There is much power under the hood of Dell OptiPlex 745 to cope up the day to day office needs. However, due to the numerous application programs installed and uninstalled in the system the computer performance was affected. Registry cleaner software clean up coupled with an antivirus scanner scanning is really required. Another way to improve performance is to remove the McAfee Internet Security subscription from the system and install Microsoft Security Essential software as a replacement.

A couple of Trojan / Virus software were detected and removed by Microsoft Security Essential scanner in the process. Running the free CCleaner registry cleaner software also fixed a lot of error, but after the computer was restarted the Rundll popup error was still there.

The succeeding option was to use TrendMicro’s HighjackThis free utility software to clean the computer registry. Unlike other registry scanner or reporting tool, HighjackThis doesn’t tell whether the setting is good or bad, safe or unsafe. It needs manual discretion to determine which entries need to be fixed or removed.

Analysis from the HighjackThis log report shows the following line related to tapi.nfo error.
F2 – REG:system.ini:Shell=Explorer.exe rundll32.exe tapi.nfo beforeglav
The solution done was to select the above line and have HighjackThis software fix the registry entry.

Restarting the Dell Optiplex 745 desktop computer after the above process have eliminated the Rundll popup “Error loading tapi.nfo. The specified module could not be found” during Windows XP startup. It was noted that the computer speed performance has improved dramatically.

Gauging the computer useability state, it is still functional to keep daily work needs of running MS Office Suite 2007, Quicken accounting software, and some photo editor software such as Adobe Photoshop CS Suite.

There are several reasons for computer performance drop such as unnecessary software consumes PC resources, files on disk are disorganized, too many programs loads during startup, unused network drives, and many others. Third party software are widely available that fixes windows problems, safely repair errors on your computer, removes bugs and restores the computer back to its original performance.

There are greater threats with the use of the internet that dramatically slows computer’s performance. Computer errors due to a stealth worm, virus, Trojan could wreak havoc and needs to troubleshoot problems by clean booting.

Before doing anything on your computer, it’s a must to create some backup or a restore point in case something goes wrong. You can use the built-in Windows XP data backup software or system restore program. It’s a good practice to have a data backup recovery plan when things go wrong.

Some things to improve Windows XP computer performance:

• remove automatically loaded programs
• fix and update device drivers
• check for computer virus and Trojans
• disconnect unused network connections
• defragment disk files

There are many other more reasons, but the above are on my experience usually causing poor Windows XP performance.

This week my wife raised her concern about the recurring computer problem in her office. It seems that in the past four years of using her HP computer, this month made her less productive because of her computer’s sluggish performance. It takes more than five minutes to open internet browsers and data as well. I tried running an anti-virus program thinking it might have been caused by malicious ware and deleted unused files yet the problem still persisted. Then I remembered the software that me fixed my laptop’s speed issue.

I have tried another type of registry tool before but WinSAO is more effective. So far I have never encountered any major catastrophe with my PC and laptop with so many programs working on it at the same time since I regularly run this optimizer to make sure unwanted applications are properly eliminated. For the trial version of this software you need to Download WinASO Registry Optimizer from their website. It is a must to have this software secured in your system.

Some of the additional useful tools that you can find along with after installation are the following:

• Privacy Cleaner or Disk Cleanup
• Registry Defragmenter
• DirectX Diagnostic Tool
• Registry Editor; and more.

Anyway, I don’t use Windows Vista yet at the office, since my aging desktop computer only runs on 1GB of memory at 1.8MHz CPU speed. This is kind of old, but I am contemplating of having an upgrade. I am not even sure yet if the computer motherboard will support 4GB Memory Upgrade. It would be cool to have a 4GB memory on the working computer as I open up multiple windows usually and run along side a Linux Virtual Machine.

It’s a good thing that computer memory today is pretty cheap. A 4GB memory is about 100$ to 300$ depending on the type. Larger memory would made possible running multiple OS with virtual PC’s or VMWare on my Windows XP desktop computer. On a desktop computer running virtual machines are a little less of a problem, but on my Acer Apire One 8.9″ netbook it crawls. Maybe a 2GB PC2-6400 200-PIN SODIMM upgrade would be needed from the 1GB original memory when I bought it from a computer fair in COMWORLD, Thailand.

If you want to run virtual application on your old desktop computer then memory upgrade is surely needed. You would really experience a boost in performance when running application programs whether on native host OS or Virtual guest OS.

All of these factors combined could generate more heat than traditional room based cooling solution. In our institute servers, we’ve observed that conventional perimeter cooling approaches have technical and practical limitations in closely packed space. Heat generated by machines are not dissipated efficiently.

Thus, our computer servers are installed with row and rack-based cooling solution. There are several advantages that we’ve seen in implementing rack based cooling solution for our computer servers.

Some advantages of row and rack based cooling:

• suitable for high density requirement
• enhanced availability
• easier temperature predictability
• improved cooling efficiency
• easily adapt on changes
• lower electrical consumption

Checks on computer server temperatures with Digital Laser Thermometer could be done easily.  The check showed how the rack-based cooling has been effective in lowering specific spot temperatures of our servers. I could say that row and rack-based cooling solution would be most suitable for controlling heat problems in computer server rooms and data centers.

I have observed that slow response of desktop computer decreases work productivity. Waiting for the result to show up on the screen causes me headache and eye strain. I may be clicking too fast that’s why the computer could not even have the time to respond, which finally end up with not responding error. When this occurs what I do is take a break off and get something to drink. Usually, the computer does respond to keyboard or mouse click after taking sometime off.

