Need Tips to speed up computer???

DUBISAK

Hi,

My computer which is approx 5-6 years old is extremly slow, especially when starting up which can take 5mins or so before it stops making crackling sound and is responsive to an acceptable level.

It is a Dell computer, not sure the model, pentium 4 processer.

Aswell as being slow to open programs, operate programs,have more than 1 program open and search the net it stops intermittly for a "rest".

It is also slow shutting down.

The hardisk has a capicity of 140GB, with appprox 125GB unused, so I do not have alot of stuff on the computer, or ever had a lot onit.

It runs on Windows XP.

Any advise would be much appreciated as I can not afford to invest in a new machine.

cpu-dude

Start Menu - Run - Type "msconfig" - Press OK - Click the tab "Startup" - Click "Disable All" - Apply - Close - Restart.

Your welcome :P

Unregistered.

Errrr, why disable all exactly?

Tallon

thats a bad idea, you will need some of them

Run Ccleaner
and Spybot

cpu-dude

Not a bad idea, it elliminates why might possibly be slowing down the compute with an always option undo button "Enable All".

Tallon

cpu-dude wrote: »

Not a bad idea, it elliminates why might possibly be slowing down the compute with an always option undo button "Enable All".

You didnt tell the OP that

cpu-dude

Tallon wrote: »

You didnt tell the OP that

I did not Apologies.

Voodu Child

I would go with a clean install and start fresh.

Back up your files (music, documents etc) and then wipe the slate clean.

Your hard-drive is probably not the best (old, slow, probably with some bad sectors), so if you could upgrade that for not much €, it would be worthwhile. Also, if it's 6 years old, you might not have a lot of ram, it would certainly help to look at that and see if it needs upgrading.

Put on a lightweight AV suite (Avast! is good enough) and whatever else you need, keeping crapware to a minimum. Don't let too much stuff find its way onto the startup list (you can use Ccleaner to monitor this pretty easily, or the add/remove programs in Windows).

Tallon

voodoo_child wrote: »

I would go with a clean install and start fresh.

...as a last resort of course

cpu-dude

Tallon wrote: »

...as a last resort of course

Oh there is nothing like a fresh install on your once before quick computer, gives you a chance to start all over.

Voodu Child

Tallon wrote: »

...as a last resort of course

Not for me :pac: If I was troubleshooting an old system, with a 6-year old install that could be riddled with malware for all I know, i'd usually go with a clean install, quicker in the long run

But for sure, ymmv

Anti

In all honesty, it would be quicker and less stressfull to just buy a new cheap pc from dell or the likes. Or just go for a fresh new install of windows and all your programs, obviously remember to back up anything you need to keep to a usb key or such.

ShakyJ

There is a number of things you can try.
One thing that should deffo help with increasing the performance of your pc is Upgrade the RAM. How much RAM are you currently running. Windows Xp can take a max of 4GB ram.

These sites are good for making little tweaks to XP to help performance also: http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/supertweaks.htm
http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html

As the guys have previously said use CCleaner to clean things out on a regular basis. also make sure you defrag your pc. There is a tool in windows for this but there is a number of other apps that you can get that will run this process faster. Executive Software's Diskeeper is a good one that I have used but there is a number on the market.

Hope this helps
J

Tallon

Anti wrote: »

In all honesty, it would be quicker and less stressfull to just buy a new cheap pc from dell or the likes.

lol, this is true

ShakyJ

Install Ubuntu Linux. Much faster than window!

Gadgetman496

Before you do anything you should run a chkdsk first.

I'm suggesting this because of your comment about it being extremely slow on startup & shutdown.

Try it by doing the following,

Start
Run
CMD
Change to you c:\ prompt

type:

chkdsk /f

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