this tech-know-nuthin' desperately needs help from one... it's taking over 2 minutes for any of my documents to open! all was fine till i opened a document emailed from someone whose docs worked ok before... the latest one i saved to my desktop took forever to open and close... after that, all my own docs also took minutes to either open or close, as well... i've deleted that doc and emptied the trash, emptied my sent email file and trash stored on the puter, done a norton windoc repair twice and an ad-aware scan/repair, restarted afterwards, but still have the prob... my final draft program docs open as quickly as ever, but the windows docs take 2 minutes or more and it's driving me nuts!... another weird thing is that the doc page that may have caused this didn't have a ruler showing and when i checked my own doc pages, the ruler had disappeared from all of them, too!... the only way i could get it back was to drag the ruler icon to my toolbar and click on it after opening the rulerless docs... any suggestions? please email me 'at home' to save time... fyi, i'm at GMT+10, so i may not see your replies till the next day... love and fingers crossed hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
Hmmmm.... It could be that the file had a trojan virus attached to it, which hides under either existing files or bogus file names. This doesn't mean that the person you sent it attached it; you can get it from anywhere really. I would recommend scanning over files and deleting ones you don't recognize and any unnecessary ones. Running more virus scans always helps, and makes sure you select "all files".... Its really a tricky game diagnosing viruses, if the problems worsens I'd go out to a computer repair shop, or "geek squad".... I'm more of a commputer amateur (compared to some other people), but I hope this helps.
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner That's a good computer scanner If their are some viruses then you should try some of these SmitFraudFIx http://www.afterdawn.com/software/desktop_software/desktop_security/smitfraudfix.cfm if that doesn't help then try FixieDef http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=98 For me, it normally takes around 5-10 seconds to open Microsoft Word Also, it might help if you clear some unused files or programs off your computer, because unused files etc could slow your computer down considerably. Best of luck
thanks for the input, folks... but... 1. i'm on an island where you can't even buy a book anywhere, much less find a computer shop... 2. no 'geeks' here, either... am trying to find one who can help on dell and msn forums, as well as here and the other writing sites i post on daily... 3. i've run my norton internet security 'windoc' and full regular scan three times now, same goes for ad-aware to detect spybots and they're coming up clean... 4. i've dumped temp internet files and cookies, emptied trash... 5. scanning all of my files to find any unknown/unnecessary ones isn't doable, since i have many hundreds of my own documents and tens of thousands of others' from years of helping writers and keeping all versions of their work on file for future reference... 6. i'm leery of trying any other scanners/fixers, not the least because i'm not always able to follow their geek-aimed instructions... pray for me, if you believe in a just and loving god!... otherwise, keep your fingers virtually crossed... love and hugs, maia
From the way you described it, it's actually difficult to tell since more than one thing can cause that, such as many programs running at the same time, virus draining the CPU, and faulty updates. Since the virus scanners didn't detect anything, the only thing I can think of right now is to try a System Restore and see if that solves anything.
maia, Do you have the original MS Word software? For me, it was part of the MS Office software disk I received when I bought my computer. I had this same slow loading problem on my office system so I uninstalled MS Office (including Word) and re-installed it. This completely eliminated whatever had been causing the problem. After the re-install, the first place I went was to Microsoft website to download all the updates to my Office/Word software. Some of those downloads remove or correct security risks, so I made sure they were downloaded and installed before going back online. Cured the problem for me. I am NOT a computer tech so I don't know if this will work for you. I did it because it seemed a reasonable way to eliminate software as the problem without sacrificing any of my data files.
Make sure the memory Windows thinks you have is the same as what is actually installed. If a memory module has poor contact or has failed, your system performance will go WAY down. If that's ok, next try cleaning out unnecessary files (cached Internet fiiles, temporary files), and see if that helps. Also you can try defragmenting the disk. Both disk cleanuo and defragment can be accessed by right clicking on the disk drive in my computer and selecting Properties - look on the General tab and the Tools tab. There are a great many things that can cause performance to tank, more than I can go into in a single post.
Make sure the memory Windows thinks you have is the same as what is actually installed. If a memory module has poor contact or has failed, your system performance will go WAY down. ...huh?... i need that in realspeak, please, cog... if you're referring to the cd i have for ms works, it's the one that came with the computer... salty... i'll try that, but will it affect any of my stored documents? you guys/gals are great!... thanks for the help... fingers crossed, m
If you right click on My Computer, and select Properties, the General tab will tell you hom much memory (RAM) Windows can see in the computer. If that is less than the amount of RAM installed in the computer (if you remember how much that was, or have the original sales invoice, and haven't upgraded), then one of the memory cards in your compoter may have failed or has a bad connection. It's not the most likely possibility, but it's one of the first things I personally would check. On the other hand, it's a lot harder if you can't identify how much memory SHOULD be there.
doesn't seem to be a memory prob, as i have plenty... hd is only a hair over half-full... and i reinstalled word, but that didn't fix it, either... should i have reinstalled the whole ms works suite 2006?... i never use any of it but word, which is why i only uninstalled/reinstalled that... couldn't make the disk cleanup work...
Just so you're aware, Norton is garbage. It slows your computer down, and tends to miss a lot of infected files (I had a monster virus on my computer a couple years ago, and Norton couldn't even detect it, let alone get rid of it. Took me two weeks to get my computer in decent working order again). I'd recommend downloading the free version of AVG Antivirus. You can download it from their website here. It's not the best out there, but it's free and it's definitely better than Norton. Since I put it on my computer, I haven't had any problems.
iNorton is shocking. Stupid standards, just like, IE! Downloaded AVG years ago (from a cd with a mag), never went back, never had problems with it. Can only second the reccomendation!
Are you by any chance using Windows Vista, and if so, are you using the Sidebar? I've had occasional problems with Vista starting with two sidebar instances, fighting with each other over resources. I disabled the sidebar, rebooted, and was then able to enable it again to fix the problem.
no... not vista... windows xp... and i've used norton for years, haven't had much in the way of problems, so i'd need more feedback from true technogeeks [not that you 3 might not be] about avg before considering a switch... this is really defying all i can do on my own to find and fix... i've even uninstalled and reinstalled my ms word and that didn't do a thing...
Given that you are now also having problems with Quick Reply, I'm suspicious that you may have a piece of spyware intercepting page submits, possibly trying to mine for personal information. If it were my machine, I would consider clean-installing everything. It's a pain, but it's one of the best ways to get rid of mallicious software. Short of that, I would take it to a good computer technician first, but a clean reinstall may still be the best choice. In Microsoft Office, don't set Macro Security to less than Medium, and never enable macros unless the document is from a trusted source AND the macros are necessary for the file. Macros will almost never be necessary for non-corporate Word documents.
I'll vouch for AVG. I've been using it for 4 years, without any viruses, and my dad (an IT consultant for a major firm) has been using is for longer.
guess i'll look into avg, then... i haven't tried 'system restore'... i think it worked for a similar problem on my old computer, but i've forgotten how to go about it...
i tried the restore thing, but no matter what date i entered, kept getting 'cannot be restored to this date' message... thankfully, the local hs computer teacher is coming by this afternoon... fingers crossed that he's as knowledgeable as he claims...
and even better news is that i've finally got the bug licked!... thanx to the help of kronix, who is now at the top of my short list for sainthood... thanks for trying to help, everyone!... you're the very best of the best... love and hugs, m [mods... please lock this now and let it sink into oblivion, so i don't have to be reminded of this week from hell]
