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When you have such common problems as this, you should do a search at CNET (http;http://www.cnet.com) for a free program.

They have a free alarm clock that allows you to use your own MP3 file http://download.cnet.com/Free-Alarm-Clock/3000-2350_4-75328290.html

Your computer does not need a wireless card. The problem is with the communications to the printer. It could be something as simple as the IP address or port. It could also be something as complicated as your PC using an IP packet size incompatible with the printer’s connection.

The first thing I would try would be to do the setup from the problem PC. Hopefully the manufacturer checks things like packet size to ensure it works.

If that doesn’t fix the problem,then Email the manufacturer with the message and have them walk you thru the setup. They probably ran into this problem before so it would be on their cheat sheet used to fix this timeout error.

Starting with HTML4 or HTML5 doesn’t matter. The basics are the same and HTML5 is an extension to HTML4 (with a few minor exceptions). The drawbacks to HTML5 is that the features implemented in one browser are a different list than built into another. In fact, many of the features have yet to be implemented in any of the browsers.

A good place to learn web stuff (usually for free) is W3SCHOOLS. To practice what you learned, they have an interface for you to code specific portions and see how it works. http://www.w3schools.com/html5/default.asp which is the HTML5 tutorial.

Ask your friend why she wants to learn HTML. If she wants to eventually use it, then she might be better off learning how to use an IDE or web site developer. There are several available and many are free. They are usually use features implemented in most browsers and make sure each browsers unique feature implementation is accounted for. Just because a feature is implemented, doesn’t mean each browser implemented it to work exactly the same as other browsers.

There are reports where MSE runs a long time on various releases. It’s more prevalent with XP because it’s generally running on slower machines and would be much more noticable.

One situation is where the previous anti-virus software was not removed or was not completely removed. Another situation is where full scans were running. The third situation is where fixes needed to be applied but the last major one seems to be from a few years ago.

With MSE, Microsoft expects the following CPU peaks:

1. High CPU and disk usage for a few hours ONCE A WEEK (default but it can be changed in settings). This would be the disk scan. It defaults to a quick scan of disk. Quick scan read several files but it ignores many files it deems a very low risk of infection. If this was changed to FULL, then it will take much longer because it processes every file. Many users complained about full scan taking too long, so they made quick scan the default. To make this more tolerable, a CPU limit of 50% can be changed to decrease it’s impact or increase it’s speed.

2. High CPU for a few minutes once a day to Download of new virus definitions and antimalware programs.

3. High CPU for a short period of time at various times during the day to check if new definitions or programs are available. Since Microsoft only updates these files once a day, this should be the normal occurance. It should be very short but it seems this is where your system is hanging.

4. CPU varies according to need while monitoring internet connections. Since you say Windows update is using a lot of CPU, this in not likely where the problem is occurring.

You keep mentioning AFTER INCREASING RAM and activating it. It’s in place and is what it is. It will reduce PF usage if you are paging much. Is there something about it that you have not mentioned?

Did you successfully uninstall all other antivirus / antimalware programs before installing MSE? If not, uninstall it because they are not compatible with MSE. See Microsofts help with removing them at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/protect_start/list-of-anti-malware-program-cleanupuninstall/407bf6da-c05d-4546-8788-0aa4c25a1f91

If you always have a web browser running (IE, Firefox, Chrome), then consider shutting down and seeing how it impacts your system. Many of the new websites have java programs running and reload sections of the screen.

How much CPU & memory are MSE and Windows update using? These programs are written to minimize CPU & refrain from using Huge amounts of storage. They should not be causing problems several times a day. Both programs should only become busy a maximum of once a day because Microsoft only adds updates & virus def’s once a day. They only schedule updates once a day. One slow period in a day could possibly occur because of updates but multiple slowdowns should not occur.

From the MSE control screen, click on the UPDATE a few times and monitor how much CPU and how long it runs. You can lower the MSE CPU % in the MSE settings. I think this setting only affects the update but I’m not positive.

It’s strange that windows update is running several times a day because it and MSE using windows update should only heavily use it once a day. The only constant MSE activity should be watching the internet (downloads, popups, malware, spyware and ???).

Does the problem exist with all programs? Is the problem only with programs that use the internet? For instance, if WORD or WORDPAD responsive?

Secunia OSI is running from the internet. It’s a scanner program that verifies files on your disk. It’s unclear if definitions are downloaded or web based. If they are web based, then MSE could be continually scanning the downloads. Does terminating Secunia make things better?

