Can somebody help?

[J Hill]

Does anybody have any experience with a system suite that cleans up and repairs errors, etc. My computer is brand-new and powerful but sure boggs down quickly. Does anyone have experience with System Mechanic 7 or any other utitlity that does "fixes"? I don't want more anti-viruses/firewalls, just a fix-up utility. Thanks for any help I can get.

[Jack Stoner]

You have to be very careful with "registry programs" or programs that "fix" computers. If you don't know what you are doing and allow the program to run on its own you can be looking at more problems than you had before.

I've "fixed" several PC's that Registry Mechanic messed up.

Why your system "bogs down" can have many reasons. The amount of RAM (memory) can be an issue, especially with Windows XP - and you need at least 512Mb of RAM. The amount of programs running and especially the number of programs that are in the "sys tray" (lower right) as many of these are unneeded. A simple "disc defrag" on the hard drive can improve performance, etc.

Bottom line there is no "one fix" - it has to be in relation to the PC and what is happening to it.

[Dave Potter]

Does anybody have any experience with a system suite that cleans up and repairs errors, etc. My computer is brand-new and powerful but sure boggs down quickly. Does anyone have experience with System Mechanic 7 or any other utitlity that does "fixes"? I don't want more anti-viruses/firewalls, just a fix-up utility.

I agree with the points Jack makes. We have discussed this in the past, and we do have differing opinions on registry "hygiene" software. I've used several flavors over the years; quality and effectiveness definitely varies, but some can be useful with reasonable care.

There is a somewhat dated but informative page here on some of the registry maintenance utilites available. The second page of the article has the most info.

I had been using a different registry cleaning utility, but, based on this information, I downloaded JV16 Power Tools on a free trial basis and used it. I liked it well enough to buy it, and I've been using it for about a year. It comes with a bunch of extras - utilities for all sorts of stuff, including making a backup of your registry, in case yours ever becomes corrupt and you need to restore it. There are numerous other useful utilities as well as the registry cleaner, which features both a "Normal" setting and an "Aggressive" one for advanced users. You are offered the option of saving each operation and restoring it later if you ever need to do that. I save every change I make, but I never have had the need to restore one.

It's true that many factors can affect the operational efficiency of a PC, everything from settings in the bios, TSRs running in the background, insufficient RAM, corrupt system files, corrupt drivers....all kinds of things. Application "uninstall" routines are often particularly egregious about failure to remove all their registry entries during the uninstall. I'm amazed each time I run JV16 at the number of registry entries that can be deleted based on the fact that the item "no longer exists". JV16 provides such explanatory information to assist in deciding whether to delete or not.

As noted, running a registry cleaner is no guarantee that your system performance will improve noticeably, since the issues can be elsewhere. But I'm convinced that periodic use of a good quality registry cleaning utility like JV16 is beneficial, long as it's used with discretion. IMO, there's just no reason why the registry needs to become bloated with a lot of totally useless entries related to non-existent items.

[Wiz Feinberg]

Dave;
That was a nice review of JV Power Tools. They are also a favorite of Fred Langa, author of the former "The LangaList," now merged with "Windows Secrets," which is co-authored by Brian Livingston. When people of their stature recommend a product you can take it to the bank. Security software and system utilites are frequently reviewed and discussed.

For those interested in reading Windows Secrets, here is a link to the signup page, where you will find the details.

I have no vested interest in Windows Secrets. I am just a subscriber.

[Dave Potter]

Dave;
That was a nice review of JV Power Tools. They are also a favorite of Fred Langa, author of the former "The LangaList," now merged with "Windows Secrets," which is co-authored by Brian Livingston. When people of their stature recommend a product you can take it to the bank. Security software and system utilites are frequently reviewed and discussed.

Thanks, Wiz. Fred did the writeup I gave the link to in my previous post. JV16 is some pretty good stuff. It includes a lot of things besides the registry cleaner. There's a learning curve to becoming familiar with all of them, but it's time well spent, to me, at least.

Thanks for the pointer on Windows Secrets, I'll check it out. Sounds interesting.

