simple Windows XP problem

[nile455]

Probably quite simple, but I am not a computer person. My scroll bar is very choppy. When I click and hold the mouse pointer on the bar and drag down to scroll, it moves in chunks rather than smoothly. And it takes a little longer for the page to reset into its new position when I scroll. My computer was just reformatted and there is no spyware or anything on it. Got all my drivers back on and everything, so I am not sure how to fix it. It wasn't doing this before the reformat so I am thinking it might be a preferences thing or something simple.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

That happens to me too. Also sometimes I type and the letters are a few seconds behind. I would be interested to find out what causes this stuff too.
I bet Dan Murphy will know.

 

[POB14]

Is this in Internet Explorer? If so, go to Tools | Internet Options, and pick the Advanced tab. See if the Use Smooth Scrolling box is checked; if not, check it.

Hope this helps.

 

[wdwoldtimer]

If you are just dragging the scroll bar up and down and it's choppy, it is probably because your video card isn't fast enough to repaint the window "instantaneously". You can mess with visual effects (shadows, showing contents while scrolling etc) by going into the Control Panel, running the System applet, clicking the Advanced tab, clicking the Visual Effects tab, and unselecting some of the options in there.

If you're talking about mouse wheel scrolling, you can adjust the amount of scroll in the Mouse applet in the Control Panel.

 

[nile455]

If you are just dragging the scroll bar up and down and it's choppy, it is probably because your video card isn't fast enough to repaint the window "instantaneously". You can mess with visual effects (shadows, showing contents while scrolling etc) by going into the Control Panel, running the System applet, clicking the Advanced tab, clicking the Visual Effects tab, and unselecting some of the options in there.

If you're talking about mouse wheel scrolling, you can adjust the amount of scroll in the Mouse applet in the Control Panel.

Unfortunately, none of these things fixed it. Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[always quiet]

Have you tried running disk clean up or defrag? Sounds like the whole computer is lagging if it's taking a bit for the page to scroll down and finish loading. I have XP and the only time it slows down when I do that is when I need to do some basic maintenance.

 

[nile455]

Have you tried running disk clean up or defrag? Sounds like the whole computer is lagging if it's taking a bit for the page to scroll down and finish loading. I have XP and the only time it slows down when I do that is when I need to do some basic maintenance.

My computer was just reformatted completely a couple days ago. This didn't start happening until *after* I reformatted, and I got all the drivers up to date. That's why I think it is a simple prefernces thing, but I cannot find where. I tried the suggestions in this thread, but no luck.

 

[jfulcer]

My suggestion? Ditch IE and get Firefox. It's faster, more secure, and won't let that crappy spyware/malware onto you machine the way IE does.

If you HAVE to use IE, then I'd look at the smooth scrolling option another poster mentioned. If that doesn't work, I'd need to know if you upgraded your OS from what you had before, and what you have now.

But I'd just get Firefox.

 

[bicker]

I like Firefox; I have an extension where I can put the tabs for each message I want to read on the left (instead of above). It really makes the browser in to a real Reader.

However, Firefox isn't necessary all that secure. Folks just haven't been focusing too much on writing exploits for it, because so few people use it. There are security holes, and eventually they'll be found. Nothing is completely safe. Be sure you're protected with Anti-Virus protection and a good firewall.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Any chance of a defective or ailing mouse? If wireless, maybe low battery?

 

[helenabear]

However, Firefox isn't necessary all that secure. Folks just haven't been focusing too much on writing exploits for it, because so few people use it. There are security holes, and eventually they'll be found. Nothing is completely safe. Be sure you're protected with Anti-Virus protection and a good firewall.

Apparently there have been 3 viruses found so far for firefox. I admit I tried Firefox and after having several web pages I went to not work, I gave up on it and went back. Service Pack 2 for XP fixed issues with IE that gave Firefox the edge. IMO Firefox is *not* superior to IE.

Back to the OP, I would double check your drivers. I had to totally redo my laptop and I had the *exact* same issue when my driver wasn't installed correctly. I wound up having to dig out my system disks to make sure it was all correct. After that, it fixed itself.

You can also right click on the "my computer" then "Properties" click on the "advanced" tab, click the "Settings" button for performance and change it to "Adjust for best performance"

See if that helps. It will change some things and not allow for the green start button (if you like that) and a few other things (the whole list is there) but in the long run that could help as well.

 

[always quiet]

Just remembered, if you think it has something to do with how you changed your adjustments the other day, why not run system restore and pick a date before you changed the settings. It will put everything back the way it was before without losing any recent saved work.

Hope this helps!!

 

[nile455]

Thanks to those who offered help. As it turns out, it was in fact my drivers. I had thought that all I had to do was reload them from my Dell computer drivers CD (which is only about 8 months old) but I actually had to get them from the NVidia website.

 

[helenabear]

I want to thank everyone who offered help. As it turns out, it was in fact my drivers. I had thought that all I had to do was reload them from my Dell computer drivers CD (which is only about 8 months old) but I actually had to get them from the NVidia website.

Glad you figured it out! Reloading everything back onto a computer can be a pain in the neck sometimes And I am glad it was a very simple fix too!