Help with Laptop.

[mutt]

I have a new Acer Travelmate 351 which is infuriating me with the following problems:

1: Slow start-up, it presently takes 3 minutes to boot-up, almost twice that of my old Compaq. I added another 128K of RAM today (256 total), but it has made no difference.

2: 56K Modem Lucent Technologies Soft Modem AMR, this works fine in the USA and Canada. But in Ireland, UK, France, Saudi it wont work with the main power supply connected, there is loud static noise which cuts the line.

I’m off to the dealer in the morning, but as his last bit of advice didn’t work, I was hoping to ask some real Pprune experts :)

Can anyone offer any advice.....

Mutt http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/smildeck.gif

[Cornish Jack]

Are you using W98 on the new machine and was it 95 on the old? If so, that could be it. 98 is abyssmally slow to boot up.

[HandyAndy]

mutt

Can't help with Q2 but here are some ideas for Q1:

3 minute for bootup is not good and other than system faults/problams, maybe there are many programs/utilities being loaded at startup and this is slowing things down for you.
I just did a quick test on my laptop (a measly 266mhz/64mb ram/4gb HD device/W98SE) - with my usual bootup options enabled, it took 1.5 mins but with everything except essentials disabled it booted up in less than a minute.

There are many default startup items that can be safely disabled through either MSconfig or a downloaded utility (such as System Mechanic- http://www.iolo.com/sm/ - free trial for 30 days).

Things to look at are:
Scan Registry on startup
Scan Disk on startup
Microsoft Find Fast
Office Startup
Task Monitor

You may have many other non-essentials enabled too.

I believe in only enabling what is required at bootup and then starting a program or utility when it is needed. Office Startup can be resource gobbling as can Find Fast.

After your laptop has booted, right-click on My Computer / Properties / Performance and see what % of system resources are free. Anything much less than 30% and you could run into memory issues. On my test, with all but essentials disabled, there was 94% free.

Essentials vary from user to user, but for example I don't load my personal firewall or antivirus at startup unless I intend connecting to the outside world. I start them when I know I will be going online. It only takes a few seconds to do this. (My main connection to the internet is through my work desktop).

All these little things add up and as you say your laptop is new, it may have all sorts enabled.

Another useful source of information is at
http://www.annoyances.org/win98/

Windows 98 Annoyances gives tips on problems with W98 (there is also a site for W95) and tweaks that may be useful.

The usual housekeeping requirements of keeping a "clean" HD and defragging (daily if heavily-used) can also help.

Lastly, at the "other end" of operations, for a quick shutdown, try a small (free) program called EndItAll - one click can close all non-essential programs and the pc will shutdown very quickly. Find it here
http://web.zdnet.com/pcmag/utilities/1999.html and select the program from the list.
You can also use it to see what programs you have running, similar to MSConfig.

Let us know how you get on.

Best!
HA

[AquaPlane]

Mutt,

If during the boot, there's a period of time when the hard disk drive isn't working hard, it could be due to newtork configuration.

Does your laptop have an Ethernet card attached...? If so, and your TCP/IP network setting is configured to obtain an IP address via DHCP, this can cause problems when not connected to the network. Your machine will spend some time (20 - 40 seconds) waiting for a DHCP response and IP address allocation that's never going to appear.

To solve this, either remove the TCP/IP associated with the Ethernet adapter (CAREFUL not to do this on the Dial Up or you'll lose Internet Connectivity), or if you like, just set your IP address to a fixed address of 90.0.0.1 which should cause no harm.

Remember to add TCP/IP or change to automatically acquire IP when connecting to the LAN again or it'll either not work, or cause hassle...!

Cheers,

Aq

[mutt]

Thank you guys,

Aquaplane, I found 18 adapters installed. So I guess that its time to delete most of them and reinstall them when needed.

HandyAndy, presently running at 65% with no open programs, so i guess that i have loads of things that need to be shut down. That should keep me occupied for the next week or so.....

I spoke to the dealer regarding the modem problem, he suggested either a power problem or a driver problem. I downloaded a new driver off the Acer site, installed it and promptly lost my modem completely, spent the next couple of hours getting the old driver back! He also believed that a start-up time between 2 and 5 minutes was normal!!! He obviously has more patience than I do.

Once again, thanks for the help.

Mutt :)

[This message has been edited by mutt (edited 08 June 2001).]

[Office Update]

mutt!

Acer are notorious for slow starts, its a common report in all PC magazines reports.

The modem, set the modem country to the correct setting, you have mentioned 2 countries which use digital switchboards in hotels and this will damage your modem beyond repair. Consider using a digital GSM cellualr phone or CDMA for that matter when away from home.

Also you can buy moden line testers which plug in between your PC and the phone sockets, they will check for power and digital signals etc from PABX, switching etc

[ExSimGuy]

Mutt!

I was going to ask you to tell me who the dealer was if you got any sensible answers, so I could find a branch here http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/tongue.gif

Silly of me - of course you got no luck from the sun-tanned idiots that you bought your machine from http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/frown.gif The only one I find even remotely knowledgable is PC-Net, and even then I have to go "upstairs" from the shop for the "tecchies :)

[mutt]

ESG,

I thought that you had departed these sandy lands?

Didnt even try here, the dealer was in Ireland :) I didnt even buy the machine here, it was an internet purchase from the states and was around $800 cheaper than locally. Speaking of good dealers, have you got Compu-ME over there?

My slow start problems were semi solved by Aguaplanes suggestion re TCP/IP/DHCP. Its still slow, but within my patience limit.

Office Update, havent tried it from any hotels, just house phones. Could you please explain what CDMA is? I live a backward land :)

Looking on the bright side, the battery runs out after 3 hours, so at least it cuts my internet bills down :)

Once again, thanks for all your help, its appreciated.

Mutt. :)