help please major laptop problems, any ideas ?

[Nicola McIntosh]

looking at the spec hugh..i would definetly say put more ram in….makes a big difference on lappys 😀 or if its under warranty hit it with a hammer and get a new dual processor one 😕 😉

nik

[Peter Normington]

dish wash it!
clean out the memory.

works a treat…….

Personally though I wouldnt use a lap top as my main machine.

Peter

[Robert Lambie]

im not the one to ask on this sorta thing but one thing i agree with is… ide never use a laptop as my main computer for running my business…
i think everything within a business should be dedicated to what it is used for… great idea buying a multi-tasking bit of kit but is it?

i bought a laptop £1200 16 months ago… spent all day today trying to buy a power lead/pack for it as i have lost it. PC wrold told me this is not uncommon for parts like this on expensive equipment to be discontinued…
now how would i be fixed if my business depended on it???
anyway… 5.20pm today i found a source but need to call on monday. (fingers crossed)

[Simon Strom]

It might be the amount of Thermal Grease that’s in between the chip and heat sink (or is it the socket?, can’t remember which side). Typically when building your own MoBo and applying your own chip you put the grease on yourself. I know that the laptop came already assembled but it couldn’t hurt to check it out. It’s possible that not enough was put on it the factory, or was uneven. Just an idea. You can do a google search for "laptop thermal grease" and get some good results. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_grease

[Barbara Eden]

I have to agree with Nik Hugh-more ram needed-especially for Corel! Good luck with it 😕
Babs

[Hugh Potter]

Nik, upgrading the ram is on the cards, but it’s never been a prob with 512, the processor is pretty good, i’m told the 1600m is about the equivelent of a pentium 4 @ 2800.

Pete, might give the dishwasher a miss !!!

Rob,
once it’s repaired, it’ll stay in here full time (kitchen / office), and now i finally have desk space in the workshop, i’ll put a cheaper tower in there to run the cutter, transferring the files with either a usb stick or ext back-up.

just wish i could get this sorted though, the laptop has been fantastic considering it’s barely ever switched off, and gets dragged from pillar to post and customers and back again, even on holiday 3 or 4 times !

[Hugh Potter]

quote Simon Strom:

It might be the amount of Thermal Grease that’s in between the chip and heat sink (or is it the socket?, can’t remember which side). Typically when building your own MoBo and applying your own chip you put the grease on yourself. I know that the laptop came already assembled but it couldn’t hurt to check it out. It’s possible that not enough was put on it the factory, or was uneven. Just an idea. You can do a google search for “laptop thermal grease” and get some good results. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_grease

thanks simon, that’s what my pc fixer upper bloke said, it was shutting down on him, then he put more grease in there (virtually none left, prob from when i removed it and got it all over my hands), and used it no probs for 3 days.

re the ram, as mentioned subsequent to your reply, i was about to upgrade it, but it’s never been a prob, well… not unless i accidentally opened 50 eps files at once !

i appreciate the suggestions guys (n gals), i’m hoping that there’s some easy fix, i need to get it sorted asap, or at least eliminate everything, the motherboard shoul.d be under warranty, it was new in june last year, and i first reported faults to my pc guy in may, he says this shuold cover me as he has it logged, just don’t want to miss my laptop any more, have been using the mrs, but with only a celeron processor it was a slow as death on corel !

[Hugh Potter]

quote Robert Lambie:

i bought a laptop £1200 16 months ago… spent all day today trying to buy a power lead/pack for it as i have lost it. PC wrold told me this is not uncommon for parts like this on expensive equipment to be discontinued…
now how would i be fixed if my business depended on it???
anyway… 5.20pm today i found a source but need to call on monday. (fingers crossed)

i left mine at a customers once, i popped into the local pc shop and they had a ‘universal’ one for about £30, had a range or power settings and plugs.

fair point on discontinuing things though, when the mothe board was replaced, we had all sorts of probs due to it being a newer model board, and compatability issues were raised quite alot for the first few days !

[Simon Strom]

Good luck Hugh! Hopefully you’ll get it sorted one way or another. I agree though. If the laptop is still under warranty, definitely have them replace it sooner rather than later.

[Peter Normington]

Hugh, do you have it set up to give an error report when it crashes?

