What would you do first?

[rik]

My family including me have noticed the decreasing speed of the computer.

I clean the computer alot with ccleaner and any other tools I can find.

I regularly scan for malware using Panda Antivirus regularly.

My computer is very slow at startup and shutdown and any other tasks it does.

I have been told RAM would greatly increase my system performance as I only have 256mb of it however I think my processor does not look too good. My system info is below.

I do not want to spend lots of cash on it though.

Operating System: Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2
System Manufacturer: ECS
System Model: M848A
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1500+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.4GHz
Memory: 256MB DDR-SDRAM PC2700
Graphics: 128mb Nvidia Geforce MX4000
Thanks!

 

[morgster]

Upgrade your socket A processor, its easy, check on ebay for socket A processors. And add a stick of 512mb pc3200, it will slow down to pc2700 speeds automatically.

 

[rik]

So I need to buy a new socket A processor before I upgrade any RAM.

 

[Tjukken]

well is it posibel to gett spcket A prossesor anymore?'I have given up on that.

anywhy is the pc slower than it was?
Perhaps c drive is to full or heavy defragmented.

memory upgrade is needed. think 512 is minimum.

When it comes too furter upgrade i wud change the mobo to 939. realy not that xpensive. and then buy a amd64 athlon 3700 realy not xpensive this either.
and ill bet that if u find a socket a cpu it most likly costs more than a amd64... Atleast here in Norway..

 

[rik]

Thanks morgster and Tjukken,

I will buy more RAM then and look into a new processor.

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

yeah, your first step is ram. you hardly have enough to run XP, so when you open a program, it's going to move slow. Socket A processors aren't in production anymore, except for some mobile processors I think, but e-bay is your friend in this area. You can get a 2200+ or something around there for a reasonable price. You'll be good to go again after you get that stuff done!

Ryan