PC Help Needed

[dirtydealin]

Hi Guys,

Here's my situation, I only have a small 4 GB hard drive in my labtop. I downloaded Villento Casino a couple of days ago, after which my PC starting acting funny(slow,alot of errors) so I uninstalled it. Before I installed it I had just under 2 GBs of unused space, now I have only 120 megs.

Could I have a virus? Is there anyway to free up space, besides the obvious? Is there a program I can run to check for a virus?


Any and all help, is most appriciated.

DD

 

[bryand]

Which browser do you use? I would first clear all browser cache and defragment the hard drive. I can't imagine a virus or spyware could take up that much disk space but I use Adaware and Spybot - you can get both free at download.com.

 

[winbig]

Check in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MGS\cache and see if the games are still in there....it may be that the casino uninstaller didn't delete them.

It sounds like that's what happened. The space taken up on my drive in that directory is 1.7G.

Also, check your recycle bin and make sure it's empty

I wouldn't worry about a virus. If you only have 120mb free on the drive, your speed issues will clear up once you free up space.

 

[vinylweatherman]

Check in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MGS\cache and see if the games are still in there....it may be that the casino uninstaller didn't delete them.

It sounds like that's what happened. The space taken up on my drive in that directory is 1.7G.

Also, check your recycle bin and make sure it's empty

I wouldn't worry about a virus. If you only have 120mb free on the drive, your speed issues will clear up once you free up space.

At least you have that 1.7Gig overhead just the once now, it used to be PER CASINO.

Perhaps MG leaves it behind for "your convenience", in case you want to reinstall Villento, or perhaps try another MG casino. This is not normally a problem, as most PCs come with 80Gig drives.
There are some VERY cheap laptops with solid state hard drives of around 4 Gig, but I would not recommend MG for those.

Upgrading the drive, if possible, is a solution, and would enable you to play other MG casinos without your laptop freezing up.

 

[winbig]

At least you have that 1.7Gig overhead just the once now, it used to be PER CASINO.

Perhaps MG leaves it behind for "your convenience", in case you want to reinstall Villento, or perhaps try another MG casino. This is not normally a problem, as most PCs come with 80Gig drives.
There are some VERY cheap laptops with solid state hard drives of around 4 Gig, but I would not recommend MG for those.

Upgrading the drive, if possible, is a solution, and would enable you to play other MG casinos without your laptop freezing up.

I would also suggest an upgrade, but if you do, get an EXTERNAL drive. To be brutally honest, if the laptop only came with a 4G drive, chances are it's really not worth upgrading any internal parts. Only buy stuff that you can use for a future system.

 

[dirtydealin]

YEEHAW!!!!

Check in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MGS\cache and see if the games are still in there....it may be that the casino uninstaller didn't delete them.

It sounds like that's what happened. The space taken up on my drive in that directory is 1.7G.

Also, check your recycle bin and make sure it's empty

I wouldn't worry about a virus. If you only have 120mb free on the drive, your speed issues will clear up once you free up space.

You were right on, I just didn't know where to look. I had around 20 MGS/Cache files, it took 8 minutes to delete. I recovered almost 2 GBs...lol.

Thanks for everyones help on this.

DD

 

[blizeH]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but regarding this, is there anyway I can uninstall most games from here? I desperately need some hard drive space back, and only play a select few games at Ladbrokes.

Thanks!

 

[blizeH]

Does using Windows XP compression thing help?

 

[Rusty]

As explained quite often Casinos are not uninstalled properly.
You could either use a free program such as Easy uninstaller to force delete them or do it manually.
To manually delete go into C: drive and you may see a folder "microgaming" go into that folder and delete individual Casinos or delete the entire folder.
After that you might like to go into c:\programfiles where you will see the folders for individual casinos, delete the ones you do not want.
You may also see a folder "Casinos" which you can go in and delete individual casinos from there or delete the entire folder.
After you have finished deleting clear program files and then defrag.
After that reboot your pc/laptop.

 

[blizeH]

As explained quite often Casinos are not uninstalled properly.
You could either use a free program such as Easy uninstaller to force delete them or do it manually.
To manually delete go into C: drive and you may see a folder "microgaming" go into that folder and delete individual Casinos or delete the entire folder.
After that you might like to go into c:\programfiles where you will see the folders for individual casinos, delete the ones you do not want.
You may also see a folder "Casinos" which you can go in and delete individual casinos from there or delete the entire folder.
After you have finished deleting clear program files and then defrag.
After that reboot your pc/laptop.

