The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Startup items/processes

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by ConfusedCollegeGuy, Dec 14, 2005.

  1. ConfusedCollegeGuy

    ConfusedCollegeGuy Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    40
    Messages:
    57
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    OK, so I have an Inspiron 2200 with really basic capabilities. It whines and struggles with much more than Office. I have AOL, and it's rare that using it doesn't slow my computer's speed down to a crawl. What are the absolute essential drivers and services that I need? I don't care about all these extras, just that everything will run... and i'd like my antivirus to start itself and update automatically.
    Thanks!
     
    ConfusedCollegeGuy, Dec 14, 2005
    #1
  2. eagle07

    eagle07 Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    75
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    eagle07, Dec 14, 2005
    #2
  3. nathanhuth

    nathanhuth Notebook Evangelist NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    117
    Messages:
    592
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    My suggestion is to get rid of AOL. It really bogs down any system. It also likes to infect a pc by placing aol all over your machine. I consider AOL a virus.
     
    nathanhuth, Dec 14, 2005
    #3
  4. SoFloAcer

    SoFloAcer Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    6
    Messages:
    87
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I agree wholeheartedly with nathanhuth....AOL is the last thing you want on your computer. If you absolutely must have AOL, it would probably help to bump up your memory.
     
    SoFloAcer, Dec 14, 2005
    #4
  5. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    22,339
    Messages:
    36,639
    Likes Received:
    5,078
    Trophy Points:
    931
    Get rid of AOL! That is THE crappiest software and service that you can get...Verizon DSL is something you should look at.

    Go over to www.theeldergeek.com, and you can find out which services are needed, etc. Very helpful.

    Bumping the RAM will definitely help.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Dec 14, 2005
    #5
  6. Amber

    Amber Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    1,659
    Messages:
    5,066
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    Have you reformatted already? If not, it might be best. Dell has a bunch of junkware on thier system that automatically start when you reboot. If you get rid of the junkware, you'll gain more space and your laptop will be healthier. To limit the number of programs that start, you can use MSCONFIG which is discussed in the link posted by eagle07.

    SG
     
    Amber, Dec 14, 2005
    #6
  7. drumfu

    drumfu super modfu

    Reputations:
    436
    Messages:
    3,651
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    how much ram do you have?

    512 should be the minimum. 1 gb would be great.

    memory is really inexpensive now, you shuld be able to find a good deal online.
     
    drumfu, Dec 14, 2005
    #7
  8. ConfusedCollegeGuy

    ConfusedCollegeGuy Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    40
    Messages:
    57
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I would get rid of AOL, but my parents pay for it! I have used the msconfig thing to disable the "nonessential" things, but i still ended up with 40-something processes running. And I uninstalled most of the stuff that Dell put on there, but I haven't reformatted. I'm kind of worried I'd manage to screw things up even more. Should I be? I saw the post by southern girl about it, and it sounds fairly straight forward.... I called Dell and got the XP and drivers CD's (though I left them in my dorm room). I only have 256 MB of RAM, which is clearly a big part of the problem, but I hate to put even a little bit of money into this computer, as I'm trying to talk my parents into getting me a mac sometime within the next year or so.
     
    ConfusedCollegeGuy, Dec 14, 2005
    #8