Help function & Outlook very slow on laptop

Alfons, Mon Apr 17 2006, 11:46AM

Hi,

When I push F1 to see the Help-function of a certain program (any program with a *.CHM help file), it takes minutes for my laptop to open it.
Also, when I open Outlook 2003, it takes a very, very long time to open messages or to browse the folders.

My laptop is quite fast (Acer Aspire 3005WLMI with Sempron 3300+, 512MB RAM) so I find it very strange that it takes so long to open the program / files.

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this problem?
Re: Help function & Outlook very slow on laptop
Bjørn, Mon Apr 17 2006, 01:00PM

Both probably use the explorer HTML/XML functionality. Maybe you have contracted some sort of spyware.
Re: Help function & Outlook very slow on laptop
Alfons, Mon Apr 17 2006, 01:05PM

Maybe you have contracted some sort of spyware.
I'm quite sure that that isn't the case, since it already happened just after reinstalling windows using the laptop's recovery cd's.

I scanned for viruses and spyware to be sure, and none was detected.
Re: Help function & Outlook very slow on laptop
Bjørn, Mon Apr 17 2006, 02:05PM

Can you find out what process that is spending the time and if it uses CPU time? Is there any disk access? Do you have the latest drivers for everything installed and disabled any network devices that is not in use?
Re: Help function & Outlook very slow on laptop
Alfons, Mon Apr 17 2006, 02:21PM

Can you find out what process that is spending the time and if it uses CPU time?
According to Windows' taskmanager, OUTLOOK.EXE, WINWORD.EXE (while Word ISN'T running) and svchost.exe require the most Mem, while System Idle Process and rundll32.exe require the most CPU.

Is there any disk access?
No, the disk-activity LED isn't illuminated.

Do you have the latest drivers for everything installed
At least I think so, yes.

disabled any network devices that is not in use?
What exactly do you mean? I do have a non-connected LAN-port, which is 'disconnected' but not 'disabled'. My wireless LAN is connected, though.
Re: Help function & Outlook very slow on laptop
FastMHz, Mon Apr 17 2006, 05:33PM

It's possible that your swap file is too small and Windows is having to enlarge it, which is slow.

Go into System properties, click Advanced tab, click Settings under Performance, select Advanced tab, and Change for virtual memory. Select Custom Size and enter the same value in both minimum and maximum boxes. Try 768mb at first, and if you get out of memory errors, up it to 1024mb.

You should also try clearing your IE cache and defragging .
Re: Help function & Outlook very slow on laptop
Alfons, Mon Apr 17 2006, 06:43PM

It's possible that your swap file is too small and Windows is having to enlarge it, which is slow.
No, that doesn't seem to be the problem; only about 300MB of the pagefile is being used while opening an Outlook message or a Help-page.

You should also try clearing your IE cache and defragging .
That didn't help either, unfortunately.
Re: Help function & Outlook very slow on laptop
..., Mon Apr 17 2006, 10:46PM

It could be that you set your message editor in outlook to me M$ word... Loading word is what is taking a ton of time. The setting is hidden in the menus somewhere, chang it to the outlook one and see if that helps.

As to the f1 thing, it is a pretty common thing for that to take a while, I think it is compressed or something and loading it takes a while. I haven't found a way arround that, Minutes does seems a little excessive though...
Re: Help function & Outlook very slow on laptop
Alfons, Tue Apr 18 2006, 09:23PM

It could be that you set your message editor in outlook to me M$ word... Loading word is what is taking a ton of time. The setting is hidden in the menus somewhere, chang it to the outlook one
Done.

and see if that helps.
It helps a little bit; messages now only take 1 minute to show up instead of 10 dead

Thanks anyway for the advise.