very slow pc and internet

baron777red

hi
i have recently bought a used Dell 3100 desktop PC for my mum and signed up to bt broadband, but when i have been settingit all up today the internet has been extremely slow, and very frustrating, it has taken over 20 mins to download google toolbar.

the PC is runnig XP pro SP3, the processor is pentium 4 3.00GHZ and its says 760GB ram, i know that its not going to be the fastest pc ever but i didnt think it would be this slow

BT broadband is connected via ethernet (PC is not wifi enabled), which i thought would be a more stable connection.
but it seems very unstable, i have attempted to download and install various programs today, and it starts well then the transfer speed drops to 2 KB per sec.

i dont know if the problem is with BT or the PC, i can connect to the internet, although it takes 10-20 secs to load a webpage at times,

before i bought it it was wiped of most of the applications, is ther anything i can do to speed it up, would getting a WIFI adapter improve it?

thanks

Colin

JJ_Egan

Possible that PC is full of rubbish .

Measure your broadband speed from the master socket first .

macman

Measure your line speed using another device, that will tell you where the problem lies.
Is the PC still slow offline too?

baron777red

how do I measure the line speed?
I have checked the all the equipment is working properly and it is, windows could not find a problem with the broadband
and I don't have any other devices to test the internet on, you have to remember this is the first time my mum has used the internet, they don't have it on their mobiles either


thanks

NiftyDigits

If you buy such a PC, you should run a clean install in the first instance.

Surely you have a Laptop or Netbook that you can take there.

Internet can take ten days to 'settle in', during which time you must leave the Router on.

baron777red

Hi thanks

The bloke off ebay i borught it off, said he had put a freshinstall of XP on there, and from looking in control panel there were not verymany applications installed, the anti virus is avast and there is a CC cleanerprogram, plus i installed Office 2003

From the spec i mentioned in my original post, could it bethat the computer is too old, i think it can take another 1GB of memory, wouldthat help, or is it the processor that is the problem, should i invest in amore powerful PC

I do have a laptop but i live in Birmingham, and my mumlives in Manchester, what i can do is get my brother (who also lives in Manchester)to go round with his tablet and check the wifi connection, and then we willknow if the broadband is at fault or its the PC

Thanks

colin

NiftyDigits

Look here and check your PMs.

How much did you pay for it?

In addition, get your parents to check the Service Tag on the machine and report back. This is to identify the model correctly.

macman

To measure the line speed properly, you need to use an ethernet connection from the BT test socket-not wi-fi.
The tablet will connect via wi-fi, which introduces further possible issues-though better than nothing.
Do a speedtest via https://www.speedtest.net.