PC getting ever slower?

Question

Hi,

I have a decent-spec Dell desktop PC running XP Professional.

It's taking longer and longer to start up each morning - partic when I log on to the web.

Although not technically smart, I have tried the following:

* Internet Options / delete files / delete cookies / delete history.

* MS Config / startup / disable all.

* System Tools / disc cleanup / defrag.

* I've even bought new software and used it to check for errors / optimize system.

All this and it still takes forever to start up.

Is there anything else that I can do (remembering that I'm a non-techie)?

Thanks.

Answer 1

This is a very common question about a very common problem: My computer is slow, what can I do?

Rest assured that while there are indeed plenty of things you can do to speed up your PC, it may not be entirely the case that the computer is getting "slow" but rather that everything else is getting "fast." You noted that you normally use a newer machine, and many people who express that their computers are slow also have multiple PCs, maybe a newer model at work that is much, much faster. It's possible that your expectations have simply gotten higher over time, and by comparison, your older computer is getting left in the dust. You spend most of the day working on a fast machine, so your perception is that your older computer is getting slower and slower, when in reality it may be just as fast as it ever was. The mind plays a lot of tricks like that. It's something to think about.

Now on to your real question: How to speed up a PC, whether it's slowing down or not. Here's the steps I follow when trying to give a little extra oomph to a PC that needs it.

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.

Run a full anti-virus and anti-spyware scan. You never know what's lurking on your machine, and these anti-malware tools can help you get rid of other PC-clogging detritus on your PC, even if it's not harmful.

Clean up the registry. This is controversial, as some experts claim registry cleaners don't really help. I've seen evidence to the contrary, so I recommend doing it if you've got a major slowdown. CCleaner is free and worth running.

Delete old network connections. Your computer may be trying to connect to shared hard drives that no longer exist. In Windows Explorer right-click on any network shares you don't actively use and click Delete. Under Tools, also click "Disconnect Network Drive" to see if there are any others lurking about.

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 Windows system components.

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.

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.

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!

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.

I hope these tips help you. Meanwhile, I of course invite the readers to submit their own performance-boosting advice.

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Answer 2

Maybe time for a new machine.   Vista is great but requires a lot more powerful machine.

Answer 3

you may have to much downloaded on your computer.

Answer 4

Go to PCPITSTOP.COM and take the free test.It can help find problems.

Answer 5

ask someone's help to reformat it (reinstall windows) if you're not familiar to it. then, avoid installing unecessary programs, always clean your drives and registry so you'll not encounter the same problem again afterwards

Answer 6

well that sucksssssss..hate when that happens

but also this happened to my dad's computer too

i'm no good at tech stuff either:)

but he had a virus

and he had to like format his whole pc but made backup cd's of his files

and it happened again some other time and he called the internet provider people and they helped him go through with fixing it

lol i hope i helped :)

good luck with it :)

Answer 7

There's a free program called "Ccleaner" that you can google - it removes a lot of junk that slows your system down - use regularly (A lot of the stuff is temporary files that your browser creates.

You've probably also picked up a lot of spyware on your system if you've been on the internet - try a spyware removal program like "Sptbot" - it's free as well

Answer 8

Get c**p Cleaner and run that every day before you shut your computer off. It cleans up a ton of useless temporary files and empties your recycling bin for you. Now, I'll assume you're virus-free, but if not you should get Spybot: Search and Destroy and be protected at all times by some software like AVG Free Edition. If your computer is 3 or more years old, I'd just reinstall Windows altogether. This is about the maximum timeframe you can expect your Windows installation to perform well within. Any longer and it's probably more work than it's worth. Your Dell probably came with a restore CD or DVD that'll guide you through the reinstallation of Windows. Just remember to back stuff up if you go the reinstallation route.

Answer 9

mine has been doing that for a year or so now. I think its the hard drive. I really need to get a new one.

Answer 10

You have do the right thing, but other then software part, you need to aware that your hardware may play a important part. here is some suggestion...

1. is your computer RAM is enough? (ctrl+alt+del to open the task manager, check the performance tab to and makesure the "memory usage" is lower then the physical memory, else you are recomended to upgrade)

2. hard disk may have some issue?

3. never install/upgrade the latest version of the software if your software is running fine.

3. run the registry cleanup.

4. disable the (windows) services that you don't use it.

5. the last is may be you can consider to perform re-format/system recovery?

Answer 11

You may have a significant number of background services/processes running that don't show up in msconfig - which is a lousy tool I wish folk would not continue to recommend.

Search indexers, defrag tools, memory improvement tools, antivirus and antispyware tools may be active - especially from so called optimizers!

First try Startup Lite - it will list programs you can safely disable (no installation required)

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

you can also use Autoruns (no installation required - unzip and double click autoruns.exe) - once scanning has finished, click the "Logon" tab to inspect items starting with Windows - remove the tick to disable an item - right click>search online to find out more about an item.