I had a problem with my computer, and it all pointed to memory and or mainboard, people on here all agreed, but when the crash report was analysed, it turned out to be an external hard drive causing the problem,
unrelated to heat, memory, or anything obvious……..
Peter

[Hugh Potter]

Thanks Simon, the laptop is out of warranty (sore point as the seler never registered my extended 3yr !)

Pete,

how do i set up a crash log ? i think that norton used to have that feature, but i don’t use that now.

Hugh

[David Arch]

This may not seem the best answer but I think you should have at least 2 or 3 computers that are linked and can run your cutter. For what they cost these days its cheaper to replace than repair.

[Peter Normington]

Hugh, open Run and type drwtsn32
You can then create a crash log (i think thats how I did it)
but after a crash you can have the data analysed on line, I got someone more knowledgeable than me to do it,
if no one on the boards can advise, I will have to ask my man….

Peter

[Hugh Potter]

quote archie_grafix:

This may not seem the best answer but I think you should have at least 2 or 3 computers that are linked and can run your cutter. For what they cost these days its cheaper to replace than repair.

Thanksfor the reply Archie,

in ideal world, i would have more than one computer, but the workshop is 60ft from the house, and about 90ft from the router, so it doesn’t as yet, have internet / network capabilities down there, it is yet another thing in the pipeline!!

thanks Pete, i’ll see what it says ! where’s that Dave Rowland when ya need him !! he’s a clever chap with puters !

[David Rowland]

i posted a reply in the other thread before I read this one…
check fan for fairs, clean it out and make sure the fan is coming on.

Airflow, grease etc… thats all you can do

Laptops are not designed to be workhorses although they do get warm

[Hugh Potter]

quote Dave Rowland:

i posted a reply in the other thread before I read this one…
check fan for fairs, clean it out and make sure the fan is coming on.

Airflow, grease etc… thats all you can do

Laptops are not designed to be workhorses although they do get warm

hi dave,

the pc fixer upper did all the fan stuff, as did i before him, and more grease was added, the lappy just crashed again a few mins ago, literally after only a 5 mins use, not particularly hot, and the fan is working, just stuck my finger in it !!

grrrr. :nag4: :nag4: :headbang2: :headbang2: 🙁

[Martin Pearson]

Hugh, have you tried running it from a different power supply and did the laptop fixer upper guy use your power supply or his own when he was testing it? Are you using the original power supply or a universal supply?

A lot of laptops run extremely hot, so it may not be an overheating problem at all but a couple of t hings you could check just to be sure, I know you have checked the fan for dust but have you checked the heatsink as well? Make sure all the fins are clean and clear of dust and dirt, also if you take the heatsink out have a good look at the copper pipes for any signs of damage. Any splits or cracks in the pipes will stop the heatsink working properly. To much heat transfer paste is just as bad as none so make sure there is not to much paste between the processor and the heatsink.
I’m not sure about the 1420 but a lot of Fujitsu Siemens laptops have a small case cooling fan as well as the processor fan so check thats working OK.

[Steve Dawson]

play with the system bios

you may find out whats causing the problem

start by setting back to factory defaults , its common for people to put everything at FULL speed or upping cpu voltage (Overclocking) , get it back to defaults and see how it performs then

try slowing down the processor
disabling cache on cpu and/or video

it may take a while to find , i.e. , change a setting , see how it goes , change it back , change another one, see how it goes- etc etc…

your machine can still run pretty good depending on which one of that settings cures the prob (presuming it does)

adding more memory may make it run faster , but wont stop it locking up etc

too much heat sink compound (grease as its been called here) can have the same effect has not enough – overheating

[Hugh Potter]

thank you both, to my knowledge, my fixer upper bloke has done all the heatsink / fan issues, and fuond nothing wrong,

i’ll call him on tuesday and see if he’s messed with the bios,

update, crashed while typing this, shut down, restarted…froze on start up screen, restared again,

"thermal fan works abnormally" system shut down in 8 secs’.

well. i dunno then, new fan ? thermo ? heatsink ? lol. got loads to cut tomorrow !

thanks for all the continuing help, it’s much appreciated.

