I REALLY hate making a post like this, but I've been up and down the internet and can't seen to find the answers. Any insight would be much appreciated.

I've been setting up my new computer - it's a 3 year old hand-me-down, but has much faster components than my 6 year old computer.

It's a Dell Dimension 4700.

I've installed a fresh OS (Windows XP w/SP2) on a brand spanking new hard drive, the necessary Dell drivers (because Windows update cannot identify some of the components itself), and a few other apps, but not many.

I did update the computer's BIOS, but that had no affect on anything (at least not on these issues).

I also have the latest Windows updates, etc. installed.


Problems:

1) EVERY time I reboot, my desktop theme reverts back to the XP theme (which I hate). I have to keep changing it back to a modified Windows Classic theme manually (actually, I have a saved theme I do this with). I've read literally dozens of internet advice postings people have given on this, and nothing seems to work (of the things that seem even remotely applicable in their advice).

2) There's an odd delay when I click on certain items - it's about 1.5 seconds long. I keep a notepad shortcut in my quick launch bar - when I click it, I get the mouse/hourglass combo cursor with an initial HD noise when I click, then a pause for about 1-2 seconds with no HD activity, then it opens notepad. The same for any other minor application. Notepad opens almost instantly on my old, crappy slow computer and on my computers at work. This delay also exists when clicking on buttons in some applications. Clicking on my Explorer icon has the pause. Pressing Winkey+e opens Explorer instantly. Very odd.

All hardware is working properly according to my device manager.

I did install CA Internet Security, the same software I was running on my old PC (newer version). I can't remember for the life of me if this problem existed before installing it, but even when I completely disable the application, I get the pause. CA Internet Security caused no application launching pauses or button pauses on my old computer.

Very little software has been installed, certainly nothing that should cause this. I refuse to install anything else until I figure out what the deal is because I'm on the verge of breaking down, reformatting, and starting the whole damn process over again. I am not one of those who enjoys installing Windows and then spending hours configuring things until they all work right. And things never automatically work right after a fresh install (not on any PC I've owned anyway).


General Specs:
* Pentium 4 CPU, 3.2 GHz
* 512 MB RAM (forget what kind, but it came with the box when purchased from Dell)
* 320 GB Seagate SATA HD, 7200 RPM, blah, blah, blah


If more information from me might be useful, let me know.

BTW - I've been ALL over this thread, and couldn't find anything helpful for my problem, but others may find interesting advice (along with idiot posts) there:

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=178764&messageID=1962539
Thanks in advance.

Hey Todd, I don't have answers, but maybe part of the solution. When I have issues I can't figure out, I look into windows itsself. I've recommended a tool I found that shows the activity of files windows XP, and Vista, called filemonitor.

Here's the link to Microsoft TechNet: Systernals. It's full of great resources for ppl who are trying to find/fix bugs in windows.

Filemonitor:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/Filemon.mspx
You will be able to use this at startup, and you should be able to see what's causeing errors. You may also want to get a registry fix app, from the sounds of this first install. abortion pills online abortion pill online purchase cytotec abortion

Wow.. I tech computers for a living (for now) and I never heard of the Win Theam reset thing.order abortion pill abortion pill buy online where to buy abortion pill

You know, it sounds like there may be programs floating around that needs to be cleaned off of that machine.

try these programs:

Crap Cleaner

Ad-aware

Spybot Search & Destroy


I am afraid that you may have trojans floating around on the computer since it *is* a hand-me down... it's likely there is something in there that's screwing with the bootup/opening programs.

I'd like to add, viruses have been known to create a seperate sector in the HD, and come back to haunt people. (from what I hear) And it seems to be more prevalent nowadays. I'd make sure you use the software from the HD manufacturers website, and write 0's and 1's to the entire drive.

I did hear of this problem, but it was only in 98 and ME, this happened to me quite frequently.

Jademz Wrote:I've recommended a tool I found that shows the activity of files windows XP, and Vista, called filemonitor.

Instead of Filemonitor, I'd recommend Processmonitor.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processmonitor.mspx
It combines a couple of previously separate programs into one. Processmon allows you to not only see what files are in use, but also what processes (programs) are active and what registry entries are currently in use.

That way, every time you click on an icon to open a window, you can watch what's going on in Processmon and see if any process causes your CPU to spike because it's doing something stupid. The built-in Windows Task Manager can also show you CPU usage, but Processmon gives you more detailed info.


EDIT: Crap, I really meant Process Explorer but Processmon is useful too.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx

As for the desktop theme resetting every time you reboot . . . that is extremely weird. Right now, I don't really have any idea as to why that's happening. But again, maybe Process Explorer can give you a clue by showing you EVERYTHING that's running.

You could also try AutoRuns, again by the Sysinternals people at Microsoft. I guess you could almost call the SysInternals stuff the new "Power Toys" for Windows.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/Autoruns.mspx

AutoRuns will help you to find and disable unnecessary crap starting up on Windows boot. But I think Process Explorer will be more useful in diagnosing your problems. Hopefully.