[C. Christofferson]

Leila, Browsing the forum and watching alot of videos from youtube will quickly load up your Temporary Internet Files folder with many thousands of files. Just one Utube video deposits hundreds if not thousands of files in there. Every so often i find emptying that folder clears up some problems. The only drawback is youll have to re-download any video you like to rewatch. Start/control panel/internet options/general tab/temporary internet files * settings button/view files button, lets you see the contents of the folder. Then back a step to DeleteFiles button to delete the files to empty the folder. I delete those files as well as delete cookies as well as 'all offline content' and it hasn't so far caused me any problems in doing so. Then run the defrag. Hope this helps.

[J Hill]

First let me say thanks to all who have responded so far. I've found it difficult to find anyone who can give an educated opinion (with experience) so I've really enjoyed reading what you guys have to say. Unfortunately, the Net doesn't provide a lot of encouragement on these programs and their usefulness.

I do an every-other-day deletion of temp files and cookies, but it doesn't seem to help much. My RAM is 2 Gigs and I've got 400 Gigs of memory on the hard drive. This computer is no slouch, so I'm disappointed that the sluggishness is STILL a problem (after upgrading to a new computer...after my 20 Gig hard drive with about 512 RAM).

Anyhow....I did use "System Mechanic 7" for their 30 day trial and it seemed to work great, and would speed up the computer, but for a very short time, like for a half a day... It constantly found things that needed fixing and needed to do defrags about every day, which as you know, takes 3 hours, and I can't be doing that every day.

I think you have a good point about all my programs in Start-Up but how in the world am I to know what belongs there and what doesn't. Like what does 35093:XW>IW mean? That's only a mild exaggeration of what it tells me is starting up. Also, it looks like I need everything I see in the Taskbar on the bottom right...things like security, quicktime (?), audio stuff, whatever. Although I think I saw somewhere that 66 programs were running. That is just too funny to believe. Could it be true? It just seems the more powerful the computer, the more cramped it is with zillions of files I don't need. It seems things aren't getting better, they're getting worse.

Also, I can't help but think that WordPerfect is incompatible with all computers but I don't like Word (that's WORD, not "the Word"). WP really does seem to cause problems a lot, for the last 13 years or so (for me).

I'd love to get through one day w/o having to wait a hundred times for 45 seconds for my cursor to respond. This happens allllll the time.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet, rob a bank and hire a computer expert to come diagnose and cure my computer?

Well, I do appreciate the things you've all said about your own programs and experiences, it helps me, warns me, and gives me encouragement as well. I'm learning from you.

Oh yea, there's another glitch in all this. I quality for free Vista with this computer. I'm afraid the world might just blow up if I install that. Seriously, I know WordPerfect won't work with it unless I buy WP's upgrade. Oh, woe is me!

Thanks again!

[C. Christofferson]

LT, check your PMs.

[Dave Potter]

I do an every-other-day deletion of temp files and cookies..... My RAM is 2 Gigs and I've got 400 Gigs of memory on the hard drive.... I'm disappointed that the sluggishness is STILL a problem (after upgrading to a new computer...

System looks fine, except, "400 Gigs of memory"...how much of that 400Gb is free space? It's HD free space that matters to system performance. Is "Indexing Service" enabled for the drive? It's unnecessary.

I did use "System Mechanic 7" for their 30 day trial and it seemed to work great, and would speed up the computer, but for a very short time, like for a half a day... It constantly found things that needed fixing

That was one of the main criteria used to rate the registry fixing utilities in the review I mentioned earlier. A good registry cleaning utility should find the majority of problems on the first run. PV16 lead the pack at that task.

... and needed to do defrags about every day, which as you know, takes 3 hours, and I can't be doing that every day.

Absolutely not. Chkdsk and defrag are proper things to do, but they shouldn't be required more often than once a month or less, IMO. It wouldn't be a bad idea to run the Chkdsk utility now, if you haven't, on your root drive, to rule out disk issues. From within Explorer, right click on the drive name, select Properties, Tools, Error Checking/Check Now, and check both checkboxes. Click "Start" and it will tell you it needs to reboot. Do that and let the process complete, and note whatever information appears during the process, especially anything that appears abnormal.

