I have a Lenovo laptop purchased a few months ago. It is a Intel(R)
Celeron(R) M CPU 420 @ 1.60GHz with 512 MB Ram. It was never speedy
fast but it was sufficient for what I need it for (school assignments,
email, browsing the web).

When I go to watch DVD movies now the movie runs terribly slow - it
never ran like this until a few weeks ago.

My husband also uses it so I'm not sure if he mistakenly installed some
software that is slowing it down, or if it's something else. I'm a
Linux chick by nature so I'm not very familiar with the Windows
Environment. I'm tempted to get rid of everything and install Linux
but hubby prefers Windows as it's what he is used to, so Windows has to
stay unfortunately.

Can anyone make some suggestions of things I can check into? Should
512 ram be sufficient for general browsing of the web, MS word, and
watching movies?

Thanks very much. If it helps, I have Windows XP Home Edition with the
following MS software installed:

Software (with Date of Installation if known)
Microsoft Interactive Training
TkBellExe October 4, 2006
AVG7_CC October 4, 2006
IBM Warranty Notification
ACWLIcon
ACTray Unknown
Picasa Media Detector
cssauthe December 21, 2005
ISUSScheduler June 10, 2005
ISUSPM Startup August 9, 2004
suScheduler
igfxpers January 1, 1980
igfxhkcmd January 1, 1980
igfxtray January 1, 1980
AGRSMMSG
PMHandler May 20, 2006
TPWAUDAP
TPHOTKEY
High Definition Audio Property Page Shortcut
SynTPEnh
Wireless Connection Manager October 21, 2006
Bluetooth January 17, 2006
Adobe Reader Speed Launch December 14, 2004
AVG7_Run October 4, 2006
ctfmon.exe January 1, 1980

Adobe Flash Player 9 ActiveX
Adobe Reader 7.0
Agere System HDA Modem
AVG Free Edition
D-Link Rangebooster
Lenovo Help Centre
High Definition Audio Driver Package
IBM 32bit runtime environment
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver
Intel Proset/Wireless Software
InterActual Player
InterVideo Win DVD
Lenovo Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate Software
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Hotfix
Microsoft International Domain Names Mitigation APIs
Microsoft National Language Support Downlevel APIs
Microsoft Office Pro Edition 2003
MSXML 4.0 SP2
On Screen Display
PC-Doctor 5 for WIndows
PM Driver
RealPlayer
REALTEK GbE & FE Ethernet PCI NIC Driver
Rescue and Recovery
Roxio Digital Media LE
Roxio Express Labeler
Roxio RecordNow Audio
Roxio RecordNow Copy
Roxio RecordNow Data
Sonic Update Manager
SoundMAX
Synaptics Pointing Device Driver
ThinkVantage Access Connections
ThinkVantage System Update
Windows Installer 3.1

militarychick******.com wrote:

> Linux chick by nature so I'm not very familiar with the Windows
> Environment. I'm tempted to get rid of everything and install Linux
> but hubby prefers Windows as it's what he is used to, so Windows has to

These mixed marriages never work.

> Can anyone make some suggestions of things I can check into? Should
> 512 ram be sufficient for general browsing of the web, MS word, and

It's adequate. Go to Control Panel - System - click Hardware tab -
click Device Manager - expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers - double-click
Primary IDE Channel - click Advanced tab - see what it says for Device
0 next to Current Transfer Mode. If it says PIO, you've encountered a
known problem with WinXP, respond here and I'll post more info on how
to fix it (I have to search through old bookmarks).

militarychick******.com wrote:

> Linux chick by nature so I'm not very familiar with the Windows
> Environment. I'm tempted to get rid of everything and install Linux
> but hubby prefers Windows as it's what he is used to, so Windows has to

These mixed marriages never work.

> Can anyone make some suggestions of things I can check into? Should
> 512 ram be sufficient for general browsing of the web, MS word, and

It's adequate. Go to Control Panel - System - click Hardware tab -
click Device Manager - expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers - double-click
Primary IDE Channel - click Advanced tab - see what it says for Device
0 next to Current Transfer Mode. If it says PIO, you've encountered a
known problem with WinXP, respond here and I'll post more info on how
to fix it (I have to search through old bookmarks).

militarychick******.com wrote:

> Linux chick by nature so I'm not very familiar with the Windows
> Environment. I'm tempted to get rid of everything and install Linux
> but hubby prefers Windows as it's what he is used to, so Windows has to

These mixed marriages never work.

