My computer is too slow - is there a way to speed it up or do I have to buy a new one?

Question

I have a Dell Pentium 4 I bought in 2002 - I have to run the standard Microsoft Office suite and other programs like SPSS, which is a memory hog. I also want to surf the web without having to wait a day for the pages to come up. I'm open for suggestions on fixing the existing computer (preferable) or buying something fast but inexpensive. What do you think?

have a Dell Pentium 4 I bought in 2002 - I have to run the standard Microsoft Office suite and other programs like SPSS, which is a memory hog. I also want to surf the web without having to wait a day for the pages to come up. I'm open for suggestions on fixing the existing computer (preferable) or buying something fast but inexpensive. What do you think?

I have Norton Internet and run SpyBot and Adaware regularly, so it is not spyware.

More details

Answer 1

here are a few tips, one check for errors on your hard drive, defragment your hard drive, than click start click run, type in msconfig click the far right tab called startup go look down this list at whats checked. you will want to uncheck unneccassry crap like any aol or aim or yahoo crap, any musicmatch msnmsgr anything adobe after unchecking those goto the next tab to it called services at the bottom check the box hide microsft services. that will leave you with a list of services that may not need to be running, again anything aol related macromedia stuff etc. than click ok and it will prompt for a reboot, reboot than a box will appear saying startup things have been changed click the small box saying dont show me this again and click ok. now if still running slow i suggest a gig of ram to add. Also run a spamware scanner. you can download one free at http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5

Also click start control panel goto add remove programs anything here you dont really use uninstall it.

if that fails i suggest a complete reinstall of your operating system.

Answer 2

The first two things that I would look at upgrading on your PC are the RAM and hard drive. Both, these days are pretty inexpensive, and are the resources that your PC (running those programs) would benefit from the most. A good number for RAM on a PC is about a Gigabyte. For hard drives, I would look to the SATA II drives on the market today. For that, you may also need to purchase a controller, but it's definitely worth it. I wouldn't purchase anything less than 10k (rpm), but a 7800 will usually work for what you're using it for.

Other performance inhibitors include things like the video and audio. If they are "on-board," or built into the motherboard, they tend to steal performance from other activities that the motherboard is trying to perform. It's always a good idea to have these functionalities on separate cards, for easier maintenance and scalability.

Other things to check:
- Make sure that you are spyware and virus/trojan free. You should always have a good anti-virus tool running on your PC (I recommend Norton). And there are a plethora of spyware packages out there. While none cover everything, a combination of two or three free ones (like Spybot and Lavasoft's Adaware) usually catch whatever is on there.

Answer 3

Buying more ram will definitely sooth some, if not most of your problems.
Cheaper but less efficient options are defragmenting your harddrive (My Computer, rightclick C: drive, Propterties, Tools, Defragment). That will help (somewhat), but like you said: SPSS is a memory hog.

As far as the webpages go: use a better browser like Firefox (free), or upgrade your computer or internet connection or all three. You may wanna check your settings: a misconfigured DNS and/or default gateway will definitely slow down your browsing, if not making it entirely impossible.

You may wanna check out Linux (download a "live CD", they're free and don't install anything so you can check out if you like it).
Linux is far less consuming as Windows, though I'm not sure if there's an SPSS version available for it.

Buying a new computer is the fastest way, the most expensive, but also the most effective. Don't do that except when it's your last resort.

Answer 4

If you must keep your PC, add RAM. On the software side, go through Control Panel to "Add/Remove Programs" and get rid of programs you don't use. Then try to defrag the hard drive. If you're willing, I'd even recommend reformatting the PC from scratch. And I recommend against using Norton (memory hog).

Consider buying new. PCs are pretty cheap these days. Go to Dell, HP or Gateway. HP has a very basic box for $250. Not very good, but probably still better than your current one. Dell has an entry level PC for $477 (plus a free printer). You can keep your existing monitor (saves $20). Gateway has a better machine for $660 (no monitor).

