Help! How do I deal with my slow computer?

[Leo Stone]

Hi all, I am not sure whether I am in the right place here or not.But I just want to know how to easily speed up my computer because it runs desperately slow. I am running windows Xp which is about two years old. Thanks so much!

[hazelnut]

It would help if you said what software you have installed, e.g which antivirus/malware programs you run, which if any software firewall you have.

 

Which browsers do you run?

 

When do you notice the slowdown most?

 

Does it boot/shutdown slow?

 

Has this just started recently?

[Andavari]

If it isn't malware related perhaps a good defrag with Windows Disk Defragmenter will help.

[Ishi]

That's the time when CCleaner comes into play but before you can use such a tool, you need to know what is causing your PC to slow down. Microsoft would suggest:

 

1. Disk Cleanup- go to My Computer, right click your drive, choose Properties, then press Disk Cleanup. Check all the checkboxes there and press OK. This will clean your hard drive of crap and unwanted data. I recommend you to do this first before disk defrag. Microsoft's own disk cleanup tool will take longer to complete, though. CCleaner seems to be the right tool for this but you gotta know what you are doing.

 

2. Disk Defragmentation- do this after you have done disk cleanup. Go to My Computer, right click your drive, choose Properties, and choose the Tools tab. Then you should see disk defragmentation and you will then have the option which of your drive partitions to defrag. This process will take a lot of time if you use Microsoft's own defrag tool. It will take a long time if you have a large hard drive but programs that can be downloaded from the Internet can make this process somehow faster. Piriform has Defraggler for this job.

 

3. Check system for errors. Go to My Computer, right click your drive, choose Properties, and choose the Tools tab. Then you should see error checking just above disk defrag. Hit the "Check Now" button. Since you are using the computer, uncheck the "automatically fix file system errors" option cause that only works for drives that are not currently in use then check the "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" checkbox and click Start. While this operation is going on, I recommend you to close all your programs. This will take some time but I would only recommend you to do this once a week if you use the PC everyday. This can be used on USBs too.

 

4. Disable startup programs. Open Start Menu, click Run and type msconfig. Choose the Startup tab and you can see a list of programs that run when you start your computer. You can then disable those that you don't need when your computer starts by unchecking the checkboxes there. But DO NOT disable your antivirus or firewall if you want security. Click OK but you will have to restart the computer for that to take effect. See if it does.

 

Since you are using Windows XP, visual effects shouldn't be a concern. If you have done all of this, and still the PC is slow, you will have to use an advanced tool such as CCleaner's registry cleaner. Back up your registry by opening registry editor. To open registry editor, go to Start Menu and choose Run, type regedit. if the registry editor window appears, choose File and Export. You will then have to choose a location where to restore your registry backup. This is in case something gets wrong.

 

 

You should also consider doing virus scans regularly.

 

You can also open your computer and clean your CPU. Dust can also slow down the system.

 

Hopefully, I helped.

[anres]

I reinstall windows every 6mo to 1yr, just to get rid of all the crap different software (including windows update) leaves on the system (yes, there are things that even cclean doesn't remove). But, in order to do so, you must have partitioned your hard drive in the first place and install only windows on your C drive and everything else on your D drive, including your "My Documents", which can be redirected to D drive with ease.

 

Ishi's method is great if you are unable to reinstall windows. But please allow me to add a few more points:

 

1. before you do defragmentation, disable the use of page file, and then reboot windows immediately into safe mode. do a full defrag there. afterwards, boot into normal windows mode and re-enable paging.

 

2. don't forget to get rid of some of your restore points. they do take up a lot of space. You can do so using CClean.

 

To prevent windows from running slowly, aside from maintenance, one needs to refrain from downloading and installing junk. I don't even let software such as these come with Verizon/AT&T DSL or HP/Lexmark Printer to go near my computer because they are poorly written and are infested with bugs and advertisement junk. These so-called "Help center" are nothing but trouble. You need the driver for your printer, you say? Then use device manger to pick out the driver from the disc, or from online.

[mabdul]

load a small application called pagedrefrag from www.sysinternals.de (now it is part of microsoft and this application is integrated since win Vista!) and let start it at every boot. normally the windows registry is totally fragmented!

[marmite]

load a small application called pagedrefrag from www.sysinternals.de

sysinternals.com redirects here nowadays ... http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/default.aspx

[rridgely]

You need to provide more info, what are the specs of your computer.(CPU, RAM, ect)

Here is a quick program to help you optimize your pc:

 

http://www.malwarebytes.org/startuplite.php

 

It will help you eliminate stuff starting up that you don't need, thus freeing up ram and speeding up start up.

[Talldog9]

Maybe your page file somehow got too small or large. Control Panel -> System under the Advanced tab click Performance settings -> Advanced tab click Change to see the settings.

[rridgely]

I'm a little surprised by these answers.(I feel like your jumping the gun a little)

Page files, removing restore points, ect?

 

We don't know what kind of pc this person has or what he has running.

I would say the most common things resulting in a "slow pc" is that either the computer is just old, it has lots of stuff running, or that its infected with spyware or sometimes even worse anti-spyware software(last part is a joke..).

 

Might be best to wait to suggest some of these things when you have more info on what is actually going on with the original posters pc.

