Basically my computer felt so fast when i first bought it (store bought), and since then i’ve downloaded lots of music and probably looked at some questionable stuff… currently it studders when i try to watch like gametrailers in Standard definition, but I also added a 1bg of ram(I don’t remember what it is, but it was good gaming ram), I do use disc defragmenter and disk cleanup. ALso anti-virus stuff, and malwarebytes.
Specs: AMD Anthlon 64 3200
OS: XP
RAM: 2gb’s although 1 gb is stock, the other is gaming witch i guess slows down the gaming to stock ram speed, but either way its still more memory.
GPU: ATI RadeonHD2900XT
Basically some IT dude at my work said windows always ends up slowing down, and you have to reformat.
What can I do to fix my slow computer? Should I buy another harddrive to make it my slave drive to use for music and video games, and then just use the other one in case it keeps slowing down so I can constantly reformat it?
Sorry if this is yet another thread about computer problems.
clear out your temp folders (go to run, type temp, delete all files in there, go back to run type in %temp% and delete all files in there as well), do a disk defragment. see if that does anything.
Ughh why is reformatting the first thing out of peoples mouths. I’m not totally against it but it shouldn’t be your first coarse of action.
Pirite has got a good tip there. To help you out try using Ccleaner (If you can use the portable version and run it from a flash drive) [LINK]. This does what pirite said without searching around. Uninstall programs you no longer need/use, and Disable startup programs from running that you don’t need to boot on startup. All this can be done in Ccleaner.
Buying a separate HDD for music wouldn’t be a bad idea either, especially since they are cheap. Your processor is going to kick you in the balls no matter what, It’s a single core with a socket type they don’t make anymore. If you can bump the RAM up to 4 GB.
There is a shitload of possible reasons why your computer runs like shit.
Really, honestly, the BEST way to ENSURE the computer is running like it was when it was new… Reinstall Windows.
Yes, I understand it can be a huge pain in the ass, but I dont feel its worth fucking with the thing for hours and not getting anywhere.
Steal a copy of Windows 7 x64 and use Windows7Loader to hacktivate it.
Your hardware is quite old as well, so its not going to be a rocket.
Waaaa!!! I thought everyone had heard of it. I love the portable version…use it on computers without installing it.
Stay away from “Registry Cleaners”…Cleaning the registry isn’t going to speed up your system at all. It will get rid of empty keys but thats it. Don’t touch the registry.
Reinstalling wouldn’t hurt but should be your last option. Don’t bother with Windows 7 x64…32-bit will be sufficient…Especially since the processor blows ass, and you probably can’t utilize enough hardware advantages (RAM) for x64 to be usefull.
There is alot of stuff in my program files that didn’t show up in add/remove hardware… like games I don’t play any more that some how shouldn’t even still be on my computer because i had to reformat once…
Possibly, but its just simpler to reinstall. And most people have the same boot OS for years, and theres random corrupt files, the registry is trashed, tons of assorted programs are installed that arent used, etc…
Many years ago, both my brother and a friend had a Athlon 3200+, and one was running XP x86, and XP x64. The 64 bit OS was about 8-9% faster in almost all possible CPU benchmarks, and they both only had 2GB of ram. Theres advantages to running a 64 bit OS beyond simply having over 4GB of ram. And with Win7, the x64 install is quite useable. You can find working drivers easily for it, iTunes has a Vista/7 x64 version that works (unlike XP), and it is measurably faster. But yea, its not going to be 2x faster at anything, so maybe it dosent matter to him…
I cannot stress the time savings in formatting. I’ve wasted WAY too many hours scanning shit only to have lingering corruption issues. Backup data and re-install. A side benefit is you have a backup of the data if nothing else. LOL.
JMHO
FWIW I support a network of 400+ users and have tried to “save time” using malwarebytes etc… only to have the issue come back a short time later. It’s easier and faster to just format and save the hassle.
AVG just released a new version AVG 2010…The file size went up again. I stick by my recommendation of Microsoft Security Essentials…It’s small, lightweight, has very few false positives, and works REALLY well.
I also work in the same type of environment…For corporate machines there is usually an image that is pushed down to save time. In personal machines it can kinda be a burden, but is the best way to start clean and everything works.
What brand is it? What brand is the OS Professional, Home, ? Some torrent sites have actual discs that come with the computer. LMK
it should have came with a disc to reinstall it, if you dont have it then you can either call manufacturer and pay for new disc or just get a windows disc, sometimes though depending on who made the computer you have to option to install without disc as they keep an image of it somewhere for safe keeping.
your computer slows down over time because of all the stuff that gets put on/taken off etc. also it does not help that you have a computer that by today’s standards is as good as writing a paper with a chisel
here are a few quick tips:
go to run type “msconfig” then click on the start up tab and uncheck everything that you do not need to start up like programs such as itunes, adobe crap that stuff always takes a year to load up basically anything that is unessacery
defragment
disc clean up… start/accessories/system tools
delete programs you do not use
if you are still not happy then reformat, its the only way you will get it back to new but it is only going to get slower again over time
So i Downloaded CCleaner and used the cleaner, and since everyone has been talking about registry, which I don’t know what it really is, either way i scanned my registry for problems and it found like 590 issues… alot of them say WINDOWS\system32 and to delete the error, I did back up my registry but since I still don’t know what could happen I didn’t let it fix the issues. I don’t know if after I use the program it may cause a problem in which I wouldn’t even be able to get to my back up of my registry… but like I said I really don’t even know what registry is.