Community Newsletter: Q&A: In plain English, how do I speed up a slow computer?
- 8/15/08 9:58 AM
speeding up the computer
by ppsm - 8/8/08 7:20 PM In reply to: General Cleanup by waytroni have done all this. none of it worked. still slow as tar.
speeding up pc.
by grant grider - 8/8/08 7:49 PM In reply to: speeding up the computer by ppsmHello,there have been lots of good advice given.But,if you are a novice,my advice would be to back up your data(which means make a copy of).If you have your motherboard driver disk,then fine.But if not,get your motherboard manual out.Go to that site and download all mother board drivers.If,you dont have the manual.I would suggest downloading Sandra.Scan the machine with Sandrs.It will give you make or serial number of your machine.Then download the motherboard drivers.Note,you asked,or said you did not know,a driver is a little piece of software that makes your hardware( equipment work ).Once you have all that,I would re-install Windows.Then install mother board drivers.Then immediately go to cnet downloads and download and install Pc starter kit I believe it is.Download and update.Then re-install my backed up material.Note,make a note of your home page address,and e-mail address info(if you are useing outlook ) for mail.I am sure I left something out.And,I am sure others will be happy to tell me what I left out.But,I think< atotal re-install of your operaing system would be best
Speeding up your PC
by afouche - 9/8/08 1:20 AM In reply to: speeding up pc. by grant griderMessage for Grant Grider - Grant , you posted a reply to the above and mentioned downloading SANDRA. I found SANDRA.SYS. Is this the one that you referred to ? ( I am also in the process of trying to clean up my computer) Many thanks. Andre
Still Slow as Tar
by waytron - 8/9/08 4:43 AM In reply to: speeding up the computer by ppsmExactly my point. The number of possible reasons your computer is still slow are endless. What I outlined may help a large majority of computers, but certainly not all. You obviously have one of the many, many other problems.
one thing i noticed is....
by sonymaster101 - 8/10/08 1:55 PM In reply to: Still Slow as Tar by waytronnowhere does anyone mention the technique of uninstalling unused apps. this can amazingly speed up a computer, do to the fact that there is less data on the hard disk and it trims the registry. And, despite what people say, i would use both a registry cleaner and a registry defragmentor. the registry cleaner basically goes in and deletes registry entries that are invalid, or in other words don't refer to anything, and to a certain extent can make the registry hive smaller. then the defragmentor goes in and u guessed it defragments the registry hive and helps to improve access times to the registry, just like it does on the whole hard disk. hope that helps.
I would still beware of registry cleaners.
by BigGuns149 - 8/10/08 11:38 PM In reply to: one thing i noticed is.... by sonymaster101Back in the Windows 98 days I saw performance benefits out of compacting the registry using the included command line utility, but in actual practice I haven't seen any performance benefits that are easily defined with registry cleaners/compactors for XP or Vista.
Between many registry cleaners being overpriced shareware and many creating more issues than it solves by accidentally removing entries that it shouldn't and I have a hard time recommending registry cleaners for most modern versions of Windows.
i never had a problem,
by sonymaster101 - 8/11/08 10:58 PM In reply to: I would still beware of registry cleaners. by BigGuns149and have seen them to work even if the gains are small. baby steps though right?
Slow running computer
by cedbenson - 9/6/08 3:56 AM In reply to: one thing i noticed is.... by sonymaster101I agree with the guy above. When I find my computer hangin' a lot and acting slow and unresponsive I use a free Utility called Glary Utilities (free on the internet). It has a lot of neat options with it including a registry optimizer. If this don't work, it could be a number of other things.
One thing I've realized is when on the Internet, a lot of times it's the crowdedness of the network system and I'll just come back later when it's less hectic.
Speeding up a slow PC
by ericgeis - 8/11/08 7:14 AM In reply to: Still Slow as Tar by waytronNo one mentioned adding more memory. I agree that adwquate hard drive space is most important, more memory can have a remarkable effect with small cost and almost zero risk.
Added to that, the desktop should be kept clear of large files and directories of large files. I always use shortcuts to those files and directories.
Insuffucient memory.. No comment
by frescar_11 - 8/12/08 11:07 PM In reply to: Speeding up a slow PC by ericgeisWe should remember that one of the main problem of PC speed is the quality of Unit that you have associated with viruses contamination and other particular effect created by more on instaling using a lot of software to run computer programs that we need and therefore with out knowing that more remnants has been created the same with network browsing. The availability of RAM and Hardware quality is convencing one.. but by knowing all about the viruses, remnants, addawares and an-necessary files. Eliminating the aforementioned is one of the best idea to Speed it Up computer and second one operating system of the computer should not be affected by using additional hardisk in saving any private or personal files . does all this thing now is my setup. Well satisfied with my cmputers speed looks like new computer in action... TRY IT FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO SPEED IT UP!
