Help - think my PC is ready for the chop but would rather save the money!

flutterbybutterfly

My PC is about 5 years old and for the last year it has started giving up.

For example:-

a) it doesn't like talking to my printer much and prints are of really poor quality but when I print from laptops it is fine so definitely PC not printer. It takes an age to bring up the print screens.

b) it will not recognise when I plug in my WD passport hardrive but the laptops in the house do.

c) the speaker system and the monitor internal speakers both do not produce proper sound so it suggests the problem is coming from the PC output rather than the devices.

It is working incredibly slow.

I have virus checked - clear and defragmented the drives.

Will a restore work? I don't know loads about computers but from the above problems I think it might be hardware issues and don't want to waste me time doing this if it is infact just ready for the chop!

Any help gladly appreciated

Sput2001

A PC of that age shouldn't be ready for the knackers yard just yet...

I guess you're running Windows XP?

There's a whole bunch of stuff you could try before binning it. I'd try the following, in this order:

1: Download & install CCleaner, then run it. It's free, and will clean any unnecessary junk that's clogging up your system.

2: Download, install & run Malwarebytes. It's also free and will clear up any nasties that may be floating around.

3: Do you know how much RAM you have installed? You can find out in the main window of the "System" section of the control panel. It's explained pretty easily here. If you've less than 512Mb then it's probably worth looking at adding some. It's not too difficult and the memory will only between £15 - £30 (roughly) depending on how much you have/need.

4: If it comes to it, you can always back up all your files onto something external and then do a clean reinstall of Windows. You'll then need to reload everything from scratch. Remember that a clean reinstall will wipe your entire hard drive, so anyting not backed up will be lost!

DatabaseError

if the pc came from pcworld/dell etc...there's probably a restore disk. restoring will wipe all your info, but give a fresh start (same as when new)

althas

I can agree on CCleaner, a really good bit of free software. Spysweeper is also nice to check for spyware

Also, go throgh your add/remove program list and remove anything you no longer need or use

Go to www.crucial.com and run their system scanner for the RAM option. It will analyse your system and tell you how much you have, how much you CAN have and the type of RAM your system uses. I have personally never bought any from there, but always hear and read how good they are

How old are the laptops? The WD passport could simply be the fact your PC has USB 1.0 and the drive requires a USB 2.0 socket. If that's the case a USB 2.0 is around £20 to buy an internal USB card to fit yourself. (USB 2.0 is a faster data transfer rate than 1.0). That may also explain the printer problem also, if it is a fairly new printer

Update all your sound card drivers also before you do anything drastic like reformat

I am sure people will add further suggestions but GL hope it works for you

If you need any help on those just shout up

DCFC79

Id give ccleaner and malware bytes a go, what size hard drive is in the machine at the minute ? is it running low on space ( i guess it isnt as a warning would come up)?

thomas01155

Remove anything you don't use or need from add and remove programs and run CCleaner and Malwarebytes as suggested.
CCleaner:http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
Malwarebytes:http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
and use javara http://raproducts.org/ to remove old version of java might get a few more mb from it.

flutterbybutterfly

Thanks for all your help!

I've started trying them and I will update if it works!

One more question - if I need to restore is there anyway of doing it without a restore disk and as I bought the PC form a local PC shop and had it built it is not a main brand. They have since retired and shut down so have no contact. I only have the genuine Windows XP discs and I have what appears to be some drivers and utilities discs.

Thanks!

aliEnRIK

be a good idea to use HIJACK THIS
http://www.download.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html
SCAN and post the log so we can see whats running and advise further