Fiesta Steve Posted February 6, 2011 Report Posted February 6, 2011 I have just about zero knowledge when it comes to computers. My computer is really slow. It takes around 1 minute to open internet explorer I have seen other computers open it literaly in less than 1 second ! Can anything be done to speed up my computer. I don't want to buy a new one as I have better things (cars) to spend my money on. I don't mind spending a small amount though if it will help fix this old thing. I have been told that my computer doesn't have enough 'memory' and this is why it is slow. I don't know if that is true or not. It came with 512 mb whatever that means and it was upgraded to 2x512 mb a few years ago. I'm told it can take two memory stick things and told I should have 2 gb or even 4 ! Will this make a difference. I don't want to spend between £30 and £80 and it does nothing. Hope someone can advise, thank you !
Big_man Posted February 6, 2011 Report Posted February 6, 2011 Try defragmanting it mate and use the disc clean up aswell, these two clean up your hard drive a little and tidy up all the files on it too.
Yeomans22 Posted February 6, 2011 Report Posted February 6, 2011 yeah try a defraging the hard drive, last time i did my computer it took all night so i left it running and went to sleep.
Admin Vista Posted February 6, 2011 Admin Report Posted February 6, 2011 You could also try using a different browser Steve. I expect you're now on IE8, a huge program full of add ons you don't need. Try downloading google chrome and seeing if that runs a bit quicker. A memory upgrade is probably worthwhile though (after you've run disk clean up and defrag) I run 4Gb of memory in mine and it runs very fast.
ZetecVan 2.0 Posted February 6, 2011 Report Posted February 6, 2011 Ditch internet explorer and use Chrome. If that doesn't work, ditch your PC and buy a Mac
mk2harrier Posted February 6, 2011 Report Posted February 6, 2011 as said m8 defrag and clean up. you are only running 1gb mem so definately worth an ungrade try this scanner to find out what your computer can handle and the type of memory you will require. http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/drammem ... 06152407:s[/url]
Big_man Posted February 6, 2011 Report Posted February 6, 2011 Ditch internet explorer and use Chrome.
Fiesta Steve Posted February 6, 2011 Author Report Posted February 6, 2011 Thank you everybody that has replied to this thread so far. I do defrag it fairly frequently but it makes little or no noticeable difference. I made a mistake in my original post, the computer came with 256 mb and we fitted 512 along side it. @ mk2harrier, thanks for the link, it suggests two 1gb sticks as a maximum which is useful to know as it saved me wasting money possibly buying more than my computer can handle. This will more than double what I have now so hopefully will make a difference.
flyingbanana Posted February 6, 2011 Report Posted February 6, 2011 all motherboards will only except a certain amount of memory.....newer models can take upto 8gb..most older pc will except upto 4gb....some even older ones...1 or 2gb...so knowing your mother board make and model then Google search will come up with the inf you need what operating system are you running? having alot of programs starting when the pc starts slowing it down..straight away! loads of tweaks available that dont require spending money.....but knowing the specs of your pc would help using this prog http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Sys ... tion.shtml will tell you all your specs
Fiesta Steve Posted February 6, 2011 Author Report Posted February 6, 2011 what operating system are you running? What is an operating system?, do you mean like 'windows' or whatever ? It has windows XP if that is what you mean.
