why oh why....

[ant]

For instance limewire (again) i leave it downloading for 10 mins by closing the programme but letting it run in system tray, when i come to open it gain, its not progressed, so i click the red x to close and... nothing, just a big grey box where limewire once was. i then have to ctrl alt del it to close or restart my pc. its not just limewire, done it with quiet a few progs, ie6, sharaza icq etc.
Is there a fix, have i done something wrong?

[xpgeek]

There could be manyy things causing this, which seems to be general system instability now.

Have you done a virus scan? A spyware scan? Do you have enough system RAM for the PC? At least 256 megs of RAM for XP is highly recommended. When is the last time you have defragmented the hard drive? Have you ever used a program to clean up old temp files like CCleaner, or even Windows own Disk Cleanup utility? (Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup). Have you ever used a registry scanning program which finds and removes old and junk entrys from the registry which can cause instability and crashes. And finally, when is the last time you have reformated and completely reinstalled the operating system? Its pretty much a known given that an installation of Windows will start to degrade in performance and stability after some time no matter how well you take care of it. Windows should be reinstalled every 2 or 3 years at the minimum.

[ant]

ta xp geek, i run virus, ad-aware and sbybot every week, and defrag every 2. Have 1gb of ram. Use windows disk cleanup every couple of weeks too. Ive never done a registry scan, is there software on windows for it? My pc is about 6 months old, so no need to do a complete reinstallation, i hope. Didnt know that either! Could you point me in direction on how to do a reg scan?
Thanks again

[FisionChips]

Ant - just a matter of interest... what type of internet connection are you using?

[ant]

with 8 meg unlimeted with tiscali, pulls about 4.5 on a good day, 3.8meg at mo. why, will that make a differance to crashing?

[xpgeek]

Some people say registry scanning programs are useless and don't make that much difference, but I swear by using em, and can't even remember the last time my PC had a crash.

There isn't any free ones tho, at least not any actually good ones. The one I'd recommend is Registry First Aid (http://www.rosecitysoftware.com/reg1aid/). Have used it for years and years. Theres a free trial of it, but it only lets you remove 14 or something entrys at a time. Its not expensive tho. And worth the small price I'd say as its one of my most valuable programs in keeping PC running well.

Like it says on the site:

"Tired of Windows® crashing? Sick of having software lock up on you or taking forever to load? The problem could be all of those incorrect registry entries caused by software installations and un-installations that went awry!

Not all software un-installations do a complete job leaving behind numerous nagging file references in the Windows registry pointing to files that no longer exist. In time, you can end up with hundreds of these files that may slow down your computer and cause software to lock up, requiring a hard reboot of your computer. "

Some people say they're snake oil and don't make much difference, but like I said I personally swear by using it. The first time you use it you will probly find literally hundredsss of bad entrys.

[Micron]

I still swear by Registry Mechanic by PC Tools (http://www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/) It does a fantastic job and has fixed loads of my problems, Could have also fixed the problem of your clipboard too Ant.

I agree with Mike (XPGEEK) I swear by my registry cleaner.

[jbloggs]

ant:

Generally, Limewire (the free option) is a rubbish P2P program, the actual software is not of great quality, but more importantly, the quality of the downloads is poor (in comparison to other P2P programs), in that you will get quite a few viruses etc in your downloads.

I would suggest getting rid of Limewire and try some other P2P software.

Sorry to be so negative about it, have a look Here (http://www.slyck.com/index.php) and you might find something.

[Micron]

I use Shereaza from http://www.shareaza.com/ It also allows you to download torrents as well as files from all the P2P Networks.

[zimagirl79]

Here's a free registry cleaner from ToniArts (http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm) that I use. It's a small utility that lets you do a lot more too. The only thing I stay away from with it is the duplicate cleaner because I'm afraid I'll delete something I need by accident.

[jbloggs]

EasyCleaner gets the :up:

[ant]

i got full winxp manager with reg cleaner, seems ok so far no crashes...yep.
Have limewre pro installer, u-torrent and sharaza. Find lw easy to use, not very good with the whole torrent thing, dont really understand them.

[FisionChips]

with 8 meg unlimeted with tiscali, pulls about 4.5 on a good day, 3.8meg at mo. why, will that make a differance to crashing?

no reason, just wondered whether network issues were playing a role...

[odidio]

EasyCleaner is good and CCleaner also has a registry cleaner.

I used to use Regseeker but not since they updated it, imo made it worse.