Ensure MSE is current – here are my levels which are current (you can find this information in the ABOUT help for MSE):
Security Essentials Version: 2.1.1116.0
Antimalware Client Version: 3.0.8402.0
Engine Version: 1.1.8001.0
Antivirus definition: 1.119.829.0
Antispyware definition: 1.119.829.0
Network Inspection System Engine Version: 2.0.7707.0
Network Inspection System Definition Version: 10.7.0.0

Verify MSE is the problem. You can uninstall it. Does the problem persist? Re-install after you finish tests below.

Verify Windows update has the problem. Do this while MSE is uninstalled because it uses Windows updates to obtain it’s verification files. You can do this in the control panel by opening WINDOWS UPDATE, change settings and set to NEVER CHECK FOR UPDATES.

Run some of the programs and watch the CPU to see how high it is (e.g. Secunia OSI). If secunia runs at 50% or above, then you would expect MSE to use quite a bit for the internet data it is transferring.

Install MSE. Restore your MSE & Windows update settings.

HD Tune may show that the 320GB disk is 2 times as fast as the 80GB disk but it is just a benchmark tool that may or may not be applicable. You should look at multiple benchmark results to get a better picture (hopefully).

A benchmark is a very specific event sequence to get numbers that compared (old saying: comparing apples to oranges). To put this into terms everyone can understand, compare 2 cars (Ferrari and Toyota Prius). If the Ferrari is 2 times as fast as the Prius then why does it take the same time to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles? An even better example: has your car ever had the same MPG as stated on the sales sticker? Not mine.

The uncached 80GB disk may actually perform better in some situations than the 320GB disk with 2MB cache. Disk cache: memory in the disk where the disk temporarily saves data during read and write to make the disk seem to be faster. If you are running mostly database writes, then database commit to disk ignores the cache and waits for the actual disk write. If you are running an Intel I3, I5 or I7 processor (runs 4 programs at the same time in parallel – I know “program” is the wrong word but I want to make this easier to understand), then the disk cache could be wasting time during reads. In this case, programs ask for some data which the disk reads but the disk continues reading more data into cache because programs will usually request the next few blocks of data so it is ready for the next read. With 4 programs reading the disk at the same time, the disk might releases the read ahead blocks because the cache is needed for another read.

The solution to the problem only changes the problem.

If you are using WinXP, then there are some free programs that might be useful. I did a quick search and here are a couple I would recommend trying. I’ve never tried these but they look like good alternatives although they may be a little more complicated than I would prefer for an average user. Don’t let details like DLL’s, threads, file handles and various other terms overwhelm you. You want to look at the general picture of your system and once you decide what your problem is, then figure out how to best relieve the problem. These other terms are only interesting to people who want to look at the internals of how things are running.

1. Microsoft has a free download for PROCESS EXPLORER that is available thru their sysinternals group at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653. I’ve never used this program so I don’t know it’s specifics. For average users, always look at the graphs during good and bad times to get a better feel for what is good or bad.

2. Cnet reviewed PRISM HUD which looks somewhat promising. http://download.cnet.com/Prism-HUD/3000-18512_4-10916984.html?tag=mncol;1

I found others but these looked to be the most promising.

Good luck, Jon.

Memory is not the only resource where you could be having a problem. With Windows/7, it is easier for normal people find where you have the problem (bottleneck). This item is more for an average PC user rather than advanced because I think these concepts are easy for average person to understand.

I’ll describe that in more detail but first, you believe the problem is windows update. On windows 7, it defaults to download and update at 3:00am every day. If it’s causing problems during the day, then something more than memory would need to be the problem. You could change the settings to a different time. In the worst case, you could set it to NEVER UPDATE to eliminate it as a problem (although I don’t think it’s the problem). Just remember to run it manually every couple of weeks. I personally have mine set to download updates and ask me if I want to install. I always wait a few weeks to install just in case some undiscovered bug exists.

I use the term BOTTLENECK. It refers to something that restricts (slows down your system). In your case, you believe that memory too small and was slowing your system down so you added more memory.

When trying to fix a bottleneck, always ask several people for possible solutions because there are many problems that are not obvious because they might not have seen it before or you might be using something that helps in one area but causes problems for you in another area. There are so many variations in software and hardware that getting that good balance in your environment is not always obvious. I’ll describe one of those situations below in the DISK section.