[Nicola McIntosh]

what a bummer hugh…specially with you being busy 😕 is there no one near you that can cut for you until you get laptop sorted? cause i recon your not going to get far with the state the laptops in now…. 😉

nik

[Peter Normington]

Hugh did you do as I said, create a crash dump log? its happening to quick to be a heat problem…

Maybe to quick to set up a log though…

Peter

[Steve Dawson]

hugh , i dont do vinyl full time , not enough work for me round here , so the rest of my time i’m a local mobile computer engineer

laptops are very tricky , very little you can replace etc , if it was a desktop i’d already have replaced the motherboard &/or cpu as we are talking about £40-70 if you self fit…

but a laptop is a different story…

i think your computer guy is gunna say , "its time to buy a new one" , "i’d recommend a desktop"

there is still good money to be had from faulty laptops on ebay , i just got £60 for a P3 laptop that only switched on when it felt like it , told the truth about its fault , and the guy was well chuffed.

its just not economical or even possible sometimes to get a new board for a laptop most of the time , unless off course you find one on ebay that is good except for the screen say , then make one good one from the 2 , not for the faint hearted though rebuilding laptops !!

steve

[Martin Pearson]

Hugh, I would definitely have a look at the power supply, especially if it is freezing. Have you got someone you could borrow one from? No point sticking a multimeter on it quickly because it is likely to be an intermittent fault.
Your laptop guy may not have checked the heatsink for cracks/splitting as it’s not really that common a fault and lots of people don’t think to check so may be worth a look.

If it is shutting down that quickly it could still be a heat related problem but it is very unlikely. You may want to get the laptop guy to come and see you rather than take it to him if the problem is happening at your place. Thats why I asked if he used your power supply or his own.

[Nicola McIntosh]

hugh…its a pity you cant go with the insurance option….instead try to sell it to a newbie signmaker………………worth a go eh!!! 😉

nik

ps. im not all that sad…………………………………………………… 😀

[Hugh Potter]

quote Peter Normington:

Hugh did you do as I said, create a crash dump log? its happening to quick to be a heat problem…

Maybe to quick to set up a log though…

Peter

hi pete, i have created the log, as you suggested, but have no idea how to read it, or find it !

quote Steve Dawson:

hugh , i dont do vinyl full time , not enough work for me round here , so the rest of my time i’m a local mobile computer engineer

laptops are very tricky , very little you can replace etc , if it was a desktop i’d already have replaced the motherboard &/or cpu as we are talking about £40-70 if you self fit…

but a laptop is a different story…

i think your computer guy is gunna say , “its time to buy a new one” , “i’d recommend a desktop”
not for the faint hearted though rebuilding laptops !!

steve

hi Steve, thanks for the info, as i say, i’m waiting for the fixer upper to call me back now, he seems to have bank holidays off 😕 on several occasions i’ve had this thing stripped to it’s chassis, as you say, a little daunting, but the service engineer in me still had to have a go !!

it was a new motherboard a year ago (june) the motherboard should still be under warranty if it proves to be that. at least… i hope it is, motherboard was £400+ !

quote martin:

Hugh, I would definitely have a look at the power supply, especially if it is freezing. Have you got someone you could borrow one from? No point sticking a multimeter on it quickly because it is likely to be an intermittent fault.
Your laptop guy may not have checked the heatsink for cracks/splitting as it’s not really that common a fault and lots of people don’t think to check so may be worth a look.

If it is shutting down that quickly it could still be a heat related problem but it is very unlikely. You may want to get the laptop guy to come and see you rather than take it to him if the problem is happening at your place. Thats why I asked if he used your power supply or his own.

thanks martin, the laptop doesn’t exactly shut down most of the time, just freezes, all usb power goes off, even the wireless mouse, the lot just locks up, then i have to force it off.

i’ll ask him again if he’s inspected the heatsinks etc, properly.

power supplies…. i use both my original, and my mrs supply, which are identicle, seem to make no odds which i use,

can sometimes get 3hrs out of the thing, other times, like this moring, 5 lock-ups in 1/2hr ! very frustrating.

quote Nicola Rowlands:

hugh…its a pity you cant go with the insurance option….instead try to sell it to a newbie signmaker………………worth a go eh!!! 😉

nik

ps. im not all that sad…………………………………………………… 😀

cheers NIk, i’ll prob have to get a new one, though i can use mrs laptop to cut / design etc, it’s all on there, and all the work is backed up (daily now !) o to the external drive. re this laptop. it cost me £1300 when new, so i’m unlikely to give it away for nowt, other than to my son who’s just starting his gsce’s this year.

thanks all. Hugh

[Peter Normington]

Hugh,
I have no idea how to analyse the crash log. a friend of mine said he used this site,
http://www.memecode.com/docs/minidump.php
it also gives instructions on how to set up the log. etc.
But dont know if its any use to you?
I cant get hold of my friend just now.
It did tell me what was the problem though,

hope you get sorted.

