Its a bit difficult when you NEED a PC for work, but when it goes wrong. You can do nothing about it.
This problem seems to be major and it is happening for a week or so now.
I am on Windows XP.
I cannot seem to be able to open 2 programmes simultaneously.
I use alot of word, excel and powerpoint.... but now I cannot open them up at the same time... I need to do alot of transfering from word onto Power Point, and similarly from Excel to word.
What happens now is say I've opened up Power Point and I want word also open uped.... I'll click on word it will open for about 2 seconds... and then will close, sometimes generating an error report, sometimes just closing.
Similarly, if I've already opened up word, and but now need Power Point... I'll click on Power Point and I'll get the same respsonse from Power Point (open for about 2 seconds and then just close).
Its whatever I programe I have opened up last that will close, the one opened first will remain.
Its not just office programmes... I've I have Power Point/Word/excel programme on... I cannot have MSN working, similarly if I've got MSN on first.... I would not be able to get Word/Power Point etc up (similar thing as before).
The ONLY programme that seems to work simulataneously with another is FIREFOX internet..... not even my default BT YAHOO browser.
Computer's performance seems good, and I've done a HI Jack this and Ad-aware virus check..... still nothing.
Any ideas
Of topic PC problems.
Could be one or more of many things. Without having the pc in front of me it is impossible to say however, youcan narrow things down.
It sounds as though you are running out of Physical ram, virtual ram or something is running which is overloading the processor. Do the following. Start up Windows XP and before you open any applications go to the task bar and right click, select task manager, select the tab named Processes.
Now click twice on the title CPU the first click will put the process using the cpu least to the top, the second click will put the process or processes using the cpu most to the top. If you have room leave the task manager open but out of the way on your desktop and run Word. Check to see how much % of the processor is being used and whether anything else is taking up CPU usage.
If everything is ok open Power Point or Excel and check the task manager readings again. It may be that your antivirus or something like Spyware Doctor has kicked in to run a check and is hogging the CPU cycles.
If CPU usage seems ok select the tab marked Performance and check how much RAM is being used and how much, if any, RAM you have free and available. This should narrow things down so that we can help more.
Good luck.
It sounds as though you are running out of Physical ram, virtual ram or something is running which is overloading the processor. Do the following. Start up Windows XP and before you open any applications go to the task bar and right click, select task manager, select the tab named Processes.
Now click twice on the title CPU the first click will put the process using the cpu least to the top, the second click will put the process or processes using the cpu most to the top. If you have room leave the task manager open but out of the way on your desktop and run Word. Check to see how much % of the processor is being used and whether anything else is taking up CPU usage.
If everything is ok open Power Point or Excel and check the task manager readings again. It may be that your antivirus or something like Spyware Doctor has kicked in to run a check and is hogging the CPU cycles.
If CPU usage seems ok select the tab marked Performance and check how much RAM is being used and how much, if any, RAM you have free and available. This should narrow things down so that we can help more.
Good luck.
Okay,Rumpole wrote:Could be one or more of many things. Without having the pc in front of me it is impossible to say however, youcan narrow things down.
It sounds as though you are running out of Physical ram, virtual ram or something is running which is overloading the processor. Do the following. Start up Windows XP and before you open any applications go to the task bar and right click, select task manager, select the tab named Processes.
Now click twice on the title CPU the first click will put the process using the cpu least to the top, the second click will put the process or processes using the cpu most to the top. If you have room leave the task manager open but out of the way on your desktop and run Word. Check to see how much % of the processor is being used and whether anything else is taking up CPU usage.
If everything is ok open Power Point or Excel and check the task manager readings again. It may be that your antivirus or something like Spyware Doctor has kicked in to run a check and is hogging the CPU cycles.
If CPU usage seems ok select the tab marked Performance and check how much RAM is being used and how much, if any, RAM you have free and available. This should narrow things down so that we can help more.
Good luck.
Excuse me in advance as I am not very technically savy when it comes to terms.
When I double click the CPU tab, it seems like a process called System Idle Process is being "used" the most as that says 97 under the CPU tab... the rest of them are mainly 0.
As far as presentage usage... it is hanging around the 1% with no programmes open, I click word and it goes up to about 64%, but then soon goes to 1-3% usage as it finishes loading.
When I try to add Power Point (ontop of word), it goes to 80% as it is loading, and then the Power Point closes - and it goes back to 1-3%
If I close Word and just try Power Point, the percentage is similar to when I just open word solely.
I personally think it could be a Virtual Memory problem.... but have no idea what that is, and how I solve it.... I've had warnings about Virtual Memory before.
Ive had that, but not with the same symptomsstujones wrote:Okay,Rumpole wrote:Could be one or more of many things. Without having the pc in front of me it is impossible to say however, youcan narrow things down.
It sounds as though you are running out of Physical ram, virtual ram or something is running which is overloading the processor. Do the following. Start up Windows XP and before you open any applications go to the task bar and right click, select task manager, select the tab named Processes.
Now click twice on the title CPU the first click will put the process using the cpu least to the top, the second click will put the process or processes using the cpu most to the top. If you have room leave the task manager open but out of the way on your desktop and run Word. Check to see how much % of the processor is being used and whether anything else is taking up CPU usage.
If everything is ok open Power Point or Excel and check the task manager readings again. It may be that your antivirus or something like Spyware Doctor has kicked in to run a check and is hogging the CPU cycles.
If CPU usage seems ok select the tab marked Performance and check how much RAM is being used and how much, if any, RAM you have free and available. This should narrow things down so that we can help more.
Good luck.
Excuse me in advance as I am not very technically savy when it comes to terms.
When I double click the CPU tab, it seems like a process called System Idle Process is being "used" the most as that says 97 under the CPU tab... the rest of them are mainly 0.
