[ColtsFan18]

We have a 69GB hard drive that was 47% full. We began sifting through old pics and videos and dumping things we never use any more, as well as music and documents. I did a disk defrag last week and just did a disk clean up. While I'm not quite done dumping unused items we are down to 41.3% used, an improvement but still to full in my opinion. The machine is horribly slow to start up, it takes around 5 minutes for everything to load. I've also gone through and dumped old programs yet there are still many I can't get rid of in the Add/Remove Programs screen... is it time to replace or upgrade the processor or is there something else I need to look into? I know I'm free of malware, adware (thanks to this site) and the likes yet the machine is consistently slow, it sometimes stops to "think" for minutes at a time. Also, maybe one out of every 20 start-ups we get a message saying there was a hardware problem found, since I know nothing about fixing that sort of thing I hit F2 and continue to start up.

We have an Intel Celeron 2.00 GHz processor, the machine is an HP514x (I know, 4 years old and a dinosaur) we have a 248 RAM.

Any thought from you fine folks?

Edited to add a list of some of the programs I'd like to unload:

All of the Earthlink stuff since we no longer have them
Zone Deluxe Games
Microsoft Money (never use it)

Thats a few but each of them have 6 and 7 components. How do I get rid of them?

Edited by ColtsFan18, 22 June 2008 - 08:58 AM.

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For starters a hard drive needs about a 1 gig free to run properly so if it is less than 50% full then you don't need to delete any data for working process. (You might want to back up data besides)

About the computer being slow I would recommend to add memory to 512 MB or to 1 gig this will improve the speed of the computer. It may be old but depends what you use it for if you are debating on buying a new one. I have a P4 2.4Ghz with 1 gig memory and it runs great.

About the being slow did you post in the malware section or just did the first steps? if you did not post there then you should it sounds like it could be in that direction. This should help speed up the computer.

Also, maybe one out of every 20 start-ups we get a message saying there was a hardware problem found, since I know nothing about fixing that sort of thing I hit F2 and continue to start up.

You get this message when you turn on the computer or in windows? Next time it happens post what is reports.
Allso go and click on start -> run now type devmgmt.msc this opens the device manager are there any yellow balloons on any devices?

[vally]

For starters a hard drive needs about a 1 gig free to run properly so if it is less than 50% full then you don't need to delete any data for working process. (You might want to back up data besides)

About the computer being slow I would recommend to add memory to 512 MB or to 1 gig this will improve the speed of the computer. It may be old but depends what you use it for if you are debating on buying a new one. I have a P4 2.4Ghz with 1 gig memory and it runs great.

About the being slow did you post in the malware section or just did the first steps? if you did not post there then you should it sounds like it could be in that direction. This should help speed up the computer.

Also, maybe one out of every 20 start-ups we get a message saying there was a hardware problem found, since I know nothing about fixing that sort of thing I hit F2 and continue to start up.

You get this message when you turn on the computer or in windows? Next time it happens post what is reports.
Allso go and click on start -> run now type devmgmt.msc this opens the device manager are there any yellow balloons on any devices?

[ColtsFan18]

For starters a hard drive needs about a 1 gig free to run properly so if it is less than 50% full then you don't need to delete any data for working process. (You might want to back up data besides)

Well, I definitely have more than one gig free so that shouldn't be an issue...

About the computer being slow I would recommend to add memory to 512 MB or to 1 gig this will improve the speed of the computer. It may be old but depends what you use it for if you are debating on buying a new one. I have a P4 2.4Ghz with 1 gig memory and it runs great.

I have thought about that since we only have a 248 RAM, but how easy is that to do? Is the component I buy going to be super specific and does it have to be programmed into the machine or will it install itself? This is all new territory to me.

About the being slow did you post in the malware section or just did the first steps? if you did not post there then you should it sounds like it could be in that direction. This should help speed up the computer.

Like I said, I know I'm clean of all malware thanks to the people here, I cleaned out a lot of little bugs that I'm sure were slowing it down some, but it still gets very sluggish and literally locks up from time to time, to the point that we can't even shut it down, we have to pull the plug and restart that way. I HATE doing that but the machine leaves us no option.

Also, maybe one out of every 20 start-ups we get a message saying there was a hardware problem found, since I know nothing about fixing that sort of thing I hit F2 and continue to start up.

You get this message when you turn on the computer or in windows? Next time it happens post what is reports.

We get it when we turn it on before windows starts, it give me no report, no code, all it says to do is go into set up to fix it, but when I get there I don't see where the problem exists. I have let it go through the Scandisk and it always comes back fine, yet I continue to get this screen on occasion with no idea where to start.

Also go and click on start -> run now type devmgmt.msc this opens the device manager are there any yellow balloons on any devices?

OK, I have done this and there are no yellow balloons by any of the devices or in the drop down menus under the devices. This reminds me, I also did driver updates about a week ago to make sure all my drivers were up to date thinking that may be slowing it down, it hasn't made a difference good or bad.

[vally]

About adding memory tell us what model is your mother board and then we can see what memory you need and what the prices are. If you don't know you can download everest here and it will tell you all the info about your computer.
{If you know how to use a screw diver then it is not a problem to install memory }

About the slow startup. Hit start -> run now type msconfig. Now go to the startup tab there is a list of programs that boot automatically when you start the computer. Post the list and we will help you see what you don't need on the startup.

Before your computer starts to freeze the run the task manager. You can do this by hitting alt+ctrl+del this can run while you do other things. this tells you what resources the computer is using. Go to performance tab. There is a square PF Usage there you can see how much memory the computer is cashing. If this number is larger than your ram then it means that the computer is now using the hard drive to store info that he needs to run. In other words the computer is waisting time waiting and you need more ram. Tell us what value is there when the computer slows down.
What windows version are you using?

The hardware problem is posted from the bios this means that the mother board detects a problem. It could be that a component in the computer shorts every now and then.

[vally]

Allso if your computer is stuck you can hold down the power button fo 6 sec. and it will foce a shut down. The same effect as pulling out the plug.