John P
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| posted on 20/11/11 at 04:28 PM |
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Impossibly Slow PC - Help Please.
Any ideas why my PC keeps almost stopping?
I've got a fairly low spec Compaq (just 448MB RAM). running Windows XP Home and although fine when I first start up it gets slower and slower
with time eventually taking as much as 20 seconds to respond to a mouse click.
I also have regular problems with programms stopping responding which won't even shut-down forcing me to physically switch the computer off.
In addition the mouse often just stops responding and again I am forced to shut down.
I did think there may be a hard disk problem but I'm now running PC-Doctor Hard Drive Monitor which reports all is OK. I also got rid of AVG
Free and set up Microsoft Security Essentials but nothing seems to permanently make any difference.
Curiously although running CHKDSK doesn't find any problems the speed is fine immediately afterwards but within a few hours it's all stop
again.
It almost seems as though something is causing the problem with passing time irrespective of which programms are running or even if the machine is
left on but not actually used.
Neither AVG nor Microsoft Security have found any viruses and I also ran anti-malware with no problems found.
Any ideas?
John.
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blakep82
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| posted on 20/11/11 at 04:35 PM |
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does it keep saying virtual memory is low? mine did, so i just disabled the page file thing. seems better/faster so far...
________________________
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don't write OT on a new thread title, you're creating the topic, everything you write is very much ON topic!
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mookaloid
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| posted on 20/11/11 at 04:38 PM |
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the pc is very short of RAM try upgrading to at least 1GB - preferably 2GB.
It will never run right even if there are no other problems - if there are other problems you won't be able to get it running well enough to
find them with so little RAM
Edit:you aren't running AVG and MS security together are you? that would cause a big problem. AVG is enough to kill the performance on
it's own and I would uninstall that anyway
[Edited on 20/11/11 by mookaloid]
"That thing you're thinking - it wont be that."
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John P
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| posted on 20/11/11 at 05:34 PM |
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No, I uninstalled AVG as I was told it could be the problem and replaced it with Microsoft Security Essentials.
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mookaloid
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| posted on 20/11/11 at 05:47 PM |
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ok a good web site for identifying what you need for a RAM update is crucial it can scan your system for you.
"That thing you're thinking - it wont be that."
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AntonUK
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| posted on 20/11/11 at 06:24 PM |
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download, install and run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?tag=rb_content;main
Then download, install and run ccleaner
http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/?tag=mncol;1
that usually clears any crap that is lurking
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Ninehigh
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| posted on 23/11/11 at 07:41 PM |
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If your hard disk is going mad all the time then yeah it's a ram problem
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John P
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| posted on 23/11/11 at 07:49 PM |
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I tried all the various suggestions and CCleaner found masses of issues with the registry which has made things a lot better although it still seems
that programms have to be "woken up" if you leave them running but unused for a while.
I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and increase the RAM but at leat it's useable now.
Thanks to everyone for their advice,
John.
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Ninehigh
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| posted on 24/11/11 at 09:15 AM |
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I got a 2gb upgrade for my laptop, cost me £18. It's not massively expensive
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John P
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| posted on 28/11/11 at 01:30 PM |
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Right,
I'm going to upgrade the RAM which seems fairly straightforward but I'm not so sure what to do about the hard drive.
Been into Maplin this morning and they were syggesting I buy a 1TB SATA drive which is around £70.
At the moment I have a an IDE drive and unfortunately because the computer came pre-loaded with Windows XP I don't have the operating system on
disk although I believe I can make a restore disk.
I checked in the BIOS and it seems the motherboard will support both IDE and SATA drives although I've not actually looked at it so don't
know if there are actually any physical connectors obvious.
Should I buy an IDE drive and configure it as a slave to the existing (suspect) drive so at least I can copy over any critical files. (I assume a
SATA drive would be installed completely seperately to the existing drive - is that correct).
If I went for the SATA option could this be a slave drive or would I have to find some way of installing the operating system on this new drive?
As you can see I'm not totally clear on any of this so advice would be appreciated.
John.
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Madinventions
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| posted on 28/11/11 at 01:38 PM |
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It doesn't really matter if you choose a SATA or IDE drive as long as it'll physically connect to your motherboard. I'd suggest
sticking with IDE since you know that works.
Put the 2nd drive in as a slave alongside the old drive, and then download the free edition of
HDClone. Burn HDCLone onto a CD (or floppy disk) and boot from it. This will let you clone
the entire old disk onto the new one. When it's finished, remove the old drive and reboot. Job done.
Ed.
Mojo build diary: http://www.madinventions.co.uk
Solo music project: Syrrenfor http://www.reverbnation.com/syrrenfor
View my band website:
http://www.shadowlight.org.uk
http://www.eastangliankitcars.co.uk/
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mcerd1
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| posted on 28/11/11 at 03:24 PM |
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what kind of RAM is it you need ?
I've got various old types going spare
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splitrivet
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| posted on 28/11/11 at 03:53 PM |
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Try editing the start menu click start-run-type msconfig- select startup choose disable all- ok - restart the machine.
Cheers,
Bob
I used to be a Werewolf but I'm alright nowwoooooooooooooo
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trikerneil
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| posted on 28/11/11 at 06:36 PM |
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I found running "Eusing free registry cleaner" sorted my laptop out.
HTH
Neil
ACE Cafe - Just say No.
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