[Icculus]

Relatively simple operations such as playing music lag my computer, and music is probably my prime use for this computer. What can I do to upgrade.

Basically, why does my computer suck... I want to build a new one eventually and keep this one as a media computer so the other one doesn't end up like this one

Windows: Windows XP5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180
Memory (RAM): 1024 MB
CPU: AMD Athlon™ XP 3000+
CPU Speed: 2098.4 MHz
Sound card: SB Audigy Audio [B000]
Display Adapters: Radeon X1300 Series | Radeon X1300 Series Secondary | NetMeeting driver | RDPDD Chained DD
Screen Resolution: 1280 X 1024 - 32 bit
:
Network Adapters: VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
CD / DVD Drives: D: | H: TSSTcorpCDW/DVD TS-H492A | I: TDK DVDRW420N
:
COM Ports: COM1
LPT Ports: LPT1
Mouse: 8 Button Wheel Mouse Present
Hard Disks: C: 74.5GB | J: 372.6GB
Hard Disks - Free: C: 17.9GB | J: 6.3GB
USB Controllers: 5 host controllers.
Firewire (1394): 2 host controllers.
:
Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
Product Make: pj516a-ama a700n
:
AC Power Status: OnLine
BIOS Info: ATAT COMPATIBLE 020904 KM400 42302e31
Time Zone: Mountain Standard Time
Battery: No Battery
Motherboard: ASUSTek Computer INC. Kelut
Modem: Not detected


Let me know if any other information would make this easier for y'all

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For starters I would really clean out your hard drives they are very full. Then run a chkdsk on drive followed by a defrag. I see that you have athlon processor which doesnt support running many apps at once very well. You are currently running 1 G of ram I would look at increasing that as a small upgrade.

You dont mention what software you have running. Several antivirus suites are notorious for slowing systems down such as Norton.

Start with cleaning up your hardrive and look to see how many apps you have running in background.

YOur computer is plenty fast to use for a music machine.

Also be sure to go into control panel-system- advanced options-performance -settings and click on adjust for best performance only.

I usually will setup desktop for windows classic view also.

Next step would be run some checks for malware with various software mentioned on this forum. I like to use spybot, superantispy, and adaware. I also like to have spywareblaster installed. If you are running a system resource hog like norton try switching to avg free or avast antivirus.

This would be a good start. Be sure to defrag both drives this will take some time on your media drive. What is make and model of media drive? How is it connected?

Edited by jtscustomcomputers, 04 October 2007 - 12:48 AM.

[jtscustomcomputers]

For starters I would really clean out your hard drives they are very full. Then run a chkdsk on drive followed by a defrag. I see that you have athlon processor which doesnt support running many apps at once very well. You are currently running 1 G of ram I would look at increasing that as a small upgrade.

You dont mention what software you have running. Several antivirus suites are notorious for slowing systems down such as Norton.

Start with cleaning up your hardrive and look to see how many apps you have running in background.

YOur computer is plenty fast to use for a music machine.

Also be sure to go into control panel-system- advanced options-performance -settings and click on adjust for best performance only.

I usually will setup desktop for windows classic view also.

Next step would be run some checks for malware with various software mentioned on this forum. I like to use spybot, superantispy, and adaware. I also like to have spywareblaster installed. If you are running a system resource hog like norton try switching to avg free or avast antivirus.

This would be a good start. Be sure to defrag both drives this will take some time on your media drive. What is make and model of media drive? How is it connected?

Edited by jtscustomcomputers, 04 October 2007 - 12:48 AM.

[ViprXX]

opps, we must have posted at the same time lol. but pretty much with the same answer but I'd follow JT's suggestions as there more detailed.

your computer specs actually look decent. one problem is probably the amount of free space left on your hard drives. I'd uninstall (through control panel>add/remove programs) any programs you don't use and delete any files/folders you don't want anymore, ex. music, movies, etc... also, check your pc for viruses and spyware, they can slow a pc down. defrag your hard drives too after uninstalling and deleting any programs you don't use.

Edited by ViprXX, 04 October 2007 - 12:24 AM.

[Icculus]

Yeah, as far as startup programs, there are not many. I do have ashampoo defragmenter running most of the time. (is ashampoo any good?)

Would my J drive slow down my computer very much, seeing as that is where I have my music and such but have no programs running.

As far as my memory goes, I most likely bought slow memory, and having learned a lot more about comp building recently, would it be good to get perhaps a gig or two of whatever my FSB is... 699 MHz?

It often takes about 5 minutes to start up my comp... I would imagine that is probably a hard drive issue... am i wrong?

As far as antivirus, i believe the only software is eTrust... came free with the university

I always use classic view toolbar, however i recently utilized the 'auto-hide' function... I guess I could retrovert.


AND, as always, thanks for the help... always much appreciated

Edited by Icculus, 04 October 2007 - 02:47 AM.

[jtscustomcomputers]

I would not let your defrag run all the time. You should only need to run this once in awhile like once a month or less.

Your primary problem is how full your hard drives are. Running a defrag program to run in background can slow things down quickly.

I would run a chkdsk with scan and fix errors enabled and a full defrag on drives to start after cleaning up items you dont need and see if you notice an improvement.

I use to use same antivirus program it has a small footprint so you are good there.

The preferable method if you dont have it hooked up that way would be to run your second hard drive as a slave internal for faster disk access. Describe your secondary hard drive more name model etc and method it is currently connected to computer. You are really pushing the limits with how full drives are which can really slow your system down. Yes as far as ram matched for speed. If using cheap ram you can have problems but my suspicion in your case revolves around hard drive. A cheap upgrade option is good name brand ram such as corsair or kingston. You may also want to consider a nice large internal drive for your media.

Edited by jtscustomcomputers, 04 October 2007 - 09:05 AM.

[Troy]

Hi Icculus! Another thing you could check is this:

Starting from your desktop, right-click on My Computer, select Manage. Once the window opens, from the tree-view on the left select Device Manager. Expand the [+] next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, then right-click on the channel to which your hard drive is connected and select Properties. Under the Advanced Settings tab, if "PIO mode" is selected, this is your problem as it will greatly reduce the transfer speeds on your computer.

If this is the case, a simple fix is to uninstall your hard drive. Don't worry - it won't ruin anything! I've done this before... Close the [-] next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers and expand the [+] next to Disk Drives. Right-click on the hard drive on which your OS is installed - this would be the C: (80GB) - and select uninstall. Next you should restart your computer, and it will restart and once it has finished logging in, you should see the small "Found New Hardware" bubble in the bottom-right corner and it will "install" your hard drive again.

If this is not the case, then simply continue with the assistance you have been given - it's good advice. I also am concerned at the lack of free space, and suggest you add another hard drive to your computer and distribute things evenly.

Cheers