Have to reinstall PC, any thoughts?

[windy_moon]

Most people wait for their neighborhoods to become a BFBVS, with me, since I started TS2, it's been the PC.

I use the kids'  Windows PC for the Sims, being a Mac person myself.  From what I understand, the specs are very good.  It's about a year and a half old, Dell XPS.

Think this is the relevant info:

Intel Pentium 4 CPU 340 ghz (hyper threaded)
speed 331 ghz
Memory RAM 2048mb
Nvida GeForce 6800 GTO


The big problem, I think, is that my 11 and 13 year old had 6 months to trash the PC  before I tuned in (when I wanted to play the Sims).  The Sims has never played the way that it should with the specs that I think I have (not being a hardware person atall)

Haven't bothered anybody here with my performance issues, because I felt the problem was really the computer, and why suck your time.     If I try to play at the default specs, the PC freezes quickly and I have to hard reboot. So, I play at the lowest specs....I battle PC issues with anti-virus software (kids picked up some nasty ones), registry mechanic, de-fragment the drive when called for, etc. etc. Still have PC freezing, but not as much when I watch out for little things like deleting the group cache, etc.

Been holding off the BFBVS as long as possible, but the time has come.  Windows won't load at all except in Safe Mode.  (Not bad for limping along for a year.)

SO, I've lined up a guy at work to borrow an external hard drive from and will back up reinstall this weekend. hold my hand, I am so not a tech person.  I've got my IT guy at work for general reinstall info, anything to think about specifically as pertains to the Sims??

Have Base + Uni + Nightlife.  Didn't really want the latest patch, but I guess if I have to re-patch, I'm stuck with it. ?

Any tech folks want to give me an opinion of what kind of performance I should expect with my specs?

Anything else?  Chocolate? 

I'd rather do laundry than learn how to reinstall a Windows PC!

TIA  Any thoughts or general chatter welcome.  I've never done this before.

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edit ps, I should add that the only thing of value on the whole dang $$$ thing really is my Sims game, that and some family digital photos.  There's nothing else that can't be replaced easily.

My neighborhood and downloads     are gold.

Yeah, and the family photos. 

[LFox]

I assume you mean 3.4ghz rather than 340 because hehe that would be insane.  That kind of pc should run it on max detail with no slowdowns.  However you didn't list the ram of the video card if it's less than 128mb ram you might not be able to push the details to max, i'm not sure.  My video card has 256mb ram so it can handle the high details.  If you want to know I have Sims 2 + Uni + Nightlife + patches, with these system specs and it runs smooth on max detail.  The only thing i don't have maxed is the draw distance with the lots and that kinda thing.

Pentium 4 3.2 ghz
2gig ram
ATI Radeon 9600 256mb ram
Windows XP

You can easily backup your neighbourhood and downloads before you format.  Reinstalling everything is a pain in the ass but its well worth it.  I tend format my pc every 1-2 years or when it starts running so choppy it's driving me nuts.

[kaarinah]

Actually, the RAM on the graphic card is not the most important thing. The GF6800 GTO is a much more powerful card than Radeon 9600Pro, even if it has only 128 MB RAM.

But I agree, your specs sounds very good, the game should run smoothly even on high settings.
As for the reinstall, I would suggest that you run a virus check on the back-up before you put it back on your computer, it is quite possible for viruses to be transferred to the external harddrive and then back to your computer. That happened to a girl I know, only she burnt the virus to a CD with her back-ups. Her computer was to the shop to be cleaned from the same virus several times until the people at the shop started asking what she did when she got home. They found it very strange that she would get the exactly same virus over and over again despite having up-to-date virus protection...

[nectere]

you can pull your most loved files and drivers on to an external hard drive or a cd if you have a writer. Actually I put as many of the dirvers as you can on floppy - the little ones obviously. Then I would just format the thing and be done with it. You will need your drivers when you reinstall windows to get everything else working. It really is a simple process, its just time consuming. You might want to read up on some basic dos commands to get moving around once you reformat so you can get the cd drive recognized etc to load up windows.

Honest, its really not that hard, it just takes a lot of time. But thats my method when I get fed up, reformat, Because I have been there with teen who thinks the computer is her personal toy to destroy and that the internet is safe...good luck

[Sleepycat]

I've had to reformat my ancient computers many many times *sigh*  usually it is just a matter of popping in the reinstall cd that came with your computer (since its a dell I am sure you have one, although it may be named differently - like "restore") with a couple clicks (to answer its questions of what you want it to do) it should do all the work for you.

