Whenever I get a “History cannot be downloaded” error in Paypal, I need to remember to disable the filters.

I’m running Windows XP Pro on a reformatted machine. Despite having 97% of my system resources free, it was slow to open programs. A Google search brought me to theElderGeek.com site that told me to look at the Event log (I don’t know why I never think to look there). There I found several errors all related to “Microsoft.VC80.MFCLOC” (huh?). Another Google search brings me to the solution. My PC was looking for system files that come with the C++ redistribution installation (you go “huh?”, but I go “oh”). The solution tells me to go here, download the file, and install it (which of course comes up slow).

Rebooted.

Much better.

Everything is coming up much faster now.

Update 4/2/2008 – Well, it was faster…

Slowed down again a few days ago.  Nothing in the Event log to say anything was wrong this time.

So I tried to defrag.  I thought it was too early to try defragging the hard drive, so I opted to just defrag the registry instead using Auslogic’s free Registry Defrag which improved things a little.

But then it got much worse.  Boot time was horrible.  The way the computer was acting, it made me think something was wrong with the hard drive because programs took a long time to load, but once loaded, they ran fine. Next I ran check disk, which said it couldn’t do it right then and asked to run at the next reboot.  I checked “yes” and rebooted.  Normally, the Check Disk at boot program is a blue screen with the Windows logo at the top right corner, but it was green and the logo’s colors were off.  Despite the weird colors, I let it process which took about an hour.  Again it ran fine for a while, then slowed down again.

Time to defrag the hard disk using Auslogic’s Disk Defrag which is much faster than Windows defrag (and a little prettier, too).

Finally some good results!  Boot time and program loading is much improved.  Hopefully the improvements will stick this time.

There is a wealth of information out there. Here are the blogs and sites I often read.

Financial

Walletpop.com – Great tips on ways to save money

DaveRamsey.com – his Financial Peace University class really helped me get my debt under control.

Fool.com – The Motely Fool site helps me understand the basics of investing when I have enough money that I saved using Walletpop.com’s tips to invest.

Life

Lifehacker.com – great collection of time saving and life easing tips

There are a lot more that I read, but I don’t have time to list right now. More coming soon.