Many thanks for the info Rusty - good advice, but I actually play at Ladbrokes quite a lot so was just wondering if there's a way to maybe uninstall the games I don't use or similar. If not, no worries

 

[KasinoKing]

Many thanks for the info Rusty - good advice, but I actually play at Ladbrokes quite a lot so was just wondering if there's a way to maybe uninstall the games I don't use or similar. If not, no worries

You can't uninstall individual MG games (to the best of my knowledge), only the whole casino.
At least nowadays you only need one set of games to serve ALL MG casinos - not so long ago you were forced to download the entire package for each & every casino!

KK

 

[CasinoKidd]

You were right on, I just didn't know where to look. I had around 20 MGS/Cache files, it took 8 minutes to delete. I recovered almost 2 GBs...lol.

Thanks for everyones help on this.

DD

Awesome! Heres a few suggestions to maximize free space:

-Run disk cleanup every few days
-Run disk defragmenter once every week or two
-Uninstall programs you no longer use, and be sure all of their subsequent folders are deleted.

Also, if you find your computer acting particularly slow, a good reboot always helps!

 

[vinylweatherman]

If you have had Ladbrokes for some time, and have played, and then uninstalled, other MG casinos, it might be possible that a fair bit of "crap" is lying around unused.

When MG issued the update that stored the games centrally, it didn't necessarily remove the now redundant games cache in the individual casino folders.

The easiest way to resolve this would be to uninstall ALL MG related content, including Ladbrokes, it's folder, and the MG games cache.

Then do a full disk cleanup and defrag, and any other PC housekeeping you wanted to do.

Then, reinstall Ladbrokes, which should at least give you a clean and "crap free" installation, and although it will eat almost 2Gig, it will only take what it needs now, and not what was once needed in the past. The reinstallation MAY take a fair while, could be hours depending on your connection, as nearly 2Gig will need to be downloaded and installed.

An alternative is to play the FLASH casino, so long as any promotions are applicable there (some insist on the download casino being used).

 

[KasinoKing]

If you have had Ladbrokes for some time, and have played, and then uninstalled, other MG casinos, it might be possible that a fair bit of "crap" is lying around unused.

When MG issued the update that stored the games centrally, it didn't necessarily remove the now redundant games cache in the individual casino folders.

The easiest way to resolve this would be to uninstall ALL MG related content, including Ladbrokes, it's folder, and the MG games cache.

Then do a full disk cleanup and defrag, and any other PC housekeeping you wanted to do.

Then, reinstall Ladbrokes, which should at least give you a clean and "crap free" installation, and although it will eat almost 2Gig, it will only take what it needs now, and not what was once needed in the past. The reinstallation MAY take a fair while, could be hours depending on your connection, as nearly 2Gig will need to be downloaded and installed.

Do you think this problem (slow computer) is linked specifically to Ladbrokes for some reason?

I have a 3.5 year old laptop which was totally fine & fast when I bought it, but over time it has got slower, and slower, and slooooooower...
It used to boot up in maybe 1 to 2 minutes - now it takes at least 10 minutes...
Why do computers do that?
Is it because the hard-drive it getting nearly full?
Why should that make any difference when it's only storage?

I do use Ladbrokes on it quite a bit - and even then it can take over 5 minutes just to get the casino to load up to the log-in screen, and 2 or 3 minutes to get each game to start up. It's frustrating the hell out of me! :machinegu

Also, after a few hours of use it often nearly freezes completely and everything (even switching from one window to another) can take 30 seconds or more.

I'm quite prepared now to try your suggestion even though it may take hours, but if anyone knows any other ways to restore original working speed to an old computer (without re-formatting the HD) I would really like to hear it!

Thanks!

 

[RobWin]

Do you think this problem (slow computer) is linked specifically to Ladbrokes for some reason?

I have a 3.5 year old laptop which was totally fine & fast when I bought it, but over time it has got slower, and slower, and slooooooower...
It used to boot up in maybe 1 to 2 minutes - now it takes at least 10 minutes...
Why do computers do that?
Is it because the hard-drive it getting nearly full?
Why should that make any difference when it's only storage?

I do use Ladbrokes on it quite a bit - and even then it can take over 5 minutes just to get the casino to load up to the log-in screen, and 2 or 3 minutes to get each game to start up. It's frustrating the hell out of me! :machinegu

Also, after a few hours of use it often nearly freezes completely and everything (even switching from one window to another) can take 30 seconds or more.

