[the great composto]

Have you tried searching the internet with your problem  'rundll32.exe using a lot of memory'  for example?
There are hundreds of forums with similar problems and usually the techies ask to see your 'hijackthis' log which tells them a lot about whats running on your system.
Try not to click any adverts on some of those sites that claim to sort it out for you - it is a source of viruses.

 

[RUSTYME]

You must be able to buy a sealed copy of xp off ebay for very little , £10 or less now , or ask on freecycle , someone will have a disc they no longer use .
I live on £40 or less a week so i know how hard it is to get things .
Once you have the disc , do the backup bit , data and software , and then format the hard drive , if need be , then install xp afresh .
You can also download openoffice free . It does all that microsoft office does , and all updates are free too .

[mab]

Can't help much, but I've never had a problem with AVG (free version) for AV, so I recommend that.

I've notice that Firefox seems to be slowing my system down more since it's last update ~few days ago. I'm thinking of dumping it and trying Google chrome.

Have to disagree with the majority though - don't get a MAC - they're overrated and vastly overpriced. The principal advantages with a MAC are:-

1. most viruses are targeted at MS
2. if you're not 'IT savvy' you can take your mac to an applestore and they'll sort it out - no charge. But you do pay for it when you buy the MAC.

marcus

[Dan]

Have to disagree with the majority though - don't get a MAC - they're overrated and vastly overpriced. The principal advantages with a MAC are:-

1. most viruses are targeted at MS
2. if you're not 'IT savvy' you can take your mac to an applestore and they'll sort it out - no charge. But you do pay for it when you buy the MAC.

Those may be the advantages for you, please don't presume you speak for everyone who ever owned a Mac.

The principal advantages for me are that:

1. It is vastly more reliable than a Windows PC (uptime for my main desktop iMac is 4 months at the moment).
2. It allows me to do between two and three times the amount of work a Windows PC did. That's primarily because I'm a web developer and OS X being *nix based means I can do all sorts of things I couldn't do on a PC. But it's also because I find the interface much more attuned to my way of working.
3. Many of the applications I use for my work are not available on Windows.
4. Backup, sync with phone/tablet, video conferencing, all work out of the box as part of the OS.
5. I can run Windows applications using Parallels.
6. It's built to last. My Macbook Pro is 5 years old and still used daily, and is as fast as the day I bought it.
7. It's much prettier to look at.

There's a lot more, but I expect I'm getting boring now.

[mab]

Well it certainly is subjective 

I have a cheap Acer laptop with XP and a macbook

1. It is vastly more reliable than a Windows PC (uptime for my main desktop iMac is 4 months at the moment).

If uptime is continuous 24/7 use,  I can't compare as I never leave my machines on.
 

6. It's built to last. My Macbook Pro is 5 years old and still used daily, and is as fast as the day I bought it.

my acer is still working after 7 years with no major issues, 1 of it's 4 usb ports is a bit flakey. My macbook (5yrs old but I've had it 2.5 yrs) had a key stop working, one of it's 2 usb ports stopped working and the other's getting flakey, and the backlight flickers and I have to flap the display part to make it come back on. Oh the mac's battery is failing too. both machines have slowed down.

... But it's also because I find the interface much more attuned to my way of working.

Well I've used MS for most of my work & personal computing and find the mac cumbersome by comparison - so I guess it's what you're used to.

4. Backup, sync with phone/tablet, video conferencing, all work out of the box as part of the OS.

I simply backup my stuff to an external drive (or three); I have a basic phone and no tablet. I use computers for internet access and paperwork so don't see the advantage of the other stuff. I only keep the mac as a backup system now as I prefer the windows machine - if I ever do get a virus the mac should be immune as it's a completely different system.

Oh, and the acer cost less new than the 2nd hand macbook.

I'd better stop now as I'm probably getting boring 

[Moleskins]

Dan and Mab
 Here folks we have the classic argument between Mac and PC user each will stand by his machine and swear by it almost to their dying breath.


My Mac has saved me loads of grief with the OH - I'm no longer waiting for updates, freezing, crashes, reboots, less wires all over the place, etc
Saving all that earache ...... Priceless   

[the great composto]

The OP probably wants help with their problem not a MAC / PC face off

[mab]

The OP probably wants help with their problem not a MAC / PC face off

Fair enough  But as there were a lot of folks advising that a mac would solve all ones IT problems, I felt I needed to add a bit of perspective

[Simple Simon]

I learned my computing on the HP 9845, if anyone remembers that marvel, and learned about spreadsheets using a VT125 into a VAX,  Then I got an original Mackintosh, mid eighties I guess.  But while I use an extensive range of Apple products to run my business I worry about a very large corporation devoted almost entirely to making money, a platform strategy aimed at making me keep spending more and some quite clunky products. 

