My Dell Inspiron 5160 is so slow. What's up with that?

Question

My Dell Inspiron 5160 is almost 2 years old. I have never had to replace any parts until now. My adapter and my battery were both about ka-put, so I ordered new ones, but my computer is still so slow. I have a lot of music and picture files, but not enough to take up all of the memory. I have had games on there but they are all currently uninstalled. What do I need to do to fix this problem?

Answer 1

stop downloading porn

Answer 2

I have a dell too. The cheaper computers they sell (up to $800) are quite slow and have loud 3-speed fans. Dell should offer me a free upgrade to remove and retract this comment. That would be nice.

Now, there are many potential causes for the "slowdown". You may have too many TSR apps. That is, applications that load and stay in memory after you boot up the computer. They bog down your system performance. Try this, START MENU BUTTON --> RUN --> type msconfig and look at the Startup apps that load when your computer boots. Uncheck anything obviously not needed or things like IM services or anything you could load on-demand if you choose to work with said programs. Oftentimes your memory is being used by apps that you rarely use. Be careful not to uncheck important apps though.
Hope this helps.
-Adam Black

Answer 3

Back everything up and then factory settings system restore.

To use Dell System PC Restore by Symantec:
1. Turn on the computer. During the boot process, a blue bar with www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen.
2. Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press . If you do not press it in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart the computer again.
3. On the next screen that appears, click Restore.
4. On the next screen click Confirm
The restore process takes approx 6-10 minutes to complete.
5. When prompted, click Finish to reboot the computer. (do not do it manually)
6. When prompted, click Yes.
7. Click Next.
8. After the computer restarts, click OK.

Done!

Answer 4

if you have spy ware which i believe you probally do you need to back up remember some stuff including jpegs can be corrupt

format with windows not boot recovery as thats the problem those companies make add ons that takes over system windows hates that cause no one tells microsft lol

you will need to select only important drivers of disk or they will be on hdd.

once you have performed a complete format ( not quick as viruses can sometimes remain after quick format)

reinstall windows

purchase anti virus and firewall not Nortons

update from microsft
clean your back up
reinstall back up



dont buy Dell again lol
www.rynik.biz
[e-mail]

Answer 5

You may have spyware or a trojan slowing you down. Do you have a virus checker and blocker? Do you scan for Adware? If you are clean there, your registry could be bloated or contain errors. Try cleaning the registry. When did you last defrag the disks? A highly fragmented disk can slow you down.... All things you need to consider.

Answer 6

why dont you just format the hard drive (erase everything)..i think when you start windows you press F8, not positive though...then put it back to factory settings...u will lose all picture and music files so i suggest you back them up...if this does not work, then it is the hardware.but it should speed it up enough..also make sure when you start windows you dont have a million programs running at once cause that'll take up more RAM and slow ya down

Answer 7

You just need to flush you hard drive by format it. Then go install a fresh OS again. It'll be great as new, because your uninstalled program "waste"is still live in your HDD, that's why you have to format your HDD.

Answer 8

The smaller the specs are then the slower it will run, music files can slow it down see how much space you have on your hard drive, burn the music to cds and delete them. Run disk defrag and scan disk, get nortin system works and run one button check up. do a virus scan and spyware scan.

Answer 9

best way is to re-install the operating system....or if u have system recovery disk..a system recovery will do great...
since u r using it for 2 years now with out re-installing( i assume)
windows..
what happens that over time when u install/un-install programs/games it leaves behind unnecessary files,registry entries etc.which slows down the system..
re-installing will solve it....make sure to back up data/songs before doing anything

Answer 10

Sounds like you need a fresh install of the operating system.

Answer 11

you might have some virus or spy ware. download adaware or an anti spy ware. there are heaps on the web for free. have a look around and see.