lazy computer!!! idles but doesn't respond when accessing local computer files or right clicking icons.
Thank you in advance for looking at this and your support.
I have a Dell GX620 Dual Core 3Ghz computer, manufacturer built computer. (A05 bios)
I have Office 2003 and XP pro on this machine.
The problems:
*When I click icons, that reference anything on the hard drive, the computer is slow to respond.
*When I right click the icon that references anything on the hard drive, it takes a few minutes to bring up the "right-click" pop-up menu.
*When I open up internet explorer or right click internet explorer, things work fine.
*When booting, I have gone through the POST to a black screen with a single blinking cursor. When this happens, I have to take out the bios battery. Otherwise, when I reboot, I continue to get the same black screen with blinking cursor. When I take out the bios battery, and put it back in, I get four options. 1) 0: boot from CDrom 2) 1: boot from hard drive 3) F1: continue 4) F2: enter bios setup
*Also, when I boot, I sometimes select F2 to enter bios, it says "entering setup", but It goes to the black screen with the blinking cursor.
The 3 1/2" floppy LED is on all the time.
Troubleshooting thus far:
* I looked for spyware-none found.
* I looked for viruses with McAfee 8.5 and the latest DAT-nothing found.
* I have to reset the bios battery to get the option to boot to the hard drive, or the option to enter the bios setup.
* I looked at task manager- 99% system Idle CPU usage, no network activity, RAM usage looks good.
* I looked at event viewer- no noticable issues.
* I disconnected the 3 1/2" floppy drive.
* I ran a system defrag- no difference
* I ran a scandisk- no problems
Observations:
I have plenty of system RAM, the CPU isn't taxed and yet my computer is very slow to respond when looking at the properties or opening up a file on the hard drive. It appears like something is conflicting with the hard drive's DMA channel, RAM address, indexing of files, IRQ, (or something of that nature).
Any advise leading to the resolve of this lazy computer would help.
I have a Dell GX620 Dual Core 3Ghz computer, manufacturer built computer. (A05 bios)
I have Office 2003 and XP pro on this machine.
The problems:
*When I click icons, that reference anything on the hard drive, the computer is slow to respond.
*When I right click the icon that references anything on the hard drive, it takes a few minutes to bring up the "right-click" pop-up menu.
*When I open up internet explorer or right click internet explorer, things work fine.
*When booting, I have gone through the POST to a black screen with a single blinking cursor. When this happens, I have to take out the bios battery. Otherwise, when I reboot, I continue to get the same black screen with blinking cursor. When I take out the bios battery, and put it back in, I get four options. 1) 0: boot from CDrom 2) 1: boot from hard drive 3) F1: continue 4) F2: enter bios setup
*Also, when I boot, I sometimes select F2 to enter bios, it says "entering setup", but It goes to the black screen with the blinking cursor.
The 3 1/2" floppy LED is on all the time.
Troubleshooting thus far:
* I looked for spyware-none found.
* I looked for viruses with McAfee 8.5 and the latest DAT-nothing found.
* I have to reset the bios battery to get the option to boot to the hard drive, or the option to enter the bios setup.
* I looked at task manager- 99% system Idle CPU usage, no network activity, RAM usage looks good.
* I looked at event viewer- no noticable issues.
* I disconnected the 3 1/2" floppy drive.
* I ran a system defrag- no difference
* I ran a scandisk- no problems
Observations:
I have plenty of system RAM, the CPU isn't taxed and yet my computer is very slow to respond when looking at the properties or opening up a file on the hard drive. It appears like something is conflicting with the hard drive's DMA channel, RAM address, indexing of files, IRQ, (or something of that nature).
Any advise leading to the resolve of this lazy computer would help.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
It sounds like you have a significant hardware problem -- the system board or setup might be corrupt. Have you asked Dell to debug this for you? Surely a Dual core 3 GHz system is still under warranty? I would make them fix the problem, preferably send you a new system to replace you old. That is what they are there for. Once you ask for a new system, they will sure as hell start to debug it for you !!!
ASKER
I wanted to give you an update and will continue to look into your suggestions. I think both suggestions are very helpful.
@ Lee:
I need to familiarize myself further on fixing context menu handler problems. I think this is right on target. Navigating through file folders is quick. Clicking on the file within the folder is slow to activate. This includes but may not be limited to adobe .pdf , XLS, and Word docs. Right clicking documents or clicking on the start button are also slow. I found only a few third-party context menu handlers. One is for sonic and it is my drive letter context menu handler. I disabled it using ShellxView, and that didn't resolve the issue. I saw no handlers for office files. Not many other third party handlers exist. Lee, This may have come from a MS update. Do you know of any problematic handlers from MS updates?
Once I familiarize myself with your suggestion, I think the handling of files will resolve the issue.
@ ChilternPC:
FM, (Freek'n magic). The black screen hasn't appeared since you recommended Dell diagnostics. The hard drive shows no errors on chkdsk or defrag. System Information Storage Devices shows a healthy NTFS hard drive. I may be wrong, but don't think this is a hard drive or hardware going belly up. Dell diagnostics may pick up on the problem and I plan on further investigating with Dell Diag. Also, backing up was a good thought. I have an acronis true image backup. So, at this point, no explaination of why I was getting a black screen with a blinking cursor.
@ both:
I thought the problems may be related since it looked like the computer was having problems indexing files or locating the hard drive. I will continue to check for two problems. One being context menu handlers and the other being hardware or bios related.
Further troubleshooting:
*I checked the DMA channel and none exists for the hard drive. Shouldn't the hard drive have direct memory access?
