a little computer help please

Final Fantasy Online Forums > Community Discussion > The Dork Squad

10.08.2011 7:31am

Thread Creator

Vegeta X
Registered Member

Hi all, was hoping someone might be able to enlighten me a bit about a few things.

I have this brand new Toshiba computer, and right out the gate before doing anything, im being told I have over 500 critical registry errors that are affecting performance and all that.

Does anyone know of a really good registry cleaner? Ive tried a few but none of them really seem to be doing much of anything :\ I still end up with warnings telling me I have a bunch of unresloved registry errors.

Also, another question maybe you guys can help me with regarding the processor of my old and new comp.

My old computer processor is a Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Dup CPU T9550 @ 2.66GHz 2.67GHz

the one on the new comp is a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz 2.00GHz.

which one of the two is better? I hear i7 is the newest and best, but then I see the GHz is a lot higher on the old one.

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10.08.2011 4:21pm

Southern Comfort
silently judging all of you

What, exactly, is telling you you have critical registry errors? Nothing at all in Windows should be complaining about registry errors - the only thing Windows will be telling you is you've recovered from a registry error (happens at boot, single message, proceed as usual soldier) or that a registry hive is corrupt and unable to be loaded (and now, you've got bigger fish to fry).

"Critical registry errors" says to me "malware, virus, or crap program preloaded by manufacturer". Please provide a screenshot, but I highly suspect you should kill it with fire, piss on the ashes with a virus scanner or three, and salt the ground with Malwarebytes.

(Once upon a time, in the dark days of Windows 95, registry bloat was something to be aware of, and corrupted registry keys were notoriously destructive. But anything based on NT - XP, Vista, an Win7 count - the registry is built like a tank, and size on disk has zero to negative impact on system performance. Anything on those systems telling you about "critical registry errors" or how to improve your performance by cleaning the registry is a bullshit little man telling you bullshit little words hoping to score marketing data, serve you ads, or turn you into a botnet zombie.)

***

There are a huge number of differences between that old Core2Duo and the new Sandy Bridge i7 processor. The main thing you're noticing, though, is the Sandy Bridge automatic clock stepping - it runs by default at 2.0 gHz to save energy, but it can and will step up the processor frequency when Windows asks, along with turning on additional cores. The "real" max performance is 2 cores @ 2.8gHz / 4 cores @ 2.6 gHz. You don't need max performance when browsing the web or using Word or something equally trivial, so Intel (quite wisely) assumes you'd prefer battery life. Play a game or do something equally as processor-intensive, and it'll kick your computer over to high gear.

You can probably disable it and have your processor at max all the time by fiddling with your advanced power settings, but be prepared for your battery life to drop precipitously. Only do this if it's plugged into the wall all the time, because you're basically turning your laptop into a desktop.

(There are other things with Sandy Bridge that throws off the gHz-to-gHz comparison with the C2D - even better optimized branch prediction, L3 cache, etc., it all basically means the Sandy Bridge does more work per processor cycle and thus doesn't need the speed to equal the performance. Also, fun fact, Sandy Bridge processors include the video card on-die, and apparently it's a serious contender in the mobile video card market.)

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10.08.2011 8:47pm

Thread Creator

Vegeta X
Registered Member

thank you for the help :)

Ya i honestly thought all this registry error crap was because of a preloaded program just trying to extort money from me. The computer came with a PC Optimizer Pro Registry Cleaner program, and it keeps reminding me every so often that I have a shit ton of errors. This was happening nearly from the moment I first turned the computer on (its less then a week old).

Ive ran my Norton free trial antivirus several times and it says everything is clean, but what concerns me is that things are often choppy. Even the most simple procedures of scrolling down a webpage or moving a window around can become choppy, same with music and video, and sometmes it feels really bogged down. I dont think I should be having this sort of issue on a brand new i7 computer.

Im thinking a formatting might be in order here.

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10.08.2011 10:01pm

Southern Comfort
silently judging all of you

The most likely source of slowness and choppiness? Norton. Seriously, Norton AV has been a piece of shit for years. Get rid of it, every last bit you can dig out (Norton Uninstaller helps tremendously) and replace it with Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes. They'll never steer you wrong. (Also, remember to check and see if Windows Firewall is running, Norton's co-opts it and sometimes it doesn't come back on automatically when you kill Norton. You need no other firewall, no matter what anyone else tells you.)

PC Optimizer Pro is known spyware. Uninstall it and sic Malwarebytes on it, it'll go away shortly. If you feel you really must have some sort of optimization tool, install CCleaner, it's just about the only option that won't fuck your computer up.

If you're still slow, try selectively disabling startup items with msconfig (Start > Search > "msconfig.exe", startup tab). Just make sure you're not disabling anything important - Google it beforehand to make sure.

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10.09.2011 12:02am

Thread Creator

Vegeta X
Registered Member

you sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. I will give that all a go and see how it things turn out!

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