Number 204 - May 2000

486 Slowdown Baffles Owner
reported by Bob Thomson, Tacoma Open Group
My friend Ken, called to ask if I had any ideas about why his 486-66, running Windows 98, was slowing down. I thought that a 486 running Windows 98 was amazing in itself but he said it used to work fine. However, recently it has been taking a long time to respond to keyboard commands and mouse movements, sometimes taking on the order of 2 or 3 seconds to respond. I suggested that:     1) he shut down any programs in the System Tray on the lower right of the Windows 98 screen, and     2) go into his browser and clear out what, in Internet Explorer 5, are called the Temporary Internet files (cookies?) and History files, then     3) restart the computer.     He said he didn't think he had anything in the System Tray, but even if he did, the machine was operating normally before. He uses Netscape, but will look at cleaning up those types of files.     He called back the next day to say that he had cleaned up the Netscape files, and didn't notice much change. So he shut off power to the computer for several minutes and then restarted it. Guess what? It is back to running normally again.	Sometimes the simplest solution works even if it is not obvious why. Apparently with the machine turned on and running all the time, over a period of time more and more machine resources become allocated causing a system slowdown. Shutting it off --even for a short time--clears all these assignments and so resource allocation begins anew--with a "clean slate" so-to-speak.     This is sort like the kind of statement we've all heard before: "I didn't do anything! I just unplugged the component and plugged it back in, and now it works!" The fact is that you did do something. The act of unplugging it and plugging it back in probably cleaned corrosion, however minor, off pins or prongs or whatever gets "plugged in", improving the electrical connection. Here, emptying buffers, or cache memory, or whatever else is erased when the power is turned off, cleared up the problem. Another common solution with today's "Plug and Play" computers, is to delete a troublesome component from its assignment in the Control Panel and restart the computer. The modern-day start up Plug and Play routines will sense that the component is present but has not been "installed" for use with the operating system, so will proceed to re-install it.     When trying to solve a baffling problem, go for the simplest solution first--it is probably the right one. Don't overcomplicate things. We must stick together and mustn't let these machines get the upper hand!
Number 204 - May 2000