Old XP Dell Dimension running slow, can I improve it or should I upgrade?

HQvhs

Hi,

Some background info on the PC:

I have a roughly 4-5 year old Dell Dimension 4600 i've had for a number of years now.
Its got a 2.8Ghz Pentium 4 processor, 512mb of RAM and runs Windows XP Home Edition.
I've used McAfee Anti-Virus for the first 2 years and then switched to Norton.
The main browser used was IE 6 because the firewall kept resetting and blocking Firefox from accessing the internet.

It's really only used for PC games, internet and word processing etc. by the family; nothing too intensive.
But it's getting very slow, or maybe that's just me comparing it to the faster machines out now.

So I'm wondering is there anyway to make it run faster to get a few more years out of it without going and changing or upgrading parts or breaking the bank.

Thanks!

Ruu_Old

Put some more RAM into it, that'll give you a performance boost. Its cheap enough these days anyway. Try crucial.com/eu or shop4memory.com for prices.

Kimbot

Ram will be the best option to speed it up!!

HQvhs

Thanks, any idea how much that would be and how much should I get?
I would prefer an option that doesn't involve hardware or would that even be possiblie? such as cleaning up the hard-drive etc.

Redisle

I would recommend doing a disk cleanup and then a defrag.. see programs-accesories-system tools.
Also, Mcaffee and norton are generally system hogs, If you have a long licence Id leave it for now but if not you should consider getting rid of norton and using avg free instead - see here http://free.grisoft.com/, It takes far less system resources and is just as if not more effective.. and Its Free!!

Mr. Presentable

Double the RAM. Format the HDD. They're all fast when empty

DublinDilbert

Backup all data, format & Reinstall XP.... IMO it should be done on every PC every 2 years or so... you've no idea how many PCs are replaced every day, which just need this done...

Of course the computer hardware/software industry doesn't want us to do this, as they would stop selling so many PCs... :rolleyes:

Windows XP is 7 year old technology at this stage, it should run fine on that hardware...

Omnipresence

I totally agree...

Its worth going through the pain of re-installing fully... (after backing everything up of course) .. get some more ram 512 extra should not cost that much and together you will have a fast machine again...

DublinDilbert wrote:

Backup all data, format & Reinstall XP.... IMO it should be done on every PC every 2 years or so... you've no idea how many PCs are replaced every day, which just need this done...

Of course the computer hardware/software industry doesn't want us to do this, as they would stop selling so many PCs... :rolleyes:

Windows XP is 7 year old technology at this stage, it should run fine on that hardware...

bushy...

Get a cut down version of XP or cut it down yourself if you know what to kill off. One old pc here running it starts in maybe 20secs and shuts down in <5,

kippy

DublinDilbert wrote:

Backup all data, format & Reinstall XP.... IMO it should be done on every PC every 2 years or so... you've no idea how many PCs are replaced every day, which just need this done...

Of course the computer hardware/software industry doesn't want us to do this, as they would stop selling so many PCs... :rolleyes:

Windows XP is 7 year old technology at this stage, it should run fine on that hardware...

I fully agree with this, RAM is relatively cheap now as well and an extra 512 would bring a massiver boost to performance at low cost.
Kippy

mukki

start
run
type in msconfig and press ok
on the startup tab untick all items
on the services tab tick the hide M$ services box, and then untick all the reamaning services in the box above
reboot


install avg or avast free
check your xp firewall is on

kippy

What Mukki suggests is not a great idea unless you have pretty good knowledge of what you are doing.
Unticking everything in startup will stop all your antivirus/Firewall,various other apps that you MAY need from starting and disabling services you know nothing about is asking for further trouble down the line.
User profiles on the machine will at this stage be full of junk/temp files/badly installed/poorly uninstalled software-which what Mukki says MAY help it will not be the smartest option in your situation.
Kippy

mukki

kippy wrote:

What Mukki suggests is not a great idea unless you have pretty good knowledge of what you are doing.
Unticking everything in startup will stop all your antivirus/Firewall,various other apps that you MAY need from starting and disabling services you know nothing about is asking for further trouble down the line.
User profiles on the machine will at this stage be full of junk/temp files/badly installed/poorly uninstalled software-which what Mukki says MAY help it will not be the smartest option in your situation.
Kippy

but he got norton installed (maybe even some mcaffe reamins), the best way to speed up a pc is to make sure no norton or mcafee software run on it, and i mentioned to install avg or avast ( my post was edited before you posted, honest )


as for essential start up apps....okay if he is using a wifi card there is a slight chance that he might have to tell windows to control it instead of its own app, but other then that most start aps are useless. a freshly booted xp pc should have 21-22 running processess, anymore are just delaying boot time and eating up his 512mb


its a free way to get his pc flying again in about 5mins, and its a lot safer then a re-install

DannyBuoy

Definately dump Norton in favour of AVG, uninstall any unnecessary software and bump up the memory, look at getting 2x 512, eg here, should make a good difference.

Anti

Would you not consider a new pc. Dell do them very cheap these days.

Jonathan

nipplenuts wrote:

Double the RAM. Format the HDD. They're all fast when empty

QFT

dave_t

Put more RAM in. Maybe back up data and give it a rebuild to freshen it up. That's what i'd do anyway. Get NOD32 antivirus instead of those other two disasters

dulpit

mukki wrote:

start
run
type in msconfig and press ok
on the startup tab untick all items
on the services tab tick the hide M$ services box, and then untick all the reamaning services in the box above
reboot


install avg or avast free
check your xp firewall is on

I wouldn't do this, but what you could do is go through your startup items & remove whats not needed... Use this handy site: http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

I did that recently to computer at home, removed a lot of stoopid startup programs, also got rid of Norton & replaced it with Avast! and it's waaayyy faster now...

HQvhs

I think I'll add more RAM. I would replace Norton but then I'd lose the parental controls on it. Are there any free parental controls available?