Frustrated about slow speed

[piesmag]

Welcome beginner. Please answer all of the questions below which may provide information necessary to answer your question.
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Which version of OpenOffice.org are you using? 2.4
What Operating System (version) are you using? Windows xp
What is your question or comment?
I only want to use Writer & Calc Do I have to have all of OOO to run these progs as any time I try to use OO my laptop slows to zero and everything hangs to the point where I have to do a crash close down. Can I just install these 2 progs and thus avoid the mb amount on my HD which I consider is causing my prob.. If not has anyone a super new solution please?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The size of the applications on disk is irrelevant to performance. These days, most PCs have at least 10 Gigabytes of free drive space, so 330 mbytes is certainly no problem. OpenOffice code is shared, so removing parts you don't need would not save a significant amount of hard drive space.

You need to look elsewhere for the problem. Disk space is certainly not the cause.

How big and complex is the spreadsheet you're working on?

[Dave]

If your laptop is that full, you might consider removing other material first. People tend to "collect" programs, and avoid "housecleaning" [defrag etc.] Try that first. Also, you might look into using a Portable [smaller] version of OpenOffice. Further, if an older laptop, trying to run XP and other more recent programs, you could have difficulties. So much depends on your own physical setup and combination of installed programs using memory; this can be a very individual problem, perhaps requiring the hiring of a local technician. Nothing personal here, but most people seem to think that they can work a computer like riding a bike; just get on and go. When very young, I changed a ball joint on an old Ford station wagon. It took me a couple of hours, and, looking back, with the band-aid method I was using, I could easily have had a very bad accident. I took it into a garage for the other one, and they were done in 20 minutes including waiting time, no sweat. Now I concentrate on driving, and let the mechanics do the fixing.

A computer is a complex machine. People should not be shy about paying a local expert now and then to clean house and set it up to run efficiently, or upgrade as necessary and affordable.

[piesmag]

Thank you for the two replies. With a laptop drive space is gets tight very quickly. I have just bought a 4gig stick, so will be putting my docs, pics etc onto it. this may ease my slowness a bit I hope. The Calc spreadsheet I'm using is a timesheet template I downloaded from OO Org It is not large, but always seems to hang at some point when I'm trying to update my week's hours. The only thing I can do is crash close the computer, then the document recovers on re-opening OO after a reboot, even the recovery takes a long time. Have I got a bugged OO prog maybe?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

You haven't told us your hardware specification. Please add this information to your signature via the User Control Panel — it is often relevant to problems you may be having.

Just how small is your hard drive and how much free space remains? What is the processor? How much RAM is installed?

[Phil]

With a laptop drive space is gets tight very quickly.

Yes, I agree on that!

You can use the Disk Cleanup system utility ( Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup) to gain some space on your drive(s).
It also allows to compress files that have not been used for some time.
See this Elder Geek article for more information.

You can also manually compress all files in a folder via the folder properties.

However, for compression (also using the Disk Cleanup utiltiy) the partition type has to be NTFS (which usually is the case in Windows XP installations).

KR, phil

[piesmag]

Thank you for your replies so far I still can't work out my problem, and I have not tried all of the advise. Please bear with me till I try the remedies suggested so far. I am working 6 days at the mo' and it's a bit hard on the body & the brain.

[Phil]

Please bear with me till I try the remedies suggested so far.

Sure, no problem! Take your time.

Good luck!
phil