Peter

[Martin Pearson]

If it is freezing all the time rather than turning off then it could still be the power supply but could also be memory, cpu or motherboard problems and on the software side almost anything from a driver problem to a corrupt program.

Have you tried re-setting the factory default settings in the BIOS as Steve has said? If not thats a good place to start, enter the BIOS on start up and select default settings.
Once windows has loaded if you have time try bringing up the task manager (control, alt, delete) have a look through all the running processes and see what is running and what systems resources are being used. Also if you have time go to device manager and see if you have any conflicts or other problems with hardware.

[Simon Strom]

You should also try unplugging anything that isn’t necessary and then boot off of an external source (i.e. maybe a Live CD of some sort). This will allow you to at least see if it’s a hardware vs. software problem for sure. I’m not sure what tools are available for the Windows side when it comes to Live CD’s. I have use some on my Laptop Mac and I have a box running Linux at home. If worse comes to worse you could download and burn a free Ubuntu Live CD for i386 chip-set (there is also an AMD and OEM version if you have one of those). This would allow you to make full use of the hardware to see if it is a hardware / software problem. If it’s a software problem on your hard drive, then the Live CD will run fine without crashing. Just another idea. Probably a pain in the Donkey though. Also if the machine runs ok in BIOS I would guess that it’s not really an overheating issue. Maybe even a bad stick of RAM.

[Hugh Potter]

thanks again both,

i would assume that since this all started, considering i’ve fitted a new hard drive, that the bios settings would all be at default anyways, a new install would have only default wouldnt it ?

the weird thing, we had a bbq this aft, so the laptop went into the workshop, was hooked up to the hifi, and mp3 playing all afternoon, i spent 30 mins working on a corel file, while also cutting another job, not problems at all, in fact, it’s been on now, with no probs, since about 3pm,

prior to that, it had been fine for about 3hrs, mrs went to use it, but it was frozen, it wouldn’t switch off so she just turned off the mains power, and shut down the lid, when i got in it was on standby on battery power, somewhere along the line, it had unfrozen and booted fine from standby. i switchd the power back onbefore waking it up, so i don’t know as the power supply is the prob, unless it’s the power dropper circuits, the mrs supply, as mentioned before, also works fine on here.

i don’t think it’s a heat prob, the fan now mounted behind the thing blows so uch air, that it never even feels warm on exit, the heat snk does get hot still, but not burn hot.

i’m lost ! just hope mr pc fixer upper has some ideas morro, i’ll show him this thread though, in the hope it might give him some new ideas.

thanks again.

[Simon Strom]

Have you tried removing the battery and using the laptop just plugged into the wall? I know my step-dad had a company laptop that had problems and it ended up being the battery.

[Hugh Potter]

thanks simon, i’ll remove the battery now and see what happens tomorrow.

thanks.
Hugh

[David Glen]

Following on from other suggestions, could it be that as the CPU temp increases, the fan speed is not being increased beyond "slow".

Also, 512Mb of ram is pretty low anyway but the chances are that either one has gone bad and it’s only running off 256Mb, or the contacts need a good clean.

If this laptop has had a dowsing in coffee then it was doomed from then on anyway.

Either way, Fujitsu-Siemens wouldn’t know how to repair a Tonka Toy let alone a laptop.
Save yourself the anguish and ebay it and buy a new one (not FS).

I recently got a Toshiba laptop and paid £156 for next day 3 year parts and labour warranty (via the Toshiba web site so that I knew it was done).

The computer being the hub of any modern sign business means you can’t mess about and afford downtime. After 3 years of hard work if it goes belly up then you’ve had your monies worth imho.

