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Community Newsletter: Q&A: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer?
- 8/15/08 9:58 AM
speed and slow computer
by addictfree - 8/5/08 7:17 AM In reply to: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
When I read this question last week I looked into Cnet forum and found a suggestion to download CCleaner so I did and it is on my computer now. I have a pent 4 Dell computer and the program on it is XP. I have had it for a couple of years now and at times it has really slowed down even though I have fast cable. I have sped it up before by just turning it on and off. I have scaned it and that has worked. Friday I downloaded CCleaner which is easy to follow and download and once again my computer is running FAST and Smooth. THanks Cnet and I hope this has helped anyone with a slow computer.Gail if you look up CCleaner it gives you a step by step what to do. I followed it and I am not computer savy although I am catching on with help.
ABC's of increasing computer speed
by OfficeTux - 8/5/08 4:54 PM In reply to: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Gail,
When you first obtained WinXP, it was designed to run quite nicely on a PC with about 512MB of RAM and a processor clock speed of about 800Mhz. With all of the Microsoft security updates, those hardware configurations are no longer true.
I recommend that my clients have a PC with a clock rate of at least 1Ghz or higher, and at least 1GB of RAM. If you already have such a hardware configuration, and are still experiencing sluggish response, then do the following actions, at least once per 50 hours of PC running time, AND immediately after any software update from Microsoft or any other vendor who supplies regular software updates:
1. Run the built-in disk cleaner (Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Cleanup
2. Run CCleaner (freeware - try download.com) or an equivalent Registry Cleaner
3. Run the built-in disk defragmentation program (Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter
Another potential source of sluggishness is a computer virus or worm. Make sure you have a good antivirus and firewall program installed on your PC, and keep them both regularly updated. Do NOT depend on the Microsoft built-in firewall! A good free firewall can be obtained from ZoneAlarm.com, or you can spend the money for a system like Norton or MacAfee.
Good luck.
Answer for Gail--Need easy instructions to speed up my compu
by Seffner - 8/5/08 6:08 PM In reply to: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Gail,
The answer for someone as tech naive as yourself is simple, take your computer to a professional and let them analyze, trouble shoot, repair and update your software and drivers. You are just asking for trouble trying to understand and accomplish the task yourself. I am not trying to be flip, just speaking from experience having tried to explain the process to others such as yourself. You will be much happier with the end result. Good luck!
To ANSWER THE QUESTON
by diagos - 8/6/08 2:14 AM In reply to: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
1.Check your memory content if it is small in quantity or size,then you must increase the memory.
2.Some anti-virus slow down speed of computers.so you have ask and use an anti-virus that will not slow down the computer.
3.Never make your hard drive full up to the brim.
4.Do not install softwares that slow down computers.
5.Never give too much commands to the computer at the same time.
By doing all these or following the steps, i think it will not slow down the computer but increase the speed.
What You're Asking is not Easy
by High Desert Charlie - 8/6/08 12:46 PM In reply to: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Gail,
This response is probably buried in the list of other responses so, by your request, I'll make this as easy as possible.
We have to assume that your computer was fast to begin with.
1. Using the MSCONFIG command, Delete unnecessary programs that start up when you start your computer. If you don't know how to do this, it's not EASY.
2. Eliminate any other routines running in the background that you don't need using hijackthis. If you don't know how to do this than it's not EASY.
3. Make sure you've eliminated all adware, malware, spyware, viruses, and browser hijackers using both virus and spyware software. If you don't know how to do this, than it's not EASY.
4. Clean up all of the bogus entries in your Windows XP Registry and eliminate any broken shortcuts. If you don't know how to do this than it's NOT EASY.
5. Make sure you have all of the most up to date Windows Updates (You obviously do not). This one is really simple, but if you don't know how then ITS NOT EASY.
