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I notice that evertime I open a workbook, AVG v9 goes through a scan which takes 10-15 seconds. I would like to eliminate this scan.

Is opening the workbook the fist thing you do every time you boot the machine?

Have you tried to add *.xls as an exception (or *.xlsx if you’re using Office 2007), instead of the full path to EXCEL.EXE?

…but that would prevent all .xls files from being scanned, wouldn’t it?

That’s a little hard to do, the hub are internal on the mother board, the 12 USB ports available externally are all through the hubs.

Peter.

I’d try disabling USB1.1 in the device mgr…as long as your sure you have 2.0 installed.

This thread looks interesting…Try downloading ATITool. http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/
When it runs, on the bottom left click ‘Show 3D View’ and ‘Scan for Artifacts’.
I’d let it run for about 10-15 minutes. If the card it faulty it should pick up on it almost instantly. You can also keep track of the temps using this.
This will rule out the graphics card as the problem.

Go to the Dell site and check via the service tag # to see if they are offering any updated drivers. Or just do it manually.

This topic of discussion has been going on in the Lounge for years.

…and on the internet in general, I suppose. You don’t think we’ll get the last word in on the subject on this forum, eh? I suppose this, as well as a lot of other things PC, boils down to personal preference…some people like Chevy’s and some like Ford’s. Nowadays that’s probably Honda and Toyota!

I’d uninstall Syncplicity and see if that helps. If so try the sync tool here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/powertoys/Xppowertoys.mspx

User accounts and Permissions. See your Admin or have your IT Co. take care if it for you.

I am now managing very well with the expanded menus and over several months no other application or Windows program has produced any unusual activity. I would be interested to hear if anyone can explain how Windows programs lose their association with, I presume, Windows Explorer.

Just my opinion I think the chances of someone finding the exact cause of this is pretty slim. It sounds to me like it’s probably related to a corrupt registry…probably that reinstall you did. I think I’d try it again…the system still has problems if you had to find a work around to get it to “work properly”.

Yes. I have tried a clean install of XP on a separate drive with only the graphics drivers loaded. This did not fix the problem.

I would try uninstalling the graphics drivers first THEN do a “clean” installation of Windows, and update Direct X at that time…everything “new” That should fix the problem, and if it doesn’t, try a different graphics card… or visa vera…time to go to bed!

I always create a restore point (backup) before downloading any updates I’m not too sure of. Plus, you can usually uninstall the updates anyway. Personally, I wouldn’t be too concerned about an XML update.

Sounds viris like to me.

Sounds like it might be the hub. Try plugging the device directly into the USB port on the BACK of the PC and see if that makes a difference…

That IS strange…sounds more like an OS problem than anything else. Have you tried reinstalling Windows?

Perhaps you failed to read Fred Langa’s review and recommendation on registry cleaners, he has written many articles on his subject over the years. Yes they are very useful. If you install and uninstall programs, many useless fragments of entries are left behind in the registry. A cleaned up and compressed registry is a good thing to have, can reduce corruption and speed up the machine. Some here seem to be confused, a memory optimizer program and a registry cleaner utility are two entirely different things, having nothing to do with eachother. In my experience, memory optimizer programs do next to nothing and are a worthless waste of time and money. For years Langa has rated jv16 PowerTools as the best registry cleaner utility. I have tested many over the years and jv16 PowerTools is the best and what I personally use. The current full featured version is not free, but there is an older full version available that is free. The manufacturer, MaceCraft Software, does have a basic freeware version called PowerTools Lite. Langa also highly rated CCleaner which is freeware. A word of warning about jv16 PowerTools, many of the features are intended for advanced users and must be used with caution. I suggest leaving the preset settings at “default” and it will be safe to use. Setting the registry cleaner module to “aggressive” cleaning can cause issues and should be used with caution. This isn’t a real problem though because any changes can be undone and reverted back to where it was.

Nothing against Fred Langa, but I make a pretty decent living off of people that think that registry cleaners and memory managers are good programs. As a certified tech my advice is if you’re going to use them, learn how to format your drive, partion it and reinstall Windows in its own partition. Just my opinion.