[Nicola McIntosh]

quote Simon Strom:

Have you tried removing the battery and using the laptop just plugged into the wall? I know my step-dad had a company laptop that had problems and it ended up being the battery.

i do that with mine…if you keep the battery in it drains it 😀

nik

[Hugh Potter]

quote David Glen:

Following on from other suggestions, could it be that as the CPU temp increases, the fan speed is not being increased beyond “slow”.

Also, 512Mb of ram is pretty low anyway but the chances are that either one has gone bad and it’s only running off 256Mb, or the contacts need a good clean.

If this laptop has had a dowsing in coffee then it was doomed from then on anyway.

Either way, Fujitsu-Siemens wouldn’t know how to repair a Tonka Toy let alone a laptop.
Save yourself the anguish and ebay it and buy a new one (not FS).

I recently got a Toshiba laptop and paid £156 for next day 3 year parts and labour warranty (via the Toshiba web site so that I knew it was done).

The computer being the hub of any modern sign business means you can’t mess about and afford downtime. After 3 years of hard work if it goes belly up then you’ve had your monies worth imho.

the laptop in general has been fantastic (simon, it’s nowt to do with the battery… just crashed again !!). FSC were pretty helpful when it went bust, even though they couldn’t touch it due to the warranty.

the reseller never told me to expect a warranty pack which needed returning in 28days, almost 2yr later when i spill coffee over it, i find out it was never registered cos i never returned it, but they didn’t think to tell me that it was coming, that it was due to be returned, or never queried why i didn’t register a 3yr next day (on site for first year) £120 warranty.

i would happily buy another FSC, i agree the ram is a little low on this one, i wanted the T.O.T.R 17" notebook with 1gig ram etc, but it was an 8 week wait wherever i went, so i settled for the 15" screen and 512 ram, has coped well to be honest, and when it was new, very few laptops had 1gig.

after the coffee spill, i stripped it down to it bare bits, cleaned everything to the point of looking new, and rebuilt it, then it’s had a new mother board, new keyboard, and 2 new hdd’s, i guess the only thing left to replace is the ram, and the power supply voltage dropper circuit,

while it could be argued that i’ve had my money from this machine, i’m not in a financial position to be simply giving it away and spending £1k+ on a new one.

it’s only a machine, there has to be a fairly easy fix !

[Stephen Morriss]

I would seriously consider getting a desktop computer, you can get a good one for less than £300, less than the replacement motherboard, parts, RAM etc for desktops are cheaper as well.
The only trouble at the moment though is getting a computer with XP and not vista

In fact I’ve just checked and here is the page
http://www.dabs.com/productlist.aspx?&C … t=0#Paging

Copy and past the link

2 – both less than £240 inc VAT, another stick of (512) RAM around £20, maybe a dual layer DVD burner for £20

You’d need a screen though.
Seriously though you need to have a back up computer as this is your business and you could have been making the money back instead of paying a computer repairer to mess around with you laptop.

Steve

[Hugh Potter]

thanks steve,

the next step was to get myself a desktop, but i do need a laptop, everything i do is backed up onto an external hd, and the idea is that i’ll have a basic set-up in the workshop, transfering work for the day on memory cards / sticks,

the laptop is essential, alot of my regulars are scafolders, builders, etc, if i don’t go to them, they simply won’t bother taking the time out to stop by, at least by going to them, i can guarantee mself the job, also, my office is my kitchen, ok, i have a desk in the workshop, but with no printer, or even internet connection, i do what i can up here, and the rest down there, being a kitchen, i need to move the laptop, and other junk laying around, at certain times, so a desktop pc would be outta the question,

we do have other laptops / desktop which i can use, hence i’m not overly desperate to write this one off just yet !

[Stephen Morriss]

Ah right, I was under the impression that it was your only computer, I’ll have to stop skim reading 🙂

Try different memory, you don’t need to use that much just 256mb will do to test it.
Then a different processor, they tend to be reliable but you never know.
You’ve been through the rest of what I would suggest.

I’ve got a laptop for the same reason but I also have a small file server called as Linkstation pro (Buffalo) I think there are others like it but they are great for network storage as they are only the size of an external hard drive and very quiet.