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/AutoRun...

My advice would be to disable or get rid of the so-called system optimizer;

use free tools such as CCleaner, Auslogics Disk Defrag and Revo Uninstaller - all available here

http://www.snapfiles.com/

also check for spyware - if you don't have a good antispyware tool use Superantispyware free here

http://www.filehippo.com/download_supera...

run a FULL scan - it can take ages but is worth it.

Answer 12

Buy more RAM. The processor speed also makes a difference. If you have any programs you don't need/want then try uninstalling them. While on the PC don't try doing too much at once as it will slow the system down

For slow internet remember to delete the cookies often

Answer 13

buy high capacity RAM..your PC would be very slow if your processor has a very high speed and you only have a 512MB RAM...just like mine..

or another possibility,your PC may have a virus..just check..

Answer 14

There are several suggestions I have for it:

1.  You ran defrag, but it may have been run before chkdsk... I always run check disk before defrag - it's a neatness issue.  I want the file system to be as healthy as poss before I defrag it.  Also you can defrag multiple times (after chkdsk).  The option for this may say "look for errors on disk during the next startup" and it will take a long time to complete, so plan on letting it run at the end of the day.

2.  Once that's done, make sure your Windows is updated (Windows Update), and that your Antivirus is updated, then run a full scan from your Antivirus program.  Make sure nothing is being skipped (scan inside archives, scan all file types...)

3.  Right Click "My Computer" icon on your desktop, and select Properties.  Click the Advanced tab, and under Performance, click Settings.  In "Visual Effects" tab, click "Adjust for best performance" then go to the bottom of the list in that same dialog, and check the bottom two items only.  This should make Windows XP appear normal, but disables a lot of timewasters like "fade into view."  After a while, if you notice that you really need it, you might want to check "Show Windows Contents while dragging" and or "Use common tasks in folders."  I personally turn off the last one, but this makes a big visual change: "Use visual styles..."

If you're in a corporate env, check with IT about whether or not they have just started using SMS or whether they've changed the way your computer uses the network.  SMS can totally drag you to a halt if a mistake is made during its setup (it's used for providing software updates you need from a central location, and it gives IT the ability to remove updates that are causing problems).  

As for having IT check your network communications, I've worked in a bank that has over 30 years of computer history behind it.  There are still laptops out there that have network settings from 1985.  The user just doesn't realize it's a problem and probably blames his own lack of computer skills for why it seldom works. Because the users don't complain, we don't realize their computer is broken, so we can't fix it.

Since you're on XP, I should mention that there is a Hive Cleanup Service download from microsoft.com that can help your computer shut down and start up more cleanly.  It can shave minutes off the time it takes to perform these tasks.  So if you notice that your shutdown ALSO takes a long time, then look into that.  

Here's another bunch of suggestions I made to someone who wanted to super-optimize their system:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

Another thing to think about is: Have you added a bunch of Fonts to your PC lately?  Those fonts all have to be loaded every time your PC boots up.  It can take a long time.  Some people move most fonts from the Fonts folder because it gives them a startup-time boost.  

Also, have y ou installed IE version 7 yet?  IE is taking a long time to start up for a lot of people right now, because Microsoft is pushing the download and installation of it.  So once you install version 7 of Internet Explorer,  you'll stop getting the nag messages.  

It's worth it to try a different browser just to see if it's the browser, or the website, or the machine's general configuration.  

Another warning about corporate computing.  If you're using a shared printer, or peer-to-peer file sharing via Microsoft Network (as in some computers have a shared folder.. NOTas in Kazaa), then if that share is not available at the time you boot up, there can be a timeout wait because your computer is wondering if the share is available or not.  

Also have someone look at your router settings.  A whole host of issues could be happening there - router has old settings that are no longer valid,  it has extra settings you don't need - it is giving you several DNS server choices, but only one of them is valid - the port is set to 10/100 Half Duplex and your PC is set to Full Duplex... etc.  the list is endless.

Answer 15

For running slow there are many causes:

Microsoft Registry Problems = Slow Computer!

Spyware/Adware

RAM

De-Fragmenting

Etc.

Below can help you speed up your pc:

Manage your startup:

Open your Start menu  ->  Click Run ->  In the command screen type "msconfig.exe" ->  In the "system configuration utility", click either "service" or "startup" tab ->  Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.

De-Fragmenting

1. Right click of C Disk.

2. Click properties.

3. Click tools tab.

4. Click "Defragment now".

5. Click Defragment.

You can search which process full use you cpu, and end the process.

Under steps:

1. right click on the TaskBar.

2. click the Task Manager.

3. click the processes tab.

4. double click the CPU.

5. find if the "System Idle Process" is max.

6. if not right click and click end process.

Learn  "Why Is My Computer Running so Slow?" and "How to Speed it UP":

http://downloadlk.net/WhyIsMyComputerSlo...

Use the tool: http://downloadlk.net/themosteffectivere...