Letters and Words not showing as I type – very slow response to keyboard actions

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Today’s Blog Post


Letters and Words not showing as I type – very slow response to keyboard actions

[WARNING – this is a rather Techie kind of post today… a computer problem post… that may help non Techie people get out of a jam.]

“Oh NO! Not another problem with Microsoft Windows!” was my first response.

I have suffered through the Early days, Middle days and Modern days of MS Windows development. And nuts… here we go again. I am so old that I remember the Black Screen when the letters that appeared were white… no fancy windows and colours and all the stuff we are so used to now.

And here we go again. My typing is not producing results on the screen when I type. It is very s-l-o-w. The processor is keeping what I type then in two seconds or more it spits out the results in one row. It feels almost like a stutter.

My computer is slower that you can imagine. What in the world is going on???!

Doing a rough search in Google I came up with some answers – more like guesses that dear friends around the world were offering. One good thing was that I was not alone. People all over the place had experienced this kind of slow typing mode.

But all is not hopeless… I think I found the answer.

Here is what I was doing.

I opened my two browsers that I use all the time. I use the Microsoft Explorer Browser and the Mozilla Firefox Browser. Both have things that are useful to my applications and usage.

Most of the time my Firefox program is running. And often times I have left the Explorer open as well.

Last night this was the exact case – both were running and we had slowed down to the point that I had to quit.

I closed the Explorer… but still no change. I suspected that something was running behind the scenes that was using up all my resources.

That guess was a good one.

I opened the Explorer again to test something.

Then I opened my “Task Manager” by hitting Ctrl, Alt and Delete at the same time – which opens a blue Window – then select Task Manager.

In the Task Manager I clicked on the Tab “Processes”… then followed it down to “explorer.exe” and “firefox.exe”.

Hokey Mokey! The machine’s working memory was being swallowed up by the Firefox and the Explorer. Explorer was using about 168,000 K and Firefox was using just under 700,000 K !!!! No wonder it was so slow!

I shut down the two programs and then shut down the whole machine. I started it all up again and then did a check on the Processes usage again. Firefox was running at about 167,000 and Explorer at 23,000.

The typing was fine. No hesitation at all.

I simply had too much running on my poor little lap top.

But there is a major problem with Firefox version 3.6.13. It keeps growing in usage and demands on your memory as it sits there. Actually I think it is after I have done extensive searches and heavy use of the program opening many web pages. It has built up a very full temporary cache that needs to be purged… and emptied… which happens when you shut down and reboot.

I had tried closing all the windows and searches that I had opened and used in Firefox – having only the Google open. But I still had the 700,000 K being used in the background.

If I try to close the Firefox outside of the Task Manager, it still will not shut down. They have something running in the background.

Another problem…
When I “X” the Firefox program to close it… then attempt to open it again… it will not open a second Firefox because Firefox is already running a copy – so it is says. Yep – opening the Task Manager shows Firefox still doing its stuff behind the scenes. Clicking on the firefox.exe and then End Process – takes care of that one.

So today I am happy again. I need to love on my laptop with more frequent shut downs… purging the cache. I need to monitor that hidden programs that are running all the time… that add to the heavy use my poor little HP.

This is not a terribly inspiring post today – expect if you are experiencing a very slow typing of your words… t-h-e-n y-o-u- n-e-e-d h-e-l-p.

Good luck!

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/