Painfully Slow XP System

[Deano]

Anybody have suggestions for a slightly older PC with XP running like
crap?? I have tried everything, stopped programs from startup and
background. Nothing seems to work. Is this common in an SP3 setup? Can
I attempt a repair install with a SP3 CD?? It's a PITA, but this old
puppy used to run much faster. ;-Deano

 

[Jose]

   Anybody have suggestions for a slightly older PC with XP running like
crap??  I have tried everything, stopped programs from startup and
background.  Nothing seems to work. Is this common in an SP3 setup? Can
I attempt a repair install with a SP3 CD?? It's a PITA, but this old
puppy used to run much faster. ;-Deano

Check out this post and provide the general information requested by
Jose at or around 11:15AM today (unless you just want to try things).

http://groups.google.com/group/micr.../browse_thread/thread/cc6e1a638f7d2ece?hl=en#

 

[John]

I had IE8 causing it on my old PC. Went back to IE7 and this fixed it
immediately.

 

[neil]

The best way will be to format & start again, but I suspect you don't want
to go down that route. How much memory does the machine have, what virus
scanner? how much free space on the hard drive.

Post the spec and more info.
Neil

 

[Daave]

Anybody have suggestions for a slightly older PC with XP running
like crap?? I have tried everything, stopped programs from startup
and background. Nothing seems to work. Is this common in an SP3
setup? Can I attempt a repair install with a SP3 CD?? It's a PITA,
but this old puppy used to run much faster. ;-Deano

Here are the usual causes of sluggishness:

1. Malicious software (malware). You need to rule this out first! This
page has excellent information:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Viruses_Malware

2. Certain programs that are designed to combat malware (e.g., Norton
and McAfee). Ironically, they can slow things down because they simply
use way too many resources. Sometime they cause conflicts with other
programs. And their default mode is to scan your entire hard drive each
time you boot up. Fortunately, there are other antimalware programs
available that use far fewer resources (e.g., NOD32, Avast, and Avira).

3. Too many of certain types of programs always running in the
background -- with or without your knowledge. (Then again, many programs
that run in the background have trivial consequences.)

To determine every program and process you are currently running, use
the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Processes tab. You should
be able to sort by CPU usage or Memory usage to get a good ideas which
ones are the resource/memory hogs. You should write down the names of
all the processes for future detective work (or take a snapshot and
print it out).

Use these sites to determine what these programs are and to learn how to
configure them not to always run at startup:

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php#THE_PROGRAMS
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Sometimes it is recommended to use msconfig to configure the programs to
not run at startup. A better, more thorough program is Autoruns:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

But before you do this, you should use the preference settings of the
program in question. Otherwise, for some programs, they will return to
the startup list anyway!

If you do wish to use msconfig, it may be accessed this way:

Start | Run | type "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) | Enter (or
OK)

4. Not enough RAM, which causes the PC to overly rely on the pagefile. A
quick way to determine if this is happening is to open Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click the Performance tab. Then note the three values
under Commit Charge (K): in the lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit,
and Peak.

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
In case you want to explore this further, you may run Page File Monitor
for Windows XP:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

5. You might also want to check that your hard drive's access mode
didn't change from DMA to PIO:

http://www.technize.com/2007/08/02/is-your-hard-disk-cddvd-drives-too-slow-while-copying/

and

http://winhlp.com/node/10

 

[Db]

one of the best ways to
test windows performance
is to boot into safe mode.

if performance is better
in safe mode, it then
means that the core
system files are in
good shape and there
is no need to repair or
reinstall the o.s.

another thing you can
try is to set the page
file / virtual memory
to a custom size.

go the virtual memory
control console and
ensure you have only
1 page file.

then set the custom size
with initial = 2 and max
= 1150.

another thing you might
try is to uninstall programs
you rarely use.

--
--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

DatabaseBen, Retired Professional

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This NNTP newsgroup is evolving to:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

 

[Crankymonkey]

Anybody have suggestions for a slightly older PC with XP running like
crap?? I have tried everything, stopped programs from startup and
background. Nothing seems to work. Is this common in an SP3 setup? Can
I attempt a repair install with a SP3 CD?? It's a PITA, but this old
puppy used to run much faster. ;-Deano

Things to check:

-Hardware problems? Bad RAM, bad HDD (PIO mode instead of UDMA), overheating CPU etc?

-Malware? Some nasties can be a bit tricky to find. Scan with a decent anti-virus as well as a malware scanner.

-Fragmentation? File fragmentation, particularly of the MFT, critical system files etc will slow down stuff and extend boot times. Defrag the drive; may help to reduce the boot time.

 

[Tecknomage]

Anybody have suggestions for a slightly older PC with XP running like
crap?? I have tried everything, stopped programs from startup and
background. Nothing seems to work. Is this common in an SP3 setup? Can
I attempt a repair install with a SP3 CD?? It's a PITA, but this old
puppy used to run much faster. ;-Deano

First, and foremost, ALL versions of Windows are resource hogs and
will slow down older systems.