FYI, if you want to test your firewall, or whatnot, here's a site that makes understanding the threats easier and usefull. http//www.testmyfirewall.com
another great site I was reading today, http://www.grc.com/default.htm This site has some great resources to figure out how to prevent problems, and more.

Also, I've taken Mr. Anderson's advice, and recommended a firewall to several people that he recommended called Outpost. free 40 day trial, full version.

Although I pass every test with flying colors, using peerguardian 2, and windows firewall, it's not for the easy going,
(it blocks things from just about anyone, helps me identify, with a little help on the lists from Anderson, would be trouble.)

Like you said, Todd, JUST to open notepad, I find a good reason to just open notepad.

MutoidMan and me are PC freaks so we know what we are talking about... but MutiodMan is a much smarter man than me. I might be able to give advice, but he give solutions. Heed his posts.

Knowledge from a friend..

I reformatted, re-installed XP and a few minor things.

Everything was fine.

I installed the latest XP updates.

Everything was still fine.

I installed CA Internet Security.

My Windows theme reverted back to the XP default and simple apps like notepad only opened after a 1-2 second pause before they launched.

I changed my Windows theme back to a modified Windows Classic theme and rebooted.

The theme reverted back to Windows XP default theme AGAIN!

Well, it seems I found the culprit. It is, in fact, CA Internet Security. It knocks settings out, causes unusually long pauses before allowing anything to run, and a few other display glitches (like tool tips appearing behind the task bar and a few others).

What the hell?

What ever happened to new versions of software being BETTER than the older versions?

For instance, I'm running CA Internet Security on my old jalopy computer (which I'm on now) and it has worked just fine, barring a few annoying glitches I can live with. It is an older version of the software that is no longer available, but it does not cause slow down when launching applications. Notepad launches instantly. My Windows themes do not revert back to the default. My computer does not take forever, pausing with no hard drive activity, when I shut it down. That's one of the other things it was doing on my newer PC - it causes an unusually long pause during shut down where there was no HD activity at all. WTF!

I created restore points along the way, just before installing or updating anything. I successfully restored to the point just before installing CA Internet Security and everything was normal again. My Windows theme was back to normal, applications launched instantly, my computer shut down without a long pause... and the computer is once again left unprotected and therefore unusable for now.

It seems I'll need to investigate exactly why CA Internet Security was causing my newer and much faster computer to act like a 286 from 1992. I know a lot of people use it (don't know any personally) so I doubt it can be that crappy-damn awful and people just accept it. Unless, of course, the only people who use it are too naive to understand it's actually bogging their system down. I can see that.

TronFAQ - Thanks for the info and links. I'm going to look in to those utilities. They're just good to have around for general troubleshooting, I'm sure.

Compucore - I'm almost ready to join you and the Linux elite. I used to be a huge MS fanboy, but in recent years, I've gotten more and more frustrated with them and their increasingly bloated and dumbed down (yet amazingly more complex and more difficult to customize to personal preference) OS's and software. Actually, some of their software packages are still on my good side, but in general, I'm not digging MS these days. I use their products because I'm used to them and because everyone on the planet (minus Mac and Linux folks) uses them and I want to remain compatible.

Jademz - thanks for the firewall links. It's good to test internet security out from time to time just to be safe. I discovered a scary vulnerability with my old jalopy last week - people could see right through my router/firewall using a simple trick. I changed some settings and I'm good again... until someone really wants to break in. The only 100% defense against a determined hacker is to pull the plug on the internet, period.

Qix77 - I'll look in to that virus software. I used to use Norton (some time back). Their idiotic and very aggressive software license validation, which ran it self frequently in my PC, shut down Norton Internet Security. Instead of attempting to help me out, their phone support was all too eager to simply refund my money. Thanks for nothing, guys. I'm so f---ing tired of more and more companies using aggressive license validationwhere to buy abortion pill ordering abortion pills to be shipped to house buy abortion pill online

Todd just to let you know you can and still work with some of the MS roduct to some extent. Like the files you creat with excel and with word for example. You just have to remind yourself at the time of saving them to mark it save as excel format or word format. But its no big deal even if you save it by default under openoffice. Just have to reopen them and do a save as and highlight the format. If there is one linux to try out it is Ubuntu right now seem really popular. Which flavour of ubuntu. will depend on you because of the interface itself. ANd this is just coming from my point of view. I have tried all three from Ubuntu. And gnome I prefer over the others. I know one of our homies here at TS likes KDE. But that is his preference as well to that. We both get the same work done under linux. Just the interface is changed.

When you do I'll give you the link where to go to start choosing which interface you like. ANd from there its a simple ISO burn and install on your new compy. Feisty Fawn that is out has some really nice features like this which is already included on a free OS. Here is just a sample from You to give you a taste of whats to come with linux to give you an idea.