Help with poor performance. Slow!!

Hi guys and gals. I'm looking for perhaps a few helpful tips on how to get the most out of wifey's comp.
It's a Compaq Presario running Vista (yeah, yeah, I know)
Here are the basics:
Celeron D 356 processor 3.33 Ghz
2gb ram (came with 512mb)
120gb hard drive

I have not done anything to this since purchasing 2 years ago, with the exception of the ram.
There are minimal programs on it, in fact I have not added anything software wise with the exception of digital camera software and the printer.

Is there anything that I can delete or turn off that might pep it up a little? TIA.

 

You have lowish to medium decent specs, is it slow on day to day stuff or running something heavy like a video conversion? Maybe turn Aero off?

Oops! I just reread your post. Do you mean it just all of a sudden happen? Meaning the slowdown.

 

No, just seems slow in general. It was so slow prior to the ram upgrade, that it sat in a corner of the room for about 6 months not even being used. It's quite a bit faster now than it used to be, but she is not the most patient when it comes to comps and I'd like to keep her off of mine so that I can play with it.:-D

She doesn't do anything but surf occasionally and emails, but will need it for her salon business shortly.

 

What is the latency on the RAM you upgraded to?

4 is about as good as it gets, Crucial's Ballistix memory is capable of 4, and there are ratings of 5, and 6, each successively slower in function.

Even though you have 2GB, it may not be a speedy 2GB.

The Celeron D processor is a "budget" CPU, and that could be part of the problem as well.

It only has a 512KB cache, which is also part of your speed issue.

A full GB cache CPU would be much faster.

I have a place I shop at called StarMicro, and if you are looking for an inexpensive CPU, and your mobo is capable of running a Prescott core, it might not be a bad idea to upgrade it, since you are running Vista.

What is your Compaq model, and motherboard model?

 

What is your Compaq model, and motherboard model?

SR2150NX. Not sure about the mobo, but the memory came from Crucial.

I'd rather not open this thing up again and was just hoping that there was something that I can turn off or on that might give me the most with what I already have.

 

Here is your mobo:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...22&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3339274

I'll look into an affordable CPU option for you, probably less than a hundred bucks...

 

The HP reps I have run into have not been very useful, but I'll keep looking into your issue.

You can't get much more than you have with your current CPU, and I'll get back to you as soon as I have any info.

 

Thanks! Are there any software tweaks that might help me maximize performance?

 

As always, its good to run these;

READ & RUN ME FIRST

Basic Computer Maintanence Everyone Should Do

 

These are the Pentium D processors at StarMicro in the 900 series which should be compatible with your mobo:

http://www.starmicro.net/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=122

The model 960 is hard to find, and the ones that are out there are WAY overpriced. A similar slightly lower frequency CPU would be the way to go.

The price on the 950 isn't too bad, but the 915 or 925 would be the best bang for the buck...

 

Indeed, you very well may be right. You may pick up this CPU for less as time passes, and they are slowly recovered from bulk corporate upgrade PCs.

I should have mentinoned that this may not yet be the time to invest in maxing out an old PC.

However, with a small investment, and some donor PC recycling, it makes a great "hand me down" PC.

 

The "old" pc was just purchased new about 2 years ago!

 

I've had to back burner this machine temporarily. My daughter is in immediate need of a system and I've been working on that.

As soon as I get the spare time, I will hook that one back up and do as suggested. Thanks for all the help and I'll keep you posted.

 

My Compaq is an '06, and I've already replaced the motherboard to remove the upgrade limitations on my PC due to the old one. At least the case is nice, and has solid venting.

These days, things are becoming dated more quickly if you want to keep up with the higher performance crowd.

My first P4 PC, and last (Socket 423), I bought back in '01 I retired after seven years, and it still works, just doesn't have the get up and go it needs to run newer software. I expect quite a few years out of my current case, and at least 5years at the minimum from the new motherboard, as it is 64-bit, and capable of running 16 GB of RAM.

When you are looking at a PC, the most important thing to consider is the upgrade potential. Improving the CPU and memory over the years can cost much less than a whole new PC.

 

I ran a few of the suggested tips and it seems to have sped me up quite a bit.

I still have a boatload of stuff running both at start-up and constantly running. I'm not sure what I need and what is unnecessary.

How do I distinguish what I don't actually need, so I don't end up shutting off something that will have an adverse effect on everyday use?

 

DomLuc, how do I copy that list to post it here?

 

Bigfurry,

Here's another way to carry out Dumluc's cleanup. Download a start up manager from here, I use Startup Manager 2.4.2. Then use msconfig to reboot into diagnostic mode. Run startup manager and note what programs have started, it is usually userinit.exe and explorer.exe. This is the minimum you need for your computer to run, most others can be turned off when you boot back into normal, just don't disable any of your antivirus or other security programs. Also if you use wireless you'll want to leave that on.

Use task manager to see what your largest memory hogs are and start with those. When I work on computers, (not for pay), I usually find 25 to 35 programs running on startup. I normally reduce this to under 10 and the puter works much faster. Also check to see if you need a defrag and uninstall programs you don't use. Unless you are using one of these, do a search for mcafee and norton on your hard drive. The last three machines I cleaned up all had one of these still idling in the background even though the people were using AVG. Use the uninstall tool found here to clean up the remnants, Mcafee especially can cause major performance problems if it has not been entirely removed. Run cCleaner frequently, I use it every day. With your specs, that computer should run pretty smoothly.

Hope this helps.