Speed up a computer?

Question

What is the best thing to replace in a computer to just make it a bit more zippy?

Answer 1

Here is your answer:

http://www.helpero.com/Questions-and-answers/Computers/Windows/How-do-i-optimize-speed-up-windows_715.html

Helpero is a web site that helps every Internet user, from all over the world, solve any computer related problem. You can ask Helpero for free.

Answer 2

theres not a lot you can do to make a computer a bit more zippy
depending on the operating system and processor more memory may make a difference, escpecially if you have below 1gb. If you add mor ememory make sure yuou increase the size of the swap file

consider removing all programs at satrtup. if you have Xp run msconfig, remove all programs in the start up that you dont actually need. Virtually every software & hardawre vendor theese days seems to install some cruddy program which adds little or no value... if its needed get rid of it.

dont have a photograph as a desktop image... switch to a plain simple colour

cull the crud on your disk & defragment

you can consider altering the cpu clock speed... personally I wouldn't reccomend oit although some poeple have had success with it.

it depends which applications you are runiing. if its office then you may get an improovement by gettign rid of all those fonts you installed but never ever use (zip them into an archive file so that you can get hold of them when you need to).

dop some basic checks to ensure you have no viruses or spyware running, also make sure you odnt have any trojans or whatever. if you are running a good anti virus you should be ok. There are several suppliers out there... personally I use Norton... seems fine, others swear at it, theres McAfee, and some free products out there. Make sure you are running a firewall, make sure your firewall is only letting in/out what it should

Answer 3

RAM is the easiest component to replace and speed up your computer. Just remember when replacing RAM to get the right speed, if you install and incorrect RAM type in your computer it won't work... you'll just get a error message and the system won't fully boot up. Replacing the processor is an option,however it can prove rather costly and time consuming. If you're unfamiliar with the internal components of the computer I would suggest Defraging your hard drive, that can be done in the tools section in the properties file on your hard disk. Also doing a disk clean up to remove old temp files, and removing programs you don't use often can improve performance. Also surprisingly enough, just simply cleaning out the inside of the case with air duster, and re seating components can drastically improve your performance.

Answer 4

Know that processor speed is one of the last things to worry about. The single slowest thing and one of the main things that has moving parts is the hard drive. ("Old" computer adage: All processors wait for the hard drive at the same speed.)
- Remove programs and data you are not using.
- Consider using a registry cleaner. (http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm, it can assist with most of the disk issues covered here.)
- Keep the HD in good repair. (defrag at least monthly, whether analysis says it's time or not.)
- Avoid and regularly scan for spyware, viruses and spam.
- If you want a faster startup and overall speed, place few programs in memory and startup. (a few programs you use regardly and for protection in startup (anti-virus software) is okay)
- Install as much RAM as you can, make sure all sticks are similar.
- Regular maintenance, maintenance, maintenance.

Answer 5

There's some easy, non-invasive things that might help:

Remove any programs you don't use.
Remove any desktop icons you don't need.
Leave your desktop (Start - Control Panel - Appearance & Themes) blank, turn off the screen-saver; graphics take up a lot of resources.
Run a good anti-virus, run a good spyware detector.
Download and use Ccleaner.
Run disk cleanup & disk defragmenter from Start - All Programs - Accessories - Sytem Tools.

All these should help somewhat. You might also want to consider going to www.crucial.com for a free check of your system - it might recommend some more RAM.

Hope that helps.

Answer 6

put in the maximum amount of memory your pc will take. an do the usall thing like disk clean up defragmented it.

you can also clock it but that is for the experienced . you can also put the fastest cpu chip that your mother board can take. but depending on the age of your pc .

the money you spend on these thing you could be better off just buying a new pc with these things all ready built in an you also have a years warenty if things start going wrong.

some times when you start to up grade an old pc it starts to become unstable. it is my opinion that you should keep your main pc as new as possible so buy the best you can afford better of paying the extra at the start so you do not have to spend later on up grading it.

this is easy for me to say as i change my pc every year. I have only myself to keep i do not have the expense of children and mortgage but when it comes to those two things well they come first.

