slow pc

hi
my pc is running wayy slow atm (to the point of i type somehtingand it takes about 10 seconds to show up on the screen) and i was wondering if any of you would lend me a hand trying to speed it up again. I think its something to do with the number of processes that are runningand the very small amountof disc space, buti'm not sure how to reduce the processes.
to speed it up, i've so far run Ccleaner and tried to defrag, but defrag failed because I only have 3% free memory space i've also had a look at the programs we have installed and i have to say there are a lot. i've got rid of several that we don't use, but the major ones that would make a difference are ones we use often eg photoshop and itunes etc

am i better off getting a new HDD or cutting the cr*p?

 

i think its hdd, heres a screen shot, if that helps

hard q.. dad set it up, and its partitioned soi'm not sure the general idea at the time was:
1. we have a lot of music/ipods etc that needs sharing
2. we take quite a lot of photos
3. at the time, we didn't use programs like photoshop...

i can do most of that, apart from defrag and programs we don't use often (last time i got rid of the sound driver by accident oopsy)

generally, pics are in the photo drive, music in the music drive to keep c drive relatively clear

thanks btw for the supremely quick reply

 

Few Ideas,

Get yourself a external harddrive. They are pretty cheep. Put your music and stuff you want to share on the external, Also anything else you want to back up.

You have a pretty small harddrive. Now this is where it gets tricky.

If you have a copy of Xp on a Disk You may want to consider buying a hard drive. If you do not have a copy of Xp on Disk, if you replace the harddrive you will have to buy a new install disk. Xp is no longer for sale, at least not that I am aware of.

You can buy a copy of windows 7 pretty cheep. Newegg.com. I paid 135 for windows 7 pro.

I just can not stress it enough. If you DONT have a copy of Xp on disk, If you replace the harddrive you will have to buy a new copy of Windows 7 Unless someone knows someplace that still sells xp pro. I think they stoped selling xp pro.

 

If you are going to buy a new internal HD to put Windows back on, I would highly second the motion to get Windows 7. XP Support is on it's last leg, and I would hate for you to go through all that work of putting XP back on, only to have to be forced to do Windows 7, which btw, is not an upgrade, but must be cleanly installed in your case.

Frankly with such a small HD, I am going to assume that this machine is a number of years old. Problem there is that your motherboard and other components may not be able to handle some of the new software coming out as well as new devices, etc. so you might want to consider getting a new rig.

Just my thoughts...

 

tym,

XP Home with SP3 is still available on NewEgg,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116583

 

sorry forgot this earlier, its a dell precision (then some number or other too worn to read on the front) does anybody know where else to look for this info. it isn't written on any of the stickers, but there are a load of serial number etc, you'll have to guide me on which to post.

as to full spec, does this help or not?

 

dell precicion 360, according to google

 

Hi

If you right click My Computer, and click on Properties, near the bottom it will list your processor and amount of RAM, a screenshot of that (or simply posting that information) would help.

Windows 7 requirements are here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/system-requirements.aspx

 

intel(R) pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz 2.99GHz, 1GB RAM

 

Hi

You never mentioned if you had a Windows XP installation disk. Do you?

If you don't, or if you want to upgrade to Windows 7 anyway, your system meets the minimum requirements to upgrade.

However, I would suggest adding RAM. It's a fairly simple process. You can go to www.crucial.com and use their scanning tool to determine exactly what type of memory your computer needs (and I personally believe Crucial makes awesome RAM anyway, I'd recommend ordering from them). You currently have 1GB, I would recommend having at least 2GB.

I would also recommend NOT getting a Western Digital hard drive (get a Seagate, Hitachi, etc.). For the last few years, their failure rate seems much higher than others, for some reason.

 

i don't think we have the xp disc, but it may be in the depths of the attic because we sent a load of cds and floppys up ther before xmas.

thanks for the advice. what do you think of vista, dad's got it on his machine, is it worth putting on this one as well?

 

Hi and NO! Vista uses MORE computer resources, supports LESS hardware, and is bad all the way around compared to Windows 7.

You would be MUCH better off with Windows 7 rather than Vista. Their appearances are similiar; Windows 7's desktop, etc. looks somewhat like Vista's.

 

I thought I qualified my suggestion with admitting that fact, to the point of, getting a new pc if necessary?

 

new pc is out of the question according to the 'rents :cry

there'll be less use of it next year and year after anyway as people go to uni

i've asked one of my mates about new hdd, seeing as he builds pcs, anyone else got suggestions about where to buy... so far i know of ebuyer :-o

 

Newegg, or maybe Fry's. I don't know if Fry's ships international though.


Use your Yorkie charm...they'll probably give it to you. :cool

 

Totally agreed and no worries about missing the post. :major

Stoke me a clipper....can you do that?

 

seems newegg don't do international to uk is anyone signed up to frys because it seems they do ship to uk, but i don't want to sign up if i'm not buying.

LOL i wish and who said i had any charm anyway, i don't even have a yorkshire accent and i've lived there all my life :confused

yeah i've run the computer maintenance thingy, and got speed back to a usable level, but its not amazing.
...red dwarf.... oh dear... :-D