Stand by not working & problems with windows explorer

muffler

I have an old PC here that I use most days for work - just typing and browsing etc. Its running on XP and for the last week or two it wont go into stand by mode for me. It gets as far as "windows is shutting down" and just hangs there and the only option I have then is to hold in the start or power button for a few seconds until it shuts down completely.

Just today I also noticed that I cant open more than one windows explorer tab (hope thats the right name). Every so often I have to move files and folders and I normally have 2 tabs open where i can just drag and drop from one folder in a tab to a different folder in another tab. Now the only way seems to be to cut and paste which takes an awful long time to find the different folders.

I did install a thing called "system mechanic" before Xmas which may or may not be responsible but I did a system restore and that didnt help in relation to the stand by issue. I also went into the system mechanic and "rolled back" everything it changed.

So Im stuck and have little or no knowledge of PCs and Im hoping someone might be able to help or advise.

Many thanks

Cuddlesworth

muffler wrote: »

Just today I also noticed that I cant open more than one windows explorer tab (hope thats the right name). Every so often I have to move files and folders and I normally have 2 tabs open where i can just drag and drop from one folder in a tab to a different folder in another tab. Now the only way seems to be to cut and paste which takes an awful long time to find the different folders.

Sounds like your hard-drive could be on its way out. Might be worth considering a replacement machine, putting money down on a windows XP box at this stage is a waste.

riclad

http://www.explorerxp.com/
download this install it.
do a full virus scan.
you could back up all files to a usb drive,
then reinstall windows xp if you have the install cd.
make sure you have the license key ready .write it down on paper .

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/ViewKeyXP.htm

https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/
do a full scan with this .

there,s no updates for windows xp,
its not secure to use on the web.

can you hear any noise from the drive, hardrive noise
like a grinding noise .
that indicates drive is close to failing.

Windows needs at least 3gig free space for temporary files ,
click on my computer drive c;

download this let it run. https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner get the free version

it frees up space ,deletes old temporary files ,


Windows will not run properly if drive c is full

riclad

Maybe its time to buy a new pc,
at least dual core cpu,500gig drive, windows 10,
see dell.com or www.elara.ie

no business should be running windows xp on a pc connected to the web.
even clicking on one ad can download malware to a pc.

Lu Tze

muffler wrote: »

I have an old PC here that I use most days for work - just typing and browsing etc. Its running on XP and for the last week or two it wont go into stand by mode for me. It gets as far as "windows is shutting down" and just hangs there and the only option I have then is to hold in the start or power button for a few seconds until it shuts down completely.

Just today I also noticed that I cant open more than one windows explorer tab (hope thats the right name). Every so often I have to move files and folders and I normally have 2 tabs open where i can just drag and drop from one folder in a tab to a different folder in another tab. Now the only way seems to be to cut and paste which takes an awful long time to find the different folders.

I did install a thing called "system mechanic" before Xmas which may or may not be responsible but I did a system restore and that didnt help in relation to the stand by issue. I also went into the system mechanic and "rolled back" everything it changed.

So Im stuck and have little or no knowledge of PCs and Im hoping someone might be able to help or advise.

Many thanks

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Sounds like your hard-drive could be on its way out. Might be worth considering a replacement machine, putting money down on a windows XP box at this stage is a waste.

Do a back up of any important files you have before you do anything. If the hard drive is on the verge of failing it could clap out in the middle of running virus/malware scans.

You can pick up some very cheap computers secondhand on adverts, Windows XP is no longer supported and likely will become more vulnerable to malware etc. in the future as there will be no updates.

riclad

I think its better to buy a new pc,
with windows 10,at last 500gig ,
than buying an old pc on adverts.ie to save maybe a 100euro.
WIndows 10 is a lot more secure than windows xp ,or even windows 7 .
old pc will probably have old software and older browsers
unless it has windows 10 installed on it.

muffler

Thanks guys.

I was hoping this old machine would keep me going for another while. I do back up the important stuff on a fairly regular basis but have now just backed up the entire shebang to be on the safe side.

boards is about the only bit of browsing I do on this PC when Im working from it as i just bought a new PC for home use.

Lu Tze

How old is the computer? Would you post up the specs?

Try and check to see if the hard drive is failing, try chkdsk and/or download hdtune and run a health scan. If everything is coming back ok run malwarebytes to see if it picks up anything.

Does it still meet your needs as regards work before these issues arose? If it does, and if the hard drive is connected by SATA cable (small narrow) instead of IDE (flat wide ribbon cable) it might be worth getting a new hard drive (~€40) and cloning your current one to it. If its IDE i think you are better off getting a new/secondhand machine, or using your other computer for work.

muffler

Lu Tze wrote: »

How old is the computer? Would you post up the specs?

Fairly sure I bought it around 05/06. Its a Dell Dimension 5000. The OS is XP. Pentium 4 CPU 3.20GHz, 3GB RAM. Radeon X300 graphics. 80Gb hard drive with approx 30Gb free.