It’s not hard or expensive to run a network to your workshop, just a length of cat 5 cable and a hub (you don’t even need the hub for 2 computers.
You can then share the files and Internet connection.
Anyway I bet loads of other people have told you the same.

Steve

[Hugh Potter]

do you know what type of memory i need to buy ? i don’t mind buying 2x 256 as even if it’s not the prob, and i end up not using them on here, they can go in the mrs laptop.

thanks,
Hugh

[Hugh Potter]

dunno if the following will mean owt or not, i’ve jsut uploaded a screen grab of the task manager, showing the performance, it crashed about 10 mins back, i’ve just literally opened everything possible (corel, paint shop, adobe, etc etc etc), no problems to my eye,

the pic is posted here… https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … 807#230807

the first set of peaks is… i’m unsure, following the lowest dip in usage, are spikes which is where each program was opened, the numbers at the bottom mean nothing to me, does this help ? 😕

[Stephen Morriss]

http://www.crucial.com/uk/

You can either scan your system, which often doesn’t work, or you can use the dropdown list next to it to select the manufacturer, model etc.

Works well and their prices are about right, you can get extra memory for laser printers from them as well.

The screen shot doesn’t mean much to me other than the cpu is doing lots of quick high load work, may just be programs opening as you said. Memory is within the amount have installed so not sure.

Steve

[Hugh Potter]

hi steve, it might be worth me asking my pc guy if he has any spare ram which i could try out to see if it eliminates the fault,

i’m going out shortly, so i’ll leave the task manager running full screen, it’ll hopefully give me an idea of whether the procesor is messing about, i’ll the an auto refreshing page up so it has to do something while i’m out, then if it crashes i might have an idea why.

[Peter Normington]

Hugh that wont give you any idea, if it crashes so will the task manager!
its a "live program"

you need to set up an event log,
then you will have an idea of the cause of the crash…

Peter

[Hugh Potter]

that’s true Pete, but if there’s a big amount of cpu activity just before it freezes, the log will show it, i can then take a photo of the screen (the screen stays active, just freezes where it died).

just spoken to my pc guy, he’s stripped, cleaned and inspected al the cooling system, he ran a ‘burn test’ for two hours, no faults, his pc softwae which tests the mother board, and everything else, was on for hours, no faults occured, 30+ start-ups and no errors showing, he’s as lost as me almost,

he’s gonna strip and clean the whole thing on thursda now, also do a longer burn test, in the mean time, i’m gonna run it on lucy’s laptop power supply to see if the problem dissapears, pc guy is doubtful, but reckons it’s worth a go, if oly to eliminate the prob, he reckons it’s more than likely a software issue.

[Peter Normington]

Thats why an event log will help, it will pinpoint any sofware thats causing the problem.

Peter

[Simon Strom]

If you think it’s software, it’s a good idea to clean your font cache files up. There was another post that I was part of a few weeks ago on the boards where I suggested the same thing (although they didn’t have the same problem as you). It’s usually one of the first things I look at when I start to have problems. If you turn a lot of fonts on and off they can cause plenty of trouble. I’m not sure if you use a font management program, but I do highly recommend using one if you don’t. I use FontExplorerX from LinoType. It’s a free program that’s available for both Mac and PC.

http://www.linotype.com/2493/fontexplorerx.html

I haven’t tried the Windows version, but the Mac one is excellent. It has built in tools for cleaning font cache files. I’m not sure if that’s the problem, but it is a good place to start.

[Hugh Potter]

i hadn’t thought about the fonts, i’m not using them when it crashes, well.. i say that… it’s very random, but the first thing i did when i got it back was reload all my saved fonts (prob about 1000+) into wnidows, i have never used a font manager, although maybe i should, do they show the fonts ? the reason i simply loaded them all in the first place, was to simply save having to open them all all the time ! i just type the word i want into the corel workspace, and browse the fonts, they’ll then show the font as the word,

hmmm, best check that, i’ll suggest that my pc guy runs the burn tests etc as the lappy is now, ie, how i use it everyday, when he did it last wek, it was following the new hard drive going in, and a new xp installation, he found no probs, yet it dies within 30 mins of him leaving !!

this all sounds just like when you call out the AA to fix your car, you’ve tried for hours to get it started, then call recovery only for it to start the moment the turn the key !!

