how do i speed up my computer?

Question

i want to know how i can speed up my pc.its windows n its slow as heck when im opening up applications such as itunes, wordperfect, and limewire among others.taking at least a good 2-3 min to get settled and actually workin smooth up until i open another application thn it goes twice as slow.i tried pressin ctrl+alt+del n stopping some of the background programs but its still slow.i have a 256 mb worth of RAM n computers at my school hav 128mb of RAM n they would blow my computer away.is there a way to speed my computer up?by the way my computer is clean i defrag and use disk cleanup everyday.n it still acts this way.is there a setting on my computer somewhere tht could help increase RAM or virtual memory?so tht my computer is fast

well the primary IDE channel was set to PIO n so was the secondary IDE channel so i set them both to DMA if available

Answer 1

Then its time to learn a little about how a PC works!
Things that slow your system down!
1. Computers basically have two types of memory. Ram and Rom. Lets start with Rom. Read Only Memory is a storage place where files, programs, music, pictures, etc are stored. An example of Rom is your hard drive. Your hard drive is a storage system not unlike your basic cassette player. Next comes Ram or Random Access Memory. This area of memory is where your files and programs are moved to when you use them. You give the computer a command to play a game or maybe to listen to music or perhaps even do your math for you. You click an icon or program and the processor or brain finds that data on the hard drive or cd and loads it into ram. Ram is the place where most all of your programs and files run when you are using them. The processor then controls the ram and runs the software you have chosen. Now lets say you have 100 megabytes of ram in your system. You decide to edit some photos and you start your photo program which takes 40 megabytes of ram plus 5 megabytes to load the picture you edit. You now have 65 megabytes of unused ram. You decide to fire up your media player and play a selection of songs. The media player decides it needs 40 megabytes for the player operation itself plus another 20 megabytes for the stored album you want to play. We now have a total of 5 megabytes of unused ram. You decide to fire up Weather bug or google earth or some other software and its asking for another 20 megabytes of ram. You are now choking the death out of your rescources and what do you think the system will do? Any number of things can happen including simple system shutdown. Most users seem to think that they need everything but the kitchen sink running when they start their system and then scratch their bum and wonder why their system is running so slow. A few examples of software that loads on startup would be winzip, your audio mixer, music download programs, etc! You DO NOT need this crap running! Weatherbug for instance eats up about 20 megabytes of ram just sitting there not being used! Winzip takes another 5, Close down applications you arent using!

2. Viruses, adware, trojans, malware, and hijackers! NOTHING ON THE NET IS FREE! It all comes at a cost to the user! PORN SITES, GAMBLING SITES, FREE MUSIC DOWNLOAD SITES, FREE GAMING SITES, PEER TO PEER file sharing sites, etc are FILLED with this crap! Some of it simply redirects your search to a page they make money off of or hijacks your homepage, some of it constantly monitors what you are shopping for, have you ever wondered how uncanny it is that you browsed the net for a new digital camera and the next day you were spammed to death with camera ads in e mail or have started receiving digital cam popups? Some of it simply is full of malwar and viruses that will destroy data and in severe cases wipe out your hardrive!

3. I have heard everybody and their brother claim that their system is free and clean of adware. Adware removal tools are good to have but there isnt any one that will detect all adware! I dont care if its free or cost you a hundred dollars! Think about it. Adware is being produced daily. It takes the average adware removal company 2 months to even realize that there is a new piece of adware. Now they have to develop a tool to remove it! Theres another month! How much hidden crap is really in your sytem?

4. One of the biggest problems is anti virus software. It keeps your system safe alright but in the process it slows you down sometimes even worse than the original problem did! If you use your system wisely, you dont need to run your antivirus software all the time!

Bottom line....the best system protection comes from the users own intelligence! If you browse the net wisely and follow the simple ideas above you will find your system runs far better! Dont get me wrong....do use your adware removal tools.....keep them updated and when they tell you something is trying to enter your system DONT IGNORE IT! Dont waste money on adware removal tools either! The best is still free! Spybot, Spyware Blaster, Adaware, etc are all excellent choices!

Answer 2

Ok, if the performance is most notably lagging on application startup could mean the hard drive throughput may be the source. There could be several other possibilities but I'll focus simply on something I've learned from someone that posted an article on digg.com several months ago. If you PC has crashed several times in Windows, there's a counter in Windows that will set the HDD (hard drive) throughput to it's lowest rate. The "illicit" setting is 'PIO Mode'.