Lu Tze wrote: »

Try and check to see if the hard drive is failing, try chkdsk and/or download hdtune and run a health scan. If everything is coming back ok run malwarebytes to see if it picks up anything.

I ran the chdsk and it was clear and Malwarebytes did detect a few things but they were all add ons and extension to browsers it seems which I have now quarantined. I'll google the "hdtune" you mention to see what it shows up.

Lu Tze wrote: »

Does it still meet your needs as regards work before these issues arose? If it does, and if the hard drive is connected by SATA cable (small narrow) instead of IDE (flat wide ribbon cable) it might be worth getting a new hard drive (~€40) and cloning your current one to it. If its IDE i think you are better off getting a new/secondhand machine, or using your other computer for work.

Its been a great little work horse for me over the years and its used mostly for word docs, PDFs, images etc that are generated and stored for work purposes. Also used for some email and browsing Boards. Its still flying here today in that regard but as I said earlier I can only get a single windows explorer "window" (hopefully thats what its called) to open at a time and I have to go the long way round when Im basically "filing" stuff from one folder to another. That has only began in the last few days.

In the last couple of weeks it hangs when I go to standby and end up having to shut it down.

I also notice that the browsers are hogging 100% of the memory for a little while, maybe 10 - 15 seconds when I open new tabs etc. This has been happening for quite a while but it wasnt like that a couple or few years ago. Maybe I just have too much rubbish accumulated over the years.

I'll need to get a look later to see hw the hard drive is set up and maybe the suggestion of getting another HD could well be the answer

yoyo

I'd recommend switching to a Linux based OS instead of using XP. Linux Mint is a very good choice. XP is out of support nearly 2 years now so I couldn't recommend keeping it, particularly if it is connected to the internet.
The fact MBAM detected some junk on the machine would suggest to me there could be some more junkware lurking there causing the browser memory usage issues/shut down problems.

Nick

muffler

yoyo wrote: »

I'd recommend switching to a Linux based OS instead of using XP. Linux Mint is a very good choice. XP is out of support nearly 2 years now so I couldn't recommend keeping it, particularly if it is connected to the internet.
The fact MBAM detected some junk on the machine would suggest to me there could be some more junkware lurking there causing the browser memory usage issues/shut down problems.

Nick

Thanks for that.

I'm not very savvy when it comes to these things but is it just a case of downloading and installing Linux mint or is there anything else I should watch out for or need to know? Is the day to day stuff very different from the likes of XP or Vista? How does MS office work with it etc etc?

I bought a new PC a couple of weeks ago and its running on Windows 8 and I couldnt get the bloody hang of it at all. Thankfully my son was able to download and install some yoke that makes it look like XP...at times anyhow

riclad

MY advice is backup all data to a usb drive .
And just do a reinstall of windows xp.
Copy the whole cd to a folder to test it,
make sure disc is work, see is there scratches on it first.
put xp disc in ,do cntrl a copy all files to a folder test folder ,
Windows mint comes with various text editors and a

libreoffice , librewriter ,similar to ms office .
and theres free software in menu,
software centre ,mint.
The way windows xp ,is designed ,its better to just reinstall it every 3 years .
it slows down. it gets slower and slower ,its a 10 year old os .
download ccleaner,
that gets rid of all junk,temp files 500-1gig on an average pc.http://www.digitalcitizen.life/how-copy-disc-cd-dvd-or-blu-ray-windows


i,d make a disc image of windows xp cd anyway,
in case it gets damaged in future .


You cant run ms office on mint linux os,

unless you were to set up a virtual machine ,vm ,
That,s a complex process for a non tech expert to do.

its easier to just set aside a 20gig partition,
and dual boot mint linux ,
you can download mint linux, burn image to a dvd ,
boot from cd,
if you wanna try it out .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv4_5U7BsY8

watch this .




mint is similar to windows 7, easy to use menu layout like windows 7.

On your pc it,ll run 2-3 times faster than windows xp.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010005/5-free-open-source-alternatives-to-microsoft-office.html


Apache OpenOffice lets you save documents in the OpenDocument format, read Microsoft Word documents and save your work in Microsoft Word format.

i think lbreoffice can read and save files in ms word format ,
i,m not sure to be honest.

apache office runs in the linux os.

mint is a version of linux os.

yoyo

muffler wrote: »

Thanks for that.

I'm not very savvy when it comes to these things but is it just a case of downloading and installing Linux mint or is there anything else I should watch out for or need to know? Is the day to day stuff very different from the likes of XP or Vista? How does MS office work with it etc etc?