I think you have a good point about all my programs in Start-Up but how in the world am I to know what belongs there and what doesn't. Like what does 35093:XW>IW mean?

To see everything (except system files required by the OS) running at Startup, on your desktop, select All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information, Software Environment, and click on Startup Programs. The files that run at startup will be listed under the Command column.

If you want some information on what each file is/does, there are web resources that can help. One is here. Others I found with Google are here and here. There are others available, of course. If you're not sure about a particular startup file, I'm willing to venture an opinion here.

Also, it looks like I need everything I see in the Taskbar on the bottom right...things like security, quicktime (?), audio stuff

Two comments on that - (1) the systray icons do show the item running, but often, defeating the icon won't stop the program; often, having the icon in the systray is a user option, and the program can run without the icon in the systray. (2) Quicktime doesn't need to be in any startup list. If it's in yours, my advice would be to go into MSConfig and uncheck it. IMO, Quicktime is a bad joke, and I don't even have it on my system. YMMV.

Although I think I saw somewhere that 66 programs were running. That is just too funny to believe. Could it be true?

That would probably be the list in Task Manager (Cntrl-Alt-Del). As a point of reference, I count 38 processes in my own Task Manager as I type this, not counting the 12 others I have unchecked (and that don't run) in MSConfig. There are a lot of applications that install themselves as Startup programs that just simply are not required - you can start them manually as you need them - things like checks for updates, etc.

I'd love to get through one day w/o having to wait a hundred times for 45 seconds for my cursor to respond. This happens allllll the time.

That's a symptom of something wrong, but I doubt it's related to anything "startup". Faced with that issue myself, I'd first run Chkdsk as I mentioned above, and, if that didn't help, I'd next click Start, Run, then type in the box "sfc /scannow" (no quotes), and have my Win XP install disk handy in case it's required. This runs a system file check to be sure all your required operating system files are present, intact and in their original form.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet, rob a bank and hire a computer expert to come diagnose and cure my computer?

That would be one way to do it, but it would only be good for this time. If you spend the time required to work through this on your own, you'll be better able to deal with it next time.

Oh yea, there's another glitch in all this. I quality for free Vista with this computer. I'm afraid the world might just blow up if I install that. Seriously, I know WordPerfect won't work with it unless I buy WP's upgrade.

Definitely, don't do Vista until your present OS is stable. Vista's still in Beta, IMO. I'm not going to upgrade for quite a while.

If you hit a snag running some of these checks, report back.

[J Hill]

Dave,

I couldn't have asked for more. I have two errands to run and then I'm shutting down my WP documents and just concentrating on doing the tasks you suggested. I also just enrolled in my free Windows XP Class I got with my new computer. I'm glad you said what you did about Vista, now I'm not so anxious to get it. If XP would work right, I'd be happy enough. You'd asked about my 'free space'. I've got about 385 Gigs free so that shouldn't be a problem.

Thank you so much! and I will get back with you with the info I find out doing the tasks.

[J Hill]

I've downloaded the free 30 day trial of JV 16 Power Tools but haven't used them yet. My deadline for a WP document I've been working on is in a few days and I can't afford to mess it up before I get it finished, as I've been working on it for more than a year. I know I'll be coming back asking questions about the power tools when I start to use them.

I did the ckdsk and it took almost 4 hours. It was stage 5 that took so long, checking the free space. When it finished it didn't give me a report of any kind, so I don't know any more than I did before, whether it repaired anything or not.

I'll come back when my project is done and I can concentrate on fixing up this computer. I printed out everyone's suggestions and so very much appreciate all of you who helped me. I'll just say thanks a whole bunch for now and I'll be back later!

[Dave Potter]

My deadline for a WP document I've been working on is in a few days and I can't afford to mess it up before I get it finished, as I've been working on it for more than a year.....I did the ckdsk and it took almost 4 hours. It was stage 5 that took so long, checking the free space. When it finished it didn't give me a report of any kind, so I don't know any more than I did before, whether it repaired anything or not.

