My computer has gone slow!?

Question

I have Lenovo 3000 N100 with 512MB RAM, 80 GB HDD, 1.66Ghz 2 MB L2 cache, 667 FSB intel duo processor.

The problem is that my computer has become very slow, i use net and i make sure that i clear the temp files often, i also delete the offline files and clear the sites recently visited everytime i use. The entire system usage has gone slow, even the applications i use offline takes lot of time to open. I knw the solution is to upgrade the RAM. But is there any other thing that i cud do to improve the speed?? pls help

Answer 1

If your virus/spyware free, there are  a couple things you can do get your computer working faster. If you using your computer for normal stuff and not gaming. You don't always need more RAM you just need to perform a few maintenance task.

First, if you haven't cleaned your registry in a while. This is necessary. Your registry holds all the information regarding updates, installs, un-installs etc. Each one of those events produces a key. That key needs your PC's resources and free space. So, if you clean your registry, you make more resources available for speed. Do a registry scan if you got more than 20 errors you should clean it.

http://www.delete-computer-history.com/w...

2. Clear your Windows cache files, this is your temporary file. It can grow up to a large volume and stop your computer from using RAM properly. In a sense slow it down by preventing it from using free space.Here is how:

1. Quit Internet Explorer, Firefox, or any other web browser

2. Click Start, click "Control Panel", and then double-click "Internet Options".

3. On the General tab, click "Delete Files" under Temporary Internet Files.

4. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the "Delete all offline content" check box , and then click OK.

5. Click OK.

3. Manage your startups. Your excess CPU usage is due to too many programs running in the background. You can cut these to barebones by alter your msconfig. Here is how:

1. Open your Start menu.

2. Click Run

3. In the command screen type "msconfig.exe"

4. In the "system configuration utility",click either "service" or "startup" tab

5. Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.

6. Click "OK"

Answer 2

Clearing the sites recently visited won't be very effective, they're just not big files.

The best solution I'd recommend is to backup all the files you want to keep, format the hard drive and reinstall everything. This is the cheapest and most surefire way to clean your computer.

However if you don't like that idea you could right click on your main drive (probably C) and click properties -> Disk Cleanup. That will compress old files and such.

You could also defragment your hard drive by again right clicking on your hard drive, selecting properties, tools, defragment now.

This rearranges your files to be more efficient.

You can uninstall programs that you don't use anymore. Go to start-control panel-add/remove programs and then uninstall anything that you don't think you'll use.

Hope that helps!

Answer 3

You could have some adware/spyware lurking.  Also, some Anti-virus software can significantly slow your system.  Do a quick online scan for adware or spyware.  Go to www.ewido.net.  They offer a free online scan.  Good luck.

Answer 4

Definitely upgrading the RAM would help.. but you may want to check for viruses too.. they tend to slow ya down..  Do a defrag of the hard drive.. delete unneeded programs.. do a Ctrl+Alt+Del to get the task manager up to see what processes are running.. knock off some that are not needed.

Answer 5

There are several things you can do to increase the "speed" of your computer.

1) Clean up the disk. Uninstall unneeded programs (especially those that run at startup and/or put something in the system tray), run Disk Cleanup, and defragment the drive. This is a good first step that will almost always take a few seconds off boot time and application loads for any computer.

2) Stomp auto-starting programs. Click Start > Run and type "msconfig" at the prompt. Click the Startup tab and look at all that junk that loads when you launch your PC. Do you really need "Adobe Reader Speed Launch"? Probably not. Turn off anything else that looks useless, but be careful not to disable your anti-virus and important system components.

3) Run a full anti-virus and anti-spyware scan. I would recommend using AVG Free Anti-virus, Spybot - Search and Destroy spyware remover and SUPERAntiSpyware remover. These programs are all free.

4) Clean up the registry. CCleaner, available at http://www.ccleaner.com is free and worth running. It will also remove unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.

Those are the easy and free things you can do. If your computer is still slow you need to move on to the bigger guns.

1) Upgrade RAM. This is the one killer trick that will make almost any computer run faster. With an older PC, you will rarely have enough RAM to run today's memory-hogging operating systems and applications, and adding a high-capacity stick or two of quality RAM will give you a quick speed boost. Adding RAM is fairly simple, even for a novice, and you should be able to do the job in 5 or 10 minutes.You can run a free test at http://www.crucial.com and find out what kind of RAM (memory) your computer needs.

2) Reinstall Windows. If the above tricks haven't helped, it may be time to wipe the slate clean and start again, reformatting your hard drive, reinstalling your applications, and restoring your data files from a backup. You'd be surprised how much more responsive a freshly reinstalled Windows system can be, as you've wiped out years of temp files, garbled registry entries, old versions of software programs that have been upgraded repeatedly, and all sorts of other electronic junk. Reinstalling is easy if you have the "recovery disk" that came with your PC, and only a bit more involved if you're using a retail copy of Windows XP. Just be sure you back up everything you want to take with you before you pull the trigger!

3) Upgrade your hard drive. This is a more complicated solution, but if you're reinstalling Windows (per the prior tip) you might consider upgrading to a bigger and possibly faster hard drive, too. Hard disk storage is a performance bottleneck on every machine, and magnetic disks degrade over time. Some performance issues could be caused by a failing hard drive, even, and upgrading to a new model could really put some zip back in your system. As a bonus, you can use the original hard drive for backups or occasional storage, if you put it in an enclosure.