New versions of MS apps make it slower, like IE8 or MS Office 2007.
You'd be surprised how much longer it takes MS Outlook 2007 to open
when compared to MS Outlook 2003.

Most especially, if you installed "Windows Search 4" on a old system,
that is a very big mistake. Suggest you uninstall it via Add Remove
Programs.

As for WinXP SP3; when you installed that you made your old "WinXP
Setup CD" useless (unless you do have a OEM WinXP Pro SP3 Setup CD).
You can thank Microdunce for NOT warning you about this BEFORE you
installed SP3, nor offering to *sell* you a WinXP SP3 Setup CD for
your version (Home/Media-Center/Pro).


As to the rest....

You should be doing the following manually, on a regular bases, as a
*OS Maintenance Plan*:


[1]From the Command Prompt, run CHKDSK C: /F (will require reboot)

[2]Defrag/Optimize your hard drives (suggest a better utility than Win
Defrag, see below)

[3]Run Disk Cleanup in System Tools menu (do not select compressed
files) or the *much better CCleaner* (see below)

[4]Use [Delete files] in Internet Options between runs of Disk Cleanup

[4]Remove unnecessary backup files (see below, JAVA & Win Updates)

[5]Run a good, safe, Registry Cleanup tool (see below)

JAVA: If you are using Sun's JAVA (and you should), when they
install updates, they ADD them. They do not replace older versions of
JAVA. These can take up much hard drive space. You should only keep
the latest version and use Add/Remove Programs to uninstall all older
versions. Example, have JAVA 6 installed, remove JAVA 5.


WIN UPDATES: When Windows installs updates, it makes backups of the
changed files so you can uninstall them via Add/Remove Programs. These
backup files also take up much hard drive space.

If an Update has been installed AND working without a problem, you
will unlikely uninstall it. So the backup file is no longer needed.
You need to remove the backup file, AND the entry in Add/Remove
Programs, *but* leave the Update Logs so Win Updates always sees them
as installed.

One safe way I recommend is using Update Cleanup (shareware).
http://www.pcshareware.com/update.htm"
See the screen shot on their page. Very easy and safe to use. Worth
the cost. I use it at home and work. I just keep 6mths of updates.


REGISTRY CLEANUP: If your Registry has errors in it, this can cause
problems. There are tools/utilities that will scan your Registry and
report errors, and remove them.
CAUTION - Some Microsoft MVPs do not like
Registry Cleaners, but I've never had problems with the ones listed
here.

One utility I have used is TweakNow RegCleaner. The Standard version
is free, the Pro version is small cost (worth it), and backs up
changes (see comparison on page).
http://www.tweaknow.com/RegCleaner.html

Another is RegCure (which I use at home). http://www.regcure.com/

Note: TweakNow is very easy to use and clearly indicates Safe to
delete, Unknown (use Deep Scan to resolve), and Unsafe to delete.


HARD DRIVE DEFRAG/OPTIMIZERS: There are 2 good utilities I've used.

Auslogics Disk Defrag (freeware)
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag

Perfect Disk (worth the cost).
http://www.raxco.com/home_office/home_perfectdisk_professional.cfm"

One advantage of Perfect Disk is that, with Smart Placement enabled,
it uses the WinXP LAYOUT.INI (Prefetch file that lists all the
software loaded during bootup) to move all those files to the head of
your drive, in order. This results in slightly faster and smoother
bootup.


CCleaner (works with WinXP/Vista/Win7/Windows-Server-2003)
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Just be careful on what you select to clean.

Here's the link to my Blog on this:
http://magepages.blogspot.com/2008/10/winxp-operator-system-maintenance.html


One addition:
Virtual Memory (aka Paging File) settings,
(right-click My Computer, select Properties, Advanced tab)
you should set "Initial size" = "Maximum size" = 2x your system's
memory, IF you have enough hard drive space.

Better, *IF* you have a 2nd PHYSICAL hard drive, put your Paging File
there. Example: My home system has C:/D: on HD0 and I have my Paging
File on E: (E:/F: on HD1).


In closing, the above OS Maintenance may not make your old system
faster, but it should help.

 

[Twayne]

In

Without a full description of you system it's impossible to do anything but
guess.

 

[John John - MVP]

REGISTRY CLEANUP: If your Registry has errors in it, this can cause
problems. There are tools/utilities that will scan your Registry and
report errors, and remove them.
[snip]...
...
Another is RegCure (which I use at home)...

Wow... you really are in the dark as to this (RegCure) snake oil,
aren't you? Why don't you surf through these results and see for yourself:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...dcclifecare.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Notice anything in common in all the results? Even the bogus comments
are the same on all the pages.

