computer question?

Question

ok well I have a hp pavilion 7845 pentium 3 computer....I have like no programs stored on it and no documents at all or no loose files... but when im like looking in the start bar and doing everything it runs sllooowww......iv tryed defraging it too......can someone help!!!!!! please

what would ram do? how do i do that? would it help speed things up?

Answer 1

Okay; Here's the skinny on your system: It seemed like a good deal, at the time... but remember the old cliches; "you get what you pay for!" & "if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!"? Well, that's the case for your computer. It was made as a bottom of the line PC, that would be used in the home, with minimal internet, and application usage... the problem is: There's no such thing as minimal internet usage, and every six months, the internet websites, and applications are advancing in richness, color, etc. and require MORE sytem resources, to work properly.

A computer today (one that is NOT running Vista, but Windows 2000 or Windows XP, should have at least 512Mb of RAM... According to the HP website, your system shipped with only 128Mb RAM, (not enough; and shame on them for that!). All is not lost though, you can upgrade your computer, at minimal cost.

If you want what would seem like a brand new computer, that's at least 3X faster than the one you have now, you have only three things to do:

1a. Upgrade your RAM: Your PC takes PC-100 RAM, easily found on Ebay, or www.pricewatch.com or even your local superstore... problem is; it's getting harder to find, because it's old technology, and as time goes on, there's less and less call for it... it's also twice as expensive at your local stores, than if you bought it online; www.pricewatch.com is a great place to find this product!), You have now 128Mb Ram; your system can handle only 256Mb in each of its two slots... since one slot is taken, you can either buy ONE stick of PC100 256Mb RAM, and plug it into the slot that's empty, or take out the one you have and buy TWO sticks of PC100 256Mb RAM... if you go with option one, you'll have 384Mb RAM, or 512Mb with two new sticks of RAM... it's a lot easier than it sounds, so don't feel intimidated by installing RAM; if you can put together a model airplane or car, then you can do this... more to come on this, at the end of my explanation...

Step 2: Considering your RAM also has to be shared with your video... (Becuase HP decided to build your computer with a cheaper motherboard, that had no video card of it's own, rather using a chip, and forcing what little resources you have to be shared with the CPU, and the RAM, in order for your computer to shoe what is being displayed on the website, and then your screen... as time goes on, websites and programs are becoming more and more video intensive, taking up more RAM & CPU. So, your second concern is a video card. Since HP decided not only to deny you a video card, when purchasing this system (not your fault, theirs) they also decided to include a motherboard that had no AGP-(Accelorated Graphics Port slot), so you cannot put in a video card... but wait! Video card manufacturers realized the shortcuts that manufacturers where taking, in order to decieve ppl into thinking their computers where just as good, for less money, and began making video cards that would fit into PCI (Peripheral Computer Interconnect) slots on the motherboard... so, if you go to your local super store, compusa for one, or walmart, or any other large dept store.. look for either Nvidia or ATI radeon... both are great cards, and pay attention: you need a PCI (not PC/PCII Express! and NOT AVG!) video card. The XT5700 or the MX400 are good cards for your system, but any with that PCI slot will work, but the more VRAM (video RAM) it has, the faster it will be. A video card will render all your video, and leave the CPU to do what it was meant to do, it'll also use it's own VRAM, instead of your system RAM!

If you'd like to upgrade your system one piece at a time, you can do that too! you don't need to do all this at once! I'm just telling you what you can do... max your system out: 512Mb RAM, good video card with 256Mb VRAM, and you'll be happy, for now.

Answer 2

Well there are a some extra things that you can try...

scandisk--

On My Computer on your desktop, right click the C Drive, click on properties, Tools, Check Now, select both options,
Click Start, the program will try to scan/fix yoru c drive but will stop, click on the pop up message, and the next time you restart your computer it will run scan disk.

Also look into perhapes adding extra ram to your computer too.

Answer 3

ok man, if ur running a Pentium 3 desktop, then you need some major help. just buy a new one! lol those Pentium 3's are so slow, that it ain't funny! you can get a really nice Pentium 4 Desktop on eBay for around $120! (thats a slimline Dell, one of the smallest desktops available!) I bought mine for $100, it waz pretty lucky! you can also sell off your old one, and make some profit.

Good Luck!

Answer 4

You need to identify what process is running that is using up your resources. Use Task Bar:

Press Ctrl + Alt Del and click on the processes tab.

Answer 5

On a Mac, shift/administration/3 takes a image of the demonstrate. in case you press shift/administration/4, you could click and drag over the section you pick; the photograph is taken once you launch the mouse button.

Answer 6

i think you have not enough RAM
Or you may have a virus in your harddisk
or, the harddisk may not appropriate to your sistem, it may be too large. There may be a bad sector in your harddisk.

TRY another harddisk .

Answer 7

u might have something like a worm or trojan... not sure... try downloading avg's free virus deleter... it works pretty well... i think too well...

Answer 8

its meight be a virus.. try to scan online.. http://housecall.trendmicro.com/