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Windows XP, Internet Explorer, - No Clue

15 years ago

My computer which is about 5 years old is very slow, especially on start-up and is also freezing once I do get on the internet. Turn it on and then walk away and come back 10 minutes later. In trying to fix it myself I read to look at what programs will run when the computer is turned on and to delete those that are not needed. I did that and found: real sched, smax 4pnp, msseres, def, mgr, dsca, sprt cmd, avg, tray, reader sl,adobe arm, capp, quicktime task - and Mixner 45,245. I don't have a clue as to what any of this means. When I go on All Programs - there is a ton of them - I've read to delete programs that I don't use. Again, no clue. Use computer only for email and internet. Debated about calling a service in to do a "clean-up" but the last time it cost a little under $200.

Appreciate any help but maybe due to my lack of computer knowledge it's time to get a new one and have a minimum of stuff on it - need simplification. As an aside I recently installed CCleaner in an attempt to help me.

Thank you.

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Comments (4)

owbist
15 years ago
Starting with the simplest and best solution would be to return the computer to factory settings using the recovery disks or partition supplied when you bought the computer..
You would need to save any work or data you have created and do not want to lose, your email address book and favourites before wiping the hard drive.

Have you ever ran a program like the free Ccleaner to clear out all the old and unused stuff that tends to accumulate?

How much free hard drive space do you have?
Click Start
click My computer
RIGHT click on C: and see how large, how much used and how much free space.

How much memory (RAM) does it have?
Click Start
click Control panel
click System and it should show near the bottom of the new window.

What about a make and model number?
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
15 years ago
If they did that they would have a TON of windows updates to do plus likely all 3 service packs to deal with.
Any of those items you listed try doing a google search for them and you will quickly find out what they belong to, or use a program like free start up lite by the makers of malwarebytes.
StartUpLite

avg= your antivirus is AVG? you do not want to stop that for sure.
you can use a process library to find what each one is and does, what ever you do, DO NOT use a registry cleaner!

if this is a dell then the dsca is a dell file
C:\Program Files\Dell Support Center\gs_agent\custom\dsca.exe
DSCA is Dell's remote-support app. If you're relying on Dell's remote-desktop support, do not delete it. but it does not need to be in your start up list.

msseces.exe (Microsoft Security Essentials)
are you using both AVG and Microsoft Security Essentials on your pc for Antivirus? if so you need to fully remove one of them you should only run one full time AV at a time that will cause conflicts.

smax4pnp.exe (SoundMax controls)
you can look up the rest of them there at the pcpitstop library if you want.

another good free program that can help you with this kind of stuff is winpatrol
WinPatrol
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oceanbaby
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you for your quick response. 512 MB of Ram, Free space, 57.4, total size, 70.3. Dell Dimension 3000, May 2005. Last week ran CCleaner for Windows - just ran CC - for Applications - 2,272 files deleted,45MB removed. Maybe that will help. Did notice that Mozilla/Firefox was under applications plus a lot of other things I probably don't need. Google Earth, Yahoo, MS Paint, etc. Found a bunch of disks (surprised myself). "Drivers and Utilities already installed on computer" seems to be the one. Don't want to put you through any trouble - just want to speed it up a bit - as you can see I am not computer savy. Thanks again.
owbist
15 years ago
RAM is OK at 512 megs, plenty of free hard drive space, Good job on running Cclenaer.

Removing programs does nothing to improve speed, removing items which start up unnecessarily in the background is where you need to concentrate.

Ravencajun feels you would have a ton of updates if you return to factory settings, she is exactly correct. Currently there are over 100 updates for XP. However how long will you spend floundering along trying to improve the quality? Neither option is a short term task for sure.

Try some of her links and see how you progress.

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