Now take a look at the results from another bogus domain from these same
snake oil salesmen:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...te:subnixus.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Now look at their prognosis for 0x0000009c error:

http://www.dcclifecare.com/list/0x0000009c.html
http://www.subnixus.com/stop-error-codes/0x0000009c.html

and look at another post from another bogus site from a Mr. Ted Kwong,
another one of their bogus "Computer Specialist":

http://www.pctuneupadvisor.com/tech...GID=955549013&OVADGRPID=9323029401&OVNDID=ND1

Go ahead, click on these links and see for yourself!

So what do you think of a company who would setup bogus sites and have
bogus "Computer Specialists" give out such outrageously erroneous
information? For this particular company, their products, and
"specialists", the terms snake oil and hucksters are well deserved.

For any and all who would want to know, 0x9C errors are Machine Check
Exception errors thrown by the processor when it detects hardware
problems, hardly has anything to do with the registry and no registry
cleaner will ever be able to repair this!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284
Stop error message in Windows XP that you may receive: "0x0000009C

It really is laughable, do a search on these bogus sites for other well
know errors which have absolutely nothing to do with the registry and
you will get the same kind of bogus advice and nonsense from these crooks!

John

 

[Twayne]

In

REGISTRY CLEANUP: If your Registry has errors in it, this
can cause problems. There are tools/utilities that will
scan your Registry and report errors, and remove them.
[snip]...
...
Another is RegCure (which I use at home)...

Wow... you really are in the dark as to this (RegCure)
snake oil, aren't you? Why don't you surf through these results and
see for yourself:
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...dcclifecare.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Notice anything in common in all the results? Even the
bogus comments are the same on all the pages.

Now take a look at the results from another bogus domain
from these same snake oil salesmen:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...te:subnixus.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Now look at their prognosis for 0x0000009c error:

http://www.dcclifecare.com/list/0x0000009c.html
http://www.subnixus.com/stop-error-codes/0x0000009c.html

and look at another post from another bogus site from a Mr.
Ted Kwong, another one of their bogus "Computer Specialist":

http://www.pctuneupadvisor.com/tech...GID=955549013&OVADGRPID=9323029401&OVNDID=ND1

Go ahead, click on these links and see for yourself!

So what do you think of a company who would setup bogus
sites and have bogus "Computer Specialists" give out such
outrageously erroneous information? For this particular
company, their products, and "specialists", the terms snake
oil and hucksters are well deserved.
For any and all who would want to know, 0x9C errors are
Machine Check Exception errors thrown by the processor when
it detects hardware problems, hardly has anything to do
with the registry and no registry cleaner will ever be able
to repair this!
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284
Stop error message in Windows XP that you may receive:
"0x0000009C
It really is laughable, do a search on these bogus sites
for other well know errors which have absolutely nothing to
do with the registry and you will get the same kind of bogus advice and
nonsense
from these crooks!
John

Well, you claim to know a lot about where NOT to go; why not give some info
on where TO go? Or is that beyond you?

 

[Jose]

InJohn John - MVP <[email protected]> typed:

Tecknomage wrote:

REGISTRY CLEANUP: If your Registry has errors in it, this
can cause problems. There are tools/utilities that will
scan your Registry and report errors, and remove them.
[snip]...
...
Another is RegCure (which I use at home)...

Wow...  you really are in the dark as to this (RegCure)
snake oil, aren't you?  Why don't you surf through these results and
see for yourself:
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geuoyAXQVMXx8ARCNXNyoA?p=how+to...

Notice anything in common in all the results?  Even the
bogus comments are the same on all the pages.

Now take a look at the results from another bogus domain
from these same snake oil salesmen:

Now look at their prognosis for 0x0000009c error:

and look at another post from another bogus site from a Mr.
Ted Kwong, another one of their bogus "Computer Specialist":

Go ahead, click on these links and see for yourself!

So what do you think of a company who would setup bogus
sites and have bogus "Computer Specialists" give out such
outrageously erroneous information?  For this particular
company, their products, and "specialists", the terms snake
oil and hucksters are well deserved.
For any and all who would want to know, 0x9C errors are
Machine Check Exception errors thrown by the processor when
it detects hardware problems, hardly has anything to do
with the registry and no registry cleaner will ever be able
to repair this!
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284
Stop error message in Windows XP that you may receive:
"0x0000009C
It really is laughable, do a search on these bogus sites
for other well know errors which have absolutely nothing to
do with the registry and you will get the same kind of bogus advice and
nonsense
from these crooks!
John

Well, you claim to know a lot about where NOT to go; why not give some info
on where TO go? Or is that beyond you?

John John = snake oil
Jose = Recovery Console, MBAM, SAS
PA Bear = Expired Norton or McAfee
Db = try clean boot/safe mode

Twayne = ???

 

[Unknown]

Twayne--------Registry Cleaner.

