Dude, my Dell is too slow!

Ok, I've defragged and ran disk cleaner... that's about the extent of my pc diagnostic/repair ability. Is there something else I can do to get this thing back up to snuff? Weird stuff's been happening lately like the desktop bkg not loading and web pages taking 15 min to load (no, not dail-up). Overall, it's just way slower than it was when we got it and there's not that much stuff on it. Thoughts? Thanks.

spots

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

Forgot to mention:

Windows XP Home Edition

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

I would open Task Manager, select Processes, and sort by CPU (not CPU Time) and see if anythings amiss. Then I would sort by I/O Reads then I/O Writes. Each PC has it's own CPU gobblers. On mine it's Acrobat Reader. Once I invoke it, I almost have to reboot to recover. PC pesticides like virus software and spam software can also be voracious.

Beyond that I would invoke Performance Monitor and begin logging to see what's causing the slow down, but that's a black art unto itself.

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

Dude, run task manager (right click on clock). If more than 30-ish processes are running (bottom center), call Dell and they'll talk you through it.

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

Delete everything in c:\windows\temp and c:\windows\prefetch

Go to Start>Programs>startup. Right click everything in there and choose delete.

Download and install spybot:http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html
Make sure that you download updates and immunize before running it. Then run it.

Go to Start>run> and type msconfig>go to the startup tab and click on disable all.

Reboot. A message will popup saying something to the effect that you are made changes to the way windows starts. Check the box saying not to show you this again.

hth
Eric

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

Thanks. I'll give that a shot tonight. I deleted the internet cookies and files last night and it perked up a little. It's probably just full of hidden junk like that.

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

You running Service Pack 2 and keeping up with all your security updates?

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

What disk driver are you using. Look in device manager under your disk controller..if it is the microsoft one that is your issue....you need the driver for the specific chipset your machine has...

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

Hi I had the same problem, did all the thing stated above but still ran slow. Go to registrysmart.com and run the free program and see how many error you have on you Dell., I had over 2,000, you will have to purchase if you want correct them. It is a great program when you download it save it to your PC, do not choose run. You can use it on other pc just save it to the pc and put in your code.

Linda

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

There are so many different things that can cause a computer to run slowly. Disabling startup items can help, but you can also turn off programs you WANT to run if you blindly go through and disable everything. At the moment, my computer has 34 processes running, and I'm actively using most of them, so the above 30 rule doesn't always apply. Cleaning out the prefetch and temp files is a good idea, running spybot is a good plan, but without seeing the computer, there is no way to definitely tell what the problem is.

CN, what antivirus are you running? Is it up to date? How long does your computer take to boot up completely? Do you (or the kids) have any music downloading software? Have you installed anything recently? Do you have printer software, AIM, or anything else always running? How much dust is inside your computer (it can make a HUGE difference)? Are all the fans running properly? Has the computer made any funny noises (clicking, whining more than usual)? Have you looked in the task manager to see if you have a memory hog, as described earlier? How much ram do you have in the machine (I know this has nothing to do with getting it back to the way it was originally, but it's a relatively cheap way to increase performance)?

I'm not trying to criticize anyone's suggestions, I just think we should get a little better description of the symptoms before we prescribe a cure.

-Carl

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

Well, it's the wife's machine (mine's a Mac) and she DOES download stuff from itunes. It does this odd thing at start-up where it asks to hit the F1 key to continue, can't think of why. She has this messenger app in start-up but I close it when she's not using it. I'm sure RAM is an issue as it only has 256Mb. As far as anti-virus goes, I thought she was keeping tabs on it but has let it lapse. We'll deal with that asap. No new software unless she installed it. Fans are ok, Dust is minimal, no funny noises. It lost both the CD and DVD drives a few months ago and after running a patch from Microsoft I was able to get the DVD drive back but the CD/RW is still awol. That's all that I can think of at the moment.

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

2broke4this said:

There are so many different things that can cause a computer to run slowly. Disabling startup items can help, but you can also turn off programs you WANT to run if you blindly go through and disable everything. At the moment, my computer has 34 processes running, and I'm actively using most of them, so the above 30 rule doesn't always apply. Cleaning out the prefetch and temp files is a good idea, running spybot is a good plan, but without seeing the computer, there is no way to definitely tell what the problem is.

CN, what antivirus are you running? Is it up to date? How long does your computer take to boot up completely? Do you (or the kids) have any music downloading software? Have you installed anything recently? Do you have printer software, AIM, or anything else always running? How much dust is inside your computer (it can make a HUGE difference)? Are all the fans running properly? Has the computer made any funny noises (clicking, whining more than usual)? Have you looked in the task manager to see if you have a memory hog, as described earlier? How much ram do you have in the machine (I know this has nothing to do with getting it back to the way it was originally, but it's a relatively cheap way to increase performance)?

I'm not trying to criticize anyone's suggestions, I just think we should get a little better description of the symptoms before we prescribe a cure.

-Carl

Click to expand...

Without having the computer, you have to start somewhere. By disabling everything in msconfig and if it helps, you then startup one process at a time until you find the problem if it's in there. The only thing you might need in there is the anti virus program.

Of the 34 processes that you have running, how many are in msconfig? Maybe 3? You don't need Office, quick books, adobe reader and java scheduler eating up resources until you use the program. The same for the Startup menu, wasting resources.

Just my 2 cents......

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

Also, get some more memory. 256M is really not enough for XP.

