Have you got any idea, how to improve the computer speed.?

Question

I have a four year old Pc
Operating system: Windows XP home
Processor: Pentium4, 2.4 Ghz
Memory: 512MB
Hard disk: 65% if free at the moment
None of the program is to set to run at start-up (Except Northern antivirus)

But it’s still running very slowly. I have update Windows xp and antivirus.
I also done the full virus scan as well. There is no virus.

I have already donethe following
Disk Defragmenter
Disk Cleanup
Error-Checking (C drive)

Does the video card affect the speed? My video/graphic card is ATI All-in-wonder Is that a problem? If it is what’s the best card on the market today?

Answer 1

Make sure you're "ONLY" running Norton. It sounds like you probably are so this is more of a PA statement. Having more than 1 AV program will make a computer nearly useless as they take up all your resources trying to decide which one is protecting the system and which is the potential virus.

Large backgound pics and animated pointers take up a lot of resources.

Setting your virtual memory to auto will likely help. Suposedly there's ways to make the computer use ram before vram, but every time I've come upon a slow system it always seems to have been set rather than letting the system decide what it needs. Switching it to auto has always helped. FYI, right click 'my computer', select properties, go to advanced, performance options.

The main culprit I suspect is services but it's hard to figure out which ones are good and which aren't. My advise would be to just whipe out the OS and start from scratch. It's the only way to make sure you get rid of all the junk.

Answer 2

It looks like you've done all necessary cleaning up already. The only thing is that you should be aware that some of the spyware etc. cannot be detected by norton Anti-virus. Try downloading spybot search and destroy from here: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
and run it to check for problems. You be amazed how many spyware/ergistry entry it will find.
The other thing I noticed was that your hard drive seem to be loaded with possibly loads of unwanted files/programs etc. which you need to delete as although all of these you said dont run at start up but still some elements of these files will be running in the background, which no doubt you will see so if you press Ctrl,Alt and delete and check processes for those programs running in the background.
Finally if that still didnt help, you may want to restore your PC using xp's restore to the time you know it was working fast and good. If that failed then the last thing would be to back up your wanted files and do a whole new reinstallation of your O.S. this will get rid of any possible viruses that your norton could not recognise and got integrated in the programs before anti virus was installed.
good luck

Answer 3

First of all:

1. RE-SCAN Computer for unwanted Programs. (Recommendation: Spyware Doctor and MCAFEE Internet Suite)
2. Remove/Uninstall Duplicater Softwares (Installed same Applications 2 times and didnt even bother to remove the other one)
3. Disk Cleaning
4. Make sure there are no Damage Softwares
5. Registry Cleaning
6. Lastly. If accidentaly you discovered that if you run an Application that runs slow or somehow Suspicious to you Remove it immediately. Because you dont know if that slows down your computer.

Answer 4

As you have already done a defrag and disk cleanup I would first suggest that you remove all cookies ( these build up over time and can slow down your system no end ) . Also take Norton and throw it out of the window. Although relatively good it does play havoc with the system and gobbles up memory and resources. Go on-line and download one of the many free anti-virus programs. Most ISP's provide a free security package nowadays as well.

Answer 5

The culprit is Video card. Change to the latest one. It is not that expensive.
Second is Norton. It is a system hogger. Remove all except antivirus.
Third, increase memory to at least 1 gig.
Fourth, go to (Start->Run->msconfig), choose startup tab and uncheck all unnecessary programs that load up. Keep all Microsoft related products though.
Fifth - go to Control panel, Fonts. Remove as many fonts as you do not need.

Sixth: after all is done, do defrag again. Do virus check again.
Seventh: download Registry cleaner from download.com. Clean up the registry of any unwanted items hanging around.

That's it. You are about to do a lot of work....!! Good Luck.

Answer 6

Your computer specs is kinda fast already... Could you give me the specs of your Video Card, Do you need to speed up your computer for gaming or internet? If gaming purposes you need a 128Mb video card or higher and another 512Mb memory. Your processor speed is still good... If internet purposes are you in dial-up connection? if so better subcribe to an ISP which has DSL or CAble connections...

Answer 7

Norton Use's alot of system time, and will slow you down ad check your taskbar for any programs running in there, also defrag

Pressing ctrl / Alt / Del and see which program id hogging the cpu and remove or control

Answer 8

Have you defragged?

maybe a newer, faster hard drive may help.

that's a good Ghz, it should run pretty quick.

Norton is a resource hog. Consider switching to a free, less cumbersome program?

Have you blown the dust out the fan motor, chip and compartment? compressed air works good, and the buildup of dust can make it run hotter, and thus slower.

Answer 9

hello .if you are using norton i would suggest you delete it and install avg its free, (norton slows your system.)also delete all your cookies and history,also try running a anti spyware program such as adaware its also free to download,have you tried a system restore?this sometimes corrects most problems,if all else fails then backup all your files ,pics,music etc,and do a full system recovery,you will need to re-install all programs that didn`t come with your pc,after this do a defrag then you will find that you will be up to speed,good luck,ps have you considered upgrading your ram to another 512mb,giving you 1gb

Answer 10

Have someone drive you down the highway at a high rate of speed while holding the computer in your lap and toss it out the window at 85 mph and go get a new one.