InJohn John - MVP <[email protected]> typed:

Tecknomage wrote:

REGISTRY CLEANUP: If your Registry has errors in it, this
can cause problems. There are tools/utilities that will
scan your Registry and report errors, and remove them.
[snip]...
...
Another is RegCure (which I use at home)...

Wow... you really are in the dark as to this (RegCure)
snake oil, aren't you? Why don't you surf through these results and
see for yourself:
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geuoyAXQVMXx8ARCNXNyoA?p=how+to...

Notice anything in common in all the results? Even the
bogus comments are the same on all the pages.

Now take a look at the results from another bogus domain
from these same snake oil salesmen:

Now look at their prognosis for 0x0000009c error:

and look at another post from another bogus site from a Mr.
Ted Kwong, another one of their bogus "Computer Specialist":

Go ahead, click on these links and see for yourself!

So what do you think of a company who would setup bogus
sites and have bogus "Computer Specialists" give out such
outrageously erroneous information? For this particular
company, their products, and "specialists", the terms snake
oil and hucksters are well deserved.
For any and all who would want to know, 0x9C errors are
Machine Check Exception errors thrown by the processor when
it detects hardware problems, hardly has anything to do
with the registry and no registry cleaner will ever be able
to repair this!
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284
Stop error message in Windows XP that you may receive:
"0x0000009C
It really is laughable, do a search on these bogus sites
for other well know errors which have absolutely nothing to
do with the registry and you will get the same kind of bogus advice and
nonsense
from these crooks!
John

Well, you claim to know a lot about where NOT to go; why not give some
info
on where TO go? Or is that beyond you?

John John = snake oil
Jose = Recovery Console, MBAM, SAS
PA Bear = Expired Norton or McAfee
Db = try clean boot/safe mode

Twayne = ???

 

[Tecknomage]

REGISTRY CLEANUP: If your Registry has errors in it, this can cause
problems. There are tools/utilities that will scan your Registry and
report errors, and remove them.
[snip]...
...
Another is RegCure (which I use at home)...

Wow... you really are in the dark as to this (RegCure) snake oil,
aren't you? Why don't you surf through these results and see for yourself:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...dcclifecare.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Notice anything in common in all the results? Even the bogus comments
are the same on all the pages.

Now take a look at the results from another bogus domain from these same
snake oil salesmen:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...te:subnixus.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Now look at their prognosis for 0x0000009c error:

http://www.dcclifecare.com/list/0x0000009c.html
http://www.subnixus.com/stop-error-codes/0x0000009c.html

and look at another post from another bogus site from a Mr. Ted Kwong,
another one of their bogus "Computer Specialist":

http://www.pctuneupadvisor.com/tech...GID=955549013&OVADGRPID=9323029401&OVNDID=ND1

Go ahead, click on these links and see for yourself!

So what do you think of a company who would setup bogus sites and have
bogus "Computer Specialists" give out such outrageously erroneous
information? For this particular company, their products, and
"specialists", the terms snake oil and hucksters are well deserved.

For any and all who would want to know, 0x9C errors are Machine Check
Exception errors thrown by the processor when it detects hardware
problems, hardly has anything to do with the registry and no registry
cleaner will ever be able to repair this!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284
Stop error message in Windows XP that you may receive: "0x0000009C

It really is laughable, do a search on these bogus sites for other well
know errors which have absolutely nothing to do with the registry and
you will get the same kind of bogus advice and nonsense from these crooks!

John,

You are making an incorrect assumption. I did "surf" (Google) on
*many* registry cleaners. Even tried/tested others.

I just have the opinion that Regcure is good AND I have been using it
for years on my home system, and have absolutely no problems. Not one
fault or crash. Even tested it at work (WinXP) on our IT Test rig,
again no problems at all.

Note I have been in the business for over 30yrs now. I am NOT a
novice.

How long have you been using Windows?

 

[John John - MVP]

REGISTRY CLEANUP: If your Registry has errors in it, this can cause
problems. There are tools/utilities that will scan your Registry and
report errors, and remove them.
[snip]...
...
Another is RegCure (which I use at home)...

Wow... you really are in the dark as to this (RegCure) snake oil,
aren't you? Why don't you surf through these results and see for yourself:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...dcclifecare.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Notice anything in common in all the results? Even the bogus comments
are the same on all the pages.

Now take a look at the results from another bogus domain from these same
snake oil salesmen:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...te:subnixus.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Now look at their prognosis for 0x0000009c error:

http://www.dcclifecare.com/list/0x0000009c.html
http://www.subnixus.com/stop-error-codes/0x0000009c.html

and look at another post from another bogus site from a Mr. Ted Kwong,
another one of their bogus "Computer Specialist":

http://www.pctuneupadvisor.com/tech...GID=955549013&OVADGRPID=9323029401&OVNDID=ND1

Go ahead, click on these links and see for yourself!

