Hi,

I'm a bit of a n00b when it comes to hardware.

My desktop PC is running abysmally slow and I need to speed it up! I've followed online tutorials, but they didn't really do anything...

Can anyone suggest a possible route for me to go? Also if you need any more information (which undoubtedly you will) just ask and I will try to provide.

Thanks,

Tom

Tell us a bit about your computer and how much memory you have.

Okay:

OS Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Processor: x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9 GenuineIntel ~2793 Mhz

Total Physical Memory: 512.00 MB

Total Virtual Memory: 2.00 GB

And actual memory wise I have a 75GB and a 300GB memory card for media files etc...

Anything else?

75gb and 300gb memory card? What the...? I'm going to assume you dont have uber futuristic technology and that you mean Hard Drive(HDD = Hard Disk Drive. we often shorten this to HD = Hard Drive).

Windows speeding up:

Ok one thing i suggest is to backup all your files and reinstall windows, since usually after a while you just accumulate alot of junk and reinstalling helps to clear that.

If you cant or dont want to reinstall windows you can perform a few steps to try and speed up windows, one the i like is removing alot of programs from starting up, you can do this by clicking start then clicking run then type msconfig push enter and now you should see a program pop-up click on the startup tab and remove all the programs you dont need to run when you start your computer.(i have it set so nothing starts and now i dont have to wait 1-2 min for everything to start and the computer to be fast)

If you just want hardware advice post your motherboard specs(company & model) since i dont know what type of ram you need without it.

This post has been edited by zoneykid: Jan 12 2008, 03:30 PM

Yeah sorry, I was rushing that previous post! I did mean HD, the 75GB was already in the PC and I added the 300GB one myself to take the load off of my C:\ drive.

Computer:
Computer Type ACPI Uniprocessor PC
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack [ TRIAL VERSION ]
Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180 (IE 6.0 SP2)
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name DELL_PC (Under the stairs)
User Name Tom
Logon Domain [ TRIAL VERSION ]
Date / Time 2008-01-14 / 01:19

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4, 2800 MHz (14 x 200)
Motherboard Name Dell OptiPlex GX270
Motherboard Chipset Intel Springdale-G i865G
System Memory [ TRIAL VERSION ]
BIOS Type Phoenix (06/26/06)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter Intel® 82865G Graphics Controller (96 MB)
3D Accelerator Intel Extreme Graphics 2
Monitor Dell 1503FP (Analog) [15" LCD] (48HYJ121A9RP)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Analog Devices AD1981B(L) @ Intel 82801EB ICH5 - AC'97 Audio Controller [A-2/A-3]

Storage:
IDE Controller Intel® 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
IDE Controller Intel® 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive Apple iPod USB Device
Disk Drive SAMSUNG HD300LD (300 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Disk Drive WDC WD800BB-75FRA0 (74 GB, IDE)
Optical Drive LITE-ON DVDRW LH-20A1H (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:8x, DVD+RW:20x/8x, DVD-RW:20x/6x, DVD-RAM:12x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)

That okay?

Yeah I was gearing more towards a hardware upgrade rather than fiddling about with registries, services etc, as I said, I've done all that and it didn't seem to help too much.
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

The idea behind wiping and reloading Windows is to get a fresh new registry.

As time goes by, your registry "bloats" up with all the activity that has been going on. Registries that are no longer used, whether they pertain to a program you uninstalled or not, remain in the registry. Basically it just keeps getting more and more garbage in there and that is a big speed reducer.

On college campus I just "ghosted" around 100 machines. Ghosting is wiping and reinstalling a fresh image. Now they run quite fast again.

So if you really want to increase speed, back up all your files, and reload windows, along with any hardware upgrades. The real pain about reloading windows is when you don't have registration keys for software you purchased. All the rest is just a time consuming job.

Thats some fairly weak stuff you have there(no offence), if you really want to make your computer ALOT faster you would need to get a new motherboard and proc, with some ram, and i would reccomend a cheap dedicated graphics card(its SO much better to have dedicated for games and anything that uses the graphics card really...[i have an 7600gt and it runs fine for most of the recent games])

But reinstalling windows would be a better method if you dont want to spend that much money(also take a look at how much of the ram you computer is using cause if you have 512 and your computer is only using like 50%(at idle) or something then upgrading the ram wouldnt exactly speed up your computer much, though with 512 ram i would still do it since windows is probably using all of the 512 when its busy...)

This post has been edited by zoneykid: Jan 14 2008, 08:37 AM

Not everyone plays games and not everyone needs the best of the best in terms of hardware.
James

Yeah I know it's a weak PC, it's my GF's old one, which we just took because we couldn't really afford a new one. I'm not really looking to make it MUCH faster, I don't really do that much stuff on PC, just internet, downloads and word processing, but even that is slow on this system.

Also in regards to the registry, I frequently do registry clean-ups/defrags, as well as defrag drives and all the rest of that gumph, you think it's still necessary to reinstall windows? (the main reason I ask is coz I don't have the disk!)

Can you suggest some fairly low budget hardware that I might benefit from?

add more ramm and over clock ur CPU but make sure u can keep it cool

Hello there.

I personally use CCleaner, which deletes temp files, and junk files that could accumulate on your PC.

Link: http://www.ccleaner.com/.

After installation, reboot your comp, and select everything under "Windows" and under "applications".
This would delete temporary files that take up a lot of space.
You could always add more ram to speed up your comp .