[Mad Hatter]

On Thursday night my computer just would not behave. I use Internet Explorer and it kept saying "not responding". It drove me wappy!

As I was doing internet banking then trying to post on here about it, my computer just froze. A friend suggested I do a system restore then a defragmentation but it was so slow, I could not get anywhere near system restore. The computer did it's own automatic virus scan and I left it on whilst I went out for 2 hours. I have Virgin's own security on my computer and though other people reckon it is not very good, I have always found it suitable for my needs.

Last night I seemed to be able to get on and today it is behaving normally. I have noticed an icon at the bottom entitled synaptics pointing device. I dont know what that is or if it has always been there. Nor do I ever update the Java or Adobe when those prompts come up. If anyone has any ideas at all, I would be grateful to know what I can do to avoid this in the future.

Now the computer seems to be working okay, should I try and do the defragmentation? I have had the laptop 3 years and have never done much with it as I am not an expert. I get by and I love my laptop and thanks in advance.

[s2k]

Ok so from the top...

I dont have any experience with Virgin's security package but there are a number of other free alternatives which may be less resource-intensive. My personal choices would be Avast or Microsoft Security Essentials. If you do decide to change it make sure you uninstall the Virgin security stuff first.

Synaptics is the mouse driver - dont worry about it.

You *should* update the Java and Adobe products. Most of the time its security related but you do sometimes get extra functionality or performance enhancements.

I personally wouldnt bother with the defragmentation. On a new system it is unlikely to be the cause of any of the problems you are having. The most common cause for the symptoms your getting is usually either have too much junk running (check the icons by the taskbar), a malware infection (run a full scan with Malwarebytes) or insufficient RAM (visit Crucial.com/uk and run the tool there).

[Stig]

Originally Posted by Mad Hatter

On Thursday night my computer just would not behave. I use Internet Explorer and it kept saying "not responding". It drove me wappy!

As I was doing internet banking then trying to post on here about it, my computer just froze. A friend suggested I do a system restore then a defragmentation but it was so slow, I could not get anywhere near system restore. The computer did it's own automatic virus scan and I left it on whilst I went out for 2 hours. I have Virgin's own security on my computer and though other people reckon it is not very good, I have always found it suitable for my needs.

Last night I seemed to be able to get on and today it is behaving normally. I have noticed an icon at the bottom entitled synaptics pointing device. I dont know what that is or if it has always been there. Nor do I ever update the Java or Adobe when those prompts come up. If anyone has any ideas at all, I would be grateful to know what I can do to avoid this in the future.

Now the computer seems to be working okay, should I try and do the defragmentation? I have had the laptop 3 years and have never done much with it as I am not an expert. I get by and I love my laptop and thanks in advance.

Just leave it alone. If you have problems like that again, just restart the PC.

If you have Vista or Windows 7 it does it's own defrag anyway, and it wouldn't help your problem in any case.

[Mad Hatter]

Thanks very much indeed for your replies.

Today the computer has been fine all day. When it was playing up, I couldnt even shut it down - I had to press hard on the "on" switch to get the computer to switch off. I have Vista on my computer and when I see the prompts for the updates for Java and Adobe, I will update. What about cookies, should I do something with those? It does seem strange that for 2 days the computer was on a total go slow and unresponding mood and now it seems all back to normal . . . . . . . . Thanks again.