So what do you think of a company who would setup bogus sites and have
bogus "Computer Specialists" give out such outrageously erroneous
information? For this particular company, their products, and
"specialists", the terms snake oil and hucksters are well deserved.

For any and all who would want to know, 0x9C errors are Machine Check
Exception errors thrown by the processor when it detects hardware
problems, hardly has anything to do with the registry and no registry
cleaner will ever be able to repair this!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284
Stop error message in Windows XP that you may receive: "0x0000009C

It really is laughable, do a search on these bogus sites for other well
know errors which have absolutely nothing to do with the registry and
you will get the same kind of bogus advice and nonsense from these crooks!

John,

You are making an incorrect assumption. I did "surf" (Google) on
*many* registry cleaners. Even tried/tested others.

I just have the opinion that Regcure is good AND I have been using it
for years on my home system, and have absolutely no problems. Not one
fault or crash. Even tested it at work (WinXP) on our IT Test rig,
again no problems at all.

Note I have been in the business for over 30yrs now. I am NOT a
novice.

You might have been in business for 30 years but with all due respect it
doesn't make you any less gullible! RegCure is snake oil peddled by
scam artists and still with your 30 years of experience you've been had
by these con artists!

You want to get the ultimate scam? See this from the same bunch of cons:

How to Fix Paretologic Errors
http://www.fix-pc-tools.com/?kw=Par...D=1311110513&OVADGRPID=13361367401&OVNDID=ND1

Now that is the ultimate 'circular' scam! It doesn't get any better
than that, screw up peoples computers with one scam then scam them again
with another scam to fix the first scam! There are countless bogus web
sites from these same guys and they all push the same scam and the same
useless products.

You, as a computer specialist, would recommend these products and steer
your customers toward these Canadian scam artists? If one of your
customers were to call you telling you that they were experiencing 0x9C
errors would you have them run a registry cleaner? Or how about this
idiotic nonsense from the same bunch of crooks:


Are You Having Trouble with Error Permission Denied?

Problem: Error Permission Denied is caused by missing system files or
broken system registry structures....

http://error-repair-help.com/suppor...D=6314428521&OVADGRPID=13842720409&OVNDID=ND1

Would you have your customers run a registry cleaner to "repair" Access
Denied errors? And you approve of these scams? Do you think that
Access denied errors are caused by "missing system files or broken
system registry structures"?

Need to know more... read on:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...paretologic+scam&fr=yfp-t-501&fr2=sfp&iscqry=

Why would any self respecting professional with 30 years of experience
push these products and steer his customers to scams operated by
unscrupulous individuals devoid of any morals? If you must push
registry cleaners at least push the ones from honest individuals and
companies rather than the ones from crooks and pariahs!

How long have you been using Windows?

Completely irrelevant to registry cleaning scams by Paretologic but if
you must know I cut my teeth on Novell networks atop DOS backbones and
we adopted the NT platform in 1996.

John

 

[Unknown]

30 years and you still haven't learned??

REGISTRY CLEANUP: If your Registry has errors in it, this can cause
problems. There are tools/utilities that will scan your Registry and
report errors, and remove them.
[snip]...
...
Another is RegCure (which I use at home)...

Wow... you really are in the dark as to this (RegCure) snake oil,
aren't you? Why don't you surf through these results and see for
yourself:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...dcclifecare.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Notice anything in common in all the results? Even the bogus comments
are the same on all the pages.

Now take a look at the results from another bogus domain from these same
snake oil salesmen:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...te:subnixus.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Now look at their prognosis for 0x0000009c error:

http://www.dcclifecare.com/list/0x0000009c.html
http://www.subnixus.com/stop-error-codes/0x0000009c.html

and look at another post from another bogus site from a Mr. Ted Kwong,
another one of their bogus "Computer Specialist":

http://www.pctuneupadvisor.com/tech...GID=955549013&OVADGRPID=9323029401&OVNDID=ND1

Go ahead, click on these links and see for yourself!

So what do you think of a company who would setup bogus sites and have
bogus "Computer Specialists" give out such outrageously erroneous
information? For this particular company, their products, and
"specialists", the terms snake oil and hucksters are well deserved.

For any and all who would want to know, 0x9C errors are Machine Check
Exception errors thrown by the processor when it detects hardware
problems, hardly has anything to do with the registry and no registry
cleaner will ever be able to repair this!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284
Stop error message in Windows XP that you may receive: "0x0000009C

It really is laughable, do a search on these bogus sites for other well
know errors which have absolutely nothing to do with the registry and
you will get the same kind of bogus advice and nonsense from these
crooks!

John,

You are making an incorrect assumption. I did "surf" (Google) on
*many* registry cleaners. Even tried/tested others.

I just have the opinion that Regcure is good AND I have been using it
for years on my home system, and have absolutely no problems. Not one
fault or crash. Even tested it at work (WinXP) on our IT Test rig,
again no problems at all.