I appreciate the need to get on with the press of business. I assumed, maybe mistakenly, that you would expect the chkdsk process to take a little time on a 400Gb drive. But, IMO, there is value in a few minutes spent to actually view the results of the chkdsk run, if only for peace of mind. It only takes a couple of minutes, but should be done before too much more run-time passes, or it'll be harder to find.

I suggest going to Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Event Viewer and double-click "Application". Look at the column "Source" and scroll down the list looking for "Winlogon". Double-click it and the "Description" field should provide the chkdsk results.

[Lou[NE]]

Dave,

Thanks for telling how to find the chkdisk results. They get displayed at the end of the job, but not long enough for one to read them.

I didn't buy the full suite of JV16 tools, but did try and buy their RegSupreme Pro registry cleaner, which has worked well for me.

Lou

[Dave Potter]

Thanks for telling how to find the chkdisk results. They get displayed at the end of the job, but not long enough for one to read them.

I've found that to be true, as well, Lou. Since I upgraded recently to my new video card, an Nvidia e-GeForce 7950 GX2, I've encountered a new twist on that issue...when I run chkdsk, it runs, all right, I can tell from the time lapse it takes, as well as the "winlogon" entry, but, I don't get the blue progress screen anymore - all I see is a blank, black, screen. Wierd, and I've never had that happen before. Not sure if it's the card, the drivers (I've tried several, with no luck), or both.

But, in any event, the "winlogon" trick tells the tale.

Glad you found the info helpful.

[J Hill]

Good Morning,

Woe is me again. I had the Internet open and 2 documents in WordPerfect. I was working along in WP, typing away, and all of a sudden the hourglass, which I had to wait for many times, this time didn't go away. I closed the other document and the Internet but the hourglass remained. I gave it about 15 minutes (didn't want to loose my work) and it was still there so I did a Ctrl/Alt/Delete and ended the task.

The problem happens when I'm working in WordPerfect. And always has been, for many years in fact. I know the WP site has LOTS of bug fixing solutions, which to me means they know their program is incompatible with other programs, even the Internet it seems. That is disheartening to me because I like it so much better than WORD.

I must finish this document but am SO looking forward to using JV 16, etc., and getting to the heart of this problem. Back to work....

[Dave Potter]

I had the Internet open and 2 documents in WordPerfect. I was working along in WP, typing away, and all of a sudden the hourglass, which I had to wait for many times, this time didn't go away. I closed the other document and the Internet but the hourglass remained. I gave it about 15 minutes (didn't want to loose my work) and it was still there so I did a Ctrl/Alt/Delete and ended the task.

Sounds a lot like the problems are WP-related, either corrupt WP files or document templates, or something similar.

What version of WP are you running? Open Help/About and what does the version number say?

[J Hill]

Dave,

It's WP 12 and I've had it about a year. But for many years, no matter what version I've used, it has the same problems. Sometimes a box pops up and tells me I've got to save or rename the file. I can't rename it, it just won't take any string I put in the box. So it won't save it either. The only other option is 'delete' so one day when my longsuffering was done, I clicked on that. Nothing happened, the box just went away. So that's what I do now....it happened about 10 times today and then just went away.

Also, often when I push the save button, which I do every 10 minutes or so, a box comes up that says something about 'format', I forget its wording.

I know there are corrupted files. Really corrupted and I don't know how they got that way. But the pages are just full of little boxes instead of words. I have a hard time believing it was or is a virus. I've been using MailWasher for a very long time and I nothing hits my email program that I don't allow in. Also, I don't do a lot of Web stuff, just a Bible program and a couple of other dependable sites.

You seem to be a very good investigator. I like that. I've been suffering for years because of this.

[C. Christofferson]

Well, just so some more of the bases are covered, apologies if they have been already...System Restore back to a date before the problem started (it can be undone so there's little risk). Or, short of erasing/formatting the hard drive and doing a clean XP install you can insert the XP disk and choose Repair which is like a new install only (i think) it doesnt erase your personal files & programs, but of course dont risk it without backing them up. Perhaps some XP files are corrupted which causes WP to appear problematic.

[Dave Potter]

You seem to be a very good investigator. I like that. I've been suffering for years because of this.

