Slow PC - Am I wasting my time ?

Willyk

Hi, My Dad's PC is running slow. He only uses it for facebook, gmail, youtube and a few newspaper websites. I have removed all apps that are not required. I removed avg and put on Windows anti virus yesterday, ran a full scan which showed no viruses. Removed all temp IE files. Does not require defrag. It is an old pc and I am wondering if it is struggling to cope with the newer websites. The spec is:

Dell Dimension 3000
1.5 Gb RAM (according to spec 2gb limit so could put some more in)
XP SP 3
Celeron 2.66 GHz
145Gb HD 15 GB used.

Should I be looking at a new pc ?

or look next at reinstall of the software. I did do this about a year ago.

The only thing left on my list is to install the latest version of IE as a message came up saying the version (8 I think) is no longer supported. Did try google chrome, but the sound on youtube videos was breaking up. Tried IE and it was fine, so back to IE which he is used to. (He is 89 so any changes take him a while to get used to)

Any advice much appreciated.

ianders

You could reinstall XP from scratch (after backing up any required files).

IE 8 is the most recent version that XP can run.

It is worth bearing in mind that from April, Windows XP will no longer be supported and will be open to all sorts of vulnerabilities so it may be time to bite the bullet and get something a bit more up to date.

Cisco001

Celeron D with socket 478?

It would be easier to buy a £100 second hand PC...

closed

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

SailorSam

Given your Dads age he may get a refurbished computer with a guarantee a good buy.

http://www.getonlineathome.org/

Weird_Nev

How do you mean running slow?

Is it slow to boot up and load programs, or is it slow browsing the web?

If that really is his use, you could consider Linux - mint or even ubuntu 12.04 would run fine with that spec, though I'd probably keep it light weight.

Try getting one of the distributions that will boot from a USB stick so he can try it out and see if he gets on with it and it meets his needs. If it does, then it could be the way to go.

However, it could be that there are internet connection problems if it's taking ages to load pages.

Willyk

Thanks for all the replies. Will work through them later.


SailorSam, I don't think he would be eligible but thanks for the suggestion.

Willyk

Weird Nev, Its fine booting up and is quite responsive loading local programs. Its the web its a bit slow with. Maybe I should have added in the internet speed, in fact maybe that is the problem. He has a BT broadband link but using speedtest.net it shows a download speed of 4 mb and I think the upload was about 0.3 (not sure about this). I would have thought 4mb download would be fine for what he is doing. He does not run any other programs apart from IE and anything it uses to run.

SailorSam

Your Dad only needs to be receiving Pension Credit to get the discounted price, but even the full price may be better than getting something 2nd hand off ebay.
http://www.getonlineathome.org/

Weird_Nev

Willyk wrote: »

Weird Nev, Its fine booting up and is quite responsive loading local programs. Its the web its a bit slow with. Maybe I should have added in the internet speed, in fact maybe that is the problem. He has a BT broadband link but using speedtest.net it shows a download speed of 4 mb and I think the upload was about 0.3 (not sure about this). I would have thought 4mb download would be fine for what he is doing. He does not run any other programs apart from IE and anything it uses to run.

Hmmm. I'd certainly uninstall and reinstall Internet explorer (Download firefox first, so you're not left without a web browser by mistake!). There could well be numerous task/app/startup/bars and add ons which he's unwittingly installed which could be killing IE.

4Mb/s down should be fine for Youtube and basic browsing - however if the connection is unstable or noisy, that could be killing it also. Perhaps see if you can use your laptop/phone to see what kind of connection quality is reasonable for his line.

See if he can get on with Firefox or Chrome instead. They offer a far better browsing experience than IE, and you can import all your bookmarks easily.