What is the best way for me to improve my PC's performance?

Question

I have a Pentium3,7 Gig harddrive and about 96mb RAM

Answer 1

Keep it clean (inside and out)
Do disk defrag and disk cleanup often
Clean out spyware + scan for viruses
Put in more RAM

Answer 2

Guys stop telling him to upgrade to 1 gig. assuming his specs are right that thing is too old and the motherboard won't be able to handle it.

ok yes one of the best things you can do is upgrade RAM. Check your manual if you have one, or go to www.pny.com and use the memory configurator, they have a lot of old systems listed there that will tell you what the maximum amount of RAM your motherboard can handle.

If you're computer really is that old, possibly Windows 98, i recommend you buy a new one. Hey you won't have to buy a top of the line PC, since it doesn't seem like you use it for really cpu or ram intensive programs. Any new PC will more than likely be better than good enough for you. Hope I was able to help.

Answer 3

I read a computer magazine article that said you should have at least 512MB of RAM. You will see a huge difference in your performance with more RAM. The most they said that had a noticeable difference was 1GB and more than that is overkill unless you are working with a lot of video files at the same time.

The speed of the hard drives rotation is more important than the amount of memory. Try a 7200 hard drive to get better performance at a reasonable price.

Answer 4

PC Running Slow, Hangs, Freezes:

- Many users are not aware of how much RAM is used by wallpaper and/or a screensaver full of graphics. They run in the background and consume memory. (I have only 512mb RAM, run multiple programs simultaneously, and have set my wallpaper and screensaver to blank.)

- How many programs do you load at startup? Maybe you should check it out and ensure you are running just what you need.
To do this: cl Start, cl Settings, cl Taskbar and Start Menu.
- cl Start Menu, cl Customize, cl Remove.
- cl the icon for the program you wish to remove
- then cl Remove.
- This will prevent the program from loading at startup, but will not remove the program from the hard disk.

- When you are working in a large file, save frequently to restore full memory access. (Your work remains in memory until you “save” it to disk.)

1. Did you run an error check? Open My Computer,
Right-cl on C:, Select Properties, Tools – Run an Error Check ( checkmark “check all and fix); then run a Defrag

2. Are you using Yahoo Toolbar? Run a full Norton Antispy.

3. From IE, click Tools, Internet Options
delete cookies
delete files (offline files)
clear history (set days to save to 0 if you want)
click o.k., and Restart

3. click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools – run Disk Cleanup

4. click Start, Run ipconfig renew (type ipconfig space renew)

All these things should be done regularly. The more frequently they are run, the less time they take.
- Note: Games and videos are mostly graphics. Graphics create large files. If this doesn’t help, you should consider getting more memory.

Answer 5

If yer runnin Windows 95 or 98, yer probably maxxed. If yer running 2K or XP, up the mem to 256 if ya can. MB probably won't hold much more. Check yer MB book to make sure it can hold more memory and what kind. Memory chips are also speed dependent. Make sure the mem chips you add are the same speed as those ya got, usually around 10ns for one that old.

Answer 6

1- Ask a professional to arrange your windows registry file.
2- install an anti virus.
3- increase your RAM up to 1 Gb

Answer 7

Add more RAM! Check to see what the max amount you can add to that old timer and load it up with RAM. It's the cheapest performance upgrade there is.

Answer 8

96MB RAM? are you sure?
Todays computer may need 1 - 2 Giga for RAM, thats what you need.

Answer 9

huh..
that's quite low
I would much rather buy a new computer than upgrading a old one.
-------------------
upgrades:
__________
processor: upgrade to one that goes faster than 1.5 GHz
Hard Drive: upgrade to atleast 25 Gb (Though this will not benefit in the performance of the computer)
Memory: Upgrade to at least 700 mb RAM (1 GB or more would be better)
OS: Upgrade to XP Professional

Answer 10

Upgrade the RAM.