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

CN,
Downloading directly from iTunes shouldn't be a problem, I was talking more about other, not so legal ways that are out there. They often cause major issues. Can you find out what exactly the F1 error is and write it down? It may be helpful (if not now, then down the road). Do as Plainsman said, go to MSconfig and kill off the messaging programs, adobe, quickbooks, and office (if they are there). If there are items you don't recognize in there (and there will be), see if you can get a list of what you have. As far as the antivirus, before you spend a ton of money on a program, you should know there are free options out there. I use AVGFree, and another option is Avast (also free) and I'm sure there are other choices. AVG works well for me and doesn't use a ton of resources, which is nice. Keep in mind that no antivirus is perfect, but keeping whatever program you use up to date is crucial! And... if/when you DO update/replace your antivirus, be sure that the old one is gone before you install the new one, unless it specifically tells you not to (sometimes the case in an update).

As far as ram goes, you can never have too much! If the system only has 256 megs in it, you may want to look into picking up some more. At the moment, I'm using an old Dell Inspiron laptop with a 700mhz Pentium 3 with a whopping 384 megs of ram (not the system I was on earlier)... so you can go a long way with not a lot, but if you are impatient, ram is often a cheap way to make a slow system come to life (I've got some coming in the mail).

Plainsman, once again, I wasn't criticizing, I just wanted to get more info from CN before we have him go nuts on his computer. You are right, we'll want to help him get rid of extra garbage in his startup, but we'll get to that. We are definitely in the same book, and after CN provides us with some more info, we'll be on the same page!

-Carl

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

There are 2 free programs you can download and run to get rid of spyware which can slow you way down. Ad-aware and Spybot. Both are good and one finds spyware the other doesn't. Also like others have said 256 meg of ram is not enough. Double true if you have WinXP SP2.

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

We delt with the antivirus/spyware yesterday. I'll take a look at the F1 issue tonight when I get home. I'm gonna bet that running Norton Utilities on it would clear up mondo problems but all I've got here is Mac software. (maybe I can get her boss to by a copy)

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

What direction did you go for antivirus/antispyware? Have you checked into the cost of more ram? If you are unsure of what kind you need, you can go to www.crucial.com and use their scanner, which should tell you what kind to get and how much your system can handle. It's not always perfect, but it's a good starting point. You could also post the model you have and we can help you figure out what you need. Adding memory can make a huge difference! Have you looked at MSconfig to see what all is starting up when you turn the system on? Let us know how it's going!

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

I Second that 256MB of RAM is not enough for running XP. You really need around 1GB of RAM. The Memory is quite cheap and it is easy to install. Plus you will see a marked improvement in speed.

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

Dell's usually say something like "Hit F1 to continue, F2 to enter setup" whenever the bios is seeing (or not seeing) something that it added/missing. If so, go into setup and save the configuration.

Re: Dude, my Dell is too slow!

Sup brother...I use to work for Dell as a tech support person...they are idiots...don't worry about them.

First off...you need to boot into safe mode, it sounds like you have a bunch of 1) spyware 2) junk running in the background 3) both.

As the computer boots....tap the F8 key once every 2 seconds...tapping too fast will cause a keyboard error....choose safe mode with networking from the menu that comes up....once you get into the system go to this website.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Run that and let it fix whatever comes up...also do what everyone else said...spybot...and msconfig. If doing all those do no help, its going to be something worse then just software. You may have to reinstall your OS.

And as a recommendation for EVERYONE.....go download and surf the web through www.sandboxie.com its easier to understand what this software does from the site. It basically runs a virtual browser...so all viruses/changes/spyware/anything... are contained..and deleted once closed.

Last note....ALWAYS boot to safe mode to combat viruses and spyware....if they are loaded in memory in normal mode, you will not fully get rid of it. Normally when they are not deleted its cause they are preloaded and the system will not delete them in normal mode.

Safe mode loads only system specific files it needs to boot up, and bare minimum items.

Side note: Cookies...and tons of files taking up space on your hard drive do NOT affect the performance of a PC, if that were true....NASA and every big corporation with Tera bytes of information would have the slowest computers on the planet.

Files are files, space is all they take up, Windows could care less, it only grabs what it needs at that specific time.

Defragging is not necessary but maybe once every 2 months unless you do TONS...and I mean TONS of file/software moving and installing/uninstalling.

Even Dell their self told us its not that safe do to this one simple fact..defragging takes a file...puts it in memory...and puts it back on the drive in another location.

There is a lot of room for corruption during that process if something happens during the defrag.

Feel free to ask questions, there is too much BS on the net that people fall prey to.

PS....to all people running Norton and McAfee.....I know you love that stuff...but they are pure crap....they are on the geeks top 10 list for slowing down a PC do to the amount of resources they consume.

People.....free is the best way....AVG is free...and detects way more than norton and mcrapee....or use trendmicro housecall...and spyware....spybot or trendmicro.

Don't pay for antivirus software....they are only as good as their definitions, and norton and mcrap plain suck.

Eye candy doesn't rid the computer of viruses. (use sandboxie and you may never need antivirus again)

Oh yea....stop using Internet Explorer!...get firefox(with script blocking extension) for your browser. Anyone who tells you IE is ok, doesn't know sh!t, don't listen to them unless you want future problems, I won't even go into exploits and java hacks just take my word....or learn the hard way. Firefox doesnt protection you from stupidity, but it doesnt have near the exploits and holes IE does.