What's wrong? Dell PC with Windows XP Home will not display the "Turn off" button.?

Question

It freezes up often and I could not complete the repair! It belongs to a friend of my mom's, does anyone know what could cause this much trouble? I hope to know for future reference.

Well, I don't own the computer I was asking about, but I do remember trying to find add a virus scanner and couldn't. It was as if a smart virus was preventing it. I would click Install and I was asked if I wanted to continue and NO would be clicked automatically. When I tried to use Search, open Recycle bin, or My Computer the window would appear with a folder pic in the middle then NOTHING. In Startup I believe unchecking items didn't help. Oh yes, there was never anything wrong with it until after the owner got DSL through Suddenlink. When Windows became unstable, I clicked Start>Turn off computer, it would take forever for the box to popup. "Turn off" was never there.

Answer 1

If it freezes up often, it may be a case of RAM overload. Try some housecleaning:

- Many users are not aware of how much RAM is used by wallpaper and/or a screensaver full of graphics. They run in the background and consume memory. (I have only 512mb RAM, run multiple programs simultaneously, and have set my wallpaper and screensaver to blank.)

I don’t do games, but I do know they are primarily graphics which need and use a lot of memory.

- How many programs do you load at startup? Maybe you should check it out and ensure you are running just what you need.
To do this: cl Start, cl Settings, cl Taskbar and Start Menu.
- cl Start Menu, cl Customize, cl Remove.
- cl the icon for the program you wish to remove
- then cl Remove.
- This will prevent the program from loading at startup, but will not remove the program from the hard disk.

- When you are working in a large file, save frequently to restore full memory access. (Your work remains in memory until you “save” it to disk.)

1. Did you run an error check? Open My Computer,
Right-cl on C:, Select Properties, Tools – Run an Error Check ( checkmark “check all and fix); then run a Defrag

2. Are you using Yahoo Toolbar? Run a full Norton Antispy.

3. From IE, click Tools, Internet Options
delete cookies
delete files (offline files)
clear history (set days to save to 0 if you want)
click o.k., and Restart

3. click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools – run Disk Cleanup

4. click Start, Run ipconfig renew (type ipconfig space renew)

All these things should be done regularly. The more frequently they are run, the less time they take.
- Note: Games and videos are mostly graphics. Graphics create large files. If this doesn’t help, you should consider getting more memory.