To find your system bottleneck, open TASK MANAGER. On the PERFORMANCE tab, click on RESOURCE MONITOR. Running the resource monitor will put extra load on your system but it allows you to see what is going on. It may also change the numbers somewhat but it should be close enough for you to find out where you are having the problem. You should shut it down after you are all done.

You should see a new display with 5 tabs and graphs to the right. The tabs are Overview, CPU, MEMORY, DISK and NETWORK and the graphs are visual displays over the last 60 seconds for resources related to the selected tab. A resource is where a bottleneck can occur.

Watching the graphs will probably give you the best idea of where you have problems and the displays help you figure out what programs are heavily using the resource that is having a bottleneck.

OVERVIEW tab is a good place to start. I suggest looking at it while the system is running well and when it is not running well so you don’t panic when you see some bad numbers. For instance, maximum frequency is always high but this is usually a good thing. OVERVIEW allows you to get an idea of where you might have a bottleneck. Watch the graphs for CPU, DISK, NETWORK and MEMORY. They are for 60 seconds and if you see something staying high, then this could be where you have a problem. For instance, the CPU green line should be bouncing up and down all the time which is really good. If it’s always at the top, then you should try to reduce the CPU workload.

On any of these tabs, you see the light blue lines, you can expand these by clicking on them. You can play around with these to get additional information. For example, the light blue CPU line in the OVERVIEW tab will show processes. Clicking on these lines will show some specific information (in the CPU case, it shows you programs that are running and information about those programs).

CPU tab shows a lot of CPU information. For example, the graphs show CPU total (total % cpu used for all cores – CPU 0, 1, 2 …), Service cpu (advanced information that I don’t want to explain), CPU 0, CPU 1, and … (Multi core processors – some older machines only have 1). Some programs are designed to only use a single core (e.g. CPU 1). In this case, you may see a lower total CPU % but one of the CPU’s always high. This occurs because you may have 2 or 4 CPU’s but those other CPU’s can’t run the problem process. Click on the blue PROCESSES line, so you can see specific programs running. Clicking on a header in this area will sort on that information (in this case, you could sort on CPU to see which processes are using the most CPU. Average CPU can be misleading because you may a really long running process that has a low average but high CPU for the last few seconds or minutes.

DISK tab shows you information about the disk. This can be a little misleading because there are a lot that is not obvious. Disks today are getting really large which can impact your system. The farther apart the data being used, the longer it takes to use the disk. Defrag does a really good job at fixing some of these problems because it tries to put a file into sequence in the same area of the disk. But it does not place heavily used files together. There’s not an easy solution to this problem. An good example is the system page file which is used when your memory is full and you have a program that loads lots of data from a file into memory. Memory starts getting low cause memory to be written to the system page file. This causes the disk to bouce between these and if they are far apart, it can slow things down. It is possible to artifically cause this problem by creating 2 drives (e.g. C: & D:) on a single drive. These are called partions and if you place them far enough apart and use files on both drives, then they will slow things down.

NETWORK tab shows your internet communications. Rarely will problems be obvious in this area. If you expand the blue TCP CONNECTIONS line, the PACKET LOSS and LATENCY columns might be interesting to watch. PACKET LOSS is where a packet of data is sent to the internet but for some reason doesn’t get received by the receiver. This could mean there a problem between your computer and the end computer. LATENCY is the amount of time it takes for a packet of data to be received by the end computer. This indicate various problems somewhere between you and the end computer. If most connections are seeing high numbers, then it’s likely the problem is with your internet provider (not always). If it’s with a single connection, then it’s likely to be with that end computer. If it’s mixed, then the problem is likely to be at a common router somewhere between you and those end computers.

MEMORY tab shows you what is happening with your systems memory. This is where you will find out if memory is a problem. You are looking for changes rather than spikes (as compared to CPU because CPU is either doing something or it is not doing anything where member is being used, sometime later freed or acquired.

I hope this helps to take some of the mystery out of what may be causing your problems but this is not meant to be the gospel on fixing your problems. There are many complicated theories on all these areas. This only gives you the area’s where you are likely to be successful in correctly fixing your problem rather than guessing at what is causing your problem (In this case, Windows update and memory being the cause). You could be correct but you could just as easily try fixing something that is not broken without looking at some of the basics.

Regards, Jon.