Hardware testing.

[Patton Echols]

On 09/18/2010 02:55 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
> On 18 September 2010 03:48, Patton Echols <p.echols at comcast.net> wrote:
>   
>> On 09/17/2010 07:17 PM, Doug wrote:
>>     
>>> On 09/17/2010 09:21 PM, P Echo wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> I've been asked to triage a laptop running windows xp   I know that my
>>>> problem is off topic, but the question is "on" I think.
>>>>
>>>> /snip/
>>>>
>>>> If it matters, the symptoms are multiple, repeated crashes of things
>>>> like MS Word, especially when trying to cut and paste from MS Excel.
>>>> (WinDUHs not even playing nice with itself)  I assume the normal bloat
>>>> and crap-ware on the system, but want to exclude hardware problems
>>>> first.  It is a Dell Laptop, @ 3 years old.  No model or other yet.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for any thoughts.
>>>>
>>>> -- Patton
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> Have you done all the usual things, like defrag, etc.?  Have you run
>>> some good anti-virus program(s)?  Windows even has some of its own
>>> security stuff now, but I'm not sure it's available for XP.  Also, I'd get
>>> and run a registry checking/fixing prog, like Registry Mechanic. And
>>> tell the owner of the machine to never run any kind of Outlook or
>>> Internet Explorer.  They're magnets for trouble from the outside.
>>> Only then run your tests.
>>> (You probably knew all this, anyway.)
>>> --doug
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> Sure, All the usual stuff.  I planned on doing the hardware checks first
>> because I'm hearing things like "this laptop is crap, it's old and
>> dying"  Until I do the HW checks, I'll never convince anyone that it's
>> just the OS needing a cleaning.
>>
>> I don't know what's been done yet, I'm volunteering for a small
>> non-profit and this machine is in production over night, then I have one
>> day (tomorrow) to get it up to snuff to go out of town on business next
>> week!
>>
>> Thanks for the thoughts (I had forgotten about Reg.Mechanic.)
>>     
>
> FWIW, personally, from extensive experience, I consider all registry
> tools other than RegEdit.exe and RegEdt32.exe to be a complete waste
> of time. Don't bother, they're all just scams. Any improvement is
> observed placebo effect, nothing more.
>   

Interesting, I have used these things and always took it as an article 
of faith that they helped.  But thinking about it, how can you tell?  
Especially when the problem you are solving is periodic crashes . . . 
and you do several things.

> 1. Clear out all the temp files, both from the user directory and from Windows.
>
> 2. Give it a CHKDSK. You can't do that from Ubuntu but a Win7
> emergency startup CD (free download) works fine.
>   

Didn't know about that either.  Good suggestion

> 3. A virus scan with a couple of the freebies you don't need to
> install is a good plan.
>
> 4. Run Windows Update & ensure every available serious update is
> installed. Do the same with Office.
>
> 5. Delete all the uninstallers to reclaim a gig or so of space.
>   

Only for the space?  If so maybe leave them?

> Unfortunately, you can only do step 1 from Linux, but it has uses all
> the same - no files will be open, everything can be deleted, and you
> can also get any pesky temp directories in the root directories of any
> drives - the ones with long "names" in hexadecimal whose contents you
> can't see from within Windows. Nuke those with extreme prejudice, too.
>
>   
I've wondered what those were and where they came from.  I've always had 
a policy of not deleting things I didn't understand.  (And I assumed -- 
lacking any evidence --  that they came from the OS and to leave them 
alone.)

Thanks for the thoughts.

--Patton