I'm quite prepared now to try your suggestion even though it may take hours, but if anyone knows any other ways to restore original working speed to an old computer (without re-formatting the HD) I would really like to hear it!

Thanks!

Man, that sounds like you really have a slow processor, do you know what GHz your processor is ??.... or it could be that you have some large start up programs that try to load and run on startup...

Also KK, open up your "Task Manager" and look and see how many processes are running at the same time...

 

[same_old]

The best thing you could honestly do is buy an external HD and put all your casino stuff on there, you will find your laptop will run a lot smoother,

In relation to HD and storing data there: Although it is in you Hard drive and doesnt get used- the system WILL still look over those sections in your hard drive to determine if it needs to open any of those promgrams, for example if you want to open media player- it will still check through the whole HD to see which files need to be opened, hence the reason for the lag you get, ANOTHER BIG ONE is if you got programs that open on start up. For example I have CLOSED ALL applications on start up so my system basically start and im good to go, if you have things like antivirus and spyware that also sarts up when you turn on the computer then this will be a big factor in the lag aswell.

I recommend to CLOSE all those littleapps you see in the bottom right corner of your system.

 

[KasinoKing]

Man, that sounds like you really have a slow processor, do you know what GHz your processor is ??.... or it could be that you have some large start up programs that try to load and run on startup...

Also KK, open up your "Task Manager" and look and see how many processes are running at the same time...

It's a Celleron 2.53Ghz with 224Mb of RAM. Using Windows XP Home, Version 2002 SP3.

Right now I have 48 processes running (with only ie, Excel & task manager open).

The best thing you could honestly do is buy an external HD and put all your casino stuff on there, you will find your laptop will run a lot smoother,

In relation to HD and storing data there: Although it is in you Hard drive and doesn't get used- the system WILL still look over those sections in your hard drive to determine if it needs to open any of those promgrams, for example if you want to open media player- it will still check through the whole HD to see which files need to be opened, hence the reason for the lag you get, ANOTHER BIG ONE is if you got programs that open on start up. For example I have CLOSED ALL applications on start up so my system basically start and im good to go, if you have things like antivirus and spyware that also sarts up when you turn on the computer then this will be a big factor in the lag aswell.

I recommend to CLOSE all those littleapps you see in the bottom right corner of your system.

Thanks for the great info!
My StartUp folder only has two items in it - both related to my HP printer.
I think I'll get rid of them & see if that helps. (I think it might, because often when I'm shutting down I get a 'Program not responding' error relating to "hpqimzone" - whatever that is!)

But you're right - I've several unwanted little icons down in the bottom right corner which are programs which must automatically start on boot up. How can I stop them starting if they're not in my Startup folder?

I think the problems once I've booted up (everything taking ages) are related to the internal graphics card - I just don't think it's man enough to handle some of the demanding slots games these days. Some of the newer Crypto slots are totally unplayable on the laptop at all!

I think it might be time to invest some of my winnings in a new laptop anyway - but I'll try your suggestions first & see if it helps.

Thanks again!

 

[RobWin]

It's a Celleron 2.53Ghz with 224Mb of RAM. Using Windows XP Home, Version 2002 SP3.

Right now I have 48 processes running (with only ie, Excel & task manager open).


Thanks for the great info!
My StartUp folder only has two items in it - both related to my HP printer.
I think I'll get rid of them & see if that helps. (I think it might, because often when I'm shutting down I get a 'Program not responding' error relating to "hpqimzone" - whatever that is!)

But you're right - I've several unwanted little icons down in the bottom right corner which are programs which must automatically start on boot up. How can I stop them starting if they're not in my Startup folder?

I think the problems once I've booted up (everything taking ages) are related to the internal graphics card - I just don't think it's man enough to handle some of the demanding slots games these days. Some of the newer Crypto slots are totally unplayable on the laptop at all!

I think it might be time to invest some of my winnings in a new laptop anyway - but I'll try your suggestions first & see if it helps.

Thanks again!

A Celleron 2.53Ghz processor is definitely good enough to handle your load but you are extremely lacking in the Ram memory dept. with only 224Mb of RAM which most likely the bulk of this is getting grabbed up by windows itself, windows operating system is most likely using half or more of this allotted ram here.

48 processes running at the same time is usually common in windows but in your case with the amount of ram memory it is too much and you need to kill some of those processes that are running in the background that you are not using...