Dan I don't know how you keep your machine alive so long when there's a constant stream if updates coming in from Apple.  I certainly shut down and restart my iPhone and iPad every few days otherwise they get badly behaved.  No way will I install Mountain Lion until the first half dozen fixes are dealt with:  Lion seemed to be just a stepping stone - except for Lion Server which was more jackal than lion.

Ellied, I suggest you uninstall Norton asap and replace it with free AVG.  I then suggest you uninstall all programs which you don't actually need.  Finally run some diagnostics on the disk.

[Dan]

Well it certainly is subjective 

My point exactly, which is why I was careful to say for me. As I said I was a happy XP user for years, absolutely nothing against Microsoft or PCs. 

Dan I don't know how you keep your machine alive so long when there's a constant stream if updates coming in from Apple.  I certainly shut down and restart my iPhone and iPad every few days otherwise they get badly behaved.  No way will I install Mountain Lion until the first half dozen fixes are dealt with:  Lion seemed to be just a stepping stone - except for Lion Server which was more jackal than lion.

I check the details of the automatic updates and only update if there are any critical security issues. I've got 8 desktops setup just the way I like them, and although Lion does a reasonable job of remembering what was where, some applications don't. 10.7.4 didn't seem to offer much, but I will shut down completely sometime soon and update.

ellied, sorry to have ever mentioned the Mac option now , hope you get your laptop sorted.

[bloomer]

ellied


i seem to remeber your not far from me, i can handle debugging a laptop, and i have just checked i still have cd's for xp sp3 with licence if its required.


if you would like me to have a look it would be next week (beginning of august) at the earliest and i'd probably need your laptop for a few days as i'd only be able to work on it evenings etc.


let me know if that would help you out...

[kegs]

We use Windows XP and also had trouble with Norton so now we use Spybot.  The one thing that slowed down our computer was using Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer email.  I got so fed up with the lack of speed and the freezing that I now use Google Chrome for web and email and we no longer have any problems.   

[ellied]

Update - I went with the advice to uninstall Norton despite having 135 days of license paid up still   Scary as the 99% was still with rundll32.exe and when I tried to download the free AdAware it crashed, then downloaded and wouldn't run.. so I gave up and went to bed

I've now spent much of today downloading it again and installing it on the same basis of 1-3% available capacity but it's done and AdAware found 1 thing that Norton hadn't but gave the rest, including the rundll32.exe a completely clean bill of health

I've deleted everything spare (caches, temp files etc) all over again, run a cleanup program and defragged the C drive, to find it has only 10% free space despite all the programs I'd removed.  I do have a couple of large things on there but in the process of double checking the defrag report I discovered a reason for having so little space free, other than my program/file sizes.. I'd forgotten way back when working there was a partition made for work files and I used to have to transfer from "my" partition to a smaller one that was a share with work's system   Light dawns, I have 2 copies of certain large programs and files, and about 80% of the other partition is free space because I don't transfer stuff to and from work systems any more     Now, how do I go about removing a partition or changing the relative sizes to reclaim some spare memory for my home partition space - I have to go through everything on the other partition obviously to see what is living there and what is copied to both sides, and may have to move some of the programs and files across before simply deleting, but I am also hoping that something of what I've done so far will let things run a little more smoothly, and I'm just waiting for the blasted rundll32.exe to dare take over again  after all the hours I've stared at this and waited to keep things going..

Bloomer that might be great, esp if you know about partition magic  

Mac vs PC is not a new debate, nor one either side will win as they fit very different users - back in the early days of working at the university the office staff needed PCs and the art college needed Macs but you'd never have imagined either persuading the other of the merits of their argument so I never got involved.  In my own situation I can't afford to invest in a new anything and what I'm trying to fix is a PC so that's the parameter of my enquiry, free fixes of a PC.  I'm grateful for all the ideas, some of which you'll see I've done my best to implement.  I'm watching the task manager for signs of another takeover attempt by the library

I'm considering the hijackthis as my next option, but it sounds a tad beyond my comfort zone so will wait and see how this goes first

[bloomer]

ellied i'll message you when i'm back from england and see if you still need the help...

[ellied]

Thanks, looks like I might well - it's slower than ever and the rundll32.exe has taken over again

I fear I need to tackle the scary hijackthis download, and may wreck everything in the process but it's driving me nuts   I'm going to check all the files on the other partition too and see if I can delete them and maybe remove it or shrink it too.. never tackled that before so could be interesting!