[ohsnap]

Hey, all.

These past few days, I've been tweaking everything on my (seriously old) computer. I went looking through services.msc, disabling all start-up programs, and just trying to optimize to the best of my ability.

But people here are much more knowledgeable than me. Any recommendations/advice? I'm willing to run any scans/tests/etc.

Specs:

Dell Dimension 8300
Windows XP Home SP3
512MB RAM (I don't have the cash to upgrade this just yet)


Thanks a lot!

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http://www.geekstogo...second-edition/

I believe that will have all the information you need.

[Fenor]

http://www.geekstogo...second-edition/

I believe that will have all the information you need.

[ohsnap]

^ Thanks a lot, Fenor.

I ran through that entire list of tweaks, and everything was already set up to its recommendations. Page file and all the Folder options were already tweaked (I guess I just forgot I changed them from their default settings).

Anything else I can do? Run an Everest scan or something?

[Fenor]

Nah, you should be fine. Seems like you did everything you can for the 'old girl'.

Unless there is something specific that makes you think the computer is slow...

[ohsnap]

Nothing in particular.

It's just I probably have too much expectations for a 7-year-old computer. One annoyance is rather long start-up times for Firefox/Photoshop, but those are RAM-heavy programs, so it's to be expected, right?

Boot up time is on the somewhat slow side as well.

Otherwise, I think I have all the programs I need (CCleaner, Malwarebytes, MSE), unless you have any other recommendations.

[Fenor]

512MB is the bare minimum that I would let anyone use Windows XP, and you are at that limit. I suggest people get at least 1G, but preferably 2G, and yes, the slow start-up for FF (and most definitely Photoshop) is Ram-related, as long as FF works fast once it is open. Photoshop can still run a little slow while running, because it is a HUGE resource hog. Even the top of the line machines lag with Photoshop at times, so that program is not a good one to test if your computer is slow.

[ohsnap]

You raise a good point.

And like I said, this computer is pretty old. I'm putting it out there that I'm honestly working with what I have (which, in the grand scheme of things, isn't much to begin with).

And FF is definitely quick when it's opened, as well as other programs.

Even Microsoft Office 2007 loads somewhat quickly. That was a huge shocker for me.

[ohsnap]

Update: I've also been noticing a slight annoyance every time I turn my computer on and log in.

There's always a certain lag when I just log in (I have no start-up programs).

When I start browsing through my files, I always notice how much slower things are and how much lag there is. This is the same with right-clicking My Computer and checking up on Properties of my files, etc etc.

Apparently, svchost (I have no clue which, since there are a lot running) takes up more than 100k of my memory usage. Here's a pic of my processes:

http://img217.images.../2640/task1.png


PS - I'm lagging while typing this and uploading the picture to imageshack.

[Fenor]

Your hard drive is very old considering the computer you have, and if you turned off the Indexing service following one of the tweaks in the link I posted, searching through the hard drive will be slower. I think you need to just let the computer do its thing, because there isn't anything more you can do with a computer that old that you haven't already done.

*EDIT* -- and svchost is used for running pretty much everything on your computer. If you are curious, you can go to a command prompt and type tasklist /svc to see what is being run under svchost, and then Google the items to see what they are.

Edited by Fenor, 03 August 2010 - 02:20 PM.

[ohsnap]

Thanks for the quick reply, Fenor. You seem to be on top of things, huh? Lol.


I did indeed turn off Indexing. Do you think it would be a good idea to turn it back on?

Even clicking Start > All Programs takes a while for all the programs to load on that list.

[Fenor]

No, leave indexing off. It puts undo wear & tear on your hard drive to have it on, because with it on, Windows is constantly sorting your drive to keep it 'tidy'. Like I said your computer is old and you have the bare minimum for memory. Double it to 1G and you will see a huge improvement boost.

The cost of 512M of memory for your computer can't cost more than $25.

Edited by Fenor, 03 August 2010 - 02:26 PM.

[ohsnap]

Thanks a lot for the reply, Fenor.

I was browsing through a couple of pages in this sub-forum, and I noticed how people are doing scans on their supposedly slow computers.

Is it alright if I do these scans in this thread? Or would it be more appropriate in another thread?

Note: I just want to be sure about everything running on my computer. I'm a bit OCD.

[Fenor]

If you run any scans using any security software, and want someone to take a look at the logs, you would need to start a new topic in the Malware Forum, as the experts there are the only ones authorized to help people with deciphering those logs.

[ohsnap]

^ Sounds good.

The thread I was referring to was this one here: http://www.geekstogo...-computer-ever/

Everest and Autoruns scans = malware scans?

[Fenor]

Ahh, those logs you can post in here. Next time say which logs you are referring to, to avoid confusion.

Edited by Fenor, 09 August 2010 - 06:39 AM.