As far as presentage usage... it is hanging around the 1% with no programmes open, I click word and it goes up to about 64%, but then soon goes to 1-3% usage as it finishes loading.
When I try to add Power Point (ontop of word), it goes to 80% as it is loading, and then the Power Point closes - and it goes back to 1-3%
If I close Word and just try Power Point, the percentage is similar to when I just open word solely.
I personally think it could be a Virtual Memory problem.... but have no idea what that is, and how I solve it.... I've had warnings about Virtual Memory before.
try looking at what programs are running at satrtup - somne might be unneccessary, and could be taking up Ram/virtual.
Just restore it to a point before you started having problems. If that doesn't work try a virus scan. After that you might have to start thinking about re-installing word, excel etc. That's if you've got a disk for them.stujones wrote:I did a restore for January 1st 2008... had no problems then.ArtOfWar wrote:Have you tried a system restore? That can solve a lot of problems that you can get with a pc.
Should I restore to factory settings?
Stu, I would recommend visiting http://www.gadgetdetective.com and posting on their 'Free Tech Advice' forum. The owner (Fevzi) is a top lad and the members tend to be very helpful.
The CPU usage is not excessive so you have eliminated that. When you restore to an earlier time it would seem that everything is ok. What if anything have you installed after you have done a system restore to an earlier date?
Virtual memory can be increased provided that you have enough free disk space to accomodate the increase. If you get an error message saying low on virtual memory let me know and I will tell you how to increase it.
Virtual memory can be increased provided that you have enough free disk space to accomodate the increase. If you get an error message saying low on virtual memory let me know and I will tell you how to increase it.
400-4090Goz wrote:Stu - Right click 'My computer' then 'properties'.
Then the 'Advanced' tab then 'settings' then 'Advanced' again.
Click on 'change' under Virtual Memory at the bottom of the window and tell us what it is set to there.
Note I did change this myself when I was getting the warning triangles for low memory.
Still the performance problems.
I did a system restore to January 1st... cause everything was definately fine before that date.Rumpole wrote:The CPU usage is not excessive so you have eliminated that. When you restore to an earlier time it would seem that everything is ok. What if anything have you installed after you have done a system restore to an earlier date?
Virtual memory can be increased provided that you have enough free disk space to accomodate the increase. If you get an error message saying low on virtual memory let me know and I will tell you how to increase it.
Still cannot open word/powerpoint and/or excel at the same time.
Nor Microsoft Internet Explorer (with any of those) or MSN.
Only Firefox.
Damaged or low on RAM?
Even without a virus some programs can cause pc problems. I had to uninstall nero because it was being a bitch and I got that from an official disc. Try uninstalling adobe and dreamweaver.stujones wrote:I cannot remember downloading anything bad.
Only really Firefox
Adobe Flash Player
And Dreamweaver.
None of which notorious for virus'
Well, I only just re-installed Adobe this minute to get onto the site recommended by lawlb!ArtOfWar wrote:Even without a virus some programs can cause pc problems. I had to uninstall nero because it was being a bitch and I got that from an official disc. Try uninstalling adobe and dreamweaver.stujones wrote:I cannot remember downloading anything bad.
Only really Firefox
Adobe Flash Player
And Dreamweaver.
None of which notorious for virus'
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Southpaw Stylist
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 1484
- Joined: 19 Jul 2003, 04:50
Sounds like a virus/malware. Could be a whole number of things however. Maybe even a corrupt HDD. Go to http://www.activescan.com and see if you can undertake a full scan.
Or just re-format and get yourself Ubuntu.
Windoze sucks.
Or just re-format and get yourself Ubuntu.
Windoze sucks.
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SticknMove
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 5993
- Joined: 04 Aug 2006, 09:02
I am not an IT guy Stu, but I have had problems myself with computers/software over the years most times because I had never used a bit of maintenance that only takes an hour or two a week.
Goto Control Panel double click on Administrative Tools and then double click on Event Viewer. You will get 4 subfolders:
Application
Security
System
Internet Explorer
Click on the Application and the System subfolders and you will get a list of everything that has loaded successfully and the items that have produced an error when trying to load. The ones that have produced an error will have a red circle with an x in the circle. If you click or double click on that item you will get an event id and a description of the error.
The problems I had were sorted by googling the event id and part or whole of the description and reading through some of the techy forums that are listed.
Feel free to list the resulting errors you have found and if I can I will try to help.
Goto Control Panel double click on Administrative Tools and then double click on Event Viewer. You will get 4 subfolders:
Application
Security
System
Internet Explorer
Click on the Application and the System subfolders and you will get a list of everything that has loaded successfully and the items that have produced an error when trying to load. The ones that have produced an error will have a red circle with an x in the circle. If you click or double click on that item you will get an event id and a description of the error.
The problems I had were sorted by googling the event id and part or whole of the description and reading through some of the techy forums that are listed.
Feel free to list the resulting errors you have found and if I can I will try to help.
Stu I would suggest that you download Microsoft's memory diagnostic tool it can be found here together with a user's guide http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp This is free and will thoroughly test your RAM. It is possible from what you are saying that you have 1 or more defective memory modules.
If you have 2 memory sticks in your pc try removing one and see whether this solves the problem. If it doesn't, swap the modules and try the other one. True you will probably have a slow pc while you are testing as you will have limited memory but it may help. If you can borrow 1 or 2 memory sticks from someone else and try those, so much the better.
If you have 2 memory sticks in your pc try removing one and see whether this solves the problem. If it doesn't, swap the modules and try the other one. True you will probably have a slow pc while you are testing as you will have limited memory but it may help. If you can borrow 1 or 2 memory sticks from someone else and try those, so much the better.