[yetyak]

I ended up disabling the hyperthreading because of the performance hit.  It slowed down everything so bad I could hardly use the pc at all.  After the disable, all my programs run smooth and fast like they should.  Don't know if that would help you any, but it sure did make a difference for me.  I'm sure there is something I missed in how to use hyperthreading, but it just wasn't worth my time to try to figure it out.  Just lazy, I guess...

[Regina]

Formatting a hard-drive every so often is a good thing!  And especially when, like you say, you have a kid or kids who tend to end up with a ton of junk from the internet, whether they meant to or not (alas, our 8-year-old has done a number on his dad's computer and it's overdue for a format).

Yes, it's time-consuming, but it's not a hard job at all.  Just make sure, in addition to backing up your files, that you have drivers for all your hardware.  I know a lot of drivers come with WinXP but I haven't ever used that so don't know if they'd be current enough to get you going or not if you don't have original driver disks.  And of course there's that whole 'restore' thing which most people know a whole lot more about than I do.

At any rate, before I make this whole long post that doesn't even make any sense, I'm just going to wish you the best with this whole project!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Could you not do System Restore back as far as possible first, just to see if it fixes your problem?

Also, RegCleaner has an option for searching and finding all the junk files on your pc.  There may well be hundreds if not thousands if you've got kids surfing every game site going!  (I know whenever my neigbour's kid spends an hour on the net on this PC, I have to clean up after him! so what he'd manage to acquire in 6 months would be phenomenal!)

[Renatus]

I don't recommend system restore. It's sometimes useful over the short term, but the farther one tries to restore back the more likely one is to cause strange issues regarding what was installed then versus what is installed now. It's also a good way to reintroduce viruses and spyware, as they get backed up right along with everything else. If things aren't improved, you'd have a hell of a time knowing what is from existing issues and what is from issues you reintroduced - whereas with a reformat and reinstall you're starting with a clean slate and any issues that come up are much, much easier to trace to their real cause.

Save what's important, wipe and reinstall, and enroll the kiddos into some computer use classes if you can. Or maybe limited access accounts, depending on how much of a headache this ends up being.

[windy_moon]

Thanks for your thoughts!

3.4 ghz  , that's what a tech person I am.  I'd scribbled the specs on scrap paper, must have missed my decimal point.

I think the video card is 256mb, but I'm not near it at the moment.  I bought the machine pretty souped up because my kids like to make movies. (We have Premiere Elements which is a great program for teenage movie makers.)

Teenagers and viruses, ugh.  Ugh.  Did I say Ugh?  The spyware has been much worse than actual viruses.  When I finally figured out how to "clean" the machine (armed with a bunch of programs recommended by people who know), what was on there was eye-popping.  Getting rid of (and patrolling for) spyware (that the programs could identify and remove) has helped stave off the BFBVS this long.

IT guy at work says I'm not allowed to do system restore.  Tells me the machine is so messed up at this point, I'd only be restoring a bit less mess.

Writing down the part where I should scan the back up before putting it back on the clean machine. That makes so much sense....also makes sense to keep as little as possible.  Rather than just dumping everybody's My Documents, I'll pick and choose what we save.  (Their movies are already burned to DVDs, as I didn't buy enough hard drive space to keep them on the computer, turns out.  Who knew that 80MB was way too little.) 

Oh, and their music.  I have to back that up.....

Last night, my husband says, we paid enough for the computer, why don't you pay somebody to fix it.  I said, I'd love to, but I want these %$#& teenagers to go through every step of the pain with me so they understand what happens when you just run around the internet pushing buttons randomly!!

 

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edit PS. - hyperthreading and The Sims, I think that is supposed to be problematic, based on research I've done trying to fix the game performance problems.  Turning it on and off on the afflicted computer, I couldn't see a difference in % of freezes, but if the game doesn't run perfectly after I re-install, I'll play with it some again.

Lord, I should have married a computer geek, what was I thinking.  Sigh.  Well, he can cook......

[Renatus]

Last night, my husband says, we paid enough for the computer, why don't you pay somebody to fix it.  I said, I'd love to, but I want these %$#& teenagers to go through every step of the pain with me so they understand what happens when you just run around the internet pushing buttons randomly!!