Leila, Corel must have some kind of award ready for you after all those years of continuous customer loyalty under duress. But, seriously, we gotta' do something. This ain't right.

I've looked around some on the web, both the internet and in newsgroups, and from the looks of things, WordPerfect, in all its incarnations, isn't ("perfect", that is). It's been giving lots of folks lots of headaches much like yours. I haven't used WordPerfect since around v5, so I haven't kept up with the changes.

So far, I have not found anything useful on the Corel support site, though it may be there, I just haven't found it yet. I did find some information on this page that might be helpful.

You mentioned cryptic characters in the documents - those could be binary characters that shouldn't be appearing, and the first part of that page talks about "damaged (corrupted) document or template files", which seem to be a common issue with WordPerfect. It would probably be worthwhile to follow the steps provided to ensure your docs/templates are clean.

Toward the bottom of the page, he discusses the infamous "hourglass-and-fail" problem, and some fixes. This sound suspiciously like the cursor hangup issues you describe. More things to do and check.

often when I push the save button, which I do every 10 minutes or so, a box comes up that says something about 'format'

It's mentioned in Mr MacDonnell's page that a format error is a typical symptom of damaged documents or templates.

I know there are corrupted files. Really corrupted and I don't know how they got that way.

Well, as they say, "stuff happens". In computing, all it takes is one little "hiccup" during a read or write operation, and if the corrupted file happens to be a WP template or similar reusable file, it just propagates ad-infinitum. That would be one theory, at any rate.

The page I referenced contains a lot of things to check, and doing it will take some time. But, given the angst it's been causing you, it would probably be time well spent.

In the left column of that page, there are links to info on fixing other WP issues, but, initially, at least, I'd personally be focusing on the default docs and templates, creating fresh new ones. I'll keep looking for WP "fixes", but this is a big enough bite to chew off for now.

I DON"T believe this has anything to do with your Windows OS, from the descriptions of the symptoms.

[J Hill]

It's midnight and my document is due tomorrow. I'm not going to make it. The depressing thing about letting the WP site do all those fixes is that I don't trust that it won't happen again and again. I'm afraid I'm going to have to change Word Processing Programs. Is Word the best there is out there? I just really really like the Reveal Codes in WordPerfect.

Today I had only 2 WP docs open and all of a sudden I clicked to go to the 'other' document and it was a totally blank page with an hourglass in the middle. I shut down the Internet, couldn't shut down the other doc, waited awhile and it didn't correct itself. Did a shut-down again and re-booted.

When I'm further along on this document I'll spend the time it's going to take to go thru all these steps. Maybe try a fix on WP at least once before giving up. You are a hard taskmaster!

Thanks again! I'll be in touch.

[Dave Potter]

The depressing thing about letting the WP site do all those fixes is that I don't trust that it won't happen again and again.

That's a possibility, unfortunately. If WP contains bad code, user "fixes" would be just putting perfume on a pig. Won't hurt to try 'em, but no guarantees.

I assume you have installed the update(s) available for the software?

I'm afraid I'm going to have to change Word Processing Programs. Is Word the best there is out there? I just really really like the Reveal Codes in WordPerfect.

"Best" would depend on each user's preferences, I suppose, but MS Word seems to be the most widely-used word processor out there. I have Word 97 on my PC, and don't use it a lot, but the Help utility includes a section that reads

"Show or Hide Nonprinting Characters

While you view or edit a document on the screen, you can display characters such as tab characters, spaces, and carriage returns that don't appear on the printed page. (For example, Word uses arrows to represent tab characters and dots to represent spaces.) That way, you can easily see if you added an extra space between words, typed spaces instead of a tab character, and so on."

Is that what "Reveal Codes" does in WP? Mine's an old version (97), of course, since I don't do much word processing. In the newer versions, I think MS even got rid of the annoying "dancing paper clip". I would also expect that Word would be able to import and read a WordPerfect document, but it that document is corrupt, that could be problematic.

When I'm further along on this document I'll spend the time it's going to take to go thru all these steps. Maybe try a fix on WP at least once before giving up. You are a hard taskmaster!

