how do I change the font size when I boot up in safe mode?

[olddude]

You should not experience any issue or difficulty using the bleepingcomputer ‘SP4’ disc. It is XP SP3 with some updates slipstreamed into it.

That is a valid reason for using XP. Depending on a handful of factors, it may be a wise choice to run XP in a virtual machine within Windows 10. You would have the benefit of, and access to, your parts lookup tool, plus the benefit of general and exponential performance and security enhancements of a more current OS.

I am not recommending that you invest in Windows 10. But, you could purchase a refurbished Dell/HP workstation PC with Windows 10 installed for about $100. That PC would run circles around any XP era machine and consume less electricity and generate less heat. You would have to carefully examine the refurbished product description to ensure that the platform supports a virtual machine, but this is a widely available feature.

Thanks…Yes I have bought several refurbished computers and actually have had very good luck with them. Well accept for the one I bought with linux installed on it. I would consider buying Windows 10 to put on that machine but as you said I could buy another machine with Windows 10 already on cheaper than I could buy a Windows 10 disk.
Again, is there any way to tell if I did indeed install this SP4 disk?

[Antman]

My Computer, Properties

…, is there any way to tell if I did indeed install this SP4 disk?

[ATTACH]3237[/ATTACH]

[olddude]

yes it says SP3

[Antman]

yes it says SP3

The ‘SP4’ CD contains XP SP3.

SP4 does not exist, but refers to a CD with SP3 plus a bunch of updates magically packed in.

The REPAIR functions found in booting from the CD and setup - AND CHOOSING THE SECOND REPAIR option - are the correct and appropriate versions.

[olddude]

The ‘SP4’ CD contains XP SP3.

SP4 does not exist, but refers to a CD with SP3 plus a bunch of updates magically packed in.

The REPAIR functions found in booting from the CD and setup - AND CHOOSING THE SECOND REPAIR option - are the correct and appropriate versions.

I understand…I think. But where I am a problem is that I’m not sure I installed this SP4 disk set when I got it. Which disk set should I use for the repair? The my SP3 disk or the SP 4 set? What happens if I use the SP3 disk and I did in the past install the SP 4 set?

[Antman]

It does not matter which disk you use. Your install is SP3. Both disks are SP3

[olddude]

It does not matter which disk you use. Your install is SP3. Both disks are SP3

OK Thanks! I ran the sfc/scannow in command prompt. It took awhile to scan but went all the way through but did not ask for the setup disk. What does that mean?

[Antman]

It could mean that no files required replacement. It could mean that XP is configured to place the setup files on a local HDD (a common and popular XP hack).

[Antman]

Answer each question individually:
Does the PC still require 20 minutes to boot?
Is the DNS Client service disabled?

[olddude]

Answer each question individually:
Does the PC still require 20 minutes to boot?
Is the DNS Client service disabled?

1st question: the day before yesterday rather than let the computer run I decided to log off windows to see if that would work better. Well yesterday that worked pretty good. I logged back on and the machine booted up almost like it used to a little slow but nothing like it had been doing. I used it for a couple hours then decided to log off again when I was done hoping everything would be good.

This morning when I logged on it loaded everything pretty much like yesterday but when I clicked on Google to get my e-mails and do a little research it took a long time to load my home page It became unresponsive and just sit there. Finally my internet connection dropped and when I tried to reconnect a box kept coming up saying that windows could not connect to the network and when I tried the repair route it said it could not complete the repair and to contact my system administrator. This is what it was doing before and the only way to fix the connection was to reboot the computer, which I did.

I had noticed while this was all going on Malwarebytes was using 100% of the cpu which was probably some of the problem. About a week ago when I was doing virus and malware checks when I started malwarebytes I checked for updates and a box popped up asking if I wanted to try a 15 day free trial of the full version and I decided to try it just to see if it really is all that better. It turns out that it set itself to do a whole bunch of checks on startup which was slowing everything down. When I rebooted the machine I let it do it’s thing then went ahead and went back to just the free program. I then rebooted again to see if this helped but it took about the same amount of time for the machine got to the point that I could get on the net probably somewhere around 15 + minutes. So that problem seem to be still with me.

Second question: No, for some reason DNS Client is not disabled now.

[Antman]

Disable DNS Client service. Don’t bother clicking STOP. Just disable and restart.
Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services,
Double click DNS Client
Startup Type, select DISABLED
Click OK
RESTART

[ATTACH]3252[/ATTACH]

REPORT

[olddude]

Ok That was a little better still a lot slower than it once was but a whole lot better than it was, down to less than 10 minutes. I think that Avast and Malwarebytes are causing most of the slow down. I also notice that right after the desktop displays I get a windows security alert saying my windows firewall and automatic updates are turned off. Once this box pops up the machine will sit there and do nothing for about a minute or more then it loads the other startup items, network connection, local area connection, Avast, then Malwarebytes. I don’t know why that even starts up on startup and it’s the one that seems to take up most of the time.

[Antman]

Assumption:
CPU 100% usage ‘goes away’ after the 10 minute startup process.

Now, let’s do a clean boot.

Clean boot in Windows XP
To perform a clean boot in Windows XP:

[ol]
[li]Click Start > Run, type msconfig and then click OK.[/li]

[li]On the General tab, choose Selective Startup.[/li]

[li]Clear the following check boxes:[/li][ul]
[li]Process SYSTEM.INI file[/li]

[li]Process WIN.INI file[/li]

[li]Load Startup items[/li][/ul]
[li]Click the Services tab.[/li]

[li]Select the Hide All Microsoft services check box (at the bottom).[/li]

[li]Click Disable all.[/li]

[li]Click OK.[/li]

[li]Click Restart.[/li][/ol]

[olddude]

Before I do the clean boot I just want to let you know that yesterday when I was done with the computer I let it run like I do most of the time just to see if it would come out of standby/ hibernation like it should when I tried it this morning. It’s still doing the same thing. Lost internet connection and when I try to either reconnect or repair the connection the box comes up saying it’s disabling the service and just sits there. While this is going on the mouse pointer is erratic. I tried to log off to see if I could get the connection back that way but it wouldn’t even log off just sits there and after about 5 minutes I pulled the plug to get it to shut off to start over.

It restarted ok and took about 8 to ten minutes to finish doing all the clicking and clacking that I could hear going on inside the machine to where I can get onto the internet. It seems to hang up as soon as that security box pops up saying automatic updates is turned off and the windows firewall is turned off. It will sit there for a bit then that box goes off and another one pops up saying just the auto update is off. after that it loads the local connection/then it internet connection/then Avast icon comes up on the start menu and then it seems like the machine is downloading something which I assume is avast doing what ever it does on startup.

Once all this is over the machine works and I can do what I need to do. I have noticed for awhile that it does not like to load some web pages and will become unresponsive and I will have to reload them but I’m think that as you said, “It’s Windows XP after all”

Will do the clean boot process now. Thanks for your help!

[olddude]

Well I tried to do the clean boot thing but I’m not sure it worked out all too well. I did as you said in your last post had all the boxes checked and unchecked but a box popped up saying some of the changes could not be made because I needed to be logged on as the administrator. I clicked OK and there was another box asking if I wanted to restart or make changes without restarting. I clicked restart.

I’m not sure what was supposed to happen but it booted back up like it always did and there was a box that popped up saying I made changes to the way windows starts up but when I looked at the box I unchecked, the ‘Load start up items’ is still checked and in the Services tab nothing seems to have been changed there.