Answer 5

I would keep your computer, but wonder what type of connection you use to access the internet? While dial-up is the least expensive at $9.95, you might consider changing to DSL, which is a little more expensive at $14.95 an month, but well worth it! If you are on dial-up , once you get DSL and download at 786 KBS you won't go back to the 56 KBS the dial-up offers. The speed of page and video download are well worth the extra $5.00 a month. If you have a high speed connection and still want to increase the speed consider performing this: 1) Defrag your hard drive: *start/programs/accessories/system tools/defragmentor. 2) Clean temporary files: start/programs/accesssories/system tools/disk cleanup. 3) clean up your desk top: start/control panel/double-click "display"/click the "desktop" tab/click the "customize desktop" button at the bottom/click the "general" tab/click the "clean desktop now" button at the bottom. 4) Get rid of the spyware: There is a free program from Adware that will remove most spyware. 5) clean out your e-mails inbox. I hope this helped a little. Good luck! Mark

Answer 6

If you have never done this with your computer, you need to defragment your computer and you also need to delete old programs, temporary files, unnecessary files, cookies, etc. Go to the Start menu, click on Control Panel, then go to Performance and Maintenance. You should have 5 options listed, choose "Free up space on your hard disk" first. That will delete temp. files, cookies, the recycling bin, etc. on your computer. When that has been completed, click on "Rearrange items on your hard disk...", that's the defragmenter. It will rearrange your hard disk, and will help programs to run faster. You'll need to do both those things on a regular basis. Also, if you don't have one, get an Anti-Virus program. There could possibly be files and programs on your computer that you don't know about and are slowing down your hard drive.
If those turn out not to be the problems, you may have used too much of your free space. It may be important to go through your own programs and files and determine what you absolutely don't need.
I hope this helps.

Answer 7

Well, delete things off your computer that you don't need. Just dont delete anything that you'll need or if you dont know what it is. You could also buy more ram for your computer. Stores like Staples sell them. Depending on how much you already have in your computer, depends on how much you got. You may want a computer guy to do it for you, instead of messing around with it yourself, especially if you don't know what you are doing. I suggest getting two sticks of 512, that is what is my comp and it runs good. You also may want a better harddrive. 80 G harddrives run good but I went to staples the other day and they had a 200 G for 70 bucks..which is so cheap! You will just need your original copies of Windows XP or whatever system your running. If you need any more help, you can email me at michellejanick@ yahoo.com My brother is a computer wiz and one of my friends owns his own comp business!

Answer 8

You may do two things:
- buy RAM (that is the portion that is most used on large documents). A coutner strategy is to work with smaller documents, like splitting your books and what you write in groups of 10-20 pages (or until your system goes slow). But adding more RAM you will enjoy more facilities as setup in background a music player, etc.
- cleanup your system using different tools

One year in the past I have the same problem but my system was something like Pentium 3 and 128 RAM. The solution choosen at that moment was to install Linux (Fedora Core 1) next Ubuntu. The applications starts slow but works nice after because Linux has better manager of your system resources.

Right now I've upgraded my system and I've seen that linux can match of most computers, has no viruses, it has Firefox ussualy as web browser, OpenOffice as office suite.

If you will have to work with big documents and your office goes hard, you can switch your office suite or desktop suite (ussualy are named KDE, GNOME, XFCE for desktops or KOffice, AbiWord, and best of them but a bit hungry in resources which is OpenOffce).

If you want you can buy a great desktop as is Novell Desktop (it costs 50 USD) and for sure you can get a polished desktop, a great sound player, messenger, OpenOffice that knows to import your work even with macros.
If you don't use the system for games you will like a lot of options that has Novell Desktop like: search in your documents and emails (and find the emails you may miss), applications oriented to usability and a simple category based desktop. I love it and I think that is best option one user can use it today.

I with to you luck and I hope that you will choose what is best. (I'm not related with Novell in no way :P I only like it's desktop that is really too nice to not appreciate it's capabilities)

Answer 9

Start by uninstalling some programs you may not use that are eating your memory. Clear out cokies and the cache on your internet explorer or whatever browser you use. Run some spyware programs. Run disk defragmenter as well. If that does not improve the speed, then it's time for an upgrade for sure.

Answer 10

Probably needs some more ram and to defrag it. Also it may be due to some PC games on it? I have a ME from '99 or '00 and its functioning pretty well. It crashed 2 years ago and I just got it some new ram and I have to defrag it once every couple months and its fine.