computer running slow

chris123

My comp is running really slow and has been for some time. I have looked on hear several times and found other people with the same problem, however the suggestions given do not work for me.

Hear goes, slow to start slow to shut down.

I have a 144gb hard drive and I have used 18.2 leaving 125gb spare.

Using an ADSL broadband connection speed test I am getting 991 download speed and 244 of upload speed. Even I know that is not much but the comp should still work faster.

I have lots of photos and videos stored on comp using Kodak easy share right clicking the icon to see the properties it tells me I have a size of 1.7 kb or 1816 bytes size on disc 4.00 kb or 4096 bytes.

Any ideas please in simple terms, I hope I have given enough info.

Regards Chris

johnmc

Slow to start and slow to close generally indicates that you've got a whole load of background programs running automatically. Start, run. Type MSCONFIG into the box and see what processes are running at start.

The size of the files doesn't matter unless you are working on them, and yours seem VERY small.

A couple of things to note; load your PC with as much RAM as you can afford, up to the motherboard limit. That helps, as do regular scandisk and defrags.

albertross_2

how much ram do you have, XP? have you checked for viruses/spyware, if so, what did you scan with?

The amount of data on a hard disk, is not relevant to speed, unless the disk is full, which it isn't.

There is nothing you can do about download speed, but what you get is quite fast.

chris123

thanks john and albertross, hope the info below is what you need.

i have 2.95ghz or 192mb of ram
i use symantec antivirus and scan the comp with that always without problems. i also run cleanmgr. its xp windows 2000 internet explorer 7
when i type in misconfig its on selective start up should i change that to normal start up.
should i also download more ram if so how do you do that and how do i know how much more i need.

thanks chris

Browntoa

I suspect you need more ram thats all, 192 is barely enough

go to

http://www.crucial.com/uk/

and either pick the model of your PC or use the scanner tool

another 512mb of ram should do

albertross_2

As BT said, 192 isn't enough, your hard disk light is probably on all the time because of swapping/page file, and more ram will cure it.

chris123

do i pay for more ram or can you tell me how to get it for free

thanks chris

albertross_2

like most things, you have to pay for it, https://www.crucial.com/uk

chris123

most things on hear you can get for free thats the beauty but if thats the case then so be it.

thanks again chris

albertross_2

software you can get for free, ram is a physical thing (hence the pic), you could try freecycle or friends. The good news is that it is very cheap nowadays, see the crucial link

chris123

yes understand now went onto crucial site it only cost £20 so money well spent.

thanks again chris