> Can anyone make some suggestions of things I can check into? Should
> 512 ram be sufficient for general browsing of the web, MS word, and

It's adequate. Go to Control Panel - System - click Hardware tab -
click Device Manager - expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers - double-click
Primary IDE Channel - click Advanced tab - see what it says for Device
0 next to Current Transfer Mode. If it says PIO, you've encountered a
known problem with WinXP, respond here and I'll post more info on how
to fix it (I have to search through old bookmarks).

militarychick******.com wrote:

> Linux chick by nature so I'm not very familiar with the Windows
> Environment. I'm tempted to get rid of everything and install Linux
> but hubby prefers Windows as it's what he is used to, so Windows has to

These mixed marriages never work.

> Can anyone make some suggestions of things I can check into? Should
> 512 ram be sufficient for general browsing of the web, MS word, and

It's adequate. Go to Control Panel - System - click Hardware tab -
click Device Manager - expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers - double-click
Primary IDE Channel - click Advanced tab - see what it says for Device
0 next to Current Transfer Mode. If it says PIO, you've encountered a
known problem with WinXP, respond here and I'll post more info on how
to fix it (I have to search through old bookmarks).

militarychick******.com wrote:

> Linux chick by nature so I'm not very familiar with the Windows
> Environment. I'm tempted to get rid of everything and install Linux
> but hubby prefers Windows as it's what he is used to, so Windows has to

These mixed marriages never work.

> Can anyone make some suggestions of things I can check into? Should
> 512 ram be sufficient for general browsing of the web, MS word, and

It's adequate. Go to Control Panel - System - click Hardware tab -
click Device Manager - expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers - double-click
Primary IDE Channel - click Advanced tab - see what it says for Device
0 next to Current Transfer Mode. If it says PIO, you've encountered a
known problem with WinXP, respond here and I'll post more info on how
to fix it (I have to search through old bookmarks).

Hi, Thanks for your help. It says Ultra DMA Mode 5, so I'm assuming
this is okay?

Around the same time my wireless connection seems to be acting wonky,
it keeps dropping connection and the internet connection itself is
painstakingly slow, but I wasn't sure if it was a result of something
else happening.

Thanks again for your help, if you have any other suggestions please
let me know.

zwsdotcom******.com wrote:
> militarychick******.com wrote:
>
> > Linux chick by nature so I'm not very familiar with the Windows
> > Environment. I'm tempted to get rid of everything and install Linux
> > but hubby prefers Windows as it's what he is used to, so Windows has to
>
> These mixed marriages never work.
>
> > Can anyone make some suggestions of things I can check into? Should
> > 512 ram be sufficient for general browsing of the web, MS word, and
>
> It's adequate. Go to Control Panel - System - click Hardware tab -
> click Device Manager - expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers - double-click
> Primary IDE Channel - click Advanced tab - see what it says for Device
> 0 next to Current Transfer Mode. If it says PIO, you've encountered a
> known problem with WinXP, respond here and I'll post more info on how
> to fix it (I have to search through old bookmarks).

Yes the first thing I would do is to run MSCONFIG and shutdown all start
up programs. Start -> RUN on type it in, I think you will figure it out
from there. Once you did sucessfully, I bet the problem goes away. Next
is figuring what one program is causing it. Need help just ask.

--
Bill

<militarychick******.com> wrote in message
news:1166485759.434390.201290@48g2000cwx.googlegro ups.com
> Hi, Thanks for your help. It says Ultra DMA Mode 5, so I'm assuming
> this is okay?
>
> Around the same time my wireless connection seems to be acting wonky,
> it keeps dropping connection and the internet connection itself is
> painstakingly slow, but I wasn't sure if it was a result of something
> else happening.
>
> Thanks again for your help, if you have any other suggestions please
> let me know.
>
> zwsdotcom******.com wrote:
>> militarychick******.com wrote:
>>
>>> Linux chick by nature so I'm not very familiar with the Windows
>>> Environment. I'm tempted to get rid of everything and install Linux
>>> but hubby prefers Windows as it's what he is used to, so Windows
>>> has to
>>
>> These mixed marriages never work.
>>
>>> Can anyone make some suggestions of things I can check into? Should
>>> 512 ram be sufficient for general browsing of the web, MS word, and
>>
>> It's adequate. Go to Control Panel - System - click Hardware tab -
>> click Device Manager - expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers -
>> double-click Primary IDE Channel - click Advanced tab - see what it
>> says for Device 0 next to Current Transfer Mode. If it says PIO,
>> you've encountered a known problem with WinXP, respond here and I'll
>> post more info on how to fix it (I have to search through old
>> bookmarks).

Thanks, I ran MSCONFIG and makes sense to me that it very well could be
one of the start up programs causing some problems. I'm assuming the
best thing to do is for me to look at the list and go one by one
stroking them off the list and keep rebooting until I find the problem
goes away? Is there a better way to approach this?

