AOL and Windows XP

[smurfchops]

AOL has been horrendous lately, keeps crashing when I press certain buttons, and even Microsoft Word is so slow .... is it my PC? It's about five years old now. It takes ages to close down sometimes, even when I press CTRL ALT Delete, it just takes forever I just feel like switching off before it is ready. Do I need an upgrade ?

[Ethel]

As you use Word offline, it suggest there is a problem with your pc.

Lots of questions:

How much space is on the free drive?
How much RAM does the machine have?
Have a look at the task manager now - what is the CPU usage running at?
Do you defrag?
Do you run your security software regularly and is it up to date?
Try starting the pc in safe mode. Is Word any better now?

[Ethel]

Sorry - first question should be

How much free space is on the hard drive?

[smurfchops]

Ethel, how do I find out, I am NOT technical AT ALL ... this could take quite some time ....

[Ethel]

Okee dokey. :)

Start - My Computer

You should see at least one hard disk drive icons.

Right click on the icon and click properties. Tell me the 'used space' and 'free space' on each hard drive.

Then
Start - My Computer
Click on 'view system information' in the left hand panel
Click the 'general' tab - towards the bottom will be the amount of RAM you have

Now
Hold CTRL -ALT and delete together
This brings up your task manager
Click the processes tab. At the bottom will be CPU usage as a per centage

I will assume you do not defrag and we will go through that later.

[smurfchops]

Hi Ethel OK here we go : Used: 22,051,221,504. Free Space: 59.905,433,600. RAM 504 MB. CPU 2%. Believe it or not I CAN !!! defrag !! I can also Disk Clean up !! Next step please ... Ethel I have said it before and you are a Star :)

[Ethel]

Hurrah! You defrag

Good news - your CPU is excellent. :)

And it seems you have LOTS of free space on both hard drives. :)

What antivirus and antispyware do you use?

[smurfchops]

Ethel, I have no idea..... I think I have some loaded on my PC but that is all I know ... I will have to ask you again ... how do I find out ?

[Ethel]

No problems - I want you to download and run some free utilities. Bare with me while I find the links.

[Ethel]

The THIRD one in this list - A Squared Free 3.5

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/

and

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ad-aware/

and

http://www.filehippo.com/download_spybot_searc h_destroy/

I'm watching tv this evening - but see how you get on with those.

:)

[smurfchops]

Ethel, as we speak, I have another problem. While waiting for your answer I decided to open my emails. When I touch over the 'read' logo in AOL there is a list of emails but when I try to open them by clicking on 'read' I just have a blank screen,, some of the wording is faded , I can't open emails in Saved on AOL and the wording 'Saved to my PC' is highlighted. Sometimes when I close down and open again, I get all my emails back again. Sorry can't explain very easily but very weird.

[smurfchops]

Ethel, sorry to bother you, and enjoy your evening, but do you want me to download all of these ? Speak with you tomorrow :) I am going to watch Corrie now .

[Ethel]

You should also consider upgrading your RAM - it is really on the low side, and it is much cheaper to do than it used to be. Well worth the money.

It is easy, just takes confidence. You can find out which RAM you need by running the scan here:
http://www.crucial.com/uk/

Click 'scan my system' in that link.

[Ethel]

Yes - all of those.

:)

[smurfchops]

Bless you Ethel, I will let you know how I get on.

[smurfchops]

Well I've downloaded everything and I'm now going to close down for the evening. What do you mean Ethel by saying that upgrading my RAM takes confidence ... are you telling me to upgrade it myself??

[Ethel]

Yes, it is easy. It took me 15 minutes from start to finish.
The instructions are very clear, and only one screwdriver required.

[smurfchops]

Oh dear, the thought of using a screwdriver ... I am sure something will go wrong ... by the way, I opened Windows this morning and it is still very very slow .... zzzzz ......

[smurfchops]

Two hours later and AOL is still very slow and crashing, I just give up. Do the antiviruses and antispyware work automatically or should I be doing something ?

[smurfchops]

Hi Ethel hope you are there. After all that trouble last night, I phoned my PC man today who made the PC for me ... it just needed cleaning ! Hubbie took the back off and the fan was full of dust and it had just slowed everything down, it is much better now ... so there's technical for you ! Thank you so much Ethel anyway :)

[annie0000]

I think that Ethel has given some great advice - I am not that computer literate, but i do have the same as you, AOL with XP. I have had horrendous problems with aol and have ended up having to ditch everything on my PC and start again - not usre if this was exactly caused by aol, but I have my suspicions!

Anyhoo, point of this post from me was that after mucking about with them for the last couple of months, I asked aol for my MAC code so that I can go elsewhere and in a spirit of reconciliation, the sent me a new router - I ended up having to buy an network card thingy as the slot on my PC (5 and a half yeras old) didn't actually seem to have any hardware behind it, but it only cost �6. However, set it all up yesterday and it is working great - i thought that I would need a new PC as well, but I think it has a reprieve. If you are still using a normal modem, I would persue them for a router as they admitted on the phone to my husband that the modem we had (which they supplied) was crap and that they had had a lot of problems with it every time they do an upgrade.

Hope you get sorted out soon.