Answer 7

After you've run things like Defragmenter, and the online optimisation scanner @ http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/default.asp

The best route I've recently found is to upgrade the RAM - I recently added a 64MB card to my crappy old Toshiba 220CS laptop (133MHz P1 Processor, 16MB of RAM to start off with).......... and it ran LOTS more faster and smoothly..... pity I accidently broke the screen a week later (the 2nd computer that's died on me this month).

If the computer uses graphics built into the motherboard (and borrows some of it's RAM), the next stage is probably a Graphics card to take some of the strain off it.

After that, perhaps go for a faster processor (making sure it's compatible with your motherboard, first).

You can certainly tell the difference between my old desktop PC (1.1GHz AMD Duron + 384MB of RAM, sharing with the graphics) and my brand new one (3.33GHz Intel Celeron D, 1GB of RAM, GeForce6200 Graphics card).

If you have stackloads of pictures off a Digital camera on the hard drive, try burning them all onto CD-RW or DVD disks instead, to save hard drive space......... perhaps install a second drive to store your files on, leaving the main one free for things like Virtual Memory + running windows.

Also try installing "ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite" + "Spybot: Search & Destroy" to prevent cr*p such as Viruses / Spyware / Hackers screwing up the computer.......... and if you're still using Internet Explorer, try giving Mozilla FireFox a whirl.

Answer 8

it depends on the computer, some things you can do is increasing ram, upgrading the proessor,defragment the hard drive, run disc cleanup tool are some of the things you can do. If your only having trouble on line then you will have to upgrade your connection speed with your internet provider.

Answer 9

number 1 defrag your drive or install a secondary drive 2.install more memory or number 3 get an external and empty your drive of uneeded files 4 you could increase your virtual memory size but be sure that if your drive is more than 1/2 full it will run slower if it is more than half full how to find out how much room is on your drive right click on your c drive down to properties

Answer 10

Please have the patience to read ALL of these:

1.Download CCleaner from http://www.ccleaner.com/ and run it once daily before shutting down your computer. It removes all the trash files that are created while surfing through the net. Use its Issues section once every 2 weeks to delete all the unused registry keys. If you have a lot of Auto Start entries, then you can remove them from its Tools>Startup. But keep the important ones like firewall and the real-time protection shields of your anti-virus and anti-spyware.

2.Keep a decent anti-virus, a strong firewall and two anti-spywares in your computer. Always keep the real time protection shield (or resident shield) of the anti-virus and one of the anti-spyware active. Update them and scan your computer once every week with both the anti-spyware and once every 2 weeks with anti-virus. I have given the links to some free and good anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall; get them all:
AVG: http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10596553.html?tag=lst-0-1
AdAware SE: http://www.download.com/ad-aware-se-pers...
SpyBot Search and Destroy: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/spy...
Comodo Personal Firewall: http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/d...

Never keep two anti-virus or firewall on a single system. If you are already using a good anti-virus or firewall, then you need not download the corresponding one. You can, however, use as many anti-spywares as you want.

3.Keep a virtual memory booster as an auto-start entry. It frees the clogged RAM. I use RAM Booster, which is very effective. Here is the link to download it:
http://www.download.com/rambooster/3000-...
After downloading it, follow the steps:
*. Click on Edit>Options and tick the follow options:
(a) Set auto optimisation on
(b) Show CPU usage
(c) Start minimised
(d) Launch automatically at start up
Also, increase the auto optimisation level and 'Mb of RAM to free at auto level' as per your requirement.

4.Keep at least 35% of your C: free. Transfer all the music, image and video files to other drives.

5.Defragment your hard drives (especially C:) once every month. To defrag, go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Defragment. It takes a lot of time (50 minutes or over) so don’t become impatient. It’s for your computer’s good.

6.Get the free Google Web Accelerator to boost up your Internet speed.
http://webaccelerator.google.com/

7.Keep your Recycle Bin empty.

8.Use minimum possible shortcut icons on your desktop.

9.If you have genuine Windows, keep it updated every month.

10.Trim down the number of games if you have way too many.

If nothing works, you should reformat your computer.

:-)