Note I have been in the business for over 30yrs now. I am NOT a
novice.

How long have you been using Windows?



--
======== Tecknomage ========
Computer Systems Specialist
IT Technician
San Diego, CA

 

[Tecknomage]

Tecknomage wrote:

REGISTRY CLEANUP: If your Registry has errors in it, this can cause
problems. There are tools/utilities that will scan your Registry and
report errors, and remove them.
[snip]...
...
Another is RegCure (which I use at home)...
Wow... you really are in the dark as to this (RegCure) snake oil,
aren't you? Why don't you surf through these results and see for yourself:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...dcclifecare.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Notice anything in common in all the results? Even the bogus comments
are the same on all the pages.

Now take a look at the results from another bogus domain from these same
snake oil salesmen:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...te:subnixus.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

Now look at their prognosis for 0x0000009c error:

http://www.dcclifecare.com/list/0x0000009c.html
http://www.subnixus.com/stop-error-codes/0x0000009c.html

and look at another post from another bogus site from a Mr. Ted Kwong,
another one of their bogus "Computer Specialist":

http://www.pctuneupadvisor.com/tech...GID=955549013&OVADGRPID=9323029401&OVNDID=ND1

Go ahead, click on these links and see for yourself!

So what do you think of a company who would setup bogus sites and have
bogus "Computer Specialists" give out such outrageously erroneous
information? For this particular company, their products, and
"specialists", the terms snake oil and hucksters are well deserved.

For any and all who would want to know, 0x9C errors are Machine Check
Exception errors thrown by the processor when it detects hardware
problems, hardly has anything to do with the registry and no registry
cleaner will ever be able to repair this!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284
Stop error message in Windows XP that you may receive: "0x0000009C

It really is laughable, do a search on these bogus sites for other well
know errors which have absolutely nothing to do with the registry and
you will get the same kind of bogus advice and nonsense from these crooks!

John,

You are making an incorrect assumption. I did "surf" (Google) on
*many* registry cleaners. Even tried/tested others.

I just have the opinion that Regcure is good AND I have been using it
for years on my home system, and have absolutely no problems. Not one
fault or crash. Even tested it at work (WinXP) on our IT Test rig,
again no problems at all.

Note I have been in the business for over 30yrs now. I am NOT a
novice.

You might have been in business for 30 years but with all due respect it
doesn't make you any less gullible! RegCure is snake oil peddled by
scam artists and still with your 30 years of experience you've been had
by these con artists!

You want to get the ultimate scam? See this from the same bunch of cons:

How to Fix Paretologic Errors
http://www.fix-pc-tools.com/?kw=Par...D=1311110513&OVADGRPID=13361367401&OVNDID=ND1

Now that is the ultimate 'circular' scam! It doesn't get any better
than that, screw up peoples computers with one scam then scam them again
with another scam to fix the first scam! There are countless bogus web
sites from these same guys and they all push the same scam and the same
useless products.

You, as a computer specialist, would recommend these products and steer
your customers toward these Canadian scam artists? If one of your
customers were to call you telling you that they were experiencing 0x9C
errors would you have them run a registry cleaner? Or how about this
idiotic nonsense from the same bunch of crooks:


Are You Having Trouble with Error Permission Denied?

Problem: Error Permission Denied is caused by missing system files or
broken system registry structures....

http://error-repair-help.com/suppor...D=6314428521&OVADGRPID=13842720409&OVNDID=ND1

Would you have your customers run a registry cleaner to "repair" Access
Denied errors? And you approve of these scams? Do you think that
Access denied errors are caused by "missing system files or broken
system registry structures"?

No I would not.

Regcure is not meant to fix on-going problems with systems. No
registry cleaner is a "fix specific problem" utility. They are meant
to find POTENTIAL problems that MAY be caused by errors in the
Registry, like references to non-existing files.

What I use registry cleaners (Regcure and others) for is to remove
Registry entries left behind by poorly written Uninstallers. A good
uninstaller (and there are a few) remove everything, including
Registry entries for the uninstalled software.

One way to identify products with poorly written Uninstallers is when
full uninstall requires download (from the publisher's support) a
special "cleanup" utility for the software.

Need to know more... read on:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...paretologic+scam&fr=yfp-t-501&fr2=sfp&iscqry=

Why would any self respecting professional with 30 years of experience
push these products and steer his customers to scams operated by
unscrupulous individuals devoid of any morals? If you must push
registry cleaners at least push the ones from honest individuals and
companies rather than the ones from crooks and pariahs!



Completely irrelevant to registry cleaning scams by Paretologic but if
you must know I cut my teeth on Novell networks atop DOS backbones and
we adopted the NT platform in 1996.

Hay, good John, another old-timer.

My first computer TRS-80 (CP/M), True-IBM no-HD (MS-DOS), now build my
own systems running WinXP SP3.