Some of the progams I'm certain I don't even want to run on start up,
for instance "Google Toolbar Notifier", and Yahoo and MSN messanger...
it seems better to me anyway to start these up manually should we want
to use them.

There are a few more that I'm not familiar with, but seem unecessary -
I hope no one minds if I list them and hopefully get some feedback on
which ones I should nix on startup? These are the ones listed, many of
whom I am not familiar with so it was just easier to type them all out
than for me to try and deduce what ones might be an issue:

TpWAudAp & TPHKMGR - (both are under the \Lenovo\Hotkey subdirectory)
realsched
SynTPEnh
UCLauncher
PMHandler
PicasaMediaDetector
issch
ISUSPM
igfxtray
igfxpers
hkcmd
ERTS0749
HDAShCut
cssauthe
avgcc
AGRSMMSG
ACWLIcon (interestingly this program seems to hang up often when I
reboot)
ACTray (sometimes hangs up on reboot)
YAHOO~1
GoogleToolbarNotifier
MsnMsgr
Adobe Reader Speed Launch
Bluetooth (we currently have no bluetooth devices but may in the
future)
Wireless Connection Manager

Thanks again for your help!!!



BillW50 wrote:
> Yes the first thing I would do is to run MSCONFIG and shutdown all start
> up programs. Start -> RUN on type it in, I think you will figure it out
> from there. Once you did sucessfully, I bet the problem goes away. Next
> is figuring what one program is causing it. Need help just ask.
>
> --
> Bill
>
> <militarychick******.com> wrote in message
> news:1166485759.434390.201290@48g2000cwx.googlegro ups.com
> > Hi, Thanks for your help. It says Ultra DMA Mode 5, so I'm assuming
> > this is okay?
> >
> > Around the same time my wireless connection seems to be acting wonky,
> > it keeps dropping connection and the internet connection itself is
> > painstakingly slow, but I wasn't sure if it was a result of something
> > else happening.
> >
> > Thanks again for your help, if you have any other suggestions please
> > let me know.
> >
> > zwsdotcom******.com wrote:
> >> militarychick******.com wrote:
> >>
> >>> Linux chick by nature so I'm not very familiar with the Windows
> >>> Environment. I'm tempted to get rid of everything and install Linux
> >>> but hubby prefers Windows as it's what he is used to, so Windows
> >>> has to
> >>
> >> These mixed marriages never work.
> >>
> >>> Can anyone make some suggestions of things I can check into? Should
> >>> 512 ram be sufficient for general browsing of the web, MS word, and
> >>
> >> It's adequate. Go to Control Panel - System - click Hardware tab -
> >> click Device Manager - expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers -
> >> double-click Primary IDE Channel - click Advanced tab - see what it
> >> says for Device 0 next to Current Transfer Mode. If it says PIO,
> >> you've encountered a known problem with WinXP, respond here and I'll
> >> post more info on how to fix it (I have to search through old
> >> bookmarks).

<militarychick******.com> wrote in message
news:1166498403.759476.173830@48g2000cwx.googlegro ups.com
> Thanks, I ran MSCONFIG and makes sense to me that it very well could
> be one of the start up programs causing some problems. I'm assuming
> the best thing to do is for me to look at the list and go one by one
> stroking them off the list and keep rebooting until I find the problem
> goes away? Is there a better way to approach this?

Yes very much so! The first thing to do is to stop all startups and see
if that helps any. If not, it it something else altogether. But if it
does help, you might have 30 plus things to figure out what is causing
it.

Although for a second lets believe we are all idiots. The best thing to
do is to take everything by half. Meaning you allow half of them to run,
Is the problem still there? If so, half those.

If it isn't that half, it must be the other half. You keep dividing by
half each step you go. This is far better than one at a time most of the
time. As you will find it quickly in this case anyway. I'm wrong in case
of the first or second program that you kill is it. But not knowing the
half step method is far better.

> Some of the progams I'm certain I don't even want to run on start up,
> for instance "Google Toolbar Notifier", and Yahoo and MSN messanger...
> it seems better to me anyway to start these up manually should we want
> to use them.

Oh for those you are usually better killing them from the programs
themselves in my experince. But as a second choice, killing them from
MSCONFIG is ok.