[Talldog9]

I'm a little surprised by these answers.(I feel like your jumping the gun a little)

Page files, removing restore points, ect?

 

We don't know what kind of pc this person has or what he has running.

I would say the most common things resulting in a "slow pc" is that either the computer is just old, it has lots of stuff running, or that its infected with spyware or sometimes even worse anti-spyware software(last part is a joke..).

 

Might be best to wait to suggest some of these things when you have more info on what is actually going on with the original posters pc.

 

My god the amount of crap running on a 'New' PC is sad. Unfortunately many people accept this because they don't know about it and are left with a very sub-par computing experience.

Perhaps someone could suggest a program to create a log of running processes for the OP to use,

[marmite]

Perhaps someone could suggest a program to create a log of running processes for the OP to use,

Sysinternals' Process Explorer will generate a process list in a text file ... http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb896653.aspx (just watch where you're saving it ... default seems to be the PE exe directory)

 

I'd recommend Sysinternals' AutoRuns over StartupLite because it's much easier to see what you've got, but it's not really a tool for the inexperienced ... http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb963902.aspx.

 

The advantage of StartupLite is that it will suggest unnecessary processes for you. Unfortunately once you disable them it doesn't seem to give you the opportunity to re-enable them later, unlike most start-up utilities. I'd be inclined to use StartupLite to identify processes and something else (e.g. Autoruns [advanced] or Mike Lin's StartUp [simple]) to disable them.

[Andavari]

My god the amount of crap running on a 'New' PC is sad.

Too true, and often it's just some big bloated trialware junk that will only timeout too soon - just Revo Uninstaller all that garbage, cleanup with CCleaner, defrag, then make a good backup with Macrium Reflect Free Edition so the process never has to be repeated again.

 

Also if someone just gets an on off the shelf system they may not realize getting more RAM can help as far as resources go, and it's a relatively inexpensive upgrade that has so many benefits.

[Tasgandy]

Too true, and often it's just some big bloated trialware junk that will only timeout too soon - just Revo Uninstaller all that garbage, cleanup with CCleaner, defrag, then make a good backup with Macrium Reflect Free Edition so the process never has to be repeated again.

 

Also if someone just gets an on off the shelf system they may not realize getting more RAM can help as far as resources go, and it's a relatively inexpensive upgrade that has so many benefits.

We still do not know what hardware is being used as asked by rridgley.

So we need: CPU? RAM? Video card & RAM on board? XP Pro? or Home? SP? what apps? and which apps are running slow? A Belarc Advisor report will tell us about 90% of what we need to know to advise / assist.

[Andavari]

We still do not know what hardware is being used as asked by rridgley.

Yup, all a waste of time until we know more.

[redhawk]

<post removed by author> - (now why doesn't this forum have a delete option?? )

[marmite]

now why doesn't this forum have a delete option??

See ... it was a useful post after all

[hazelnut]

<post removed by author> - (now why doesn't this forum have a delete option?? )

Because it has moderators instead!!

 

Sometimes if folk are allowed to delete a post totally, it can alter the way a thread reads, if you know what I mean

[redhawk]

I've been on many help forums but I have to say this is the only one I know that lacks a delete button.

I can understand forums need moderating but if I didn't want to contribute to a thread I should be allowed to remove it.

Most forums prevent deletion if another users posts after anyway or prevent editing if it existed for more than 24 hours.

 

I guess everyone has their own way of doing things here

 

Richard S.

[Ishi]

Well he said he was running XP Professional and he never mentioned anything about his hardware. But the question is, why did he pick this moment to start questioning his computer's performance??? Perhaps it was running well before and now it isn't because of lack of maintenance. Perhaps he wasn't a computer maintenence expert. We are here to answer that.

[Tasgandy]

Well he said he was running XP Professional and he never mentioned anything about his hardware. But the question is, why did he pick this moment to start questioning his computer's performance??? Perhaps it was running well before and now it isn't because of lack of maintenance. Perhaps he wasn't a computer maintenance expert. We are here to answer that.

Yes Ishi this is the place where one can get information, help, guidance, direction etc. however we do need as much information (input) as possible to be able to diagnose/assess then provide an exchange of ideas, assistance and possible solutions. Perhaps there is still time to do this, what say you?

[Ishi]

Yep but that can only happen if he gets back here and perhaps this whole discussion will help other people reading this thread too. I think its wrong to say that his problem was all or mainly because of hardware.

[rridgely]

No one said his problem was mainly hardware. I said we needed more info about his computer before suggesting ANYTHING. If he has a pentium III with 256mb ram, the pc probably isn't going to speed up any no matter what he does.

 

To be perfectly blunt I probably wouldn't have posted back in this thread either if I had gotten the responses this guy got first either. (may not be why he didn't come back yet, but I could understand it it was)

 

If you know nothing about computers some of these answers wouldn't have made a bit of sense as to what he was supposed to do and what benefit he would have gotten from doing them.

[hottwink]

Hi there,

Do use do regular disk clean-up and disk defragmenter atleast once a month?

Doing that will surely increase your access. Apart from that, You can also get to know about your internet speed here . Its as easy as you enter your IP address that you get to know the speed of your connection. You can update your connection speed using free internet boosters available on net.

Cheers!

[Andavari]

This is actually a dead topic now since the original topic starter has never returned. Therefore I'll close it now.