Poor PC Performance

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woody69

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Hi, I was hoping someone could give me some advice on what I should do to improve the performance of my PC as it's starting to drive me mental....

I have a Dell Inspiron 9100, Pentium 4 CPU with 512MB of RAM running Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2. It's about 3 years old, so getting on a bit... The HD is 33.6GB with 14.8 GB free.

The PC will get progressively worse the longer it stays on. IE will freeze whilst surfing the net and it becomes impossible to work with.

I run Spybot regularly to remove any spyware, malware etc.

I also have RegCleaner, but it's made little or no difference to improving the performance. (to the point, I'm thnking of taking them up on their offer of a money back guarantee..)

I've removed old Programs that I don't use and regularly run the disk cleanup function in an effort to salvage some performance. (e.g. Defrag etc)

I also have McAfee Security Centre installed as the AVS.

I'm thinking of getting some more RAM installed as I've read the laptop can have up to 2GB. So I thinking of investing in two new sticks of 512GB to see if doubling the memory has any notable difference on the performance.

I was also thinking of getting an external portable HDD to transfer all of my media (music & videos etc) as that would free up about 10-12GB more on the HD and I only access them infrequently..... that's gotta help surely?

Does anyone think doing these things will help? Can anyone else give me some other advice.... Even if it's to give it up and get a new system.

Cheers!
 
Hi,

Looking though your post you have said that you have treid programms to sort this problem out but they don't seem to be working. me personly I would up-grade the hard drive. memory to at lest 1gb and also remove any software that you dont use if that dosnt seem to work, then I would propley reinstall Windows XP and see if that helps.


I would also remove Mcafee as that can slow your computer down and then install either avast or avg.


Please note Backup any data you have before rinstalling Windows


I hope this helps

wizkid
 
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Definetly stick in new memory. Make sure you find out how many memory slots are on your motherboard. I think 2 gigabyes would be good for you.


Think about if if you have done as much as you can on the software front surely upgrade of the hardware will speed this system up. This is something you crave.
 
If you're that desperate:

1) Buy another 512Mb memory, it's cheap atm. Fit it.

2) As wizkid mentioned, uninstall McCaffee and use either free version of Avast or Antivir. Or if you're a masochist and insist on paying for stuff, use Kaspersky or NOD 32 Anti Virus. Yes, they are worth the money.

3) Give your system a de-frag.

4) Download Crap Cleaner and use it.

5) Reboot and see if things have improved.

6) If they haven't then wipe hard disk, reinstall Windows. Reinstall all your software, but not McCrappee or RegCleaner.

7) If it's still as slow as molasses on a Winter's morn, throw it out the Window and peruse for a new laptop.
 
floppybootstomp said:
If you're that desperate:

1) Buy another 512Mb memory, it's cheap atm. Fit it.

...

6) If they haven't then wipe hard disk, reinstall Windows. Reinstall all your software, but not McCrappee or RegCleaner.
Click to expand...

I think these two things will make a big difference :nod:. Formatting your drive is a bit drastic, but it will sort out plenty of the little niggling problems that slow your laptop down and let you start out from afresh. Of course, you'd need to back up everything you have first.

If you upgrade the RAM, double check to see if you have spare slots in the laptop - as I've seen ones where they are all already in use. :thumb:
 
Thanks for all your responses. I'm definitely going to get some new RAM. Currently the laptop has 2 slots of 256mb in, so I'll probably either get two 512mb sticks or 1Gb.

I'd heard that McAfee can be pretty resource intensive. TBH I only installed it as it was free for a year with my ISP. So, yeah... may consider removing for a free alternative.

I'm definitely getting a refund on the RegCure software, but I've just installed TuneUp Utilities 2008 (30 day evaluation copy) and it appears to have made a slight improvement so I'll see how that goes....
 
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