I have an amd athlon xp 2400 1.99 ghz 480 mb ram. I have run msconfig and there is nothing bad. I?

Question

I have google toolbar, ms messenger, and yahoo messenger and norton is this whats slowing the startup down.

Answer 1

Well here's a little info for you.

Window's XP uses about 130 to 170 MB of RAM to run.
Yahoo Messenger uses about 42 MB of RAM to run.
MS Messenger uses about 40 MB of RAM to run.
Norton uses about 70 MB or RAM to run.
IE7 or Firefox each require about 30 MB RAM to run.
Then add all your running processes.....

Your pc has "480 MB RAM".... You are probably very low or out of RAM most of the time.

Try these tips and only run those Programs that are necessary at Start Up.
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A major cause of slow PC's is fragmentation of the hard drive.
You need to defragment the HD at least once a week if not more depending on how much you use your computer, and what you do with it.

One way is to use the defragment utility built into Windows XP. It is slow but does the job rather well. Go to:
Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and then click on System Defrag to run the tool. It may take several hours, so let it run overnight or simply walk away from your PC for a few hours.

A great program for defragging automatically is Diskeeper. It costs $30 but is well worth it. Go to http://www.download.com and search for Diskeeper. Read the Publishers Description and the Editor and User reviews. It can be scheduled to run automatically as the program deems necessary, and if you are using your PC and the program launches itself, it will take a backseat to whatever you are doing and give you the priority for CPU usage. I think you'll agree it's a good program to have. It precludes your needing to remember to defrag at regular intervals.

Another major cause of a slow PC is programs that are running in the background. Here's another really good Microsoft tool. It’s called Autoruns and it was written by SysInternals who were recently bought up by Microsoft.

Before you download the program create a folder under program files called Autoruns. Leave Windows Explore open.

Launch Internet Explored and go to the following Microsoft web page.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/autoruns.mspx

Go to the bottom of the page and download the Autoruns program. After it downloads open the file. It is a Zip file. Unzip the file and you will see 4 files. Drag and drop those 4 files to the Autoruns folder you created under Program Files.

Once you have the 4 files in the C:\Program Files\Autoruns folder you can double click on the file titled “autoruns”.

This will bring up a window with several tabs at the top. Click on the “Logon” tab. It will list the programs that are running on your PC and eating up resources. Look them over carefully and turn off any that don’t absolutely have to be running. Simply click on the “check mark” in the little box beside the program name. Clicking on it will remove the check mark. Once you have edited the Startup list, click on Apply and then on OK.
NOTE: Leave items that show Windows; System 32; Program Files; etc. alone. Shutting them off may cause some things not to work.

Once you have exited the window, reboot your PC for the settings to take effect.

WARNING: Don’t go into the other tabs and start deleting things. You will probably give yourself major headaches if you do that. Stay focused on the “Logon” List only.

Another good thing to have is a little program called FreeRAM XP Pro. It is free and is available from http://www.download.com This program puts a little RAM meter on the System Tray and shows how much RAM you have remaining that you are not using at any given time. I think you may be surprised at how little RAM you have to run other programs. Also, once it is installed you can right click on the little meter, then click on RESTORE and it will open the RAM display window. You can tweak the settings so it will display your CPU usage also. Then just click “Minimize” and then “To System Tray” to return to the Task Bar.

What happens when you run out of or run real low on RAM is that the OS recognizes the low or no RAM situation and starts using a section of your hard drive as memory. This is called virtual memory, or a swap file. The PC is constantly writing and reading from your HD. Comparitively, it is a very slow process. Check your motherboard manual and determine how much RAM each slot can hold. It will also tell you what type of RAM you need. You can also go to http://www.crucial.com or http://www.4allmemory.com and run their analysis utility to determine what kind and how much RAM is installed in your PC. Depend on your MoBo manual to determine the RAM limits of each slot though.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

without a question it is the : AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+, Windows Vista Home Basic, 1GB-RAM, 250GB, 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO AMD processors were designed from the start for the Gamers and Graphic designers and have more support built into the processor to support them, the card is also stronger in that one but I would still think about upping the video card later if you are going to get into gaming running the best 3D games you will need a card with at least 512 MB. But that a upgrade for later go AMD.

Answer 3

Norton can be very resource hungry so you could try a different software suite, I use Panda as it runs well in the background but there are many similar security suites. Check for ads, malware use the free ad aware program as its excellent and use ccleaner or something similar to delete cookies and old Internet files, check for viruses, Trojans etc as this slows down computers as does software that can become corrupt, check all your programs are updated and you have no unused ones on your system then run disk defrag.
Hope this helps
Andy

Answer 4

A bit jumbled up but I think I understand. And yes, Norton does slow down your computer, Google toolbar and MSN are irrelevant

Answer 5

anti virus prog's always slow down start-up. it's to be expected. it ensures that as easch start-up program becomes active that no hidden or dormant viruses suddenly spring up. it has to be active before your computer hooks up to the net too (obvious reason). mines the same, doesn't bother me. at least my pc's safe, what's a bit of extra time if it means all your documents and stuff will be safe?
be thankful it only takes a while to load up - be patient! and that your whole pc isn't on a go slow! arrghh!

Answer 6

Try here for info
http://www.techtutorials.net/

http://www.rickmaybury.com/

http://www.theeldergeek.com/