PC becoming unstable - anything I can do?

londonman81

I've got a Dell Dimension 3000 which is exactly 2 years old now.

I have noticed that over the last two months it has been becoming increasingly unstable in terms of crashing more often, Internet Explorer etc will give error messages such as 'memory could not be "read"..' and various 'not responding' errors and programs generally causing problems e.g. the toolbars of Excel will blank out and buttons will not display properly.

I have recently defragmented the machine and have run anti-virus and anti-adware programs to try and clean it up.

But it is still unstable and tonight I have had enough as I was trying to view some sites and IE kept crashing with the small 'send report' window popping up every time!

The biggest thing that annoys me is that the hard disk is barely a quarter full and I don't feel as though I have made full use of the machine yet. It has 512 MB RAM which, whilst not a massive amount, should be enough for most applications e.g. IE , Excel etc.

Is there anything at all I can do it try and rectify these issues?? Any clean-up programs I can run or anything at all??

skiddy2k

I'll probabily format and start fresh if I was you (also remember to backup your important files/documents)

Did you install anything around 2 months ago (when problem began occurring)?

vetfred

If you've not re-installed in the 2 years you've had it, personally I would back up all files to CDs or an external hard drive and do a clean install of windows myself. When I've had problems after using the system for a year or more, I've previously tried fixes and running some scans but it just seems sometimes it's best to start afresh with a "new" clean system and just put back everything you need once it's done. Last thing you want is to lose all your stuff, so if you've not backed up and you've got such an unstable system, I'd do that asap.

londonman81

skiddy2k wrote: »

I'll probabily format and start fresh if I was you (also remember to backup your important files/documents)

Did you install anything around 2 months ago (when problem began occurring)?

Is there a step by step guide on how to do this? Will I be able to re-load windows, office etc afterwards? And how long does it take to do?

londonman81

vetfred wrote: »

If you've not re-installed in the 2 years you've had it, personally I would back up all files to CDs or an external hard drive and do a clean install of windows myself. When I've had problems after using the system for a year or more, I've previously tried fixes and running some scans but it just seems sometimes it's best to start afresh with a "new" clean system and just put back everything you need once it's done. Last thing you want is to lose all your stuff, so if you've not backed up and you've got such an unstable system, I'd do that asap.

Once I have done a clean install, should I expect the computer to run as new? And will it run trouble-free for 2 years like it did in the first 2 years? Or am I being naive?

jamalfatty

londonman81 wrote: »

Once I have done a clean install, should I expect the computer to run as new? And will it run trouble-free for 2 years like it did in the first 2 years? Or am I being naive?

Yes to first question

Second one depends on what you do with computer, no way of answering that question.

Reinstalling is easy, make sure everything you want to keep is backed up, put windows cd into computer, restart, and follow on-screen instructions.

And yes you would need to re-install any programs you wanted such as office etc

londonman81

jamalfatty wrote: »

Yes to first question

Second one depends on what you do with computer, no way of answering that question.

Reinstalling is easy, make sure everything you want to keep is backed up, put windows cd into computer, restart, and follow on-screen instructions.

And yes you would need to re-install any programs you wanted such as office etc

What's the best way to back-up? Onto CD/DVD? Or an external HDD? I'd have to buy one.

vetfred

londonman81 wrote: »

Once I have done a clean install, should I expect the computer to run as new? And will it run trouble-free for 2 years like it did in the first 2 years? Or am I being naive?

Unless there's something malfunctioning with your actual hardware (like a problem with the processor or motherboard etc), then there's no real reason why your PC won't run just as quickly as it did when you bought it once you reformat and do a reinstall.

You've probably used the PC just like us all - downloading files, putting new programs on the PC, deleting files and programs etc, altering the registry. All this (and more) over time can have an effect on the stability of the system. Things like defragging can help speed up access to files and is recommended to do regularly for that reason but once your system becomes as unstable as it sounds, I feel the only real option is to just start afresh.

If you google "reinstall (then your operating system)", you'll find plenty of links as to how to do it. The main thing is you need your disc and the product key to re-install, and you need to backup everything you want to keep. I have an external 250GB hard drive which makes it easy to backup but originally I was just backing up to CDs. It depends on how much you have to back up really but it certainly can be done just with CDs if you don't want to buy an external hd.

I hadn't done a re-install for the first 5 years of using my first PC but once I did, it was a massive difference. I then did it again within the next 6 months to keep it running okay but have now bought a new PC anyway. It's a good thing to learn how to do and you certainly shouldn't be finding yourself getting all those errors afterwards!

Best of luck with it:)

londonman81

vetfred wrote: »

Unless there's something malfunctioning with your actual hardware (like a problem with the processor or motherboard etc), then there's no real reason why your PC won't run just as quickly as it did when you bought it once you reformat and do a reinstall.

You've probably used the PC just like us all - downloading files, putting new programs on the PC, deleting files and programs etc, altering the registry. All this (and more) over time can have an effect on the stability of the system. Things like defragging can help speed up access to files and is recommended to do regularly for that reason but once your system becomes as unstable as it sounds, I feel the only real option is to just start afresh.

If you google "reinstall (then your operating system)", you'll find plenty of links as to how to do it. The main thing is you need your disc and the product key to re-install, and you need to backup everything you want to keep.

I hadn't done a re-install for the first 5 years of using my first PC but once I did, it was a massive difference. I then did it again within the next 6 months to keep it running okay but have now bought a new PC anyway. It's a good thing to learn how to do and you certainly shouldn't be finding yourself getting all those errors afterwards!

Best of luck with it:)

Are reformatting and reinstalling two different things that need to be done separately? Or does reinstalling do the task in its entirety?

jamalfatty

When you reinstall windows, it will format the HD for you during the process

vetfred

Sorry for the confusion... basically the reformat is part of the overall reinstallation process so you'll be given the option of reformatting the hard drive once you've put your operating system disc in your PC ready to begin the whole process.

As far as I know, the reformatting process is simply to prepare the hard drive as a stable area on which you can then reinstall the operating system.

You need to reformat as standard in my opinion when reinstalling an operating system.