> There are a few more that I'm not familiar with, but seem unecessary -
> I hope no one minds if I list them and hopefully get some feedback on
> which ones I should nix on startup? These are the ones listed, many
> of whom I am not familiar with so it was just easier to type them all
> out than for me to try and deduce what ones might be an issue:
>
> TpWAudAp & TPHKMGR - (both are under the \Lenovo\Hotkey subdirectory)
> realsched
> SynTPEnh
> UCLauncher
> PMHandler
> PicasaMediaDetector
> issch
> ISUSPM
> igfxtray
> igfxpers
> hkcmd
> ERTS0749
> HDAShCut
> cssauthe
> avgcc
> AGRSMMSG
> ACWLIcon (interestingly this program seems to hang up often when I
> reboot)
> ACTray (sometimes hangs up on reboot)
> YAHOO~1
> GoogleToolbarNotifier
> MsnMsgr
> Adobe Reader Speed Launch
> Bluetooth (we currently have no bluetooth devices but may in the
> future)
> Wireless Connection Manager
>
> Thanks again for your help!!!

Well some of them I don't know what they are and some of them I do.
Using the half step method is the best for this. Nothing sets an alarm
with me, so if it were me, the half step method would be the way to go.

--
Bill

<militarychick******.com> wrote in message
news:1166463973.181015.285700@n67g2000cwd.googlegr oups.com...
>I have a Lenovo laptop purchased a few months ago. It is a Intel(R)
> Celeron(R) M CPU 420 @ 1.60GHz with 512 MB Ram. It was never speedy
> fast but it was sufficient for what I need it for (school assignments,
> email, browsing the web).
>
> When I go to watch DVD movies now the movie runs terribly slow - it
> never ran like this until a few weeks ago.

Might not help with this specific problem but always worth doing anyway: run
a spyware/malware check. AdAware is free, as is Windows Defender. If you
find anything that can't be removed, Spyware Doctor requires payment but can
remove just about any malware.

Thanks Bill for your help, I did your half rule and it appears there
may be more than one program fighting for control of our internet
connection, so that is one issue solved. The computer still runs
slower than it should, so I'll continue doing the half thing until I
figure it out.

And thanks The todal for your suggestion for the spyware check, I will
run that and see if it speeds things up for me.

I know the computer we have isn't super speedy, but it shouldn't be
running at a snails pace for simple wordprocessing and browsing, so
hopefully I'll be able to have it up and running at a decent pace soon.

Thanks again!



The Todal wrote:
> <militarychick******.com> wrote in message
> news:1166463973.181015.285700@n67g2000cwd.googlegr oups.com...
> >I have a Lenovo laptop purchased a few months ago. It is a Intel(R)
> > Celeron(R) M CPU 420 @ 1.60GHz with 512 MB Ram. It was never speedy
> > fast but it was sufficient for what I need it for (school assignments,
> > email, browsing the web).
> >
> > When I go to watch DVD movies now the movie runs terribly slow - it
> > never ran like this until a few weeks ago.
>
> Might not help with this specific problem but always worth doing anyway: run
> a spyware/malware check. AdAware is free, as is Windows Defender. If you
> find anything that can't be removed, Spyware Doctor requires payment but can
> remove just about any malware.

<militarychick******.com> wrote in message
news:1166571414.607642.322090@80g2000cwy.googlegro ups.com...
> Thanks Bill for your help, I did your half rule and it appears there
> may be more than one program fighting for control of our internet
> connection, so that is one issue solved. The computer still runs
> slower than it should, so I'll continue doing the half thing until I
> figure it out.
>
> And thanks The todal for your suggestion for the spyware check, I will
> run that and see if it speeds things up for me.
>
> I know the computer we have isn't super speedy, but it shouldn't be
> running at a snails pace for simple wordprocessing and browsing, so
> hopefully I'll be able to have it up and running at a decent pace soon.

I'm also wondering whether you have the latest AVG which is version 7.5 and
whether your definitions are up to date, and whether you have run a full
virus check. Sorry if this is well known to you, but I have met people who
don't fully understand that running a full virus check does involve
selecting "test" and letting it run for over half an hour, until it says it
is finished. You can't just rely on its background check.

On Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:03:53 -0000, "The Todal" <deadmailbox@beeb.net>
wrote:

>
> [...]
>
> I'm also wondering whether you have the latest AVG which is version 7.5 and
> whether your definitions are up to date, and whether you have run a full
> virus check. Sorry if this is well known to you, but I have met people who
> don't fully understand that running a full virus check does involve
> selecting "test" and letting it run for over half an hour, until it says it
> is finished. You can't just rely on its background check.
>

Better make that "antivirus software in general" - AVG is a bit
controversial, even amongst the free antivir programs, for it's
tendency for "false positives" - I wouldn't have a recommendation for
antivir software though beyond the statement that I use the free
"Avira AntiVir" myself in addition to "Lavasoft's Ad-Aware", "Spybot"
and "Spyware Blaster", all of 'em free for personal use - but I expect
that every product on the market has its advocates and critics...
....fact is just that it might be advisable to make sure that every
malware found by AVG actually IS malware and not a false alarm...


T.C.