post down
https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/comput...rs-233870.html

cogs · Oct 12, 2008, 05:58 PM

If you're able to properly copy your data, and are able to reinstall it to the new xp, I would reinstall. I noticed a difference in speed on my hp. When you backup your data, you can choose different methods for the data types. After losing photos, I keep them online now. Also, since you spent the money on a new comp, you could use that money to upgrade the compaq, with a new hard drive for xp, then copy your files by slaving your compaq's old drive to the new installation. A new hard drive can also have a faster rpm.

mitchsc · Oct 12, 2008, 06:39 PM

Wow!

Seahwk, that's a great list of suggestions. I already do some, but others are new to me. I just did my 1st registry clean today with RegSeeker.

Cred & Cogs, your enthusiasm about reformatting almost makes me want to do it this minute!

I have all my files backed up, along with my address book and favorites. Cred, you mentioned backing up email info and preferences. How is this done? Configuring all the little details is what has prevented me from doing this sooner.

By the way, I do have a brand new 320GB drive that I cloned as a catastrophic back up. I'm not sure of the RPMs, but it is 6 years newer that the 80GB I'm running now, so maybe it's faster. I shall swap them as well.

Thank you all for the very helpful feedback.

By the way, I read a post about cleaning out the prefetch folder. Never heard of it. Did find it and deleted contents. Didn't seem to make any difference. Any thoughts on this?

(The ZT PC is going back... although I may keep the 22" flat panel monitor I bought to go with it. It's very cool. It's an Acer, but the display is made by Samsung which I hear is very good.)

seahwk83 · Oct 12, 2008, 06:51 PM

Prefect is not going to make difference - as it sound though you are ready to format and go from there

Do you have recovery discs or and xp install disc

mitchsc · Oct 12, 2008, 07:04 PM

Good to know about Prefetch. Thank you.

Yes I have a recovery partition on my HD (D), and the recovery disk, so the recovery should reload all my drivers as well as XP.

Unfortunately, it will also load all the crapware.

Seahwk, do you have any suggestions about back up before format, other than my files?

I use Outlook Express. Is there a way to backup /recover my emails?

Cred said it only takes him 2 hours. It takes me that long just to set up Outlook E... :-)

cogs · Oct 12, 2008, 07:18 PM

mitchsc, when you're finished, please post back about the speed improvement, the obstacles, what you learned, etc.

mitchsc · Oct 12, 2008, 07:24 PM

Cogs, will do.

I just checked my HD rpms. My old (current) drive is 5400, and the new one is 7200. It never occurred to me that this could speed things up as well, but now it seems obvious. Thanks for the suggestion.

JBeaucaire · Oct 13, 2008, 12:10 AM

While doing this old system update:

Find out the MAX memory your computer will allow and install it.
OEMPCWorld - Discount computer ram memory upgrades
If your system has two hard drives in it, move the swap file to the second drive. This allows the computer to access the systems files on the first drive and swap space on the second drive simultaneously.
If you've maximized your memory, stop Windows from "ad hoc" resizing your swap space. Make a swap space BRICK of hard drive space equal to 2.5 times the size of your memory. So, if 2gigs of memory is installed, make a 5gig brick...on drive two if possible. Do this before you put ANYTHING else on the second drive so the brick is at the beginning of the drive.
Put MY DOCUMENTS on the second drive. This makes it MUCH easier to install/reinstall the OS later without affecting your documents on the second drive.
As you install your programs again, viciously patrol your startup and make sure any "helper" programs are disabled. For instance Quicktime, Adobe Acrobat Reader, RealPlayer, iTunes...all of these programs add "helper" programs in at startup that are completely unnecessary. Disable them. Update your programs when you use them.

Just some helpful planning tips.

mitchsc · Oct 13, 2008, 06:37 AM

Thanks JB.

Regarding point #5. I assume you are referring to the Processes tab in Task Manager? If there is another location for Startup programs, I am not familiar with it.

This has always been a challenge for me as these "helper" programs seem to be named in code.