1. Try to use "SPEED IT UP" freeware version with "PC Checkup" that surprisely solve my problem regarding computer speed. SEED IT UP my computer by windows optimization, Ram booster, Internet clean up, Hard disk speed it up and make depragmintation faster.
2. By using PC Check Up simply determine and remove a lot of remnants and an unnecessary file that makes your computer slow and does making it faster ever.
3. To ensure of computer to non blue screen, I used Free Ram Optimizer XP freeware version as backup of SPEED IT UP.
Note: When 85% Hard Disc load still affect and slow down computer speed. This idea solved the problem. “New Computer Set Up”
1. Provide (1) one Hard Disc 40Gb above for Windows installation and of other programs needed in your computer
2.Provide also (1) one separate Hard Disc for your private files and what ever document you want to save. Never used the main drive in keeping private files, let it only for WINDOWS and of other program needed.
Enjoy .... Thanks to CNET.COM
When All Else Fails
by retiredat532002 - 8/9/08 9:05 PM In reply to: speeding up the computer by ppsmIf you have taken all the steps suggested in these posts and none of it helped, do as I do once a year, pull out your recovery discs that came with your computer and DO A FULL SYTEM RECOVERY. After I do a full system restore, its absolutely amazing how much faster my computer runs. Over time, your machine just gets absolutely bogged down with all the infomation put into it, downloads, favorites, software, etc. Just clean it completely down to the way it was when you first purchased it, and start afresh. Its a breath of fresh air, both for your machine any you as well. You will be busy for several hours downloading a few important things that you need to make it perform effectively, but when you go back to using it again, it will be like, bam, bam !!!!!! You may have to toss a lot of the nonsense that you accumulate over time, but like I say, its a fresh start for both of you. All the other stuff, deleting cookies, temp. files, defragmenting, virus scans, adware, spyware, etc. etc. will all generally help, but most will be quite neglegible and unnoticeable. When you do full restore, you won't help but visibly notice the increased speed and response. Its huge ! But for most people, its also a huge step. Most people don't want to give up their little pet data, websites, downloads, etc. That is a decision you yourself,and only you can make. How badly do you want to increase your computer speed? Thats the bottom line.
Some tips to speeding up your computer
by debritum - 8/10/08 3:02 AM In reply to: speeding up the computer by ppsmFirst thing u got to do is clear up some unwanted starup programs which sometimes consume a lot of memory. Follow the instructions :
1. Click on the Start menu and click the Run command.. Then type in msconfig and click enter.
2. Go to the startup tab.
3. See if there are too many starup items present. If so, then uncheck some items (but not antivirus or antispyware programs of any program with the command C:\windows).
3. Then click OK and then restart the system to continue.
Next what you could do is uninstall some unwanted programs from Control Panel to free up some disk space.
Please check for ram space. Press Alt-Ctrl-Del and then see under the Performance tab whether the PF usage is much greater than the ram space of your disk. If this happens to be the case then you need to have a ram of some higher capacity, for eg. if your ram space is 256 MB then you have to upgrade to a 512 MB ram.
Also defragment the drives regularly. If the problems still persist then the best remedy would be to format the system drive and reinstally Windows or Linux...
Hope these tips would help you...
Excellent Advice
by djcobp - 8/8/08 9:19 PM In reply to: General Cleanup by waytronI couldn't have said it better myself. This was excellent advice. Along with that understand a couple of things that will slow down your computer. He is absolutely correct in saying when you C (main) drive is over 75% full, it slows down quit a bit. Once you delete stuff you no longer use, do a defrag, like he mentioned.
The other thing that really slows down the computer is your anti-virus software. Not a DARN thing you can do about that, it's a necessary evil. Without viruscan you computer would be dust.
Check to see if it's worth it to upgrade or add more Memory. If you are running under 1 gig of memory, it will definately be slower. If you have 256k for instance, it's going to be much slower than a computer that has 4 Times that with 1 gig.
There are two programs i run at least once a month that seem to help, they are both free. One is Spybot Search & Destroy from Safer Networking ...here is the url link, just double click on this and it should take you to the download page http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html , the second thing is Ad Aware from Lavasoft here is the link http://www.download.com/3001-8022_4-10844457.html?spi=8c4a07175d5ce62159d7546b9da3582f&part=dl-ad-aware&idl=n If you'd rather search for it yourself, I don't blame you, just make sure the url underneath says www.safer-networking.org and www.lavasoft.com. I think Lavasoft directs to a mirror site, which is fine.
And like a couple people said, make sure you only have one viruscan loaded, and one firewall on.
Good Luck To Ya! 
Waytron Post
by Walter Healy - 8/8/08 9:35 PM In reply to: General Cleanup by waytronClear. Concise. Complete. Excellent! I see why Lee listed this first. Way to go, Dana.
Walter Healy, NYC
slow computer
by joeb45 - 8/9/08 4:49 AM In reply to: General Cleanup by waytronthanks, dana.
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