PC is slowing down more and more

[Peter G]

Hey all!

I have the following PC here at my workplace:

- Pentium 4 2.6 GHz

- 256 MB

- Windows XP Professional with SP2

The main problem is that this machine is slowing down more and more. A simple reinstall of the whole system is not really an option since I won't really be having the time for this. Is there any other option to clean the COMPLETE system, get all the unneccessary bul***** out and make it quicker again??

Thanks in advance!!

[eyeball]

upgrade your memory to at least 512mb. you will notice a difference immediately

[Tarun]

Indeed, upgrade your RAM.

[Jeremy]

Is the PC a brand name or custom build? Please read my blog post here. Don't view it in IE, it looks bad. Use either Firefox or Opera.

[Peter G]

Is the PC a brand name or custom build? Please read my blog post here. Don't view it in IE, it looks bad. Use either Firefox or Opera.

It's a brand name:

Acer Veriton 7600G

[Jeremy]

Well, the reason why it is slowing down more and more is because you're not doing maintenance on it. Computers don't take care of themselves. If you read my blog post you will become familiar with how to maintain order. Would you mind taking screenshots of the programs listed under Add/Remove Programs for us? It likely came with pre-installed bloat/trial/crippleware on it. You probably haven't cleaned the cache, defragmented or checked the start-up entries.

First thing's first, screenshots. Please provide.

[ringfinger]

Indeed... clean out all the crap you don't need/want, be sure to keep your temp files cleared, clean up adware/malware/virri and most of all upgrade your RAM to more than 256mb! Most people now days have AT LEAST 512mb if not more... I prefer 2GB myself

[Peter G]

Well, the reason why it is slowing down more and more is because you're not doing maintenance on it. Computers don't take care of themselves. If you read my blog post you will become familiar with how to maintain order. Would you mind taking screenshots of the programs listed under Add/Remove Programs for us? It likely came with pre-installed bloat/trial/crippleware on it. You probably haven't cleaned the cache, defragmented or checked the start-up entries.

First thing's first, screenshots. Please provide.

Please find the first 3 screenshots attached. By the way it's GREAT that you guys help me so well!!

I already wanted to order 1GB RAM, but our company doesn't have so much cash at the moment and the guy that should take care of our PC's always tells me that I have the fastest machine of all....

Edited February 14, 2007 by Peter G

[Peter G]

Here are the last 2 screenshots.

[Zxian]

There isn't really much reason as to why your computer should be getting much much slower over time. Things don't just slow down on their own.

Defrag your hard drives and make sure that there are as few unneeded startup items. Other than that - like others have said, the memory is the bottle neck of your system.

[nmX.Memnoch]

Holy Java versions Batman! Uninstall all of the Java2 runtimes and then only put back on 5.0 Update 10. 6.0 is actually out now so if you can just install that.

Also, dump all of the screensavers. You've also got Office version on top of Office version.

You've got some software cleanup that really needs to be done...but getting a good schedule for routine maintenance is the first step. As has been mentioned, you really need at least 512MB to run WinXP at a reasonable speed. 512MB is the very minimum I would recommend, 1GB would be better.

[Mordac85]

Also, you may want to look at running services. I have a few users that have a service that wants to actually touch each network device they have listed in their app. Since they aren't always online, they each have to time out the request. Prob crappy coding of the app/service, but it was definately causing problems.

Also, I'd dump anything that wants to touch the internet (i.e toolbars, iTunes, etc) and may have processes running that you don't need (e.g. QuickTask, Java Updates, etc).