That's a great way for them to learn, actually.  Good tactic.

[flowerchile]

The best advice I can offer is this, it makes for a really interesting read, it will tell you what are the most necessary things needed..It's the one I use and no problems with the running of my game.

http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST--2558-x-x-x&body_pagenum=1

Hope it helps.

[angelyne]

A good reinstall is indeed a good thing.  I do mine every 6 months of so.  It gets rid of the clutter and the bloat.  Amazing how much it improves performances. 

 I have my disk partitioned with 2 partitions.  That's one thing you might want to consider if you are reinstalling.  All the software and operating system goes on C: and the data goes on D: (including the documents and settings\name\ .... ).  This way, whevever I feel the need for a reinstall, I just perform the automatic reinstall for the machine.  No need to do a backup and all that jazz.

As for your kids, well I strongly recommend you give them restricted accounts.  Not only will it prevent them from snooping (and messing up) your stuff, but it will prevent a lot of virus and spyware from being installed.  The down side is you will need to install everything they want from your own admin account.  On the other hand, you know exactly what's being installed, so that's a plus. 

Also, make sure you patch to SP2 and include every current patch.  Keep the system uptodate with automatic update installs.  You should also switch to Firefox instead of Microsoft Explorer.  Less drive-by-installs with the former.  Lastly, get a good antivirus and Microsoft Anti-spyware installed for the kids.  If it was me I would desactivate them in MY account, for performance reasons when TS2 is running.  Or at least exclude TS2 from the scan. 

[nectere]

I wouldnt put any net nannies on your machine, not for teens anyway, you will only incite rebellion which you have to police and it will be a big pain in the butt, and of course you will come out the bad guy. I wanted to put a dl block, but realized I would have to police everything all the time and thats not what I want to teach my kid, its about learning personal responsibility not, because mom is a meanie.

No, make them sit with you and fetch you things when you do the clean up and reinstall so they can see just how long it takes and what goes into it, maybe even make them do some of the work (which is just sitting there watching the thing load really). Then get zonealarm, spyware guard, microsoft antispyware, spybot, adaware and last but not least avast personal home edition. That should pretty much cover all your bases, for free. Also installing Firefox almost completely stopped spyware all together. Of course if you can stomache it, stretch this procedure out as long as possible, an entire day or more, plus render the box useless for a couple of days prior- you know cause they broke it and now you have to fix it again...they will think twice about having to sit through that again.

Good luck, and make this a learning experience not just for yourself, but for your kids as well.

[angelyne]

Then get zonealarm, spyware guard, microsoft antispyware, spybot, adaware and last but not least avast personal home edition.

Ack Nectere, having all that installed would probably be worse than having a slew of spyware on your machine.

[Renatus]

Haha, no it wouldn't. I've never heard of spyware guard and am suspicious of it on principle because of that, but the rest of the spyware stuff only runs when the user wants it to. Zonealarm only monitors the Internet connect. Turn off the connection and one can safely turn off the antivirus and firewall when playing. Honestly, if you have a decent firewall built into your modem or router (if you have broadband), you are not in a big need of a firewall on the machine (YMMV, but I've found it's unneccesary for average users). If you have dialup there isn't much that's going to try to access your computer anyhow, the connection is too slow.

As it is, I never bother turning off my antivirus software and my game runs about the same as it does with it off. I do have it set not to autorun, though, so it only monitors and scans when I tell it to.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Me too, I virtually never bother to deactivate McAfee - just in case I forget when I plug into the net again that it needs to be turned back on!  I just have the McAfee antispyware and firewall now.  I tried Microsoft when it first came out and it was a pain in the butt then - maybe they've improved it since though.

Reinstalling every 6 months seems a bit of task - my machine has been running for more than twice that time without any reinstalls - but I clean it up frequently.

[angelyne]

Haha, no it wouldn't. I've never heard of spyware guard and am suspicious of it on principle because of that, but the rest of the spyware stuff only runs when the user wants it to. Zonealarm only monitors the Internet connect.

Mcafee, Microsoft Antispyware, Zonealarm all run at the same time.  Not sure about spyware guard, but it sounds like it does.  Adware can be used to monitor your system but that might be only the paid version.  Can't remember about Avast but usually antivirus are memory resident.

