Sloooooooow

my friend just called me and said that his computer was taking like 3-4 minutes to boot and programs are taking forever to open, with no audible hdd spinning. Any suggestions?

 

Firstly I would try reseting the CMOS, to do this you will see a jumper setting which is near the battery normally, there are 3 pins 1.2.3. two will be used (example) like 2 & 3 so move the jumper to 1 & 2 leave for a few minutes then replace to 2 & 3, Reboot and reset in bios date/time etc. If this does not work take out the battery say for an hour and replace and if still have probs I would look at 'Malware' section. Dont forget to Unplug power and earth yourself before touching any components.

 

I don't understand what you are trying to gain be reseting the cmos. I do agree with the second part of your post, sounds like malware to me. For another option I would sugest testing the Ram with something like mem test, or running a drive utility to make sure the system is ok.

 

2 things to worry about first -

1) Viruses / Malware
2) Hard Disk space. My old PC ground to a halt (well, took forever to do anything) whenever XP had less than 1GB free on the Hard Disc to play with.

 

I told a mate (complete novice) to download and run CCleaner (plus many other apps) he found over 5Gb of crap, ran the cleaner and sung praises about the new lease of life he found and that he could actually enjoy the net again. Try this as a start.

 

computsavy would like to know how to safely and effectively defragment my Windows XP. In the past week i've done a lot of downloading, now my computer is so slow that I wonder if it has seized up on me at times. HELP!

 

Well I would think you picked up a little sticky icky, and not from that lady of the evening you are so fond of. But to answer your question, safely and easily go to start --->all programs--->systemtools--->disk defrag. That will defrag.

 

thesunscreen has given you the standard method but I would reccommend you DL and run "Diskeeper Lite 7.0 Build 418";

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207

This is made by the same developers as the onboard app but is a later version with a new engine and it is like comparing a P2 to a P4 this app takes 6-7mins whereas the onboard ver took upto 6hrs. Basically because it is by the same developer it will overwrite the onboard one and play exceptionally well within the OS. Try it out you wont look back. Also you can create a desktop icon.