Hardware testing.

[Vic Main]

At 02:55 AM 09/18/10, you 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.

I've just tested and bought a program from IO Bit 
called System Care 3, the free version works 
pretty well, the $20 pro version works very well!! Vic


>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.

IMHO I always make sure to use chkdsk with /f /r 
switches, I found out the hard way. Vic

>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.
>
>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.
>
>--
>Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
>Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
>Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419
>AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508
>
>--
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