why is my computer slow?

Question

why is my computer slow?
My previous computer configuration is:

celeron 2ghz(Processor)
512 MB ram
40 Gb hard disk

My current configuration is :
celeron 2ghz(Processor)
1 GB ram
160 Gb hard disk

still the speed achieved is not very good ,even if ram is 1GB

Answer 1

Celeron processors have little or no cache. That is why they are slow and less expensive than a Pentium 4. The celeron does not support hyper threading.
Check out your motherboard specs and see what socket you have and what speeds of CPUs it will support.
You may have a socket 478 in which case you can take out your celeron processor and replace it with a pentium 4---possibly with a higher clock speed. A 3 GHZ pent 4 socket 478 can be bought at Newegg.com for about $82

Good luck...
Oh and...clean out all those garbage programs that are running in the background taking up CPU resources.

Answer 2

If your virus/spyware free, there are a couple things you can do get your computer working faster. If you using your computer for normal stuff and not gaming. You don't always need more RAM you just need to perform a few maintenance task.

First, if you haven't cleaned your registry in a while. This is necessary. Your registry holds all the information regarding updates, installs, un-installs etc. Each one of those events produces a key. That key needs your PC's resources and free space. So, if you clean your registry, you make more resources available for speed. Do a registry scan if you got more than 20 errors you should clean it.
http://www.delete-computer-history.com/what-is-the-best-registry-cleaner.html

2. Clear your Windows cache files, this is your temporary file. It can grow up to a large volume and stop your computer from using RAM properly. In a sense slow it down by preventing it from using free space.Here is how:

1. Quit Internet Explorer, Firefox, or any other web browser
2. Click Start, click "Control Panel", and then double-click "Internet Options".
3. On the General tab, click "Delete Files" under Temporary Internet Files.
4. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the "Delete all offline content" check box , and then click OK.
5. Click OK.

3. Manage your startups. Your excess CPU usage is due to too many programs running in the background. You can cut these to barebones by alter your msconfig. Here is how:

1. Open your Start menu.
2. Click Run
3. In the command screen type "msconfig.exe"
4. In the "system configuration utility",click either "service" or "startup" tab
5. Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.
6. Click "OK"

Other great tip is increasing your virtual memory to simulate more RAM. This will give you a bit more resources for multiple program use or CPU heavy programs.
Hope this link helps. Shows you how to do everything step by step. You should get a least 60-120% more resources and speed
if you follow the tips.

Answer 3

See, if looked at a broader perspective, Windows XP requires atleast:
512MB ram min
1GB med
2GB Recommend.
why i am stating 2GB because even with 1 GB you might have lots of applications running simultaneously(press Ctrl+Alt+Del to view the task manager to see the amount of apps running)

Alternatively the solution of your computer problems could change it. If you change the processor speed, but in your case, where you have only single core CPU, you need to have at least a dual-core CPU(eases the pressure for the cores, increases computational power)

A celeron 2ghz is no way near in comparison of performance and application handling then the Dual core or Core 2 Duo(one and the same just name changed when they reached boredom of naming "dual core") at 2ghz.

Also the antivirus can be of great help if there are internet hackers trying to eat away your system. Norton good choice, Mcafee even better, Antivirus+firewall unbeatable(only good companies)

Answer 4

1) Check for spyware. Run Skybot ( http://www.safer-networking.org ) to remove any spyware. Then go to microsoft.com and download Defender to protect against future infections.

2) Check that you have a least 10% of your hard drive free. Go to My Computer and right click on the Local Drive (C:). Look at the properties. If it has less that 10% free space, you will need to delete some files, or move them off the hard drive and on to a CD or DVD. Start by running the disk cleanup, which will remove temporary and other unneeded files. Go to Start, then All Programs, Accessories, then System Tools and click the Disk Cleanup icon.

3) Run the msconfig utility. Go to Start, then Run and type in: msconfig
Go to the startup tab
You will see a list of all the programs that are loaded when your computer starts up. Uncheck any that you do not have to have. (Usually you can uncheck them all). If you decide you to need one, you can go back and recheck it.

4) Defrag the hard drive. Go into My Computer and right click on the Local Drive (C:). Select Properties and go into the Tools tab. Click the Defragment Now button to start the defrag program. If you have not defrag recently (or never) it may take several hours for the program to complete.

5.) If you do not already have a virus program, download and run AVG virus scanner from http://free.grisoft.com for free

Answer 5

The biggest reason your computer is slow is that it is a slow computer.

An Intel Celeron processor is the slowest chipset Intel made in the last generation of chips. If I had to bet, I would say that your chip is at least 4-5 years outdated. You should either upgrade your Motherboard and Chipset, or buy a new PC.

Answer 6

Speed of the PC depends on many factors. Its true that RAM is very important and the more the programs, you need more memory if you want it to run fast. Equally significant is the HDD health. Make sure you have a very light startup list, that the HDD is free from speed retarding diseases like fragmentation which can cause slowdowns and lags. Ensure that no malware or viruses are present by having efficient programs like Spybot. Adware and AVG, run scans regularly. Its also important to ensure the PC is free from dust, heat issues etc.

Answer 7

Your old computer was more than likely running Windows XP.

Your new computer is running Vista.

Vista is 10 times slower than XP.

You can go in a diable all the bells and whistles and it will run a little faster.

Go to your control panel. Then click on system. Then click advanced system settings.

Then click the advanced tab. Under Performance click settings. Change the check box to Adjust for Best Performance. Then click apply.

Then in start menu search for msconfig. Click on the startup tab and disable all.

That will make your pc a bit faster.

You can also disable auto updates, systen restore, screen saver, and active desktop to get some more speed.

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.speed-up-your-pc.com/
You can download and scan your computer for free.

Answer 9

Dewcoons and Jabberin have just about everything wrapped up for you.

I have used Celerons in the past and will never buy one. Slower than molasses.

I was on a 2.4GHz (approx) Celeron with a gig of RAM, and my AMD Athlon 1.7GHz with 512 RAM *wayyyyy* outperformed it.

Answer 10

Click my computer, then on drive C right click, then in the pop up window look for the properties at the bottom of it, It will open then click DISK CLEANUP, then let it clean the disk, follow instruction for cleaning, After done you will get lot of disk space free of unnecessary file, and speed of your computer will increase, and also run Ccleaner on your computer, it is available free from filehippo.com