Your registry could also be a big culprit here too if the operating system is having to search and research for the correct location of programs to open on startup...I have my machine set up to registry clean and re-organize and also to defragment on a daily basis but I also have over 2.4 million files on it too...you could most likely help your laptop by doing a scan disk and repair run, a registry clean and organize and a deep defragment and optimize run.

 

[Rusty]

Rob is right KK.
As soon as I read 224mb RAM I thought ahh.
You could honestly do with an absolute minimum of 512 of RAM these Days.
Even 512mb sticks are pretty much obsolete now.
Hopefully your Mobo will house 512mb sticks and that will cure a lot of your woes.
You could pick one up for next to nothing these Days.
Obviously 32mb of your RAM is being used for integrated video so you do not even have 256mb.
There is lots of freeware that will show you exactly what is running at startup and let you disable them.
You could just right click on the little icons and select exit to stop them or you could ctrl/alt/del and see what processes are running in task manager and end unwanted stuff from there.
Obviously you could just uninstall the unwanted programs too.

Another tip is to disbable the windows messenger sevice which is used as an exploit by many viruses.
Goto start menu/ right click my computer /select manage/ double click services and applications/ double click services/scroll down until you find messenger/double click on it/where it says startup type select disable from the drop down menu.

 

[same_old]

But you're right - I've several unwanted little icons down in the bottom right corner which are programs which must automatically start on boot up. How can I stop them starting if they're not in my Startup folder


Hiya KK,


Ok what you need to do is either find those applications in your start menu > accecerories > should be there somewhere, and then open that program and find OPTIONS, all applications should have an option section where you can make changes. In there you will see something that should say "run application on startup" or something similar and it will be ticked, you want to untick this.

Alternatively you can right mouse click on the ose apps down the right corner and options should show up, if so, just follow the second lot of steps.

I literally have the clock and one other app going on start up. I just set my antivirus and spyware apps to run at a time im not using the system.

 

[winbig]

But you're right - I've several unwanted little icons down in the bottom right corner which are programs which must automatically start on boot up. How can I stop them starting if they're not in my Startup folder


Hiya KK,


Ok what you need to do is either find those applications in your start menu > accecerories > should be there somewhere, and then open that program and find OPTIONS, all applications should have an option section where you can make changes. In there you will see something that should say "run application on startup" or something similar and it will be ticked, you want to untick this.

Alternatively you can right mouse click on the ose apps down the right corner and options should show up, if so, just follow the second lot of steps.

I literally have the clock and one other app going on start up. I just set my antivirus and spyware apps to run at a time im not using the system.

There could be a ton of things loading during startup that's behind the scenes, as well. I advise doing this only if you know what can be removed.

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Using the system configuration utility
Taking the previous steps will stop the obvious programs from running at start-up, but it won't kill them all. The best tool for disabling hidden programs that run on start-up is the System Configuration Utility. To run it, type msconfig at a command prompt, and press Enter. (If that doesn't work, first do a search for msconfig.exe; when you find the file, double-click it.)

* To stop a program from running at start-up, go to the Startup tab in this utility, and uncheck the box next to the program. It can sometimes be difficult to understand what programs are listed on the Startup tab. Some, such as America Online, are clearly labeled. But often, you'll see a phrase or collection of letters, such as fs20. That's the name of the running file--such as fs20.exe, which is Free Surfer mk II, an excellent free pop-up killer.

* To get more information about a listing, expand the width of the Command column near the top of the Startup tab. Expand it enough and you'll see the start-up command that the program issues, including its location, such as C:\Program Files\Free Surfer\fs20.exe. The directory location should be another hint to help you know the name of the program.

* When stopping programs from running at start-up, it's best to stop them one at a time rather than in groups. You want to make sure that you're not causing any system problems by stopping them. So stop one, then restart your PC. If it runs fine, then stop another and restart. Continue doing this until you've cleared all the programs you don't want to run automatically.

Each time you uncheck a box and restart your PC, you'll get a warning that you've used the System Configuration Utility to disable a program from starting automatically. If you don't want to see that warning, disable it by checking the box in the dialog itself.

After you've used the system configuration utility to identify programs that run on start-up, you may want to try disabling them from with the programs themselves. So run each program that starts automatically, and see if you can find a setting that allows you to prevent it from running on start-up.

 

[same_old]

There could be a ton of things loading during startup that's behind the scenes, as well. I advise doing this only if you know what can be removed.