[Simon Strom]

Oh definitely! If you’re using that many font you should most definitely use a manager. Installing fonts directly into the OS means that all of them are running and on all of the time, even if you aren’t actively using them. They are loaded at startup. This can have horrible effects on your machine. The great thing about a font manager is that you can turn fonts on and off very quickly. There are a few other free font management tools for Windows. There is a good one by Adobe called Adobe Type Manager (ATM). There is a light version that doesn’t have all of the features of the paid for version. There are also a few other managers that are very feature rich, but you have to pay for them. If you want to pay for one, I recommend either the ATM Deluxe or Extensis Suitcase. You could give FontExplorerX a try since it’s free. I use it in a professional environment everyday (for the past year and a half with no problems). Like I said I haven’t used the Windows version though. I should install it on the windows partition of my machine at home to see how it stacks up to the Mac version.

[Richard Urquhart]

hi guys
please let me just start by saying i know nothing about this problem but i read this the other day after i to thought about a font manager
please can any one shed some light on this as some say fonts slow down the system and this says not at all
thanks rich

You don’t need a font manager in Vista (or even XP), you can install
literally 10,000 fonts and it WILL NOT affect system performance at all. It
is a myth that having too many fonts installed will cause slow down your
system in XP or Vista. (With Win9x, and earlier versions of NT, it could
cause performance problems, but not on XP or Vista.)

I do a lot of graphics work, and it is far easier to just have all my fonts
installed all the time, and yes I do have over 6,000 fonts installed, and no
it does not slow down boot up times, or any other part of the OS.

Vista and XP are not like OS X where a Font Manager is needed, so this is
something that is hard to break OS X transitioning Graphic Arts of when
moving to Windows.

So install all your fonts, and don’t worry about using a Font Manager.

[Richard Urquhart]

Hugh hope you didn’t mind but thought it may help with your prob too

[Hugh Potter]

thanks Rich, i think it best if i speak to my pc guy again (he’l be getting fed up with me !). i’m happy to use a font manager if it does the trick, that said, my laptop boots up, and is on the net in less than 90 seconds, it doesn’t seem to take any longer now i’ve re-installed all the fonts, than when i first got it back. i’ve got around a 300 currently re-installed, and have around 700 more in various files, waiting to be installed,

well the cpu can run at max, as can the memory, for a short while, i wanted to find out how many fonts i had, and accidentally opened them all !! you can imagine what 300 windows opening at once does !! cpu was at 100% for around 45seconds, and the pf usage went up to 632mb (guess it used cache too), no problems with it crashing during that ! narly wore out the mouse closing them though !

the wierd thing is, i’ve lost my ‘office’ or ‘word’ suites i had, and along with is, a good number of fonts i would normally use regularly, got no idea where the disc is, i’m sure it was a utilities disc from FSC, but i cant find it 😥

thanks for the continuing info / help / advice,

Hugh

ps, including corel, task manager, fonts folder, and firefox browser, i have 56 processes on the go, does this seem like way too many ? the pf / ram is consistently running at 440 – 520mb, and even when left alone, the cpu is between 20 and 60%, hmmm

ok, past 10 mins or so, cpu has levelled off at tween 2% & 22%, thats more like it, pf usage is still hovvering around the 500-515 mark, commit charge is 505m / 1248m, whatever that is !!

[Hugh Potter]

https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … 878#230878

this just happened a moment ago,

every ten secs or so, the cpu ran at 100%, peaking and troughing at regular intervals, the fan came on as it should on each occasion,

i began by disconecting the external hd, then the printer, even the mouse, no different, shut down corel, messenger, and a couple of other inactive windows, still the same. it only ended when i shut down firefox browser, i wonder if this is the prob ? when i think of it, i don’t recall any probs bfore downloading firefox 2, maybe this is the problem ? it didn’t crash on this occasion, but i wonder how long it would’ve continued ?

i’ve also attached a list of applications running, does anyone in the know, know if there’s owt running that either shouldn’t be, or doesn’t need to be ?

Hugh

[David Rogers]

You tried running in safe mode as a test? (F8 on startup) This’ll limit the amount of rubbish that gets loaded initially.