flyingbanana Posted February 6, 2011 Report Posted February 6, 2011 you are correct about the operating system..has in xp.....now trying to recall the min specs for xp i think it was 256..and you have 1gb....has you have xp i dont think you will get 4gb of memory in....poss max of 2gb....more details needed to check that.....but you do have enough to run xp....so i would start looking at other things ...defrag has already mentioned...boot up defrag wouldn't go a miss neither if you go to into start all programs/Accessories/system tools...think its their...long time since used xp and find command promt or run and open it up the type in msconfig then once the box appears go to the start up tab and switch off any program that is not needed....generally the only ones you need are firewall program/virus checker or any other security program you use...then apply and ok it....then restart the pc you could download this program it also has a start-up option built in and alot f other useful bits that will scan your pc for problems and fix/speed up http://www.tune-up.com/download/ its a 30 day trial their is a program that can scrub your memory and make sure you get full speed when running your pc.... http://www.sammsoft.com/MemTurboDetails.aspx another free trial they are available from torrent sites for full versions you got enough free space on the hard drive? deleting cookies from the temp folders will also help also have you checked to make sure the inside is not full of dust....causing it to over heat...CPU fan mainly
flyingbanana Posted February 6, 2011 Report Posted February 6, 2011 oh and stop using internet explorer has already mentioned.....use firefox,chrome,Mozilla something else apart from IE
Fiesta Steve Posted February 6, 2011 Author Report Posted February 6, 2011 oh and stop using internet explorer has already mentioned.....use firefox,chrome,Mozilla something else apart from IE Thank you for taking the time to type the above, I'll look into all of those things you mention. Now when I start up my computer it automatically loads up AOL and I use that for my internet. The internet explorer bit is separate, right ? I only use it occasionally as there are certain things I cannot do on AOL that I can do on explorer (like leave feedback on ebay?!) I only used explorer as an example, when I do use it it takes around 60 seconds just to load up whereas I have seen other 'puters load it up almost instantly. Hope that makes sense, lol Thanks for everybodys help so far
flyingbanana Posted February 6, 2011 Report Posted February 6, 2011 never been with AWOL ....and cant recall if you have to use their prog to get on the net or if its just a protector for the pc if its a protector for the pc and you have other programs that keep your pc clean/virus checker etc then you dont need to use it,to get on the net internet explorer is part of windows so nothing to do with AWOL so separate
omj624p Posted February 7, 2011 Report Posted February 7, 2011 Do you have Norton Internet Security/Norton Anti-Virus? If so, uninstall it and put AVG Pro on. In the last 12 months I've fixed so many 'slow' PC's by just removing Norton. Having Norton is worse than having a virus!!! Steve
Fiesta Steve Posted February 7, 2011 Author Report Posted February 7, 2011 internet explorer is part of windows so nothing to do with AWOL so separate Thanks for clearing that up, I only really use AOhell rather than explorer.
Fiesta Steve Posted February 7, 2011 Author Report Posted February 7, 2011 Do you have Norton Internet Security/Norton Anti-Virus? If so, uninstall it and put AVG Pro on. In the last 12 months I've fixed so many 'slow' PC's by just removing Norton. Having Norton is worse than having a virus!!! Steve Yes !! I have the Norton Virus !! I'll uninstall it and see how we go. Cheers for the info Steve I have bought 2 x 1gb memeroy stick things to replace the 768mb I have now, hopefully that may help a bit too.
flyingbanana Posted February 7, 2011 Report Posted February 7, 2011 best thing you will be doing is uninstalling norton.....it loves hogging the pc's up
Smudger105e Posted February 8, 2011 Report Posted February 8, 2011 Do you have Norton Internet Security/Norton Anti-Virus? If so, uninstall it and put AVG Pro on. In the last 12 months I've fixed so many 'slow' PC's by just removing Norton. Having Norton is worse than having a virus!!! Steve Yes !! I have the Norton Virus !! I'll uninstall it and see how we go. Cheers for the info Steve I have bought 2 x 1gb memeroy stick things to replace the 768mb I have now, hopefully that may help a bit too. I understand that if you have a 256 and a 512 memory, it will not use the 256 at all. Is that right? The processor only recognises 256, 512 etc, not 'wrong' sizes like 768?
