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Slow PC Help needed asap.

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
My pc's running ridiculously slowly.
I tried defragmenting C Drive and not a lot happened.
It then said that to defragment D Drive, I'd need 15% of memory, but I only have 13%....

I have no idea what disk cleanup is or what defragmenting is, just that I need to do them.

Also, I tried deleting some programs from the 'add remove programs' but there's hundreds of things I don't recognise and therefore don't know if it's 'safe' to delete them.

I'm so lost, and I don't know what to do. I have approx 1k mp3's and about 12 full length movies on my pc... is this what's slowing it down?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The movies are probably slowing it down yes.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What browser are you using? Are you sure you haven't got loads of shit that has downloaded itself onto your computer such as spyware, adware, all that rubbish. Also, have you got any viruses?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    All my virus updates are all regularly installed, I have Norton Protection Centre (internet security) running, and weekly scans. The only thing it finds is the odd cookie?

    I'm running IE 6.0...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Another consideration is the size of your memory. I have loads of movies, TV series and over 4000 songs on my computer but it works just fine, even with my tendency to have over 15 windows open. I have absolutely no idea about my PC specs though...

    I don't want to be an IE basher but it has been known to be very insecure and many scripts download themselves onto your computer through it. It happened with my computer before I found Firefox, my sisters computer got completely run down with absolute rubbish before she switched to firefox, as did my ex-gfs. I'm not saying it is this, but I never use Internet Explorer any more except to test out my websites.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm so totally novice when it comes to browsers (I don't even know what it is lol) so what exactly is firefox? I've heard it mentioned a lot....
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm so totally novice when it comes to browsers (I don't even know what it is lol) so what exactly is firefox? I've heard it mentioned a lot....

    Firefox is a much safer and some say easier to use browser than IE. Instead of opening in new windows, pages can open in new tabs so everything is within that browser. It is also much much safer. It blocks the really annoying spammy pop-ups automatically. You can also add gadgets to it, such as FoxyTunes so that when you're browsing the internet, you can also meddle with your music, change volume etc.
    It's really no more difficult to use than IE, some say it's easier in fact. I've never looked back, and there are SO many articles on the web (I'll try and find one) which goes into much more detail about why Firefox is better. if you want to download it, there's a link on the left hand side of this page on my website.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    A better explanation from the Wall Street Journal:
    Firefox has better security and privacy than IE. One big reason is that it won't run programs called "ActiveX controls," a Microsoft technology used in IE. These programs are used for many good things, but they have become such powerful tools for criminals and hackers that their potential for harm outweighs their benefits.

    Firefox also has easier, quicker and clearer methods than IE does for covering your online tracks, if you so choose. And it has a better built-in pop-up ad blocker than IE.

    But my favorite aspect of Firefox is tabbed browsing, a Web-surfing revolution that is shared by all the major new browsers but is absent from IE. With tabbed browsing, you can open many Web pages at once in the same browser window. Each is accessed by a tab.

    The benefits of tabbed browsing hit home when you create folders of related bookmarks. For instance, on my computer I have a folder of a dozen technology-news bookmarks and another 20 or so bookmarks pointing to political Web sites. A third folder contains 15 or so bookmarks for sites devoted to the World Champion Boston Red Sox. With one click, I can open the entire contents of these folders in tabs, in the same single window, allowing me to survey entire fields of interest.

    And Firefox can recognize and use Web sites that employ a new technology called "RSS" to create and update summaries of their contents. When Firefox encounters an RSS site, it displays a special icon that allows you to create a "live" bookmark to the site. These bookmarks then display updated headlines of stories on the sites.

    Firefox also includes a permanent, handy search box that can be used to type in searches on Google, Yahoo, Amazon or other search sites without installing a special toolbar.

    And it has a cool feature called "Extensions." These are small add-on modules, easy to download and install, that give the browser new features. Among the extensions I use are one that automatically fills out forms and another that tests the speed of my Web connection. You can also download "themes," which change the browser's looks.

    Faster, more secure, easier to use.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Simply having movies and mp3s on the drive wouldn't slow it down by themselves. However, you can't defragment the drive because it is too full. So you would need to erase some files (either by removing programs or deleting stuff) in order to defragment your drive, which would then speed stuff up.

    Check your task list for running programs and maybe post it here. Also check your startup programs to see what runs automatically.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    pah1986 wrote: »
    Faster, more secure, easier to use.

    That's debatable ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Mist wrote: »
    Check your task list for running programs and maybe post it here. Also check your startup programs to see what runs automatically.
    Would that be the 'processes' part of the task manager? Because if so, then it's a loong list....?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You can sort the list. Click on 'processer usage' or 'memory usage' (the headings) and it will sort them, find out what are using the biggest chunks. Your computer will slow down if something is eating up loads of it.

    Often norton :p
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I don't follow.... I can't see 'processer usage' or 'memory usage' .....
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    1. Press Control+alt+delete

    2. In the task manager there are a number of tabs (applications/processes/performance, etc)

    3. Click on the tab marker processes

    4. Expand the window so you can see everything in the window to the right.

    5. One of the headings should be CPU, one should be Mem Usage

    6. Click on CPU and let us know the top of the list

    7. Click on Mem Usage and let us know the top of the list

    That should identify what is running and what is taking up a lot of memory and possibily slowing down the system
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Bingo... It says...


