what determines how fast your computer goes?

Question

I bought my computer about 2 years ago. Its a Compaq Persario SR1200NX .Its slow as crap...I want to know how to speed it up ASAP.I don't mind starting from scrap since the only important things on it are pictures and music. (No buying extra parts)

Answer 1

A clean computer is key to a faster computer. Run the 3 scans below.

Update and run your Anti-Virus program. Don't have one? You can run a free online scan from CA.
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx


Download, update and run Spybot---http://www.safer-networking.org/ . Don't forget to use the Immunize feature.

Download, update and run Adaware---http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/products/select_your_product.php




Now lets clean up your registry.


Download RegScrubXP--http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?d...

Safely cleans junk out of the Windows 2000/XP system registry. All changes made to the registry are fully restorable to it's original condition. You can make an exclusion list of registry entries that RegScrubXP will not display as problems. You can sift through a list of file extensions, company names, run upon startup programs, Internet Explorer history, and uninstall programs to delete what you think is junk.

Download CleanUp---http://www.stevengould.org/software/clea...

Free disk space, make your computer run better/faster and protect your privacy - all in one easy solution. All for free!





Now lets clean up your disk.


Do a Disk Cleanup and Disk Defrag. You can find both of them by following the path below.
Start>all programs>accessories>system tools>Disk Cleanup. Let it do its thing. You can check every box that has something to delete.
Now follow the same path and do a Disk Defrag. Again just let it do its thing.




Now lets tweak your connection.


There are many programs out there to do this. I will give you 2 of them.
The first one is TCP Optimizer.

Description: The TCP Optimizer is a free, easy Windows program that provides an intuitive interface for tuning and optimizing your Internet connection. There is no installation required, just download and run.

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php...

You can get support for the best way to set it up right from their forum http://forums.speedguide.net/

The second one is Cablenut.

Windows XP tested and approved

CableNut is a tool for optimizing your Internet Connection. We have provided a way to tweak any option you may want to in the adjuster. You can load "CableNut Custom Setting" files that are included with the program to tweak your Internet connection.

http://www.cablenut.com/

Again support is available right from their forum.http://www.broadbandnuts.com/index.php?p...




All programs are FREE!




After applying the suggestions above you will have a clean and faster computer. Enjoy.

Answer 2

My first guess is that your computer is slow because it has a virus, trojan horse, or other malware and it can be easily fixed.
Since this computer probably has XP, point your cursor at the task bar at the bottom Right click it and select task manager.
The task manager will give you the number of processes running.
You probably want that number to be somewhere between 22 and 42 processes running. If you have, say, 50 or 60, you are almost certainly infected with malware.
To quickly stop these other unneeded programs from starting when you start your computer, click Start, Run, then type in
"msconfig" (without the quotes) in the run box. A box will come up and click the "Startup" tab. Next uncheck all of those boxes, which means that those programs, or processes, will not start when Windows starts the next time. When you reboot, your computer will let you know that you have changed it, simply check the box that says something like, dont tell me about this next time, and your computer will now not run all of these unneded programs and processeses, so it will run faster, much faster. If something does not work, such as your printer, after you do this, then go back thru the above process again and check the box to allow your printer to start, reboot and your printer will start up again.

Answer 3

The computer you have is pretty much out of date. You can speed it up some though. First, clean all files and programs that you no longer use. Then clear all temporary files. Then Empty the Recycle Bin. Then do a Disk Cleanup and Disck Defrag. If you can afford to put a few bucks into then I would upgrade the memory. If your running XP and do a lot of music and pictures then you should have at least 1GB of RAM.

Without the RAM this process above will make your PC a little fater or a lot faster depending on how bad things were to start with. If your disk drive is too full, your computer will remain slow. If your disk does not get defraged then it will remain slow.

Answer 4

Well to answer your question, what will determine how fast your computer goes is your systems clock speed and processor, and in this case I don't think you'll be able to do much with out spending money in a new processor and adding memory, you're system comes wit:
Compaq Presario SR1200NX
AMD Sempron Processor 2800+
256MB DDR RAM
40GB Hard Drive
CD-RW
56K modem
10/100 Ethernet Card
9-in-1 card reader
Windows XP Home Edition

so the only thing you can do without purchasing anything is do a clean install and try to keep your software installs to the bare minimum, like a media player, web browser, and open office, or if you can find a copy of Windows 2000 I would load this instead of Windows XP. You wouldn't be able to load allot of the new Microsoft software that requires Windows XP but Windows 2000 would pretty much do miracles in the terms of speed to your computer. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

The CPU and IO sub-system. You can peel this onion further. The level one and level two chache sizes on the CPU cores. Whether the level two cache is shared between multiple cores. The pipline acrchitecure in the CPU. The number of cores in the chip. The speed of the front side bus to DDR memory. The speed of the hardsidisk. Total DRAM. Now the last thing is your application and how it uses the CPU resources.

I have had bad luck with Compaq performance. What I would do is check the amount of real RAM. You can spend $30 and get a whole lot of speed up if you are at the 256 or 128Meg level now.

Answer 6

There's a few things that you should check.

0. Make sure there's no virus residing in your computer. Get a virus scan.
1. RAM (Windos XP requires at least 256 MB of RAM). I would suggest you upgrade it to 1 GB or more
2. Hard disk (most of your files are picture and music). Most HD has 7200 RPM. Make sure your HD is not slower than that. Also, enough space for storage.
3. Video Card (128 MB): A good video card affects the speed of displaying images or movies.
4. Operating System (Get latest OS)
5. CPU

Answer 7

Hi,
About your computer, Compaq Persario is supossed 2 be a fast computer, like u can install alot of hard drives on it.
So, I guess that theres something wrong that needs 2 be fixed, if u know whats wrong, fix it, (and mostly the problem will be a software problem) not a hard drive, and if u dont know whats wrong, then u better format your computer, and install a new windows.
Good luck, meemo

Answer 8

Hard drive space and speed can affect the speed of your computer as well as the usual things like CPU and memory. With a full hard drive that isn't defraged, it'll take the computer longer to access information. Clean the HD regularly and defrag it at least once a month.

Answer 9

overclock your mainboard, display card and processor. but if you aren't an advanced user, do not try it. second, make sure that u dont have any spyware or viruses on your computer. clean them. third, working processes can make your computer slower. fourth, try to upgrade your ram. fifth, use some optimizer softwares like Registry Mechanic 6 Pro. if you need full version, IM me on y! messenger i'll give ya the link for it..

these will help ya. or buy a new computer =)

good luck!

(important: be careful while making overclock to your processor, display card or mainboard coz you can damage these parts by doing these wrong! or ask it to someone who knows computers good, from your area who you can ask something all the time coz you will need it.. chyea. and you can buy new and cheat processors too, i recommend you pentium 4 HT, pentium D, core 2 duo, core duo or amd athlon x2 64.. they have cheap ones too.)

anyways good luck again

Answer 10

Reboot and as it comes up press F8 then go to SAFE MODE (at the top) and the machine will boot in a special mode - First use disk Cleanup to delete all extra files, then use Disk Defragmenter.
These two thing will help your machine to run faster.
You did not say if you had XP if you did go to
START
on MY COMPUTER
on PROPERTIES
on ADVANCED
on the top SETTINGS BUTTON
you will be shown four radio buttons - select the one that says
ADJUST FOR BEST PERFORMANCE
then press APPLY
go ahead and OK button out of all of the menu's
reboot your machine this should help