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system running slow

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by deancf, 2007/11/10.

  1. 2007/11/10
    deancf

    deancf Inactive Thread Starter

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    I'm not sure if this is where to ask bu My pc is about 5 years old, I upgraded the ram to 1gb, Its a P4 2GHz tons of space left on HD running XP home, Is there a program I can down load to test my desk top to see if theres a problem somewhere, I have a great anti virus and I use a couple of spy ware programs,
    In more detail lets say I'm reinstalling the printer software (which it seems it need to be done every week lately) the PC is slow at doing this. Even downloading pictures from the hardware card reader its been taking longerI also check to see if theres any extra programs running which there;'s not .
    I have a new motherboard and a p4 2.53 processor I could put in but not sure if this would fix the problem. Thanks in advance, Dean
     
    deancf,
    #1
  2. 2007/11/10
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Dean

    Start by spring cleaning the computer .....

    Empty your Temporary Internet files and set the max disk space allowed to 50 Mb

    Empty out your temp files ....

    Start > Run > type in %temp% > OK. All the files in the window which opens are safe to delete bar one or two which are in use and cannot be deleted. I suggest you sort the files by Date Modified (clicking on the column header toggles the sort order) and highlight all those dated yesterday and earlier and delete them.

    Go to C:\Windows\Temp and delete all files there - same procedure as above.

    There are programs such as CCleaner which will simplify the task, but I prefer to do it manually and under my control.

    Check to see if any unnecessary items are loading at startup using Startup Control Panel, CodeStuff Starter or Autoruns and disable them.

    See if that speeds things up.
     
    PeteC,
    #2


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  4. 2007/11/12
    deancf

    deancf Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks Its runnung much better now, but come tax return time, new pc
     
    deancf,
    #3
  5. 2007/11/13
    mattman

    mattman Inactive Alumni

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    You can do a defragmentation of the drive/s. Even though Win XP appears to be semi-automatic on defrag, I have found some heavily fragmented Win XP drives.

    There is a method of defragmenting the pagefile as well (setting to "No Pagefile ", rebooting and resetting to "Let Windows manage the Pagefile "), but I have not done it for a while, so check yourself. The Pagefile could be fragmented from before you added the new RAM.

    The website www.pcpitstop.com can do a check, expect the obvious (it will probably list those things we have suggested, even though you have completed them), but it may list something new.

    Are you confident in your drivers? It appears to be drive access problem though. You do exit the antivirus during the the printer software installation?

    I don't allow antispyware to run in the background (I run it manually), if I did, I would not allow more than one to run in the background, just one, and run the other/s manually.

    Matt
     
    mattman,
    #4

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