Minor Computer Issues

[JayOwl]

I guess this goes here...

I have a few problems with my computer that all started yesterday without explanation.

-Media Player won't play files. It will start up, then get stuck on "Opening Media", and when I force close it, it doesn't start up again unless I reboot.
-iTunes won't start, and when I go to "Processes" and try to kill it, it won't end. I have the same problem with Winamp and Media Player once it's been started up and closed.
-Google Chrome's flash player kills pretty much every page that I go to, so I had to disable it. Because of this I can't play youtube videos or similar.
-Firefox starts up, but then immediately stops responding.
-The computer is very slow at shutting down and logging off. I've had to manually restart/shut off it.
-When I get my Last.FM scrobbler working from one of my music players on the rare occasion that they actually work, it gets stuck on one song.

I don't understand why it all happened at the same time. Could it be a virus? Anyone here have any experience with this?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Could be anything. Scan for viruses, scan for malware, do a RAM test and a hard drive scan. Make sure all your drivers are up to date. If none of that turns up anything, reinstall Windows. If it keeps up after that, you're looking at a bad disk (that somehow doesn't know it's bad), or a bad motherboard.

Out of curiosity, what kind of computer is it? Brand and model number, that is.

 

[JayOwl]

XP Service pack 3...
System Manufacturer - "BIOSTAR Group"
System Model - "N61PB-M2S"

System restore doesn't work either- there aren't any restore points in the last month, where there are usually quite a few. It's as if they've been erased.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Definitely do a disk scan. It's possible Windows wiped out your System Restore points to free up space--and it's possible you are low on free space because sectors are going bad.

Check out how much space you have, do a disk scan, and look to see if any viruses/malware are on your system (which could also have wiped out your restore points.)

Your particular motherboard isn't known for having capacitor plague, so I think we can mostly rule that out.

 

[JayOwl]

I have two partitions. One is only 1.46GB "System C" and that's pretty much full (Only 24.2MB free). I have no idea what with though, because when I look into it, it's got nothing there. My main local disk "Local Disk H) has 226GB and 1.34GB of free space.

I'm installing AVG now, so hopefully that'll reveal anything.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Use WinDirStat to find out what's eating all your space. With that little space free, though, that is probably why System Restore doesn't have restore points available.

 

[JayOwl]

It's had this little space for a while though. It was perfectly fine on Sunday. I've downloaded WinDirStat, and it's checking.

ETA: On "System C" there's one file called "pagefile.sys" taking up exactly 98.7% of the space.
Should I delete that one, or is it important?
On Local Disk H it's mostly program files, and a large chunk of that in Steam.
ETA2: Wow... Empire Total War and Napoleon take up 38.5GB together... I don't even play them anymore.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I guess springtime brings new problems. I've solved a few things just by deleting the temp directory, and it's felt like a new computer ever since. However, new problem started to crop up. I've got 3 Windows updates that won't install. I go through the process of installing them, it doesn't say anything about it failing, yet the same 3 updates are ready to install moments later. Did a bit of searching, and it looks like I might have to re-register some of the files related to Windows Update.

 

[Captain Ice]

Jaytrek, pagefile is the name of the file your pc uses on the hard drive for your memory. You can adjust it, but do not delete it.

Kind of sounds like there are multiple things going on. Your partition may be too small too.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I have two partitions. One is only 1.46GB "System C" and that's pretty much full (Only 24.2MB free). I have no idea what with though, because when I look into it, it's got nothing there. My main local disk "Local Disk H) has 226GB and 1.34GB of free space.

I'm installing AVG now, so hopefully that'll reveal anything.

Are you serious? That's way too little. Firstly I think your system partition is too small, secondly on H that's only half a percent free space. Clear up 20GB, then try again. Your computer has absolutely no space to swap files around.

 

[JayOwl]

Jaytrek, pagefile is the name of the file your pc uses on the hard drive for your memory. You can adjust it, but do not delete it.

Kind of sounds like there are multiple things going on. Your partition may be too small too.

Maybe. I haven't deleted it anyhow.

In that case, is it possible to safely transfer it to Local Disk H? I'm guessing cutting and pasting it wouldn't cut* it.

*Pun not intended.

ETA: It came like that. I never really understood why I had a partition. It's like this:

 

[Roger Wilco]

No, don't. I'm almost certain it's a critical file. Delete some of the games you don't play anymore or videos you don't care about anymore.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

What you can do is use the Windows Disk Management tool to shrink your larger partition (you'll need to clear some space first), then expand the other one so you at least have a couple gigabytes free. But you are definitely overusing your disk space. I suggest investing in another internal drive, or perhaps an external one if you've got a lot of media files.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Actually after a quick googling, I have to revise what I said earlier, I think the main issue is the tiny system partition, since the "pagefile.sys" actually is the file used for virtual memory by Windows. Maybe buying more RAM would be a solution, but I doubt that's worth it for a computer that apparently is approaching an advanced age. If you give more space to the swap file, it would keep all those programs running at least, although not as fast as if you had sufficient RAM.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yeah, I actually missed that he had under 100MB of free space on his primary partition, the first time around.

That is absolutely not acceptable. Windows will behave very badly without any free space to play with. You should have at least a couple gigs free on your primary partition at all times after accounting for the pagefile's maximum size.

 

[JayOwl]

^It's been warning me about it for ages, but when I tried clearing it I couldn't find anything. I only found the huge file when I used the tool you gave me the link for.

What you can do is use the Windows Disk Management tool to shrink your larger partition (you'll need to clear some space first), then expand the other one so you at least have a couple gigabytes free. But you are definitely overusing your disk space. I suggest investing in another internal drive, or perhaps an external one if you've got a lot of media files.

Disk management? It sounds like a good idea- I'll try uninstalling a couple of things then do whatever it is I have to do to swap space around. I'll look at it soon, but I've got to go right now. A couple of hours maybe. I have been thinking about another hard drive- I think I may have some old ones laying around somewhere.

 

[backstept]

try CCleaner. It'll do a scan of unnecessary temporary files you can delete. I run it every few weeks and it cleans up a ton of junk.

 

[trekkiedane]

While there is an active thread with similar content I'd like to ask the more tech-savvy posters what they think of Soluto (https://www.soluto.com/).

It seems like a good idea -but is it any good?

 

[JayOwl]

I'm going to try uninstalling those total war games I mentioned earlier, that should free up around 38GB. The only thing is I need steam to remove them, and it's not opening!! So irritating. I will as a soon as possible.

ETA: Steam worked, and I removed the games. I have 40GB free space on Local Disk H now, but when I go to "Computer Management" and try to right click on one of the disks the window freezes...

 

[Yoda]

I would move my pagefile to the H drive for now. I think in XP to get there you want to right click on My Computer, click properties, go to the Advanced tab, click Settings in the Performance section, then Addvanced again, then Change under Virtual Memory. Add H there, give it a couple of GB, or just let Windows automatically size it, set C to no paging file, and if the pagefile.sys still exists on C after you apply your settings and reboot, simply delete it.