How to confirm if this setting is engaged on your PC? Right-click on My Computer and select Manage. Select Device Manager and review the right pane for the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and expand the list. Select Primary IDE channel, right click and select properties. Select the Advanced tab (along the top of window). Now, review the transfer mode settings. None of your selections should be set to PIO mode.

If this is the case, the registry will need to be updated with fixes including resetting the counters. I don't have the article and the registry fixes handy but I'm sure I could locate them. I'll not provide unless you've confirmed the HDD settings are PIO Only.

Good luck, and yes this will be a major cause of sluggish HDD response.

Answer 3

You might just need to update your Processor. There is a new 1GB processor that came out. It's super fast even though it's kind of pricy and also make sure to check your computer for spyware/viruses. Also make sure you don't have any background crap going on. To do that you go to Start-Run and then type msconfig when you get there click on StartUp and uncheck any program that you think it unimportant such as weather bug, AIM ICQ LImewire or anyother crap. You don't need them to start up w/ you computer. Then restart your computer and see if that problem got better. Good luck!

Answer 4

There is no setting to increase RAM and virtual memory will NOT increase speed - virtual memory tends to slow things down significantly. Best way to speed it up is increase the RAM. Windows XP works best with 512 MB of RAM for AVERAGE use. If you do more than "average" things, you should have 1 GB or more.

Answer 5

Make sure you have up to date, good antivirus software. Adware and spyware removal helps. Registry cleaners dont hurt.

Go to the Ctrl-Alt-Delete menu, click on the processes tab, then the CPU tab to arrange the list by how much of your processor each program is using. If something looks suspicious, google the task name.

Answer 6

Modify your paging file... A paging file is an area on the hard disk that windows uses as if it were RAM.

Answer 7

A virus might be slowing down your computer. Use McAfee, F-secure, Norton or Panda anti-virus.

Answer 8

mt your recycle bin, delete all histories and memory files that are not used and cancel anything that runs in the background

Answer 9

the best thing to do is buy more ram...i went to best buy yesterday and got a pc3200 512 ram stick for 52 dollars
but if u do not want to do that...then try this and u will see a difference.....first off lets go to start..control panel...add/remove programs...go in here and remove anything u do not need or use....next..go to start..double click my computer..double click c drive..go into program files....remove any folders that u just removed from add/remove programs......next..go to start..run..type in......... msconfig..press ok ..in the new window..select the start up tab..select disable all...press apply,press ok..close it..do not restart yet.....now go to start..run..type in..prefetch....press ok..in the new window that pops up..go to edit in top left..select all..press delete...close window now....now go to start..run..type in temp..press ok..same thing..select all/delete.....now go to start.all programs..accessories..system tools..disc clean up...after it has finished analyzing...put a check next to all..press ok..yes u are sure.....
now go here....download this program called regcleaner from worldstart.com...http://www.worldstart.com/weekly-download/archives/reg-cleaner4.3.htm
after u have it downloaded and installed on desktop...open it up..click i agree...u will then see a new window open...it will list all the software on your pc.....at the top of reg cleaner..select options..registery cleaner..method..automatic.....now go to tools..registery cleaner..do them all...it will then start to scan..when it is finished..u will see the list of software again..close reg cleaner..u are finished with it...u just cleaned your registery........now go here..download this..it is called ccleaner.....http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4191.html
now to use this..once it is installed to the desktop..open it up..click analyze...after it has finished analyzing..click run cleaner...repeat this process 3 times...next..on the left hand side of ccleaner u will see issues..click that..then click scan for issues
after it has finished scanning for issues..click fix issues...all issues..no back up..close...run this process untilthere are no issues..then close ccleaner...now i would do these 2 things here...download ewido (now called avg antispyware) it is free for 30 days full program...after 30 days it reverts to free ware..u will lose automatic updates and the realtime protection...but still..this is one of the best to scan and remove threats with...before uscan
try this..go to start..control panel..folder options..view...u will see a few items with checkmarks..check "show hidden files and folders"..press apply..press ok.....now update ewido..run full system scan....after scan..remove what it finds..then go back to control panel..folder options,view..reset to default..apply ok
now this is not gonna make the pc superfast like adding more ram would..but this will clean the pc all the way up ..get u all the free space ..and make sure no viruses are on it.....i hope this helps u a little..good luck
ewido....http://www.download.com/Ewido-Security-Suite/3000-8022_4-10326287.html