Running Slow

[Irish2284]

Alright, so I have what is a common question but think I have cleared the usual answers so please give it a full read.

My girlfriend just got a Dell Dimension 3000 Celeron D desktop about 2 months ago. It has in the past 3 weeks been running very very slow. It will take a solid 3-4 minutes simply to open netscape. I have no idea why this would happen.

Celeron D processor
512 MB of RAM at 400 MHz
80 GB 7200 RPM HD (that is about 1/2 full)

She has uninstalled a lot of the "crap" she put on when she first got it, and has cleared her history and temp. internet files.

I thought it was her RAM but 512MB seems like it would be fine considering mine runs perfectly fine on the same amount and I have twice as much stuff on my computer, not to mention it is 3 years older.

Is there something I am missing? I am wondering if anyone knows a simple things I might be over looking before sitting on hold with Dell for an hour.

 

[ChuNalt787]

Since it is new u mite just wanna restore it to an early point. Put whatever u need on a disk then do it. Other than that idk.

 

[Natalya1]

this happened to me one time. i asked my mate about it and he told me to do the following and it worked.

1.click start-->run
2.type: "msconfig"
3.System configuration utility should open up
4. at the top of this box there should be a few tabs.
5.click the startup tab
you now see a list of everything that starts up when your computer is turned on.
6. at the bottom of this there is a button that says disable all. click that. then apply-->close.
7. restart the computer and it should be ok.

i hope this helps cause as i said one time i had this exact problem and it was driving me insane. so i did that and it worked. goodluck

natalya

 

[mammikoura]

this happened to me one time. i asked my mate about it and he told me to do the following and it worked.

1.click start-->run
2.type: "msconfig"
3.System configuration utility should open up
4. at the top of this box there should be a few tabs.
5.click the startup tab
you now see a list of everything that starts up when your computer is turned on.
6. at the bottom of this there is a button that says disable all. click that. then apply-->close.
7. restart the computer and it should be ok.

i hope this helps cause as i said one time i had this exact problem and it was driving me insane. so i did that and it worked. goodluck

natalya

oh NO NO NO NO!

U shouldn't choose disable everything! Since then it there is lot's of stuff that won't load up, like stuff for ur vid card and ur anti-virus programs etc. This is a good way to speed up the computer though, just google for all of these processes and disable the ones u don't need.

 

[Natalya1]

oops ok then, my bad

just like daemon said, dont disable everything and goodluck with speeding the pc up!

 

[simple1]

hi,
irish
my suggestion is "if your OS is winXP then right click the my computer ,go to advanced tab and go to settings and tick for ADJUST FOR BEST PERFORMANCE "

 

[acphenom]

Go to Start > Run, type in C:\WINDOWS\system32\chkdsk and press Enter.

This will check your disk for errors. If any come up, then it should ask you to fix them at next reboot, i think, although i can't really remember, as i rarely get disk errors.

Anyway, after any errors you found have been fixed, defragment your PC with Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.

It's best to run this in Safe Mode or with all programs closed. You could install a trial version of DiskKeeper, which can run in the background while you use the PC though, if you prefer.

After you've finished defragmenting, your PC should run faster. If not, try checking your background programs. If any are running that you don't need e.g. QuickTime Tray Icon, Windows Messenger etc. then disable them (look in the program preferences). This will free up RAM and should help to boost performance further.

Also scan with an up-to-date anti-virus program and a few antispyware programs. Spyware can really slow down your machine.

 

[Irish2284]

Go to Start > Run, type in C:\WINDOWS\system32\chkdsk and press Enter.

This will check your disk for errors. If any come up, then it should ask you to fix them at next reboot, i think, although i can't really remember, as i rarely get disk errors.

I did this on my computer and have since had a lot of issues with my router dropping its connection and my browser has been taking forever to load pages, etc. Would doing that have effected any of these applications?


ps Do you know any good problems for deleting cookies, temp internet files, etc. I had a trial version of one but was looking for a freeware program.

 

[acphenom]

Absolutely not. Chkdsk simply scans your hard disk for any errors which may cause system instability and fixes them.

CrapCleaner is good at cleaning...well, crap, but check the things you tick before you clean out the crap.

Defragment your hard drive, scan with anti-viruses, antispyware programs, and you should get a fix.

If you don't, I would backup files I need, format, and re-install Windows. If you choose this way, I suggest you have 2 NTFS partitions; one for Windows, and one for personal files, so if you have another problem, you can format just the Windows partition, and leave your files untouched.