An age old problem...my pc is running slow?

Question

I have done all the recommended checks - anti-virus, spy ware etc, i have used cleanup and crap remover, taken off programs not used often...everything I can think off but it is still SLOW!!! Other than adding extra memory (which I am looking into) is there anything else that can be suggested? Its really annoying.
I am toying with taking it to somewhere like PC World and asking them to look at it and sort it but that is a last resort.
Its not old...only had it 2 years, and all it is really used for is MSN, Face book and photos and there aren't many of them.
Any useful advise would be most welcome. Thanks........

Answer 1

Dont put unnecessary programs when you're not needing it.
Pictures and videos burn it out with DVD to archive.
Minimize your files in your folder. Try to reformat it.

If you venture into graphics editing, video editing, or 3D modeling better to deal it in or give it away as a gift and buy a new one which has at least 2 gb memory, 120 gb harddisk, 520 video card and you'll enjoy using your computer to the max.

Answer 2

There are several things you can do to increase the "speed" of your computer.

1) Clean up the disk. Uninstall unneeded programs (especially those that run at startup and/or put something in the system tray), run Disk Cleanup, and defragment the drive. This is a good first step that will almost always take a few seconds off boot time and application loads for any computer.

2) Stomp auto-starting programs. Click Start > Run and type "msconfig" at the prompt. Click the Startup tab and look at all that junk that loads when you launch your PC. Do you really need "Adobe Reader Speed Launch"? Probably not. Turn off anything else that looks useless, but be careful not to disable your anti-virus and important system components.

3) Run a full anti-virus and anti-spyware scan. I would recommend using AVG Free Anti-virus, Spybot - Search and Destroy spyware remover and Ad-aware spyware remover. These programs are all free.

4) Clean up the registry. CCleaner, available at http://www.ccleaner.com is free and worth running. It will also remove unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.

Those are the easy and free things you can do. If your computer is still slow you need to move on to the bigger guns.

1) Upgrade RAM. This is the one killer trick that will make almost any computer run faster. With an older PC, you will rarely have enough RAM to run today's memory-hogging operating systems and applications, and adding a high-capacity stick or two of quality RAM will give you a quick speed boost. Adding RAM is fairly simple, even for a novice, and you should be able to do the job in 5 or 10 minutes.You can run a free test at http://www.crucial.com and find out what kind of RAM (memory) your computer needs.

2) Reinstall Windows. If the above tricks haven't helped, it may be time to wipe the slate clean and start again, reformatting your hard drive, reinstalling your applications, and restoring your data files from a backup. You'd be surprised how much more responsive a freshly reinstalled Windows system can be, as you've wiped out years of temp files, garbled registry entries, old versions of software programs that have been upgraded repeatedly, and all sorts of other electronic junk. Reinstalling is easy if you have the "recovery disk" that came with your PC, and only a bit more involved if you're using a retail copy of Windows XP. Just be sure you back up everything you want to take with you before you pull the trigger!

3) Upgrade your hard drive. This is a more complicated solution, but if you're reinstalling Windows (per the prior tip) you might consider upgrading to a bigger and possibly faster hard drive, too. Hard disk storage is a performance bottleneck on every machine, and magnetic disks degrade over time. Some performance issues could be caused by a failing hard drive, even, and upgrading to a new model could really put some zip back in your system. As a bonus, you can use the original hard drive for backups or occasional storage, if you put it in an enclosure.

Answer 3

Your PC is probably full of temporary files, you appear to be connected to the internet, so probably lots of nasties which slow up your system. If you have lots of ant-virus \ spyware running at once this will slow it down. First thing to try is delete internet history, internet cache, temporary files (you can download free tools to do this) Scan the registry for errors (you can get free software to do this too) My preffered method is: I dont know how good your I.T. knowledge is, I will assume you can ask someone if you need help, but a really good method I have found is:. IF YOU DONT UNDERSTAND THEN DON'T ATTEMPT IT IF YOU DO MAKE SURE ALL IMPORTANT DATA IS BACKED UP ONTO ANOTHER PHYSICAL DRIVE \ PC 1. partition your hard disk 2. re-install the minimum software (only stuff you use) 3. Configure software as you require 4. use a ghosting package to backup the windows partition to another partition (or CD \ DVD prefferably) 4. When the PC gets slow format the system partition C: drive and restore the ghost file, good as new!

Answer 4

You could Run MSConfig and try Disable All in Startup. If OK enable a few at a time to find which is responsible. Clues can be via Task Manager, Processes to see if any are using excessive CPU time. Then by adding View, Select Columns, Memory options, see if any are using lots of RAM.

Also, via Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager, Disk Controller (IDE Channel?), Advanced Settings, check that disk is running in DMA mode and not the very slow PIO mode. Windows can revert to this if disk errors have occurred.

Answer 5

To make your PC clock fast you should clean your Prefecth file in windows folder and cookies in your Internet Options, other than that its important that you defragment your hard drive, you always have the option of increasing your RAM and last but not the least you should avoid using multiple softwares doing same task for eg Multiple Media Players or Anti Viruses these may causeabig problem and ya also doclean your startup options

Answer 6

Hey,
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Best

Answer 7

Do not get windows Vista like the guy above told you to. There are to many bugs in it.

Try to upgrade your RAM. Check to see if you can fit 1, 2, or 4 gbs of memory into your computer. If you can upgrade, do it. This will speed up your computer tremendously.

Also, Make sure you defrag your hard drive on a regular basis so it works at an optimal speed.

Good Luck!

Answer 8

Using a registry cleaner can clean up your computer and then make your computer faster,Why?the reason is that there may be some regsitry errors and remnant,corrupt files and temp files in your computer to cause "computer slow".
Everytime you install and uninstall software on your computer and surfing online you create junk in the computer registry.over time, the registry can grow to enormous proportions, especially if the various programs you've installed do not do a good job of deleting and/or updating it's Registry entries.You need to scan and clean your computer with registry cleaner to make it fast.Good Regisry Cleaner will improve your computer and Internet performance dramatically!It even can speed up your computer by 300% or more!
There are some comparison and review of TOP 5 registry cleaners.
http://www.speeduppc.info/
You can download and scan your computer for free.

Answer 9

Its hard to tell if your computer was slow in the first place with out knowing what computer you have? did you buy some Celeron E-machine computer 2 years ago and expect it run like a Quad Core?
You could always re-install windows. it takes time setting everything up, but does start nice and clean and fresh! But who knows maybe your computer was slow from the start.

Answer 10

Age-old solution: check what's running all the time that you don't need running all the time. You may need to check your Startup folder, then you may need to go to Start--> Run--> msconfig
and take a (very careful, PUHLEEZE!) look at what's in the last tab, under Startup, and uncheck ones that you're absolutely sure don't need to be running all the time, at startup. You can find a helpful guide online as to the nature of all those programs and who owns them. This is at http://www.processlibrary.com, whereyou can look up any program in your startup list.