My slow computer is driving me mad

Hammyman

closed wrote: »

If it makes 0.05 % difference, I'd be surprised, complete waste of time on a modern pc

Rubbish. I had one client where her HDD was so badly fragmented, OE took 10 minutes to start. A good defrag later and it was down to 20-30 seconds.

jill36_2

GlynD wrote: »

Start by running "clean up disc" and then deleting any toolbars you have downloaded. Then do a disc defragment. If you don't know how to do these things come back on and I'll spell it out. Also, do you have any anti-spyware or malware detectors? Are you running Norton Security?

Sorry to be thick. Yes I am an inexperienced user.

I have a myDefrag icon on my desk top.

Should I use it?

I have run clean up disc and it is running much faster already

debitcardmayhem

GlynD wrote: »

Start by running "clean up disc" and then deleting any toolbars you have downloaded. Then do a disc defragment. If you don't know how to do these things come back on and I'll spell it out. Also, do you have any anti-spyware or malware detectors? Are you running Norton Security?

What has Norton got to do with the OP's problem? What PC is Jill using, what O/S (linux perhaps) How Much ram.... then perhaps...

closed

Hammyman wrote: »

Rubbish. I had one client where her HDD was so badly fragmented, OE took 10 minutes to start. A good defrag later and it was down to 20-30 seconds.

Maybe it was your magic fluff remover trick

Vista pc's go slow, windows 7 pc's go slow, and defrag runs automatically.

GlynD

jill36 wrote: »

Sorry to be thick. Yes I am an inexperienced user.

I have a myDefrag icon on my desk top.

Should I use it?

I have run clean up disc and it is running much faster already

Run the defrag. It may take some time if it's been a long time.

I need to ask you some questions:

1. Are you running any toolbars, like Google or Ask?
2. Do you have an onboard spyware eliminator like Spyware Doctor or anything with a name like that?
3. Are you running Norton Security?

Ignore all the different opinions being put forward. It's not that any of them are wrong, it's just that everyone has their own opinion about how to go forward with a slow running computer. My opinion is to start from the very basics and it seems to be working for you so let's continue for as long as it is.

richard734

I dont claim to be as experienced as a lot of the posters here, but many times people come to me with a 'Slow' computer, what they actually mean is slow to boot up.
Has anyone mentioned running MSconfig from the command line and clearing Itunes Helper, Quicktime, various toolbars from the startup tasks?
Last time I did this for someone, startup time went from 15minutes to about 45 seconds

GlynD

richard734 wrote: »

I dont claim to be as experienced as a lot of the posters here, but many times people come to me with a 'Slow' computer, what they actually mean is slow to boot up.
Has anyone mentioned running MSconfig from the command line and clearing Itunes Helper, Quicktime, various toolbars from the startup tasks?
Last time I did this for someone, startup time went from 15minutes to about 45 seconds

From what the OP says and has reported it is the computer performance which is an issue - not the startup. Good point though.

GlynD

RussJK wrote: »

http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/performance/performance_dec_2010.pdf

Again, and with the greatest of respect, that isn't useful. More information at this point will only confuse the user. Let her do the basics and then if there's no dramatic improvement we can look at other things. Fair enough?

GlynD

RussJK wrote: »

She's made multiple threads and not followed through with the basic steps in any of them, so it's not really a case of "let's not confuse the OP" and I don't think it matters at this point. If she'd run Malwarebytes as in the other thread, and posted a Hijackthis log, then we'd know a lot.

No offence but your advice really seems years out of date if your first steps essentially are "defrag!" and "get rid of that bloated and slow Norton!". Norton hasn't been slow in a long time, and defragging can take hours with usually little return.

Turning off unnecessary autoruns and removing hidden spyware are the two most common things that noticeably improve performance - all for a relatively small investment of time.

(Sure Norton has plugins that can cause conflicts with some programs as identified in the ms office thread, but it's not really a first step to look for esoteric interactions unless the OP has given some obvious signs of that.)

We're not going to agree on this - because I can see you're quite fiery about it. Let's leave it up to the OP what she does and what advice she chooses to follow eh? If she chooses not to follow any then you can sit there and fume silently wishing you hadn't posted. For me, I'm doing my bit and not annoyed in the slightest about any of it.

Perhaps that attitude is years out of date too but it seems to suit me and my blood pressure quite well.

closed

Problem is solved apparently, so we can all unsubscribe