I bought a new PC a couple of weeks ago and its running on Windows 8 and I couldnt get the bloody hang of it at all. Thankfully my son was able to download and install some yoke that makes it look like XP...at times anyhow

I would first recommend backing up all your files to an external hard disk/cloud/usb etc. After this installing Mint to keep your existing files is straightforward. There are videos on youtube such as this which will guide you.
Everything else will be quite similar. There is no Microsoft Office for Linux however LibreOffice that you can install under Mint includes everything you'd need.
Web browsers such as Chrome/Firefox also have Linux versions.
If you'd like to see more of mint there are plenty of videos on youtube such as this. It will also be much more secure to bring online than XP

Nick

riclad

Download this file
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=205
mint 32bit iso.
use burn image command from dvd burning program
.burn at speed ,2x or 4x.if you want to try it, put in dvd ,boot from cd/dvd .
Booting from cd ,does not touch any files on the hardrive ,
unless you choose to save a text file from libreoffice etc

muffler

Hmmm...seems as if this old horse got a new lease of life. Most likely, and Im just assuming here, after running malwarebites yesterday the PC is doing what its told now and is going into standby mode again when requested of course.

As stated earlier I ran the chdsk thingy yesterday and also ticked the option where it said something like "attempt to repair broken ????" so maybe that has helped. I also downloaded and ran HD Tune and it showed everything as being okay.

Regarding the multiple windows explorer windows being opened that is working as such. When I open my documents all I need do is open any folder and that then allows me to open another explorer window so thats all good.

If I could only now find some way of stopping the browsers from intermittently using 100% of ram I would be a happy camper for another while.

But thanks to everyone for their advice and help. I have bookmarked this page in the event that I need to return and go through the various options listed by you good people. Much appreciated

yoyo

muffler wrote: »

Hmmm...seems as if this old horse got a new lease of life. Most likely, and Im just assuming here, after running malwarebites yesterday the PC is doing what its told now and is going into standby mode again when requested of course.

As stated earlier I ran the chdsk thingy yesterday and also ticked the option where it said something like "attempt to repair broken ????" so maybe that has helped. I also downloaded and ran HD Tune and it showed everything as being okay.

Regarding the multiple windows explorer windows being opened that is working as such. When I open my documents all I need do is open any folder and that then allows me to open another explorer window so thats all good.

If I could only now find some way of stopping the browsers from intermittently using 100% of ram I would be a happy camper for another while.

But thanks to everyone for their advice and help. I have bookmarked this page in the event that I need to return and go through the various options listed by you good people. Much appreciated

As I said before, I wouldn't advise taking XP online these days. The fact MBAM found stuff being a good reason. XP hasn't been supported with security updates since April 2014!
If you do take it online, I'd advise against doing any banking/online payments etc. on the XP box.

Nick

muffler

yoyo wrote: »

As I said before, I wouldn't advise taking XP online these days. The fact MBAM found stuff being a good reason. XP hasn't been supported with security updates since April 2014!
If you do take it online, I'd advise against doing any banking/online payments etc. on the XP box.

Nick

Its grand in that regard. Boards is the only online site I visit from it

riclad

Download chrome or chromium browser ,32bit version
install Adblocker addon.
chromium is like chrome but sends no data to google.
http://chromium.woolyss.com/
and is safer to use than any other browser

delete all files from temporary internet folder,
go to browser menu ,settings,
delete all history ie and firefox browsers http://www.f-prot.com/support/customer_service/38.html

when theres thousands of old temp files on the drive can slow down windows
i fixed an old dell pc,.pentium 4
there was 3gig of useless temp files on it from various programs.

muffler

riclad wrote: »

download ccleaner,
that gets rid of all junk,temp files 500-1gig on an average pc.

Just a quick question on ccleaner. I downloaded and installed it in the past but never actually used it. To a PC dummy like myself it looked as if it would remove things that maybe I wanted to keep...I know, Im probably paranoid.

But whats the story with running it? Do you just use the default settings where everything appears to be ticked (for removal) or should certain boxes be un-ticked for any reason?

riclad

i just ran a scan on my laptop. i downloaded cc cleaner free version today.
dual core 2.o windows 7.
removed 715 meg . 506 meg temp internet files,
209 meg various temp files,
My advice click on menu,cc cleaner,before you do a scan untick ALL the boxes .in the menu ,registry section ,10 boxs ,untick em all ,
ie do not Allow it to change the registry in any way ,
IF you are running it on a windows xp pc.
its a bit risky to go near the registry on an old pc running windows xp.
as it may stop some old programs from running normally .

i installed avast free antivirus.
I did a full virus scan too.
it says no virus,es found ,only problem low quality passwords .
windows 7 was reinstalled on this laptop in 2013.
cleanscan takes 10 minutes .
I used to fix old pc,s , pentium 4,s running windows xp,or vista etc
the first thing i do is run ccleaner as there usually 1000,s of old temp file s
on pcs running windows xp,or windows vista.

ITS perfectly safe to use it on any pc, as long as
you untick, all the menu,
Registry section clean boxs, use default settings, scan, apart from ,the info above re registry clean ,boxs .