Computer hardware query

Slow running can also be due to a virus type thing. Too much stuff on the hard drive can slow down programmes as there is not enough space to use the programme efficiently and more smaller attempts are needed.

Perhaps you could give the spec of your machine?

If the machine is more than a couple/few years old, the chances are the memory chips are different, processors certainly will be.
It's usual just to change the box for a newer one with bigger drives and more memory.

Crucial can be used to examine your kit and will let you know how much memory you kit can take but more memory may not be all that is making your box slow. If your kit is more than a few years old then a non-bleeding edge new machine may well be the way to go. Many ideas to consider so think about the big picture and not just memory. What applications do you need to use? What applications are going too slowly for your taste?

Quite often a computer that was 'lightning' fast when first purchased slows to snail's pace as time goes by.

This may be because one has experienced faster (newer) machines and yours suffers by comparison. Here more memory may well give a boost.
Or - you may have added a new program which overtaxes the configuration and will only run slowly.
Or - most likely - your computer is horribly slowed down by registry errors, spyware, old un-deleted temp files and the like. You may even have a fairly benign virus.

You could try running a variety of programs to tidy all this up but they risk breaking things AND/OR not providing a complete return of speed.

IF you could find a helpful IT person you might attempt to take all your personal data off the PC (you would want to do this if you were buying a new computer) and re-install windows and your applications to a re-formatted hard drive. It's nice if they can be bothered to save your preferences while doing this - on PCs most can't be bothered to or, in my experience, don't even know how. With XP you may be able to migrate these automatically.

So long as you have the original installation discs (you/he/she will also need to load all the necessary drivers for video cards, etc.) you should get this machine back to its original speed - exactly.

The fact of the matter is that most people using computers do not need the performance improvements offered by the processor developments of the past few years - this all tends to be eaten up by fatter operating systems and programs. If you are editing video or want to run Vista - go for a fast new machine with an obscene amount of RAM.

In conclusion - I could have bought the Toshiba laptop I am writing this on for £450 (price was dropping even as I left the UK) and the cost of the work above may well tempt you to go laptop if you are not already there.

It's frustrating that they can't prevent the speed-rot. Every Windows system I have had suffered. I use a Mac now and it seems much less susceptible to this issue - but I don't think it is totally immune.

For an XP machine try;

Google "CC Cleaner", freeware registry and cleaner software.

and

Google "Clean Up Center", Microsoft freeware Onecare PC cleaner.

Run both and see if it helps, I do both (OTT?) regularly, together with a defrag on my laptop and it keeps it sweet.

J

Mike, give it up, get a mac. You know you want to.

Mike

I'm no computer expert but my 12 year old Dell desktop is still running with Windows 95. Main programmes include Office, Photoshop and FlightSim.

A few years back I fitted additional RAM to help it cope with newer versions of Office and Photoshop. I bought the RAM from Crucial, it was a doddle to fit and there were absolutely no problems at all. Crucial seem to be spot-on with identifying the right type of memeory you need and the stuff they supply is top quality. I wouldn't bother with PC World, I had to return the memory they supplied as it wasn't compatible.

Fitting a faster processor is something I have never done, so I'll let others adise you on that.

I also regularly delete "Temp" files from within "Windows". This seems to free up the computer and improve speed and functionality, especially when manipulating photos. You need to take care to only delete Temp files that you can identify as unwanted data that you have created.

Cheers

Don

Ideally you should keep at least one third of the primary disk empty as this is used for supplementing the main memory, it is called swap space. If you have lots of memory then the swap space doesn't get used much - so the more memory the better.

Over time there will be a lot garbage on disk - so housekeeping to get rid of this garbage followed by a defrag should do wonders. One of the programs mentioned above will help, as much of the garbage is difficult to find, even hidden - these programs will worm it out and get rid of it.

For instance word makes files that begin with '~' to store temporary bits and pieces in and auto-recovery files, if it doesn't shut down properly these get left around. So doing a garbage collection is what is needed - these files have no value. Every time you go to the Internet pages get cached - more garbage. And so on ...

The Mac has a housekeeping program that used to run in the small hours to remove garbage - great because I always get up at 3 a,m to switch on my computer for some house-keeping. Fortunately, somebody at Apple has fixed this and it is now more sensible.

I don't think Windoze has equivalent automatic program, but the ones Julian mentions will do what you need.

I would do this before buying extra memory; if it used to work OK then it should be able to get it to work OK again. Though al computers like memory (up to a limit).

ATB Rotf

I bought my first MacBook about 2 1/2 years ago and agree that the problems mentioned in the OP are now entirely a thing of the past - so much so that I have bought a second MacBook since and will never buy another PC for personal use.

Main problem is Explorer - very slow to load up, but I've downloaded and run the CCleaner which seems to have speeded things up notably.

Thanks very much for the tips, guys.

M