slow computer?

Question

lately my computer has been getting very slow. when i do anything like watching videos, listening to music, broowsing web pages, and sometimes even opening or minimizing windows. so far i have defragmented, disk clean up, and i ran anti-virus and spyware programs(i use ad-aware, and e-trust anti-virus). i have 768mb of ram, 1.6GHz, and 250gb hard drive(i have 58.9Gb left). i also have a 20gb hard drive but it dosent work(it used to show up and now it dosent anymore, when my computer is turned on the screen says something hardive is bad remove replace, press F1 to continue, then it comes to a blue screen that says one of your hard disks needs to be checked for consistancy, strongly recommended or press any key to skip. usually i skip it but when i do let it run it will take like 10-20 min and it says number____is unreadable. so is it because of that one bad hard drive or can it be something else like i need more ram or more hard drive space?is there anything i can do?

Answer 1

1)http://mypchelp.blogspot.com/2006/10/pc-running-slow.html
2)http://mypchelp.blogspot.com/2006/10/windows-reinstallation.html

Answer 2

I probably would pull the bad drive from the system so as not to confuse the computer any more than need be.
Have you done a disk clean up start/allprgrams/accessories/system tools?
How about an error check - my computer/c drive/right click and left on properties/tools.
Try "Ewido"(which is now a part of AVG 7.5) but not to worry, Google ewido and run that thru., And then "registry first aid". With that done and no improvement, see how many programs you have running at the same time Ctrl/Alt/Del once and wait. What will show is all processes running in your machine at the same time. Do you need to have them all running?
Otherwise go to "Hijackthis" and follow the instructions there and they will take a look at your machine for hijack programs, and suggest fixes.

Answer 3

768mb of RAM and a 250GB drive with 58.9 GB free is plenty for most uses. Your hardware is not what's making your computer slow.

This sort of thing is almost always a virus, bots, or spyware. Try running a different anti-spyware program like SpyBot Search and Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Also, make sure you have some sort of firewall turned on.

Beyond that, you're probably suffering Windows-decay (my term for the phenomenon where the registry gets so clogged with crap over time that even the best computer gets slow). Reinstall Windows to fix that.

Good luck, you're not alone.

Answer 4

First thing is take the 20g out. Beat it with a hammer, throw it away or even cooler is take it apart and check out inside. Now I'm guessing since you have used 200g of a 250g drive and it's not a business you more than likely have a p2p installed . If so you're more than likely slowed down due to traffic. Go to your task manager ( Ctrl+Alt+Del) >processes tab click on user name and write down everthing that is used by whatever your computer name. Then go to answersthatwork.com click on task list and search each and everthing you have written down. They will tell you what to do. .Then get a program to control your start up Winpatrol is a good one. Close of f what you don't need in startup. Also and very important get a registry cleaner as you may have deleted stuff but it's still in the registry and being called to run.You can get easycleaner by toniarts at download. com or filehippo.

Answer 5

Yea...start by removing the bad harddrive by physically removing it out of the case (disconnecting all the plugins)...then see what your computer does...
Sometimes no matter what you do Windows all by itself will become corrupted and not work properly and slow down do to errors that it's having to go through just to do a process...You might want to try and clean out all of the registry errors. A good program to do this is PC Tools Registry Mechanic 6.
But if all else fails...format and do a "Clean" installation of your Operating System.
I do this about every 8 months or so and I'm using XP Pro.

Answer 6

In general, no there isn't a ton you can do. Yes, you should remove that hard drive as it may be the cause of your problem. I also recommend that you check to make sure that you don't have a 256mb and 512mb ram chip installed together on your computer. THAT will DEFINITELY cause a slow down on your computer (you should ideally only pair two of the same type of RAM on you computer in the slots).

Answer 7

looks like you need hard drive scan and repaire, some how the hard drive might get damaged little, try to open the computer and clean the dusts around the hard drive.etc... a good suggestion is to back up all the important stuff NOW before the hard drive turn bad.

Answer 8

Sounds like your computer is in rough shape. I say just toss out that 20gb hard drive. Reformat the 250gb hard drive and reinstall windows and only the programs that you really need.

Don't forget to backup the files that you still want to keep.

This will make your computer like new again.

Answer 9

probably have a lot of junk on it and do a virus scan

Answer 10

get a new computer