*There were no IRQ conflicts with the hard drive. The hard drive is on IRQ 14 with nothing else on that IRQ
*There are no memory address or I/O conflicts. Nothing shares the memory address or I/O address of the hard drive.
*I also noticed Office and Adobe are not terminate and stay resident. Nor can I find them in MSconfig startup programs. Doesn't office usually open upon startup and remain open to allow quicker access to files?
@ Lee:
I need to familiarize myself further on fixing context menu handler problems. I think this is right on target. Navigating through file folders is quick. Clicking on the file within the folder is slow to activate. This includes but may not be limited to adobe .pdf , XLS, and Word docs. Right clicking documents or clicking on the start button are also slow. I found only a few third-party context menu handlers. One is for sonic and it is my drive letter context menu handler. I disabled it using ShellxView, and that didn't resolve the issue. I saw no handlers for office files. Not many other third party handlers exist. Lee, This may have come from a MS update. Do you know of any problematic handlers from MS updates?
Once I familiarize myself with your suggestion, I think the handling of files will resolve the issue.
@ ChilternPC:
FM, (Freek'n magic). The black screen hasn't appeared since you recommended Dell diagnostics. The hard drive shows no errors on chkdsk or defrag. System Information Storage Devices shows a healthy NTFS hard drive. I may be wrong, but don't think this is a hard drive or hardware going belly up. Dell diagnostics may pick up on the problem and I plan on further investigating with Dell Diag. Also, backing up was a good thought. I have an acronis true image backup. So, at this point, no explaination of why I was getting a black screen with a blinking cursor.
@ both:
I thought the problems may be related since it looked like the computer was having problems indexing files or locating the hard drive. I will continue to check for two problems. One being context menu handlers and the other being hardware or bios related.
Further troubleshooting:
*I checked the DMA channel and none exists for the hard drive. Shouldn't the hard drive have direct memory access?
*There were no IRQ conflicts with the hard drive. The hard drive is on IRQ 14 with nothing else on that IRQ
*There are no memory address or I/O conflicts. Nothing shares the memory address or I/O address of the hard drive.
*I also noticed Office and Adobe are not terminate and stay resident. Nor can I find them in MSconfig startup programs. Doesn't office usually open upon startup and remain open to allow quicker access to files?
ASKER
Hey scratchy:
You came in when I was drafting the above. I was thinking bad memory block or some other hardware problem, but I can't see it. Usually defunked hardware is an easy troubleshoot for me. I will do a mem test to look for a problem memory block. Other than that, I think I ruled out all hardware issues.
You came in when I was drafting the above. I was thinking bad memory block or some other hardware problem, but I can't see it. Usually defunked hardware is an easy troubleshoot for me. I will do a mem test to look for a problem memory block. Other than that, I think I ruled out all hardware issues.
ChiefIT, any feedback?
ASKER
I have been playing around with your suggestion, (context menu handler). Looks like what you originally thought. Good work. It's going to take some time to figure out the correct combination of CMH's. There are 253 of them on this machine, (15 are third party, 238 are Microsoft). It appears the problem is not just third party CMH's. I did change from classic view to standard XP view and the Start button seemed to go back to normal. Still having problems with right click and accessing files.
Lee, I am going to accept your answer for CMH's. This was a definate problem. Any suggestions on better ways to overcome the infinite number of possibilities?
Furthermore, there was no appearant reason why we had the black screen. But, the dell diagnostic suggestions and backup suggestions were also advice I followed. So, an assist to these suggestions. Rearranging the boot sequence and disconnecting the floppy also seemed to stop this issue.
Any follow-up advice would be helpful.
Thanks all.
Lee, I am going to accept your answer for CMH's. This was a definate problem. Any suggestions on better ways to overcome the infinite number of possibilities?
Furthermore, there was no appearant reason why we had the black screen. But, the dell diagnostic suggestions and backup suggestions were also advice I followed. So, an assist to these suggestions. Rearranging the boot sequence and disconnecting the floppy also seemed to stop this issue.
Any follow-up advice would be helpful.
Thanks all.
ASKER
Wait, how do I add an assist?
no worries
ASKER
LEE:
Thanks again. I figured out the combination. WIN ZIP was trying to access a computer that was turned off. I have no idea why my computer is trying to run WIN ZIP from a remote location. BUT, I deleted all the registry keys associated with WIN ZIP's remote location. Including one CONTEXT MENU HANDLER.
Here is the article that explains it. I found the answer while thumbing through context menu handlers.
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/rcdelay.htm
I found it odd that WINZIP registry keys were pointing to a remote computer. So, I did a regScan and found out that all WINZIP Shell registry keys were pointing towards a remote computer that was turned off.
So, I removed WINZIP and all of the registry keys. Then I reinstalled WINZIP from this computer.
I thought you might like to know.
YES!! My, computer is fixed. I am going to go do cartwheels in the parking lot now.
Thanks again. I figured out the combination. WIN ZIP was trying to access a computer that was turned off. I have no idea why my computer is trying to run WIN ZIP from a remote location. BUT, I deleted all the registry keys associated with WIN ZIP's remote location. Including one CONTEXT MENU HANDLER.
Here is the article that explains it. I found the answer while thumbing through context menu handlers.
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/rcdelay.htm
I found it odd that WINZIP registry keys were pointing to a remote computer. So, I did a regScan and found out that all WINZIP Shell registry keys were pointing towards a remote computer that was turned off.
So, I removed WINZIP and all of the registry keys. Then I reinstalled WINZIP from this computer.
I thought you might like to know.
YES!! My, computer is fixed. I am going to go do cartwheels in the parking lot now.
(it may be <CTRL> F12 or even <CTRL> F10 )