Trying to be helpful. If you really don't want to wade through all those "steps" to try to fix the problems with WP, a simpler process would be to totally uninstall WordPerfect, run the JV16 registry cleaner, reboot, reinstall WP and the patches for it, reboot again, and see if WP behaves any better. If you decide to go that route, don't open any of your old documents till you try it with a new one - your old ones could re-introduce the corruption into the default document. Just a thought.

Good Luck.

[J Hill]

Christ and Dave,

Chris, a system restore wouldn't help because there has never been a time when things were running right. And I can't afford to lose anything I did even yesterday or today. But thanks for the reminder, I know the SR was very helpful to my mother one time, restoring her computer to perfect operation.

Dave, No I haven't installed any updates....my bad. Didn't cross my mind. duh

Reveal Codes lets you use the bottom part of your pages (as large an area as you want...I use about 1.5 inch) and it shows every code. If I do a copy/paste from an article on the Net I just drop down to the codes and delete them all, leaving italics and that sort of thing. If I don't delete them, they mess up my whole document. It also shows all the codes I've put in, like bold, ital, underline, etc. and they can be easily deleted. It's really helpful, last time I used WORD, I had to figure out how to undo all those things and it was time-consuming.

Your hard taskmastering is a good thing. This is almost therapeutic, no kidding, there is no one I know who knows anything about these problems and it's refreshing to converse with you. I just wish my document was finished so I could get with it and do some fixes. I can't wait.

I'll have to look for the WP 12 CD's. I hope I didn't just download it....again my bad.

Thanks and I'll be back!

[Dave Potter]

Dave, No I haven't installed any updates....my bad. Didn't cross my mind. duh

OK, that's the place to start. On the Corel site, there are updates for both the "standard" and "professional" WP12 versions - I don't know which yours is. But, smart money says always install updates. No telling what the update(s) might fix (hint, hint ). Again, no guarantees, but, just do it.

Thanks and I'll be back!

OK. Hope you can get your priority stuff completed without too much more hassle. We'll be here.

[J Hill]

Dave,

I installed the WP updates last night after shutting down all programs. There were 3 service pack installations. I'll find out today if it helps.

I have another question. In the bottom-right of my task bar is a continual yellow shied looking thing that, when I click on it, tells me its got a windows update. When I say okay, a big box comes up and says it's installing. Then it disappears and I don't ever know if it did, but the icon is there still in the taskbar and tells me there's an update...vicious cycle.

How can I change the 'automatic' updates from doing their thing in the early morning, when I boot up. It seems when its not updating, and I push the button on my tower to boot up, it makes a loud start up swishing noise. But other times it doesn't make the noise, but just boots up. Does that mean it was in the middle of an update?

Also, in the taskbar sometimes there's another 'update' for Active X but doesn't identify itself as a 'Windows' update so I've hesitated to install it. Thanks.

[Wiz Feinberg]

I have another question. In the bottom-right of my task bar is a continual yellow shied looking thing that, when I click on it, tells me its got a windows update. When I say okay, a big box comes up and says it's installing. Then it disappears and I don't ever know if it did, but the icon is there still in the taskbar and tells me there's an update...vicious cycle.

How can I change the 'automatic' updates from doing their thing in the early morning, when I boot up. It seems when its not updating, and I push the button on my tower to boot up, it makes a loud start up swishing noise. But other times it doesn't make the noise, but just boots up. Does that mean it was in the middle of an update?

Also, in the taskbar sometimes there's another 'update' for Active X but doesn't identify itself as a 'Windows' update so I've hesitated to install it. Thanks.

Leila;
You should run manual Windows Updates to see if anything is available and not yet installed. Tomorrow is Patch Tuesday at Microsoft and about a dozen critical or important patches will be pushed out during the day.

To run manual Windows Updates go to Start > (All) Programs > Windows Update. Internet Explorer will open and load the WU website. If you haven't done this recently you may be asked to install an ActiveX control to allow the WU site to function. It should be signed by Microsoft Corp. If so allow it to install. Then continue and either run Express or Custom checks for updates, accepting all available and rebooting afterward.

Regarding the un-named ActiveX control update, if it is for Flash Player it is ok, otherwise, unless it can be identified, leave it be for now.