Problem, Slow typing on Dell Laptop

[Robbo]

Help someone please,

My PC is p!ssing me right off!

When I type, the screen is very slow to catch up.

The problem seems to occur on any program requiring textual input, eg Notepad,Internet Explorer, Email, whatever.

Its a Dell Inspiron 1501 Laptop with Windoze XP

Anyone had this problem and have a suggestion?

It has only started doing it recently.

Thanks

Robbo

[Topper]

I presume you are typing posts on the forum Robbo. If that is the case does your Internet security software e.g. Norton 360 not perform weekly conditioning of your PC?

Do you ever clear out the cached web pages?

What option is set in the browser concerning updating cached web pages?

click on system properties advanced tab visual effects there are four options

Looks like you use IE from your post so the new anti-phishing function tends to slow things down as lot, which is why I use Firefox.

On the browser there are internet options general browsing history settings which may be ticked to automatically update, and it will do in cycles thus eating up valuable resources when you are typing.

Whilst time consuming try doing a 5 stage volume repair by right clicking on the C: drive, properties, tool volume repair

Oh and defrag the disk as well, all that should help somewhat.
CTR Alt Del button will show the processes running, check to see if you have something undesireable running eating up system resources

[Robbo]

Thanks Topper, I will try your suggestions.

I have tried Firefox, it still does it.

I am using my old Laptop at the moment.

Robbo

[pgh13]

You may want to try Adaware and/or Spybot to check if there is stuff there consuming resources that shouldn't be.

[Robbo]

Finally cured the problem.

Rather drastically though.

I tried many of the various spybot removal, and cleanup tools and system restore to a previous date without success.

I then tried re-intalling a new copy of windows, problem still existed.

Then re-formatted the hard disk, re-installed windows, added the drivers from the original Dell recovery disk, problem still occurred.

Then finally problem resloved by disabling the video driver and installing the latest one from the Dell website- problem solved.

So the solution appears to be that the video driver was wrong, and loading the latest one from Dell solved it.

Least I have a nice clean Computer now, with plenty of disk space.

Robbo

[Topper]

I am glad you are sorted there Rob, what an odd scenario though I would not have expected a released driver installation to be so bad...

[Robbo]

I spoke too soon

It was all going fine until I decided to install the audio drivers, then it all went up the spout again. There is something fishy going on. This Laptop is going to end up in the Thames any time soon.

[jimbo]

Could be a memory problem I suppose?

[Topper]

Could be a memory problem I suppose?

If the laptops are like the desktops then there is a full set of diagnostics in a hidden partition you press F12 when booting then select full test.
There is also a website called _http://pccheckup.dellfix.com
but be aware that you have to download some active X to your pc for this to work, but it does tell you a lot about your pc/laptop, well worth it IMHO

[Robbo]

Thanks Topper, yes there is a FAT partition on the hard drive, I noticed it when I reformatted the NTFS partition that Windows was using. I will try some of the checks as suggested.