6. Once you've accomplished all of the above, you can defragment your hard drive (in the safe mode).
Ok Gail, I'm sure you get the point. As a guy who does this work every day I can tell you this for sure. No two computers are completely alike. What works well on one computer may have no effect at all on another. Tuning up your computer is mostly a matter of sweeping away the junk you've created since you first started it. There are a variety of programs out there that will assist you with this, buy I've never seen any one piece of software that can effectively do all of these tasks.
One popular way to bring back the original vigor of your computer is to back up all of your important data, and completely reformat and reinstall your Windows XP Operating system. Make sure you back up your drivers (there is software available to do this), because you're going to need to reinstall your drivers after reinstalling windows. You will also need to reinstall all of the Windows Updates after you reinstall the operating system. I'm sorry to say that this isn't easy either.
If any of you come across that magic list of commands that bring a computer back to it's original vim and vigor, please get it on the market. You'll make billions.
Good luck Gail.
Speed Up Your Computer
by Tusi Rao - 8/6/08 2:08 PM In reply to: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
1. Remove unnecessary files and programs.
Click START, select RUN, type TEMP, click OK.
delete all the files. In case some files do not delete, try to remove them from safe mode. Also remove files from %TEMP% and PREFETCH.
Uninstall\remove programs that you do not utilize any more from Add or Remove Programs(Click START, select RUN, type APPWIZ.CPL, click OK)
2.Perform full system scan. You may try www.safety.live.com or any other online scanner.
3.Check if there is enough spsce on hard drive. You may have to increase the RAM.
4. Check in safe mode(Restart computer tapping F8 to open Windows Advanced Options. Then using up and down arrow keys select safemode, press enter.) If performance increases, some service or device driver which is enabled in normal mode is causing the computer to run slow.
5. Try to detect the conflicting program by cleanboot(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/en-us)
Hope this helps...
Reformat the computer
by tonylnk - 8/7/08 5:17 AM In reply to: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Just reformat, it will clean out the unnecessary stuff. Increase performance by increasing virtual memory.
Go to My computer==> right click and go to properties
==> go to systems and then performance==> select the size of virtual memory to something like 3000mb. You'll find that it helps as well.
formating is not always the solution
by mohamed_e56 - 8/7/08 10:24 AM In reply to: Reformat the computer by tonylnkthere are many ways to clean up the files that formating do plus formating will make him reinstall all the files and programs and every other things he had and i had in my other post what to do to speed up the computer and i tried by my self on my pc and it worked and it became very fast and it is intel cereon 2.8 GThz 256 kb cash and 512 mb ram and 128 bulit in graphic card and 80 gb hard and windows xp pro sp2 and worked and thank you
Mohamed Dergham
reformatting isn't always needed, but often it is faster
by BigGuns149 - 8/10/08 11:17 PM In reply to: formating is not always the solution by mohamed_e56While I will agree that you don't always have to reinstall Windows to make it faster there are some programs that don't always uninstall properly and hence leave orphan files and orphan registry entries.
In many cases after a spyware infection it takes less time to reinstall Windows than it does to fully remove all the different forms of spyware. Merely because you removed 100+ pieces of spyware doesn't mean that you got all of them. Reinstalling from a trusted source is about the only way you can be sure that you eliminated questionable software.
Furthermore, you don't need to format the drive to reinstall. I am not too sure why people constantly make that mistake. You would still obviously need to reinstall programs, but any user data would remain on the drive.
Drivers & Others
by ratcnet - 8/7/08 5:28 AM In reply to: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Assuming u have turned on the computer and u use Windows
--If you don't know what a computer is, go to the Sun!
--If you do not know Windows, well, perhaps u are using Open Source, ok
--If you don't know what click is, go to Mars!
1. click this link
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
2. Click on
Download Belarc Advisor
3. Click on Save to save Advisor.exe in your computer.
4. Open/Run the file advisor.exe
5. From there u will get a html (web page) giving you details as to
what drivers you need, as well as what your computer contains (the
parts of your computer hardware)
6. So now you see what your computer is composed of: like a printer perhaps or a video card or ... these parts of your computer all need drivers so they can be used by you. (joke--Meaning if you can get better drivers for these parts, you can now go drive some advanced space shuttle and live in Mars -- end of joke). These drivers are programs/software that makes your hardware useful.