This normally happens when there are too many instances of Firefox browser and other software application that are open. I believe that the 1Gb RAM of computer resource is not enough to cope with the number of opened window. Maybe increasing the RAM to 2 Gb would ease the delayed response of my desktop computer, which greatly affects work productivity.

I noticed that missing Computer Drivers causes the computer to sluggishly load Windows XP during start up. Windows XP operating system actually tries to search for the unknown device driver. Usually a popup window prompts for either ignoring the missing device driver or search for the driver automatically on the Internet.

A usual cause of this “unknown device driver” is due to defective device. When the device is defective then the device could not be recognized by the system. Mostly people assume that that all PC components work properly from the computer store. I have experienced some USB port based devices like computer printer that do not work. Even if the Computer Printer Drivers from the installation CD were installed the error still persist. A simple check of trying the device on another PC would confirm whether the device is defective or not.

Computer Device Drivers which is not fully installed is also a major reason for “unknown device error”. There are also times that the device driver software needs to be installed first before the device is plugged on the computer. Sometimes after installing the driver a restarting of the desktop computer is needed.

Fixing the unknown device driver requires installation of the required driver for the computer hardware. Some devices require basic programs from the Windows XP installer to fully function. Windows update which installers newer set of hardware device drivers could solve this error. A good practice though is to always follow installation directions step by step and have the Windows XP installer ready.

There is also computer software that could scan the whole computer and determine the needed device driver. Some online website like www.driversoftware.com provides free device driver scans. Computer repair technician have this kind of software collection ready all the time. It would also be very handy for doing some minor computer repairs at home.

Windows XP NTUSER.DAT File could be deleted to Free Up Computer Disk Spac

Windows XP system automatically pops up a window which informs the user that the disk space is running low. Low disk space left is a probable cause of computer slowing down. The reason could be that the system is creating some temporary files on the hard disk and there’s no more space available.

I have observed that when the disk space runs low the computer is prone to hung ups and is very slow in responding to any request. Opening multiple software application window would take nearly a minute and worst it would sometime not respond. An error not responding is thrown. Having ample disk space to accommodate temporary files created by the system while running Windows XP would be necessary for better computer performance.

The computer files that would impact in freeing up disk space are those that have more than 100Mb in size. Thus, I search for them in the computer for possible deletion whenever necessary. I have found many files with File Extension DAT could at times eat up 1 GB of disk space. By deleting these large files I would immediately get the needed space for running smoothly my computer.

There are many large size files that lurks in the computer which takes a lot of disk space. Some computer program files have data files with File Extension DAT which is needed at run time or during installation. I have noted that files with DAT extension takes up space. Some of them contains temporary data which don’t have any impact even if deleted. There are some also that have very significant importance that when corrupted would cause the computer hang up.

An example of a DAT file is Ntuser.dat which is created by Windows XP system during user profile creation. The file size of ntuser.dat on a fresh installation of Windows XP is only about 256 Kb, but as time goes on the file grows in size up to even 9 GB or more. Thus, ntuser.dat file is a very good file candidate with File Extension DAT for deletion to free up system disk space. I tried deleting ntuser.dat and it seems there’s no adverse effect. A notable effect is Windows XP theme was reset to use the non-Windows XP default ordinary theme.

A special thing about ntuser.dat file is whenever it’s deleted there’s no need to worry as it is created back whenever the user logs into the system. A friendly note, if you’re thinking about deleting NTUSER.DAT.

DO NOT DELETE NTUSER.DAT as you’ll LOOSE your PROFILE SETTINGS

Remember NTUSER.DAT is a required system file and may cause your system to crash. It’s possible though to delete it, but DON’T BLAME me for anything. If you do not know what you’re doing then – DO NOT DELETE NTUSER.DAT.

If you want to test the effect then it’s important to backup NTUSER.DAT before doing anything on it or deleting it for disk space saving. There might be particular settings on your Windows XP which you might want back later. It’s better to be safe than to be sorry for lost data.

File Extension are important as they indicate the type of file it is. It also shows the application software that will be used to open that file. There are times though that I have encountered difficulty in opening a file with known file extension. This could be the case when the Windows Registry entry for that particular file extension is corrupted.

Some common cause of not able to open known File Extension:

• Missing or corrupted applications identifiers
• corrupted files
• Unrecognized files
• uninstalled programs
• Unused or missing files
• Broken Windows or application paths

I observed that uninstalled programs will leave the associated files orphan in the registry file. Known files are difficult to open due to corrupted application software installation. Whenever there’s difficulty in opening certain File Extension, registry scanners should be run on the system. Thereby, correcting all the possible cause of the error and ensuring better computer performance.

There are several factors that could be attributed to computer slow down. A common culprit is due to Windows Registry File Extension mapping conflicts. The reason behind might be the constant install and uninstall of computer software. Another would be the addition and removal of some computer hardware device. It might also be due to the changes in a computer settings.

Any change to both computer software and computer hardware affects the Registry File. The constant change could leave the registry corrupted or fragmented. In the long run the computer will crash or hung up as conflicts in say Registry File Extension entries remain unresolved while opening a file. The registry which stores the information of program application to file mapping left with conflicts could cause computer slow down.

Fixing computer slow down problem due to conflict in registry file extension mapping is as simple as running a registry file scanner regularly. The registry scanner will automatically fix all the conflicts. There are computer software like RegistryFix or RegCure that are freely available that could be used to fix Registry File Extension mapping conflicts. Regular registry scan would make your Windows computer run faster and stable.