my computer has slowed down. how do i increase its speed. i have 256mb ram.?

Question

it takes about 3 to 5 seconds to open my computer or any folder or song when i am on the net. how do i increase the speed. earlier the speed was absolutely fine. but now it has slowed down.

Answer 1

256 MB of ram is about 1/4 of Windows Vista.You need to clear out all the files,favorites,music,pictures,etc,.you can get rid of. Make photos smaller &/or compress.Disc defragment,disc clean up & try the tool from Microsoft Windows Tune up Center. http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/tuneup.htm#

Answer 2

Step 1: Backup the necessary data into an external storage device.
Step 2: Format all the partitions except the bootable drive.
Step 3: Relaod Windows with formatting the complete hard drive.
Step 4: Download and Install Cacheman.
Step 5: Dump all the data into your computer again but let the space in the C:\ drive be free as mostly as possible.
Step 6: Install all the other applications into an another drive rather in the C:\ drive.
Step 7: Change the location of all the download target folders to D:\ drive.
Step 8: Extend your RAM if Possible.....

Answer 3

It maybe you have downloaded something malicious off the internet, but some more likely causes are either too many programs running in the background, or explorer.exe has gone into overdrive using all your system resources.
Another reason could be windows defender if you have it funning full time in the background, it comes with a couple of resource hogging exe files that are nessesary to operate defender, shut down defender, but leve the automatic scanning in place, that way defender will scan your system automaticaly but the two files will be shut down between scans.
An upgrade of your RAM will of cource help, goto http://www.crucial.com and run their system scanner, it will tel you if you can upgrade your RAM and tell you by how much and give you the info of the most compatable RAM cards that will fit into your computer.
It won't do any harm to also do a spyware scan on your computer using SUPERantispyware, or an as good equvilent, just to make sure you have not got any hiden browser hyjackers.

hope this helps.

Answer 4

Well, you are WAY under the minimum RAM requirements to actually use any newer programs, so an upgrade to a Gb should work out pretty well.

However, being that it has 256 Mb, I am going to assume tis is an old system past it's life span. I don't know what you use it for, but it is about time for a new computer.

If you want to save money and keep it going longer, I wold recommend replacing resource hogs (Windows) with non-resource hogs (Linux). Ubuntu should do you wonders. I have saved many systems from the dump by installing Ubunutu on them. Easy to use GUI, does everything Windows can do and more, just not as skittle like as Vista is, more of a Mac feel to it. Anyways, Linux runs on ANYTHING.

You can contact me, or just hit your local craigslist region and find a linux guy.

Anyways, if you decide to toss it, just donate it. Their are a lot of groups taking old computers, installing Linux on them and placing them into schools with low funding to even get computers. The end result is that we are turning out damn good Linux Admins (60k+ salary) from ghetto schools :) Pretty cool.

Answer 5

Slowdowns can be caused by over-heating; damage to components or spyware.

If you're certain it's not a hardware problem, you want to defragment your system and uninstall programs that aren't used anymore.

Also, if your computer is old, try to keep software updates down and retain the version of the software you like most.

If that doesn't help, you could do a spyware scan. I wouldn't think it's spyware though, unless pop-ups and random stuff are appearing on your computer.

Answer 6

Clean out your cookies, set them to dump in 3 days instead of the factory preset of about 20 and drop the storage space for them to 1K only, just enough to get you online, but small enough to keep you from fighting for memory space.
I am sorry if you believe these other guys, but if you want a good basic computer, just do what I said here and read on.
I know plenty of tricks to tune your old machine for free.
My 256 runs faster than my old 512 used to because I used them in demonstrations on factory set versus tech settings.
E-mail me and I will tell you my secret of really speeding your unit up.
You can e-mail me from my profile here and I will be glad to help.
Not all technicians use numbers and techno-speak, computers are just common sense and really simple once you understand their needs.

Answer 7

You may have a virus.

URGENTLY, check that your protective software is up to date, and run it.

You may also be carrying too many tracking cookies loaded by sites you have visited. Run a program such as AdAware (free download from LavaSoft) to get rid of these.

Then defragment.

You should ALWAYS do this when your computer's performance deteriorates.

However, if the only problem is time to get on line or get stuff off the web, the problem may just be that your ISP or the site you want to reach is busy.

Answer 8

it depends if you have vista of XP, XP will generally run faster on you ram but vista is a massive load for 256 mb ram to carry. but generally, just get some more ram, in you PC or laptop. in PCs i am not the expert but in laptops, you can fit the ram yourself. it should tell you in your little booklet that came with it, its under a little trap door at the back, unfortunately i cannot give the best description. well i hope it works, it should improve the performance of your PC/laptop alot!

Answer 9

Probably needs to be defragged. But hey,many people would give their right arms to have just a 3-5 second delay.

Answer 10

256mb ram isnt blazing good anymore, but clean out your cookies and temporary internet files, then defrag your hard-drive.

If you still have a problem.. upgrade or get a new computer.