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OK. I hope this is in the right place -- near as I can tell [H] doesn't have a General Troubleshooting forum. I'm pretty sure my problem isn't hardware anyways. Not 100%. About 75%.
System -- Dell Inspiron 6400. I did not leave off an "E"
It's had some upgrades tho.
CPU = Core2Duo T7200
RAM = 3gb DDR-400 (Dell says 2gb max, chipset says 4gb max, Dell didn't do anything to stop me)
HDD = 250gb SATA (that's all I know) from eBay like a year ago
Intel Integrated Crap Graphics (I don't game anyways
Net card = Intel 6250 WiMAX PCIe Mini Card (also eBay)
I'm running 32bit XP Home SP3 with all latest updates. No, I'm not upgrading. Please don't waste your keystrokes. If I change OSes it'll be to Puppy Linux and I'm not really ready to make that jump yet. For the really technical: About Windows says "Version 5.1 (Build 2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.130107-0416 : Service Pack 3)". (2600?! Does Atari know about this...? LOL.)
I've replaced the keyboard (one key kept falling off) and the BIOS batt in the past but I really don't think those matter here.
Symptoms --
- Avast! Free AV wouldn't open. Some sort of config error in AvastUI.exe. Re-downloaded the installer. Runtime error unpacking it. Just now, downloaded installer on another system, ran it from a flash drive. Avast! Free now opens its UI. (It was gloriously out-of-date anyways.)
- Internet, and my computer in general, is REALLY FUCKING SLOW. Pages don't want to load, and when Chrome is open, the computer is sloth-on-serious-weed slow. I'm not noticing extra HDD access.
- Every time I close and reopen Chrome (eg on reboot) whether or not I've used CCleaner, I have to delete one of the cookies that Google stores, or I get some sort of error when I try to do a websearch. (IIRC it's an HTTP 18. Something about a socket not connected.) BTW, Chrome is set not to save sessions.
Steps I've taken that have not resolved my problem --
- Ran a MalwareBytes Anti Malware scan. Neither a fast scan nor a full scan found anything (I updated the database first, of course).
- Memtest86+ ran one full pass, no errors.
- A nifty trick my local tech uberguru taught me: booted into a linux distro via livecd. Opened terminal (having mounted the hard drive) and commanded it to cat /dev/sda/ > /dev/null -- took about an hour, but no read errors so probably not a physical drive issue.
I'd like to avoid taking this thing to my local tech uberguru. He's real nice and won't make me give him money (probably) but the thought of being without my main system for a day or two gives me the jibblies -- particularly since my spare system is an Asus netbook literally one half the size of my laptop!
Any suggestions before I turn the Dell over to Mr. Tech UberGuru tomorrow evening? The "deadline" (for lack of a better term) is 3pm tomorrow, US Eastern Time.
System -- Dell Inspiron 6400. I did not leave off an "E"
It's had some upgrades tho.CPU = Core2Duo T7200
RAM = 3gb DDR-400 (Dell says 2gb max, chipset says 4gb max, Dell didn't do anything to stop me)
HDD = 250gb SATA (that's all I know) from eBay like a year ago
Intel Integrated Crap Graphics (I don't game anyways
Net card = Intel 6250 WiMAX PCIe Mini Card (also eBay)
I'm running 32bit XP Home SP3 with all latest updates. No, I'm not upgrading. Please don't waste your keystrokes. If I change OSes it'll be to Puppy Linux and I'm not really ready to make that jump yet. For the really technical: About Windows says "Version 5.1 (Build 2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.130107-0416 : Service Pack 3)". (2600?! Does Atari know about this...? LOL.)
I've replaced the keyboard (one key kept falling off) and the BIOS batt in the past but I really don't think those matter here.
Symptoms --
- Avast! Free AV wouldn't open. Some sort of config error in AvastUI.exe. Re-downloaded the installer. Runtime error unpacking it. Just now, downloaded installer on another system, ran it from a flash drive. Avast! Free now opens its UI. (It was gloriously out-of-date anyways.)
- Internet, and my computer in general, is REALLY FUCKING SLOW. Pages don't want to load, and when Chrome is open, the computer is sloth-on-serious-weed slow. I'm not noticing extra HDD access.
- Every time I close and reopen Chrome (eg on reboot) whether or not I've used CCleaner, I have to delete one of the cookies that Google stores, or I get some sort of error when I try to do a websearch. (IIRC it's an HTTP 18. Something about a socket not connected.) BTW, Chrome is set not to save sessions.
Steps I've taken that have not resolved my problem --
- Ran a MalwareBytes Anti Malware scan. Neither a fast scan nor a full scan found anything (I updated the database first, of course).
- Memtest86+ ran one full pass, no errors.
- A nifty trick my local tech uberguru taught me: booted into a linux distro via livecd. Opened terminal (having mounted the hard drive) and commanded it to cat /dev/sda/ > /dev/null -- took about an hour, but no read errors so probably not a physical drive issue.
I'd like to avoid taking this thing to my local tech uberguru. He's real nice and won't make me give him money (probably) but the thought of being without my main system for a day or two gives me the jibblies -- particularly since my spare system is an Asus netbook literally one half the size of my laptop!
Any suggestions before I turn the Dell over to Mr. Tech UberGuru tomorrow evening? The "deadline" (for lack of a better term) is 3pm tomorrow, US Eastern Time.