I'm Getting Really Frustrated - Non Responsive Messages On.....

[global1]

everything I do on the internet. I've tried everything I could think of to remedy this situation & nothing seems to work. I would appreciate anyone's help out there so that I can correct this situation. How do I solve this 'non responsive' situation?

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Non responsive as in IT issues or being ignored here?

[RKP5637]

2. More detail is needed. n/t

[global1]

3. I Open My E-Mail Program Or DU & They Freeze Up & I.....

get a 'non-responsive' message and my mouse won't let me click on anything. I'll reboot the computer and the same thing happens the next time I open my browser and any program. I reset defaults. I ran chkdsk. Defrag is on automatic and a message came up that a defrag was unnecessary. I cleaned out temp files, cache, trash bin, etc and it still is happening. Then I went to my anti-virus program and when I opened it - I got the same non-responsive message. After a long time it finally became responsive and now I'm running a computer optimization task. It is a laptop computer. It's running slow as well. This message I'm writing here is being sent from my iTouch. I thought it might be a problem with my internet provider - but my iTouch & Samsung S7 are able to access the internet - thru my wifi - and are functioning fine.
I have a lot of work to accomplish on my laptop and this non-responsive thing has held me back. Any suggestions will be appreciated. NOTE: This whole thing started about 4 days ago.

[RKP5637]

5. Is it completely browser related? n/t

[global1]

8. I Don't Think So As I'm Having Problems....

accessing just about everything. I'm able to get to the Control Panel but once in it I'm unable to access any of the features. I can't get to my security program. The laptop is just acting very slow.

[RKP5637]

9. That's about as far as I can help. It sounds like you are using Windows and I'm on

Linux and not familiar anymore with the later Windows releases. Hopefully someone else can be of more help! I hope you get it fixed. I can't recall, did you do memory and disk tests? Are you able to see what applications are running. It sounds like something might be hogging the system?

[canetoad]

7. Sounds to me

That your laptop is running too many tasks in the background and you have simply run out of CPU cycles.

Turn off auto defrag. It's not necessary. Likewise any registry optimisation tasks. If you are on Windows of any flavour, how many icons do you have in your SysTray? (That's the section of taskbar on bottom right, next to the clock) Each one of those icons is something running in the background.

As a test, reboot laptop, at the same time tapping the F8 key to boot into safe mode. This loads windows with a minimum of resources. If everything runs well in Safe Mode, you can confidently bet that it's one or more programs causing the Not Responding message.

[global1]

10. I Went Into Safe Mode And Am Still Getting.....

non responding messages. I'm running in Windows Vista. Can you tell me how I can delete the startup programs in the SysTray?

[canetoad]

11. Doing this from memory

As I don't have a Vista machine here.

First you need to have the 'Run' command showing in the menu when you click on the Start button. If you already have it, OK. If not:
Right click on the start button
Select Properties
Click Customise (or Customize for you guys )
Then check the box third down 'Display Run'

OK. Now you should have a new item in your start menu. Run....

Click on it and type in msconfig and hit enter

A dialogue box with several tabs across the top will open. Select 'Startup' on or near the right hand side

Every ticked box is something that runs at startup. I reckon you can safely turn them ALL off except any of these you are running:
Anti-virus
Anti-malware
VPN

You won't do any damage and if your a bit trepidacious, make a note of what you've turned off so you can restore if not happy. Click OK and it will tell you to reboot.
On reboot you should get a message about making changes. Just go yeah, yeah, yeah.... and close the box.

I've seen literally dozens of programs fight for CPU cycles at startup. Also helps shut down the machine more efficiently not to have all this shit running, most of which was put there without your knowledge!

Feel free to PM if anything goes pear-shaped.

[global1]

4. I'm Sorry The Message Says 'Non Responding'

Not 'non-responsive'.

[Phoenix61]

6. I have Comcast and they use Norton

My laptop was doing the same thing. I couldn't even get the task manager to open. I clicked on the Norton icon and it wanted to scan, backup ... do something. Started checking that first, doing what it wanted to do and the problem went away.

[canetoad]

12. Yup. Bloody good point.

I've taken Norton off that many machines, I can't count. It's a bugger to get rid of.
If you want to ditch it and try one of the freebies, Google "Norton Removal Tool". Can't give you a link as the tool is updated quite often. Download the removal tool from Norton site. It's safe.

Run the tool, reboot and congratulate yourself on removing the single biggest irritation in the history of computing!

AVG and Avast are the preferred free anti-virus programs. I reckon AVG used to be good but is now just as intrusive as Norton. Avast is good, take a bit of time to set up preferences and options and it shouldn't give you much trouble.

Good luck.

[SecularMotion]

13. Check your task manger to find out which program is hogging your CPU

[global1]

14. Nothing Coming Up On The Task Mgr....

I've lost 5 or 6 days trying to solve this. I'm breaking down today and will take it in to see if I could get some prifessional help.

I appreciate all the help & suggestions all of you gave to me here. Nothing seemed to work. Overnight it was functioning OK & then went south. Can't explain. If I find out what the problem is/was I'll post it here.

[global1]

15. Thanks To Everyone That Provided Me With Help On This.....

I took the computer in and the diagnosis was that the hard drive is on its last leg. They downloaded all my files to my external hard drive. I have to figure out how to export my 'bookmarks' on Foxfire to another computer.

Now I'm looking to replace this laptop with a new one. One with WIN 10, touchscreen, solid state hard drive, essentially all the new bells & whistles to bring me into 2017 technology. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[ucrdem]

16. New business-class equipment can be pricey

A new core i7 512-gb Surface laptop runs about $2,500 retail, roughly twice what a Dell Optiplex desktop with similar specs would cost:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/d/surface-book/8TXJ08Q9LXDT/BW3T?WT.mc_id=PromoEmail_14613_en_US_Surface_Circular_Plus_8-3-2017_Module3_1


http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/productdetails/optiplex-7050-desktop/s028o7050sffus


On the other hand you can get a 256 gb Samsung replacement SSD for your laptop for about $110.00:

http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/solid-state-drives/ssd-850-pro-2-5-sata-iii-256gb-mz-7ke256bw/?cid=pla-ecom-mul-27,000,002


Anyway if your current laptop is otherwise in good shape you can get two devices -- a new desktop and an upgraded lappie -- for about half the price of a new laptop. Just a thought!

[Demsrule86]

17. Don't let them sell you anything less than 16 GB...At least a TB of memory...and a fast processor...

You don't want a slow computer... Also, Don't buy a Toshiba! I have an HP that I like. I like Dell but their cord program in Bios which won't allow you to use any cord other than a dell...if it malfunctions and then you are screwed. Stupid program...I have heard that Asus is good.