my pc has been very slow. ive called dell and dsl support. i do not have a virus that i no of.please helpw/ yo

Question

ive tried everything. ive re booted, ive reset my motem, scanned my security suite, ive deleted music , games, i dont have that much stuff on my pc.i have a pentium 4.0 dell with proffesionnal 2000

Answer 1

1) Check for spyware. Run both Ad-aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaw... and Skybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/)...... to remove any spyware. Run both as one may caught something the other missing. Then go to microsoft.com and download Defender to protect against future infections. All three programs are free.

2) Check that you have a least 10% of your hard drive free. Go to My Computer and right click on the Local Drive (C:). Look at the properties. If it has less that 10% free space, you will need to delete some files, or move them off the hard drive and on to a CD or DVD. Start by running the disk cleanup, which will remove temporary and other unneeded files. Go to Start, then All Programs, then System Tools and click the Disk Cleanup icon.

3) Run the msconfig utility. Go to Start, then Run and type in: msconfig
Go to the startup tab
You will see a list of all the programs that are loaded when your computer starts up. Uncheck any that you do not have to have. (Usually you can uncheck them all). If you decide you to need one, you can go back and recheck it.

4) Defrag the hard drive. Go into My Computer and right click on the Local Drive (C:). Select Properties and go into the Tools tab. Click the Defragment Now button to start the defrag program. If you have not defrag recently (or never) it may take several hours for the program to complete.

Answer 2

you think you do not have virus
bu you may indeed have malware

don't run internet explorer
that a HUGE mistake

get the following, all are free for a safe surfing experience,
install in SAFE mode with networking ( hit F-8 at boot time ), run them all in SAFE mode
with networking as you'll need it for the updates all the programs below will need.


ANTI VIRAL

AVG (free) http://free.grisoft.com/


FIREWALL

ZoneAlarm http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

WEB BROWSER - http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox

EMAIL use thunderbird. It has a good built in spam filter and learns when you teach it. http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird

SPYWARE

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html


and if you have a wireless router follow these tips,


1. Use WPA encryption (WPA-PSK) it's less crackable then WEP.

2. Make a passphrase that is upper & lower case and has some numbers thrown in there as well, again harder to crack.
some like mAkE1t5eCurE0rel53 and as long as possible.

3. Use MAC access control so only you or authorized PC's can connect (even if you do have encryption turned on)

4. Turn off DHCP use static addresses.

5. Turn off SSID (and change it) unless your card really needs it (some do)

6. Change username/password of access unit front end

7. Ensure you have the usual firewall enabled on your PC.

8. Paranoia rules, turn WLAN off if your not using it :)


one last tip
control panel---administrator tools--services--messenger

right clik on it
stop the service
then disable it
save changes

Answer 3

Have you looked at the process that are running? You may have something that is taking up lots of CPU cycles.

Also, disable all of the programs that start up when you boot the system. See if it runs better.

Answer 4

could be spyware which isn't necessarily detected by antivirus apps. Go to download.com and get a free spyware checker there.

Answer 5

sounds like you should wipe out your hard drive, then it'll be exactly the way it was when you bought it. If you do wipe it out, then don't forget to save all the documents, games, music, etc. that you don't want to lose.

Answer 6

add more ram memory, run disk fragmenter and disk cleanup and try to upgrade to windows xp

Answer 7

you can download free speed optimizers..download .com