Is my computer just slow because it is OLD or is it something else?

Question

It is a DELL desktop Dimension 2100, manufactured 10-26-01, with Microsoft Windows XP, Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 2. It has Intel Celeron, 897 MHz, 128 MB of RAM. I use Windows Internet Explorer 7 beta 3. I am up to date on my Windows XP updates. Have Microsoft Office XP Standard for teachers and students. Have Norton 2006. Please ask questions if I havent given enough info. Why is this thing sooooo slow ??? Can it be speeded up significantly, or is it just TIME to get a NEW one?

Answer 1

Yes, you laptop is quite weak. If you plan to keep it for more time, you should do a little upgrade and get at least 512 MBytes of RAM. 128 MB of RAM just isn't enough for Windows XP.

So, add some RAM if you plan to keep on using your PC, or get a new one.

Now for some software advice:
1. All Norton does is slow down a PC. And it does NOT offer good protection. I recommend one of the free antivirus programs (like www.free-av.com (Avira) or http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1 (AVG free), or if you want the best, buy Kaspersky (or just contact me).
2. Try using the 'Windows Classic' theme instead of the flashy XP theme. It will run faster, and it's recommended to do so immediately (you WILL notice a difference).
3. Internet Explorer 7 Final is out. get it from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/default.mspx
4. Get Spybot from here http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html and run a full scan on your computer. Using Norton may have let your computer fill with adware/spyware, and that also slows it down

good luck!

P.S.: i just saw someone recommended Windows Vista. I tested it quite extensively and it's a huge piece of crap! keep your fingers OFF that

Answer 2

a computer built in 2001 is getting old.
It may be the cause of your slowness. Motherboard/processor and RAM always help.

If you can afford a new PC thne I'd say just go get a new PC.

If you're wanting to justify the cost. It's possible that somethings on your PC are causing the slow issues you are seeing.

Do you think it's gradually getting slower?

What are you doing that makes you think it's slower than normal?

You might want to consider that some programs you have installed impacted the speed.
Although, it's a pain - you can restore it to factory defaults and see if it's faster - but you'll have to back everything up and restore it.

Sometimes the slowness has to do with bogged down resource space.

Try running the disk cleanup wizard in your accessories section to see if that helps any.

If you have any questions feel free to email me.

Answer 3

It's pretty old, but there are other reasons your computer may be slow.

"Intel Celeron, 897 MHz,"
That's pretty dated. The standard is either a pentium 4 (3.2 GHz+) or better like a Pentium Core 2 Duo. A celeron itself is poor, but 897 Mhz indicates a really old computer.

"128 MB of RAM"
Also a problem. The minimum really should be 512 MB RAM. 1GB is best.

You could go through the trouble of running some software programs to check and clean up your computer. But you won't see a dramatic speedup unless you are ready to invest in some new hardware.

Microsoft is releasing a new operating system called Vista in January (or whenever they set the release date). You could buy a computer now, or you could wait for a few months and buy computers that work with the new operating system. Vista has some pretty demanding requirements, so hardware being sold off cheaply now may not be compatible with Vista.

Answer 4

no, it's not necessarily time to get a new one. you have norton 2006, but do you do full system scans regularly? when was the last time you did one? you may want to do one every week or two weeks, and keep it up to date. this will only speed your computer up if you have a virus and remove it. if you don't have a virus, then this is not your problem. you may have too many temp files from internet browsing. use a free program to clean them up, I like ccleaner which you can download from ccleaner.com, it is very thorough. you may also want to download and use regularly spybot search and destroy, a great free app for finding and removing things that may be slowing down your system. It removes things like tracking cookies and trojans. If you do download it, keep it updated and when you do update it, don't forget to go into the immunize screen and immunize your system.

Instead of buying a new computer, maybe just buy more RAM. You can go to to www.crucial.com and do a system scan and they will tell you which RAM to buy if you don't know much about it. But it helps greatly, and you will notice a speed increase with even 128mb of ram, but I would put in another 256 or 512 if your system will support it.