How can you tell which ones are safe to delete?

JBeaucaire · Oct 13, 2008, 11:22 AM

You can manually check the startup programs in START > RUN > msconfig > Startup

However, this capability is nicely built into CCleaner, a free program you should be using anyway. In CCleaner, start the program, click on TOOLS, then click on Startup and examine all the bold entries listed. Leave Antivirus entries or firewall entries alone, possibly entries for printers and such. The rest... be stern. Disable the ones you KNOW are unnecessary. Google search the others or ask here.

mitchsc · Oct 13, 2008, 03:28 PM

Thank you JB. I will try out CCleaner.

I went through Startup manually after your last post, and looked up each one on Google. Was able to disable 4.

There is one that I don't think I need, that I can't turn off. It's called CTFMON.exe. Has to do with Asian language in MS Office programs.

I followed the procedure in the link below, but it is still enabled after reboot. Any suggestions how to turn this one off?

What is ctfmon.exe And Why Is It Running? :: the How-To Geek

cogs · Oct 14, 2008, 03:38 PM

I would go through all those steps again.

seahwk83 · Oct 14, 2008, 04:28 PM

ctfmon - I personally do this whenever have to start from scratch (hopefully never will again) Read through and just do 1 step at a time

Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows XP:

1. Quit all Office programs.

2. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. NOTE: In Windows XP, click Start and then click Control Panel.

3. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
NOTE: In Windows XP, click Add or Remove Programs.

4. In the Currently installed programs list, click to select Microsoft Office XP product, where Office XP product is the name of the specific Office product being used. If you are using a standalone version of one of the Office programs, click to select the appropriate product in the list.
Click Change.

5. In the Maintenance Mode Options dialog box, select Add or Remove Features, and then click Next. This displays the Choose installation options for all Office applications and tools dialog box.

6. Click the plus sign (+) next to Office Shared Features to expand it.

7. Click the icon next to Alternative User Input, and then select Not Available.

8. Click Update.
NOTE: If you have multiple Office XP products installed, for example, Office XP Professional and Publisher 2002, you must repeat the preceding steps for each installed product.

Step 2: Remove Alternative User Input Services from Text Services

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2. In the Control Panel, double-click Text Services.
NOTE: In Windows XP, click Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options, and then click Regional and Language Options. On the Languages tab, click Details.

3. Under Installed Services, select each input item that is listed, and then click Remove to remove the item. All items must be removed, one by one, except the following input service:

English (United States)- default Keyboard United States 101

Step 3: Run Regsvr32 /U on the Msimtf.dll and Msctf.dll Files

1. Click Start and then click Run.

2. In the Run dialog box, type the following command:
Regsvr32.exe /u msimtf.dll

3. Click OK.

4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 for the Msctf.dll file.

mitchsc · Oct 14, 2008, 04:29 PM

Have done it several times. Cannot seem to turn off CTFMON.exe.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm on a quest to get rid of as much junk on my PC as possible.

As I am closing this post, I shall now hit the format button on my hard drive, and hope I can bring it back to life. Wish me luck!

mitchsc · Oct 14, 2008, 04:35 PM

Wow Seahwk. That's quite a procedure!

Thank you. When I get my PC running again (after the HD format), maybe I'll give it a try... I shall save your instructions.

Msc

seahwk83 · Oct 14, 2008, 04:38 PM

After a lot of vested time looking these things up in the past, these have always been helpful and always done on my pc's whenever starting from a clean install

mitchsc · Oct 14, 2008, 04:44 PM

I want you to know how much I've learned from you and others who are willing to take the time to share their knowledge. I am now able to do IMPORTANT things I didn't even know existed a few months ago.

I greatly appreciate everyone's help, and this site...

Say, one last thing. The spell check on this site is no longer working for me. Is anyone else having this problem. It has always worked in the past, up until a couple of weeks ago.

JBeaucaire · Oct 14, 2008, 04:57 PM

The site was recently upgraded. The spell checker has not come back online. They're working on it.