Also check to see what’s running in your system tray (bottom RHS), there can be a LOT of resource hungry bits of rubbish in there…MSN…TomTom Home…MS Office Toolbar.

ps. there doesn’t seem to be anything really bad running in the list. All pretty standard for what you’ve got running.

[Chris Wool]

just thinking out loud, could be a load of updates trying to load them selfs

chris

[Phill Fenton]

I reckon it’s just your battery that is probably f ucked Hugh 😕

[Hugh Potter]

thanks Dave, i haven’t bothered with safe mode, as i want to find out what might be causing it, that said, it’s not crashed all evening now ! at least i know there are no nasties in the apps,

there are usually a few things running in the task bar, nowt major,

Chris, it wasn’t showing any updates as ready to install, it’s set to prompt, never auto download stuff,

well bugger me, it’s just crashed, and i’d only just minimised the task manager window, so couldn’t see if the cpu had done owt funny prior to freezing !, 1m 40s to restart and restore this browse session !.

Phill, i don’t think it’s the battery, when new it would give 2.5hrs, it still gives well over an hour now (3yrs on), and the lappy still freezes when the battery is not fitted. tried it this morning.

ho humm !

[David Rowland]

sorry hugh, not reading this thread line by line.. but spied the photos… first glance on processor you seem to have something pushing 100%… a virus checker or spyware… rather a lot of processes there and quite a few i don’t recognise. Splenty on there I think could come off.

[Hugh Potter]

i have f-secure anti virus running, not been a prob before, and i’ve notyet set it up, nothing was obvious with regards it running, i might download spybot in a mo, see what that finds, usually loads the anti virus or other spyware doesnt !

edit, just run spybot, the processor was runing an almost constant max for about 8 mins while it scanned, i’m sure it’s not used this much in the past. pic of results is on the other thread.

Hugh

[David Rogers]

At this point I’d be backing up as much as possible & doing a clean re-install!

[Warren Beard]

quote David Rogers:

At this point I’d be backing up as much as possible & doing a clean re-install!

Hi Hugh

I had a similar problem a few months back and tried so many things to fix it but to no avail. Ended up reformatting hard-drive and has been working a treat since then (7 months ago)

Take Dave’s advice but make sure you back everything up, mine got so bad that I lost 2 weeks work when the machine forced me to do a complete reformat losing anything I had and I had only backed up to CD 2 weeks earlier 😕

If it works it will be totally worth it.

good luck mate

Warren

[Hugh Potter]

Warren, what you’re saying, is exactly what happened a couple of weeks back, i lost a (busy) weeks worth of design / quotes. everything is backed up now though.

when it kept dying, and then eventually refused to load windows, i decided to reload then, the disc wouldnt format correctly, and windows wouldn’t install correctly, it kept crashing. ie locking up.

so, mr pc guy takes it away, performs a factory style format, all seemed fine (14hrs later) but windows kept crashing when loading it, when it did finally load, it wouldn’t perform properly, it was put down to a corrupt section on the disc, so we used my back up disc (80gig lappy hdd) as my main drive, it was backed up, formatted, loaded, etc, it came back, worked for a day, then off it went again, he had it for a week next, using it daily and running burn tests etc to find out the cause, no faults found anywhere, and here we are now!!

so, yes, been formatted, been reloaded afresh, should i really do it again ?

[Warren Beard]

quote Hugh Potter:

so, yes, been formatted, been reloaded afresh, should i really do it again ?

eerm, suppose not 😕

good luck mate

[Hugh Potter]

lol, thanks Warren, hopefully he’ll be picking this thing up in the morning,

well i nkow it’s not the power supply, does the same regardless of whether i use mine, or mrs power supply, and does it with or without the battery fitted, so it’s not that either !

ooh dear, just gone to open something up in corel, and my whole list of progs have disappeared (other than the std xp installs), no corel, adobe, winamp, paintshop, photoshop, all missing, they are in the pc still, as they will open when i double click an associated file, there’s just no sign of any icons or files on the desktop shortcuts folder. or on the start menu ! happy days !

[Chris Wool]

when do we see the pic of lappy with a axe sticking out of it. 😉

[Hugh Potter]

quote Chris Wool:

when do we see the pic of lappy with a axe sticking out of it. 😉

it’s come close a few times, trust me it has !!!!