I have found the celeron processors to be good performers for basic daily activities.

if your internet is slowing, think about downloading firefox, a popular free web browser that is fast and packs a lot of features.

Well, I would definitely start by considering an upgrade to your RAM. It is the easiest upgrade for an older system. Make sure to follow the instructions and it's a piece of cake.

Remember to update your security software daily, maybe configure them for automatic updates.

You may also want to cancel some programs that start up with your computer, so that they don't run in the background and hog resources. It is easy to do using msconfig. There are other posts on how to use it so I won't go into it here, but send me a message and I will point you in the right direction and help you out.

Feel free to send me messages.

Answer 5

I'm amazed you can actually use that computer at all. Maybe that's a bit too harsh. But you have a Celeron and an old Celeron at that which probably doesn't have much L2 cache, if any. Older Celerons are known as "Sludgerons". But if you want my professional opinion, the best way to "speed up" that computer would be to get more memory for it. I can't exactly tell you what your max is but older motherboards were usually limited to 512MB to 1GB.

Your computer might have been OKAY with Windows XP (no service pack) or XP SP1 but XP SP2 is a larger drain on resources and you will need more memory for it. Norton can also be a drain on resources, notably memory, I would swap it out for something else but if you got it for free (through your school) or paid for it then go ahead and keep it.

As long as you aren't going to play games or do any video editing or 3D modeling, I would just go ahead and buy some more memory for it... I'm guessing you don't know what you have so...

Download a utility called CPU-Z, extract the files to your desktop (or other convenient location) and double click the CPU-Z file then click the SPD tab, this will tell you what type of memory to buy... look under Max Bandwidth, it will say something like PC2700 and that's what you would buy, PC2700 memory, brand is irrelevant.

If you want to take an easier route run the Crucial Memory Advisor, http://www.crucial.com/ it will also tell you what type of memory to buy but will direct you to the Crucial brand only.

Brand of memory is irrelevant just so long as it matches your specs, once you know what kind to buy, you'll probably get the best prices from either Tigerdirect, http://www.tigerdirect.com/ or Newegg, http://www.newegg.com/

That will get you a little more use out of it but it's really time to start looking for a new computer, there is no way that computer will be able to run Vista... if you wanted to upgrade to Vista.

Oh yeah, either get rid of IE7B3 or get the final version of IE7 from Microsoft.

Answer 6

Sounds like it's time to get a new one. You can try and upgrade your old machine by getting more RAM and a faster processor, but let me tell you from experience that it can be a painfull process finding out exactly what hardware your old machine can handle, then finding the hardware itself. You can get a fairly decent desktop computer for $600 or less. But here's something to keep in mind. You can never have too much memory! I would recommend getting a PC with NO LESS than 512 MB of RAM. 1 GB would actually be better. You'll thank me later ; ) Good luck!

Answer 7

I actually run wrote a whole article about this:
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=367375
Its called: Fix Up That Slow Computer - 5 Useful Tips for Speeding Up that Slow Computer!

Answer 8

appears like you're doing fairly nicely each little thing you are able to to keep this previous laptop going easily. you would possibly want to objective diverse secret agent ware checks to those you're utilising and archive Outlook messages. a good number of not hassle-free rigidity pastime might want to be brought about by way of low RAM, secret agent ware, a rigidity needing defragging and a pandemic. If it passes a scandisk/Chkdsk it truly is probable ok. Drives oftentimes get noisy in the previous they fail. perchance you may evaluate construction a sparkling computer your self.

Answer 9

A couple of things:

1/ get rid of your IE7 beta (add/remove programs) and get the real deal from Microsoft.
2/ Get at least 512M of ram. This is your single biggest problem.
3/ install winpatrol and control all of your startups.
4/ Defrag your C drive
5/ Delete all temporary items

You have another 5 years left in this computer.

Answer 10

Delete all unecessary/ unused files and your cookies. If your computer is still just as slow, have Best Buy check it out before rushing out to buy a new one.