    CPU - System Idle Process

    and

    Mem Usage - svchost.exe
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You want the one after system idle process ;) you can ignore that one lol (basically telling you what percentage of your CPU isnt being used).
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ah see... told ya! Novice!! :blush:

    Erm, it switches between;

    iexplore.exe
    explorer.exe
    svchost.exe
    lsass.exe
    etc etc...

    it doesn't keep still :(
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    to be honest there isn't anything obvious there - those are standard processes.

    I know you have anti-virus but do you have any anti-spyware (defender, spybot)?

    and how much space si few on the hard drive?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    oops missed the bit where you already said that. Defraging may help, I'd just pick a couple of movies you don't want - delete them and then let the fragmenter run over night and see how things run after that - but if you don't have a dedicated anti-spyware I'd still run that first.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I defragmented the C: drive and it took, 20 minutes or so.
    Since then I deleted 4 movies and some music that I didn't want amongst other crap that I didn't need.
    Just 'analysed' the C: drive and it says it doesn't need defragmenting.

    It's running a bit faster, but it still takes a heck of a long time to start and shutdown and makes a heck of a noise doing it (that clicky, busy type noise)....
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ahar!

    Clicky busy noise means your RAM is full and the page file is being used. There is a trick if you have two hard drives, move the page file onto the second (non primary) hard drive, but I won't go into that now as it might be confusing :p

    As for RAM, it means you've got too many programs open. If you go to the third tab in Windows Task Manager, 'Performance', it should have a box that says Physical Memory (K).

    Mine at the moment says:

    Total: 2,096,172
    Available: 1,390,172
    System Cache: 1,390,328

    (I added the commas) - this means I have 2000000 kilobytes of ram, or 2000 megabytes, or 2 gigabytes :p. And I have 1.3 gigabytes free, meaning I'm using about 700.

    It also shows my CPU usage at a steady 1-2% :cool: (you've got to love dual core).

    Or of course, if it's excessively clicky, could be a dying hard drive. Or just slow computer syndrome, that is sometimes unexplainable :grump:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ShyBoy wrote: »
    slow computer syndrome, that is sometimes unexplainable :grump:

    If Windows is installed for more than 6 months, and the computer is running slow, best thing to do is wipe it and start again. Windows always seems to slow down with age, no matter how little you've installed.

    Personally, I've never found defragging to help speed up a computer. Well, I lie - it made a difference back when I had 1gb hard drive space, and a P100.

    If a modern machine is hitting the swapfile in any great amount, then it either needs more memory adding or processes removing. IMO it's best to wipe it and start again - if it's slow very shortly afterwards, then it needs more memory or the user needs to assess just what they are trying to do at any one time.

    It is for this very reason that for many years now, I have kept data on a separate partition or drive. It's a great habit to get into, as you don't lose all your documents, music, films and settings each time you start from scratch :).
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Had a look at mine...

    Physical Memory

    Total - 523628
    Available - 183932
    System Cache - 320952

    CPU of 1-2%

    Is that good, bad or indifferent?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If Windows is installed for more than 6 months, and the computer is running slow, best thing to do is wipe it and start again. Windows always seems to slow down with age, no matter how little you've installed.

    Personally, I've never found defragging to help speed up a computer. Well, I lie - it made a difference back when I had 1gb hard drive space, and a P100.

    If a modern machine is hitting the swapfile in any great amount, then it either needs more memory adding or processes removing. IMO it's best to wipe it and start again - if it's slow very shortly afterwards, then it needs more memory or the user needs to assess just what they are trying to do at any one time.

    It is for this very reason that for many years now, I have kept data on a separate partition or drive. It's a great habit to get into, as you don't lose all your documents, music, films and settings each time you start from scratch :).

    If you reinstall windows without formatting the hard drive it'll stop all the installed programs and get it back to scratch (as click mentions) but you won't wipe anything like music or films. You should see exactly the same improvement without losing content, and it's the policy we normally follow at work when windows computers just start to break down for no obvious reason.

    You will lose favourites for internet explorer, any installed games won't work, etc, so it's not without problems but anything that is just a file sat on your hard drive will come through it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Go download HijackThis, on the main screen click "Do a system scan and save log file". Once you saved the log file upload it to the boards and I will see what shouldn't be running, if you have something that isn't sposed to be running that is.

    http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php#hijackthis

    As for starting from scratch, you need TrueImage from Acronis, it's so damn good, it's the best bit of software I own.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Had a look at mine...

    Physical Memory

    Total - 523628
    Available - 183932
    System Cache - 320952

    CPU of 1-2%

    Is that good, bad or indifferent?


    Indifferent really. You have 512MB of ram, which is an average-to-small amount, but some is still available. There are a couple of other fields you could look at -

    It should say over to the left "commit charge" with three figures - total, limit and peak. It would be interesting if you use your computer normally for a few hours and then look at those values. Peak will tell you the largest amount of memory that has been needed. If that value goes over 500000 you need more RAM.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    pah1986 wrote: »
    Firefox is a much safer and some say easier to use browser than IE. Instead of opening in new windows, pages can open in new tabs so everything is within that browser.

    IE does that.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Tweety wrote: »
    IE does that.

    Yea actually, I have IE6 with the windows live toolbar and it's pretty nifty.

    Bloody slow though, everytime you click on a link it goes 'click' and loads. That may be because I'm used to this extension I use in firefox though that pre-loads all the links on a page :D
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