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No No winbig they are already established apps on his system, all he will be doing id closing them at start up, the ONLY ones he needs to worry about are his antivirus and spyware apps that basically stop the potential virus or spyware coming in, I will open my antivirus when i surf on sites thaty arent trusted.

If you want to find out what other apps are open whilst your computer is on then just Ctrl + alt + delete open task manager and you will see what programs are running.


Hmmm I wouldnt be steering people to the MSCONFIG"S yet, that area is for the computer savvy, your literally in the guts when you enter MSCONFIG and one error there will result in a whole system re-install.. you need to actually find those commnad promts to close those apps and im telling you there is thousands upon thousand of commands in there.

All of this stuff is standard practise for an online gamer to better there play experience.

 

[RobWin]

Here's some picture help for you KK....

 

[winbig]

No No winbig they are already established apps on his system, all he will be doing id closing them at start up, the ONLY ones he needs to worry about are his antivirus and spyware apps that basically stop the potential virus or spyware coming in, I will open my antivirus when i surf on sites thaty arent trusted.

If you want to find out what other apps are open whilst your computer is on then just Ctrl + alt + delete open task manager and you will see what programs are running.


Hmmm I wouldnt be steering people to the MSCONFIG"S yet, that area is for the computer savvy, your literally in the guts when you enter MSCONFIG and one error there will result in a whole system re-install.. you need to actually find those commnad promts to close those apps and im telling you there is thousands upon thousand of commands in there.

All of this stuff is standard practise for an online gamer to better there play experience.

*shrug*

There's a bunch of stuff that you'll see in msconfig that you WON'T see in the startup folder.

I guess the question is, why not just get more memory? Prices are dirt cheap right now...

and for the record, his question is:

But you're right - I've several unwanted little icons down in the bottom right corner which are programs which must automatically start on boot up. How can I stop them starting if they're not in my Startup folder?

 

[maxd]

Someone mentioned that casino apps don't uninstall very nicely and that can add up to a lot of wasted space over time.

One of the ways to beat this problem, at least insofar as your C: drive goes on a Windows system, is to use an "installation tracker".

Warning: some techno-babble will be required in the following paragraphs.

The value of an "install tracker" is determined by (a) how thorough it is (does it catch everything?), and (b) how easy it is to use (do I have to be a rocket scientist to use the thing?).

A few years ago there was a really good little tracker called INCTRL from PC Magazine. It was small, free and fairly typical of trackers at the time in that it watched the entire install process -- that is it ran in the background and kept an eye on all file access and creation -- in order to do it's thing. Unfortunately this wasn't always a fool-proof technique, especially if your installation required a reboot which tended to cause the tracking info to be lost or corrupted.

As Windows became more complex and demanding INCTRL passed into obscurity as did most of the other progs of this type. I've tried several commercial versions of this "snoop during the installation" type of program over the past few years and haven't been impressed by any of them.

Another approach to this problem is to take a "snapshot" of your system before and then again after the install to generate a report based on the difference. Here you want a fairly clever program because it needs to know how to look into the registry and all that kind of tech-crap. Anyway, a good little freeware app of this type that I've been using for the last year or so is called RegShot. It satisfies both the (a) and (b) requirements in that it is quite thorough and quite easy to use.

Easy to use, yes, but not fool-proof: you must explicitly start it up and tell it to take it's initial snapshot of your system and repeat the procedure after the install. If you forget to do the "after" part right after the install is done then normal Windows activity will change a bunch of files in your system and those changes will end up in your RegShot report when you finally remember to do it. So there is some responsibility left to the user which may or may not be a problem for you and your way of doing things. I've just gotten into the habit of putting a sticky note right on my monitor screen to remind me that the 2nd (post-install) snapshot needs to be done. It's such an annoyance that it's hard to forget.

Of course not all good things last forever and it looks as if RegShot is now passing into history too. This seems to be one of the main annoyances of freeware programs: their developers find other things to do and the project often dies too soon and without warning. I haven't taken the time to find a replacement yet but I hear that Total Uninstall does a good job. It's not freeware and it's certainly not as lean and trim as RegShot but there you go I guess.

Here's an insider's tip to getting the most out of your install tracker: run your newly installed app _briefly_ before you do the post-install reporting. ... Windows apps will often do some system configuration the first time you fire them up and that is good stuff to catch in your install report. The trick is to simply fire the app up, let it do it's thing, then close it down and do you final install report. As mentioned before if you leave things too long your install report will get bloated with useless details.