In any case, it's conterproductive to have several anti-virus programs running at the same time.  They can interfere with each other.  Might be useful to have multiple anti-virus scanners and spyware scanners, if you suspect an infection or if you are very paranoid.  But I don't bother.  Anything that runs as a process will take up CPU time and a chunk of memory.  It can and does add up!

I have something like 10 processes running on my machine.  I turned everything off, except the sound control, that's useful for adjusting volume.  Oh and MSN Messenger, cause I occasionally use it.

I never keep a firewall for very long because they always end up bugging me ( I have a NAT on my router, so it's not that critical).  I turn off Mcafee to maximize memory, and I have never had a running antispyware program on my desktop, for the simple reason I never got spyware.  I only had a trojan once, and that was because I broke my own rule (never download from an unknown source...that guy on MSN is very much that).  Malware (virus and spyware) are like STD.  You get them because of unsafe practices.  If you know what not to do, you don't get them.

[Renatus]

  Malware (virus and spyware) are like STD.  You get them because of unsafe practices.  If you know what not to do, you don't get them.

Yeah, pretty much.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I agree that all these programs use a huge chunk of memory, which is one reason why when I had to upgrade McAfee, I took the anti-spy and firewall options, as I thought that an integrated system might use a little less memory than three separate ones.  The McAfee firewall has never caused me any problems, and the only problem I get with the program as a whole is it's tendency to bring my game back to the desktop when it's installing an update.

I also occasionally scan with Yahoo for spyware - I found it actually found more of the stuff than the Microsoft Antispy, and it only takes a minute or two to do.  And I use WindowWasher to clean up when I've been on the net.

[nectere]

Well if you dont want to spend the money you can use the free systems in tandem. If you have money to burn then by all means go buy stuff. I dont have any issues running all that I suggested. Because even though my daughter has learned some vaulable lessons I still dont want to have to worry about picking something up. Adaware often picks up things that spybot doesnt and vice versa. SpywareGuard is a program that keeps anything from redirecting my browser settings and will detect anything that does, whether its from a program I installed or a website I visited. Now that I have micorsoft antispyware I could probably take it off, but I havent because it isnt harming anything. I am not paranoid, I just believe its better to be safe then sorry later. Because as I recently found out, I got a trojan from an innocent enough looking package which me some effort to clean up, thats when I installed Avast, a free antivirus program like mcafee (my mcafee had expired and I was too cheap to renew plus upgrade) suggested by Hook. (Thanks Hook! - have I told you lately how much I love Avast?)

Actually all those systems together use less memory than running firefox or mcafee. I also have process explorer to kill off everything if I want to play a memory intense game and I am not online. I am on dialup and Zonealarm has in fact detected at least 4 attempts to gain access to my computer in the last week so I have no idea what is meant that it isnt possible because I am on dialup. I also like it because it keeps certain programs that I have installed from accessing the internet as well, I dont want them phoning home.

[Sleepycat]

I've been using avast! for a couple years now and I just love it! and it's the only anti-virus program I know of that also keeps an protective eye on my instant messengers so I don't have to worry about downloading inffected files thru them.

[Renatus]

Actually all those systems together use less memory than running firefox or mcafee. I also have process explorer to kill off everything if I want to play a memory intense game and I am not online. I am on dialup and Zonealarm has in fact detected at least 4 attempts to gain access to my computer in the last week so I have no idea what is meant that it isnt possible because I am on dialup. I also like it because it keeps certain programs that I have installed from accessing the internet as well, I dont want them phoning home.

I didn't say it wasn't possible; I said there wasn't much that would bother. It's just not as likely that a malicious user is going to want to try to take control of a comptuer on dial-up than one that is just as open on a connection ten to one hundred times faster. I would be willing to bet that the access attempts were port scans and wouldn't have amounted to much. Also, the vulnerabilities for someone on dialup are quite different than those of someone on an unprotected broadband connection.

... I'm going to stop now.  I did this computer junk for three years to feed myself so I could go on allll day about it, but I'll spare everyone the boredom.

I've also found that my free antivirus program (AVG in my case) doesn't take up too much of my computer's processing power and RAM. The commercial products are quite bloated.

[nectere]

Well I cant say that I wasnt suprised that someone was trying to enter through netbios, each time its the same thing, and oddly enough only when I am on this site and on mirc at the same time.

[angelyne]

Because as I recently found out, I got a trojan from an innocent enough looking package which me some effort to clean up

I'm interested to know.  What was this innocent looking package?