rob-loves-osf Posted February 8, 2011 Report Posted February 8, 2011 Do you have Norton Internet Security/Norton Anti-Virus? If so, uninstall it and put AVG Pro on. In the last 12 months I've fixed so many 'slow' PC's by just removing Norton. Having Norton is worse than having a virus!!! Steve Yes !! I have the Norton Virus !! I'll uninstall it and see how we go. Cheers for the info Steve I have bought 2 x 1gb memeroy stick things to replace the 768mb I have now, hopefully that may help a bit too. I understand that if you have a 256 and a 512 memory, it will not use the 256 at all. Is that right? The processor only recognises 256, 512 etc, not 'wrong' sizes like 768? no, if your mixing sized ram sticks like that, it goes on whichever stick has the "LEAST" ammount of clock speed eg,256mb stick may be say" 800mhz speed while say the 512mb stick runs at say "1333mhz" it will only run as fast as the slowest clock speed eg, the 256mb stick as the speed is slower, to put it simply, your playing pass the parcel between you and one other friend,your faster than he is,but he's slower so you have to be just as slow as he is so you can work together.
rob-loves-osf Posted February 8, 2011 Report Posted February 8, 2011 sorry to double post. you can get dirt cheap "good quality" memory for computers (depending on the type) http://www.lowpricememory.co.uk/ you'd need to know if its "DDR2" and the speed type either 6400 or 8600 also,use lightweight programmes if your speed is crap. download "Ccleaner" (all round FREE cleaning application thats pretty good) defragging,doing this too often can cause damaged sectors on your hard drive, do this once every two months or once every month if your a mass downloader and are constantly exchanging data from hard drive to hard drive.. also,try AVG anti virus 2011. dosen't take up much processing power at all and works well. for the serial for the full product.. (PM me) easiest possible going setup would be having limited things installed on your machine so.. mozilla firefox AVG antivirus windows firewall (believe me it works!) turn any automatic updates "OFF!" as they aren't actually needed and take up a shed load of space and use more processor cycles (uses a lot of the computers recourse's ) as for norton... i don't even rate that.. its full of "False positives" which throws up problems and other rubbish which don't exist. (just a marketing scam believe it or not) and its a big processor hog! my computer is on 24/7 and has been for the past year and half day and night,exchanging data and hosting files and a website from home and help setup computers for friends and family the above about "leightweight" is just having bare minimum in and using programmes OR applications that use very little processing power to perform the tasks. hope this helps fella
Fiesta Steve Posted February 8, 2011 Author Report Posted February 8, 2011 Thank you Rob, very helpful, but.. ... The first thing I have done is uninstall Norton. Then I got AVG, a 30 day free trial. But the computer is now noticeably much slower, I have timed how long it takes to open a page and they average at approx 60 seconds !! Depending on the type of page, sometimes a little more or less. As you can imagine you wait for what seems like a life time for a page to open only to find out its crap and not worth reading and it feels like I've wasted another few minutes of my life. Browsing the internet is simply impossible at this speed, it takes so long to do so little
rob-loves-osf Posted February 8, 2011 Report Posted February 8, 2011 you say it takes ages to open pages.. steve click this link and run a speed test (tests your internet speed) http://www.speedtest.net/ click the link above and click "begin test" at the top of the page,this gives you an "estimated download and upload speed" (but is rather accurate) and the ammount of memory you are actually running is very very small indeed try that "low price memory link in the reply above" find out if your computer is DDR2 or just DDR type memory (this can't be interchanged DDR2 will only fit DDR2 type motherboards and visa versa you seriously need to be looking at 2gb for most tasks these days
Fiesta Steve Posted February 8, 2011 Author Report Posted February 8, 2011 I have 2 x 1 gb memory sticks on order as thats apparently what my computer can handle. I have done the speed test, the results mean nothing to me but here they are ; Download - 0.94 MB/s Upload - 0.34 MB/s Ping - 10193 ms MP3 (5MB) 43 Sec Video Clip (35MB) 5 Min Movie (800MB) 113 Min
Admin Vista Posted February 8, 2011 Admin Report Posted February 8, 2011 They're pretty slow speeds by broadband standards Steve Mine are Download - 4.72 MB/s Upload - 0.82 MB/s Ping - 44 ms MP3 (5MB) 9 Sec Video Clip (35MB) 1 Min Movie (800MB) 23 Min Second test produces MP3 (5MB) 8 Sec Video Clip (35MB) 56 Secs Movie (800MB) 21 Min
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