Now Be Nice! You were new once too!!
by lockerridge - 8/8/08 11:15 PM In reply to: Drivers & Others by ratcnetFirst thing and most major thing you probably need is to update to XP Service Pack 3.. it worked wonders for my computer! I will try to help you.. 3 years ago I did not know how to turn a computer on, never been in a classroom, and I have my own website now :O)
I have a Dell E310 Dimension desktop with Windows XP SP 3.
I have 512MB RandomAccessMemory (RAM). I have 144GB's of Hard Drive Memory.
See you have two separte kinds of memory. RAM is the memory your computer uses to run the software you use.. like some games have to have at least 256 RAM to work on your computer.. some more.. some less. This memory will make the game run slow or freeze up if there is not enough of it. The other kind of memory is the space inside your computer you have to store the game itself. If you have only a very small amount of space left in this kind of memory.. it is like when you are in a closet with the door shut, you can't move around freely and it slows you down bumping into stuff.
Go to this Microsoft link and it will give you detailed and simple instructions on keeping your computer running great.. it really does work..
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/improveperf.mspx
This will free up any memory you can manage to free up with your system. Then after you do all that stuff.. go back to Microsoft and click to update your computer. It will make you Validate that your Windows is registered and not a pirated one and then it will scan your computer and give you a list of updates for you choose from .. or .. most probably it will tell you to download SP 3.. I was skeptical of this update because of stuff I had read on the net.. but I went ahead and WOW it took a long time to install.. but made lots of difference in my computer speed.
I could tell you lots of other things.. but this is not the place to do that.. I am gona do something stupid now.. I am gona leave my email address for you and if I have helped and you could understand me easy enough.. feel free to ask for more from me and if I can provide it.. I will.. that is how I learned.. from other folks who talked plain english and not computerlish.. lol
lockerridge@yahoo.com
Speeding up a slow system
by fab222 - 8/7/08 9:18 AM In reply to: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The integral part of a computer that speeds up the processing speed of a computer, is the RAM, increase your RAM size to aid the processing speed(eg.add Extra 512 MB), Use defragmenting software to arrange files on your hard disk drive, this increases the readability of your files, there by increasing the Overal or net speed of your computer( i suggest you should use System Mechanics Professional for your system defragmentation) You would have state the specification of your system. thanks
Agreed.
by BigGuns149 - 8/10/08 11:28 PM In reply to: Speeding up a slow system by fab222Depending upon when she purchased the machine the machine may be able benefit from additional RAM. A lot of people seem to be over estimate how much you can do to improve performance of a computer without changing any of the hardware.
While I wouldn't suggest someone to go overboard, RAM has became so inexpensive that you have to be pretty cheap not to have at least 1GB on an XP machine and 2GB on a Vista machine. A lot of people ignore the system memory lost due to shared video memory.
The only two reasons I think that a lot of people avoid hardware upgrades are because they overestimate the difficulty of said upgrade or they overestimate the cost of the hardware. For low end computers less than $50 of RAM can make a big difference in responsiveness.
Speed up PC
by junwin - 8/7/08 2:42 PM In reply to: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Gail - I reckon my PC (which I built myself about four years ago) is as fast as the day I built it. I regularly use various cleaners and they seem to do a wonderful job. Some of them are registry cleaners. Others are of a more general type. My suggestion is that you Google "free registry cleaners" and see what comes up. Try them out. You will not do any harm to your PC. See if they make a difference - and if they do, stick with them - John.
SLOW COMPUTER OR FROZEN COMPUTER
by dubcityman - 8/8/08 7:26 PM In reply to: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Gail,
Ihad trouble with my wifes computer,called Dell told them what I had
they checked everything.And finally came up with CCLEANER WHAT A
difference in speed & not freezing up.Go to ccleaner.com follow
the promps.Use it once a month.
Thanks
Tom
dubcityman@verizon.net
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