Professional: Desktop PCs starting in the same period as you (in USN),
Novel Server (Production Test Server at Unisys), built/tested
Mainframes at Unisys (used a combination of WinXP, Unix, Customized
Win2003 Server), computer controlled (WinXP) Phone Switching
equipment, have a Linux (Ubuntu) Notebook now (for self-training).



Also, I am NOT saying that Regcure does not have problems. But, in a
collage-level class I took (required by Unisys) the instructor brought
out that with ANY product you will get 6 customer complaints for every
1 customer praise (if you're lucky). What you read, or get responses
to, will be heavily weighted to those having problems but that is not
an accurate measure of any product because it is not balanced by those
who find the product fills their expectations.


So, if you had problems with Regcure, then don't use it.

I have the "Regcure Pro v3" installed on my home WinXP SP3 system, and
(as I've said) been using it for several years now without any
problems. BUT I do not use it to FIX problems, I use it as a
*preventative* cleanup tool for the Registry.



By the way, have any opinion on "Comodo System Cleaner" (includes a
Registry Cleaner)? This is what we use at work on our (Win2003 Server
STD) Fileserver.
http://system-cleaner.comodo.com/

But again, it's not used to FIX problems (and we have none to date). I
would not recommend this for the non-techie home user.

It does have one fault, the "exclude from next scan" feature *seems*
not to work properly. I just never use it.

 

[Daave]

I have the "Regcure Pro v3" installed on my home WinXP SP3 system, and
(as I've said) been using it for several years now without any
problems. BUT I do not use it to FIX problems, I use it as a
*preventative* cleanup tool for the Registry.

What *specific* benefits do you attribute to using this particular
utility?

 

[John John - MVP]

On Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:01:50 -0300, John John - MVP

Tecknomage wrote:

REGISTRY CLEANUP: If your Registry has errors in it, this can
cause problems. There are tools/utilities that will scan
your Registry and report errors, and remove them. [snip]...
... Another is RegCure (which I use at home)...
Wow... you really are in the dark as to this (RegCure) snake
oil, aren't you? Why don't you surf through these results and
see for yourself:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...dcclifecare.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0



Notice anything in common in all the results? Even the bogus
comments are the same on all the pages.

Now take a look at the results from another bogus domain from
these same snake oil salesmen:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...te:subnixus.com&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0



Now look at their prognosis for 0x0000009c error:

http://www.dcclifecare.com/list/0x0000009c.html
http://www.subnixus.com/stop-error-codes/0x0000009c.html

and look at another post from another bogus site from a Mr. Ted
Kwong, another one of their bogus "Computer Specialist":

http://www.pctuneupadvisor.com/tech...GID=955549013&OVADGRPID=9323029401&OVNDID=ND1



Go ahead, click on these links and see for yourself!

So what do you think of a company who would setup bogus sites
and have bogus "Computer Specialists" give out such
outrageously erroneous information? For this particular
company, their products, and "specialists", the terms snake oil
and hucksters are well deserved.

For any and all who would want to know, 0x9C errors are Machine
Check Exception errors thrown by the processor when it detects
hardware problems, hardly has anything to do with the registry
and no registry cleaner will ever be able to repair this!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284 Stop error message in
Windows XP that you may receive: "0x0000009C

It really is laughable, do a search on these bogus sites for
other well know errors which have absolutely nothing to do with
the registry and you will get the same kind of bogus advice
and nonsense from these crooks!

John,

You are making an incorrect assumption. I did "surf" (Google) on
*many* registry cleaners. Even tried/tested others.

I just have the opinion that Regcure is good AND I have been
using it for years on my home system, and have absolutely no
problems. Not one fault or crash. Even tested it at work (WinXP)
on our IT Test rig, again no problems at all.

Note I have been in the business for over 30yrs now. I am NOT a
novice.

You might have been in business for 30 years but with all due
respect it doesn't make you any less gullible! RegCure is snake
oil peddled by scam artists and still with your 30 years of
experience you've been had by these con artists!

You want to get the ultimate scam? See this from the same bunch of
cons:

How to Fix Paretologic Errors
http://www.fix-pc-tools.com/?kw=Par...D=1311110513&OVADGRPID=13361367401&OVNDID=ND1



Now that is the ultimate 'circular' scam! It doesn't get any
better than that, screw up peoples computers with one scam then
scam them again with another scam to fix the first scam! There are
countless bogus web sites from these same guys and they all push
the same scam and the same useless products.

You, as a computer specialist, would recommend these products and
steer your customers toward these Canadian scam artists? If one of
your customers were to call you telling you that they were
experiencing 0x9C errors would you have them run a registry
cleaner? Or how about this idiotic nonsense from the same bunch of
crooks:


Are You Having Trouble with Error Permission Denied?

