Computer speed?

Question

Silver surfer here. My computer is running slow. It has an AMD Duron Processor 902 MHz 496 MB of RAM. Is this very outdated? How can I upgrade, and how easy is it to do, and will it improve if I do?
Thank You, go easy, I can follow instuctions very well for my age, words of more than 3 sylables take time entering whats left of my brain

I run AVG, Zone alarm, SpyBot, and Ad Aware

Answer 1

I guess you have got few adware and spyware.
Just remove them , your computer will run faster

Answer 2

Dead right, your pc is a bit older than you in pc terms. Upgrading is like a cross between Meccano and Lego. I would suggest that you replace your Motherboard, Memory & Processer. First question, what do you want to do...surf, etc...? If you want to upgrade, rule 1, always keep yourself grounded by the chassis, keep the mains plug in, switched off, and touch the chassis. Now, look at the power supply, is the main big plug 20 pin, or 24 pin? if its 20 pin, then you will need a PSU as well.
Remove anything 'in the box...hard drive, floppy drive, graphics, sound card. CD drive.... all these with exception the graphics card (which is maybe/maybe not) are re-usable
Identify a processer (about 3gb) which will give you what you need from say dabs.com AMD give you bang for bobs (real money!!!) From there, Motherboard.... Then Memory, then PSU. Has mobo got sound? forget your sound card. Has mobo got graphics? forget graphics card... Your graphics card no doubt is a PCI card, it will be re-usable. If its AGP, then maybe not.
Be sure, cross check, double check... is processer ok with mobo? check manuf, websites. Use Corsair.com to ensure you got the right memory. Almost there now, read the mobo manual from the mobo website.... check the power supply needs....configuration, plugs etc
Now, we have lined up the bits, get them.... I often use Spoton computers http://www.spotonuk.com/Home.htm you can talk to them, get all the bits from one source, saves argument, any probs, return the lot.
Read the motherboard book well, its all very straightforward. The hardest bit is connecting the motherboard to the case connections. The best bit is when you start up again, and go flying....grand prix surfing. If you decide to take this route, please use my e-mail (on my profile) remind me to get my bus pass.

Answer 3

To add to the guy above, don't upgrade unless you want to use it for something else more taxing. But processor upgrade isnt an option sadly, you would need to get a new PC as Duron parts are no longer available.

You could however get some memory on ebay (it is unlikely to be cheap or in production any more) to speed the old girl up. Initially go to www.crucial.com/uk and get crucial to scan your machine. that will tell you the type of memory you need, then search for that on ebay.co.uk there are several guides on the internet how to install memory.

Good luck!

Answer 4

That PC should be fine on surfing. I assume that you run Anti-Virus anti-Spying. Software. A full hard disk might slow things down also if too many files in Temporary Internet Files - Internet Explorer, Tools, Internet Options, Delete Files and Delete Cookies (latter may mean loss of access to certain sites).

If using a dial-up line, the main reason for slow performance is overbloated web pages - too much crap. Again Internet Options but Advanced, under Multimedia, untick some of the options.

Answer 5

Yes that is pretty dated now but whether or not you need to upgrade depends on what you use the computer for. If you play computer games or run programs which require alot of processor power then I would reccomend just getting a new computer. However if you are just using word/excel and web browsing then I would just stick with your current setup until an expensive part of it breaks.

oh and to speed up your computer you could try formating and reinstalling or if you don't want to go that far the defragmenting your hard disk and removing unnecessary programs should help.

Answer 6

As the previous poster said, that is pretty outdated now.
If you're still running Windows '98, then you should be ok, but XP will eat up most of that RAM and push the processor to it's limits.
You should be able to do word processing ok, and surf a few websites, but any CPU intensive applications or websites will bring your machine to its knees.

A minimum of 2Ghz for the processor and 1GB for RAM should do most tasks correctly, but if you want to play any of the latest generation games, then a dual core processor and 2Gb of RAM is the standard these days.

Answer 7

Your computer is too old and upgrading will be complicated (you will have to change motherboard, processor, memory which costs almost 2/3 of computer price, and you will still have old power supply, optical drives, etc. which can stop working any time).
Better idea is to buy new one

Answer 8

According to your description,You said you have avg,spybot,adaware.....So your slow computer must not be caused by virus and spyware...So there must have some regsitry errors in your computer to cause "computer slow".You need to clean you computer.
Every time you install and uninstall software on your computer and surfing online you create junk in the registry.You need to scan and clean your computer with registry cleaner to make your computer faster.Good Regisry Cleaner will improve your computer and Internet performance dramatically by 300% or more!
There are some comparison and review of
TOP 5 registry cleaners.
http://www.registry-Cleaners.info

You can download and scan your computer for free.

Answer 9

you can increase the RAM that is the easiet way to speed up the computer.Do the following also
1.uninstall unwanted software.
2.remove unwante software from startup
3.defragment disk.

Answer 10

try this it free and speed up your computer speed and speed up your Ram by 3* or 300% arverge.

http://shareme.com/details/free---speed-up-pc-3x-faster.html