Old, Slow Desktop PC

Kent Brockman

I have an old desktop pc which seems to be getting slower by the day. Hangs, crashes, not responding etc.
I don't use it very much as I have a laptop but its still handy to have and its connected to a printer.

Its DELL with Windows xp 2002, Service pack 3
Intel pentium 4 CPU 2.80 Ghz, 512MB RAM

I ran two different anti-virus scans (which took 3 hrs each)-NO VIRUS Found & then ran a chk-dsk thingy (to use the technical term:D ) also with no issues.

Any tips or suggestions to speed it up or is it for the scrap-heap?

200motels

Try and reinstall the O/S.

ftlnn

if it is a case of you wanting to keep it going as long as possible...

backup all of the relevant data required and have all of the software at hand to reinstall
upgrade the amount of ram to what you can afford or see worthwhile
format the hard drive
reinstall the operating system

make sure you have the reinstallation cd(s) with the operating system and all relevant drivers. Sometimes there will be a recovery option on the HD but unlikely on that system I guess.

be sure that you are getting the right ram and the right configuration for that pc.

it's a very simple process have confidence in yourself.

-( i )- Wicker

You shouldn't have more than one anti-virus installed on your system, it can slow things to a crawl

riclad

put in another 1gig ram, make sure theres at least 5gig free hd space.GO to control panel,admin,services ,switch off services that you dont need.
see http://www.crucial.com/eu/?gclid=CLuFpIyMmbICFcOL4QodpDwAAg&cpe=pd_google_ie&ef_id=dX9QPxKHWgkAAFVm:20120903092753:s
winxp really needs 1gig ram minimum,memory is cheap.
or google dell model no memory upgrade,
model no is on a label on the pc.
i my experience winxp needs reinstalling after 2 years. backup up all drivers to a cdr or usb drive first,
use drivermax ,its free .

RangeR

+1 on crucial.com/eu. Run the auto scanner and buy some memory. 1GB minimum. 2 to 3GB would rocket that speed.
I've given a new lease of life to many machines at home and in the office, simply by a cheap bump in RAM.

ftlnn

what model of Dell is it?

yoyo

If your machine supports a 2gb memory upgrade I'd reccomend going to 2gb. Even XP will run dog slow these days on just a gig (as software has been getting more and more bloated since 10+ years ago!). I was fixing a computer with XP and only 512 RAM, it was dog slow. Put in 2gb and its flying again!

Nick

Torqay

riclad wrote: »

backup up all drivers to a cdr or usb drive first,
use drivermax ,its free .

Nonsense, those drivers are most certainly the ancient drivers that came with the original installation. Besides, if you really want to keep those drivers you wouldn't need any drivermax, Dell PCs from that era have a folder DRIVERS in the root directory of drive C:, now guess what you'll find in there.

However, you better go to the Dell support page and download the latest device drivers for your model.

danjo-xx

I increased the ram on an old packhard bell desktop from 512 to 1gb and she's flying now, could have gone to 2gb total but didn't want to spend much as its only a kinda backup for my lappy which is getting on now:D

riclad

ITS no harm to save drivers to a cd ,or external drive,
at some point ,the hardrive will stop working,
on winxp, ram is the most important factor, an old pc with 2gig could be faster than a new pc with 512meg ram.
2gig ram will give dramatic increase in speed, and reduce memory caching to hardrive,
with 512meg it,ll use part of hd for cacheing ,ie temporary ram ,make sure you get exact model ram ,right speed ,it,ll probably be ddr2 ,333 ,something like that ,
GET info using memory scanner.or look at ram, there maybe label giving info ,memory type,speed,

thesimpsons

I'm in a very similiar to the OPs situation but having searched high and low I can't find the original reinstallation or software CDs. I've decided to treat myself to a new PC. however, will an old screen and speakers which currently work with XP be ok with an i5 Core system or would they need upgrading.