Problem: Error Permission Denied is caused by missing system files
or broken system registry structures....

http://error-repair-help.com/suppor...D=6314428521&OVADGRPID=13842720409&OVNDID=ND1



Would you have your customers run a registry cleaner to "repair"
Access Denied errors? And you approve of these scams? Do you
think that Access denied errors are caused by "missing system files
or broken system registry structures"?

No I would not.

Regcure is not meant to fix on-going problems with systems. No
registry cleaner is a "fix specific problem" utility. They are meant
to find POTENTIAL problems that MAY be caused by errors in the
Registry, like references to non-existing files.

What I use registry cleaners (Regcure and others) for is to remove
Registry entries left behind by poorly written Uninstallers. A good
uninstaller (and there are a few) remove everything, including
Registry entries for the uninstalled software.

One way to identify products with poorly written Uninstallers is when
full uninstall requires download (from the publisher's support) a
special "cleanup" utility for the software.

Need to know more... read on:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...paretologic+scam&fr=yfp-t-501&fr2=sfp&iscqry=



Why would any self respecting professional with 30 years of
experience push these products and steer his customers to scams
operated by unscrupulous individuals devoid of any morals? If you
must push registry cleaners at least push the ones from honest
individuals and companies rather than the ones from crooks and
pariahs!


Completely irrelevant to registry cleaning scams by Paretologic but
if you must know I cut my teeth on Novell networks atop DOS
backbones and we adopted the NT platform in 1996.

Hay, good John, another old-timer.

My first computer TRS-80 (CP/M), True-IBM no-HD (MS-DOS), now build
my own systems running WinXP SP3.

Professional: Desktop PCs starting in the same period as you (in
USN), Novel Server (Production Test Server at Unisys), built/tested
Mainframes at Unisys (used a combination of WinXP, Unix, Customized
Win2003 Server), computer controlled (WinXP) Phone Switching
equipment, have a Linux (Ubuntu) Notebook now (for self-training).



Also, I am NOT saying that Regcure does not have problems. But, in a
collage-level class I took (required by Unisys) the instructor
brought out that with ANY product you will get 6 customer complaints
for every 1 customer praise (if you're lucky). What you read, or get
responses to, will be heavily weighted to those having problems but
that is not an accurate measure of any product because it is not
balanced by those who find the product fills their expectations.


So, if you had problems with Regcure, then don't use it.

I have the "Regcure Pro v3" installed on my home WinXP SP3 system,
and (as I've said) been using it for several years now without any
problems. BUT I do not use it to FIX problems, I use it as a
*preventative* cleanup tool for the Registry.



By the way, have any opinion on "Comodo System Cleaner" (includes a
Registry Cleaner)? This is what we use at work on our (Win2003
Server STD) Fileserver. http://system-cleaner.comodo.com/

But again, it's not used to FIX problems (and we have none to date).
I would not recommend this for the non-techie home user.

It does have one fault, the "exclude from next scan" feature *seems*
not to work properly. I just never use it.

I don't think much of anything about any of these cleaners but at least
the Comodo one isn't a massive scam like the Paretologic one. I'll
grant you this much that in some situations and in the hands of a
competent person they might have limited use as a diagnostic tool but
other than that they are next to utterly useless. If anyone ran one on
my server I would break their fingers! By their very nature once set up
servers are not "tampered" with like home machines and they are very
stable, IMHO cleaning the registry on a server is just plain and simply
nuts!

At one time I too thought that these cleaners served a purpose. Why?
Because I didn't know any better, everybody was spreading the same
gospel and I believed the vendors of these programs. That was when I
was using Windows 95 on my home machine. I knew next to nothing about
Windows and like everybody else I ran these cleaners just because that's
what folks were doing, I never noticed any improvement when running them
but out of faith I ran the cleaners anyway.

After we migrated our work network from Novell over DOS to an NT4
network I thought that I should also run registry cleaners on my NT4
boxes. It didn't take too long for me to realize that the cleaners did
absolutely nothing to improve performance on any of our machines and
that it broke some of our applications. One of my boxes was up to
MFC42.dll but a Xerox printer that we had attached to the box couldn't
work with that MFC version, it required MFC40.dll so this dll was kept
and registered on the NT4 box. Every time a cleaner was run it would
remove the registration for this file and the whole Xerox software would
fall apart and the printer would stop working. That was the last straw,
these cleaners did absolutely nothing to maintain the health of my
machines and they did nothing to improve performance, quite to the
contrary they were breaking our software. By that time I was a bit more
savvy about Windows NT and I came to realize that these cleaners were
utterly useless and that they were causing more harm than good so
I dumped the whole lot of them. And, oh yes, I tried more than a few or
them, RegClean, CleanSweep, RegCleaner/JV16 and a few others. They're
all the same, they're all utterly useless and a complete waste of time,
Windows NT operating systems don't need registry cleaning, running these
cleaners as a maintenance/prevention routine is nothing but a fool's errand.

John