Torqay

thesimpsons wrote: »

will an old screen and speakers which currently work with XP be ok with an i5 Core system or would they need upgrading.

It will be OK, but monitors are not that expensive, 24" selling from ~ 150 Euro.

riclad

Go here,http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/
if you have a dell pc,put in service tag.its on a pc case,label,
or search your model no ,support dell ,downloads drivers from google,
IF you have a dell pc, you can download,info,manual, drivers ,software
for your pc.
or here http://www.dell.ie/
click for home, support downloads drivers .
old screen and speakers will work,fine ,
if your os ,doesnt identify the specific monitor, ie sony monitor 450g you may want to download the monitor driver and install it,
IT ,ll work as a generic monitor ,even if no driver is installed.
if you are buying a pc unit, ask for motherboard drivers cdrom,
IF they have one , are you buying one with the os installed ,try to get windows 7 .IF you have a choice.

thesimpsons

tks. the original PC is a Dell - so am I right in understanding that I don't need the cds and that everything will be online for download? The monitor is only about 2 yrs old and its a Dell as well so I guess it'll `see' it ok.

if I go buy the new PC, is the motherboard drivers cds the installation discs?

yellowlabrador

I don't completely agree with the above, I've got a Dell Dim3000, with only 256 mb of ram and it's lightning fast for ordinary use and I use it to browse on the internet. My only issue is the 30g harddrive and the fact that I need to upgrade to process video but it's still doable. store all the stuff you want to keep from your harddrive and do a reinstall. I have also deleted all anti virus software and use chrome. I only download from safe sites and I know I'm running a risk but 6 months later and I'm still fine. I found that the antivirus software was becoming more and more pondersome with each update. I'm getting a new laptop next week and this old girl shall be used for office work and storage of photos and videos. Use crapcleaner to check the registers, it's invaluable, I run it after each update.

yoyo

thesimpsons wrote: »

tks. the original PC is a Dell - so am I right in understanding that I don't need the cds and that everything will be online for download? The monitor is only about 2 yrs old and its a Dell as well so I guess it'll `see' it ok.

if I go buy the new PC, is the motherboard drivers cds the installation discs?

Monitors are standard, take VGA, DVI etc. All monitors except some Apple ones I am aware of have at least a VGA port. VGA will work with any system, be it windows, mac, linux etc. Speakers likewise use a 3.5mm connector, same as headphones do.

yellowlabrador wrote: »

I don't completely agree with the above, I've got a Dell Dim3000, with only 256 mb of ram and it's lightning fast for ordinary use and I use it to browse on the internet. My only issue is the 30g harddrive and the fact that I need to upgrade to process video but it's still doable. store all the stuff you want to keep from your harddrive and do a reinstall. I have also deleted all anti virus software and use chrome. I only download from safe sites and I know I'm running a risk but 6 months later and I'm still fine. I found that the antivirus software was becoming more and more pondersome with each update. I'm getting a new laptop next week and this old girl shall be used for office work and storage of photos and videos. Use crapcleaner to check the registers, it's invaluable, I run it after each update.

...Using Windows 98? Seriously though fair play to have XP if that is the OS you use run smooth on 256mb RAM these days. Was out fixing a machine with 512mb, Windows xp and Chrome and it kept on running out of RAM and getting the virtaul Memory to kick in, so was very slow. This was even after removing the AV (Norton of course ). A RAM update sorted it though

Nick

riclad

if You put in another 500meg,or 1gig ram , it would run so much faster.i,d not advise anyone to run a pc without an antivirus ,its just too risky ,you can get memory ddr 1 or ddr2 on adverts ie.
1gig 20 euro or less on adverts.ie .
you could buy a larger ide type drive and set it up as a slave drive, move jumper to slave position on the drive ,keep the 30gig drive.As drive c;

RangeR

riclad wrote: »

if You put in another 500meg,or 1gig ram

A bit of me died inside

danjo-xx

RangeR wrote: »

A bit of me died inside

why