cooperrose Posted August 18, 2007 Share Posted August 18, 2007 I would just up the virtual memory that always has worked for me. To do that you go to control panel and open system then click on the advanced tab in the top and click settings in performance. a new window will pop up and in that window go the the advanced tab and click the change botton arround the bottom of the window and in the 2 text boxes in the middle of the window put 2000 in both of them then click set. and your done. but you have to have at least 2 gig of free space on your hard drive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tannji Posted August 18, 2007 Share Posted August 18, 2007 You can google everything in your startup list... there are several good sites that will describe and define all your startup listings, and tell you whether or not you should disable or delete them. Between that and the task bar, you should be good to go. The Task Bar programs are particularly bad, because most of them are TSRs. (Terminate and Stay Residents) This means that even though you are not actively using them, they are actively running in the background and consuming both RAM and CPU cycles. Most of these can be removed from the task bar by either right-clicking them for options, and removing them or de-selecting an option usually called "Load on Start-up". You can also remove many of them by using MSCONFIG to remove them from the startup file, and this is actually the better and more reliable way to do it. The items in your startup file can be misleading though, be sure (using Google) that you know what everything is, and whether it is necessary, safe to remove, or even whether or not it is malware. I have seen custom installs of XP run on minuscule amounts of RAM, but an average user with IM clients, Outlook, media players, RSS feeds, Active Desktop, etc running will need more than the recommended 256 to 512MB of RAM. As noted above, cleaning up your Desktop will help as well... mine has no Icons whatsoever... I use hidden toolbars with as few Icons as possible.. the Desktop shows my wallpaper only. Clean everything up and get an additional 512MB RAM and you will have the equivalent of a fresh motor in your computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zwitha383 Posted August 18, 2007 Share Posted August 18, 2007 You see how you have shortcuts for everything? You want to get rid of as many of those for external programs. I do not agree that having shortcuts on your desktop will cause your computer to run slower. Perhaps I am misunderstanding but if not shortcuts aren't doing anything... I would just up the virtual memory that always has worked for me. While I'm at it I don't agree with this either. Just sitting there he shouldn't be that close to using his virtual memory. His problem is that something is using his ram that shouldn't be and once it is filled his computer is using his harddrive as ram. That's not good. That is not even a solution really because windows will expand his virtual memory when it needs it. J., in your pictures, could you expand the processes tab so that we can see the "Mem usage" section. I will tell you that this might not have anything to do with loading pages slowly (it probably does) but there is something wrong when you're using that much ram doing nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zwitha383 Posted August 18, 2007 Share Posted August 18, 2007 To further stir the pot. I will agree strongly with whoever said that his computer should run pretty well really. It should be completely capable of all the animations and running msn messenger and a slew of other stuff with no problem whatsoever. It's not the small stuff that's getting him, there's something going on. Here's my stuff, notice on the bottom picture my ram usage: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB26powered74zcar Posted August 18, 2007 Author Share Posted August 18, 2007 Well, I've taken in what every one has suggested, and used a little bit of what every one has suggested. My computer seems to be fast as it used to be. The thing is, I don't know yet if what I've done to it has messed up anything. Everything seems to be working. I moved some things, deleted and turned off others.... Here is the task manager expanded as requested: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(goldfish) Posted August 18, 2007 Share Posted August 18, 2007 I like to start in the performance tab in the task manager like shown in 280zwitha383's picture. It shows how much memory is used and if a lot of HD swapping is being done, or something is hogging the cpu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zwitha383 Posted August 18, 2007 Share Posted August 18, 2007 hmmm. You do just have a bunch of junk running. I was expecting to see one program using 300mb of your ram or something like that but there isn't. Install more ram or start over with a fresh install of windows and only install the programs you actually use. I would suggest a fresh install first but both would be best. You just might be amazed. (to reiterate, all those programs that are just running in the background are using your ram (ram is exponentially faster than your harddrive). So once you actually open a fairly large program or multiple programs your computer doesn't have any actual ram left and starts using your harddrive as ram (it starts using your virtual memory). That's why when it's running slow your hd light will be on constantly and you may even hear your harddrive going all over the place trying to read multiple files at once at different places on the disc(s). When was the last time your defragmented you harddrive? You are actually very close to running most of the time on your harddrive. 70mb isn't a whole lot of cushion.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z-hag Posted August 19, 2007 Share Posted August 19, 2007 my lappy was running crappy until i lost my isp----ricochet left sandy acho and i was incommunicado-----i looked around----i am not able to hook up to any cable or satelite service as i do not resider on land or in a house or at a marina.........so i tried various methods of internet hookup-----broadband card is the answer---unless there is free wiifi nearby...........but the ISP is important......some are dead slow.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruez Posted August 19, 2007 Share Posted August 19, 2007 You can download a program called hijackthis that is a nice free tool to get rid of crap that loads at startup, especially spyware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woldson Posted August 19, 2007 Share Posted August 19, 2007 Carefull using hyjackthis you can really screw your computer if you dont know what your doing. If the computer is been in heavy use for a couple of years, consider backing up and reformating! I just got done doing that a week ago, it is always amazing how fast it can go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zwitha383 Posted August 19, 2007 Share Posted August 19, 2007 It's never a bad idea to go through your ad/remove programs in your control panel. If there's something you know you don't use get rid of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z-hag Posted August 19, 2007 Share Posted August 19, 2007 i went thru the same exact thing you are being tortured with..........i did all the geek stuff including restore and then erasing all and starting over-----all i needwed to do was get a reliable connection.......much cheeper than starting over..........try it.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zwitha383 Posted August 19, 2007 Share Posted August 19, 2007 Yeah, some of it could be a slow connection but we know for sure that he's running out of memory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB26powered74zcar Posted August 20, 2007 Author Share Posted August 20, 2007 I give up..... I did mostly everything suggested here for cleaning up my computer, deleted tons of stuff not used, and ran clen up programs. Here is the results, worse than before (ie; Available Physical Memory ) Although everything now runs much faster. I'm very happy with the results as far as speed goes (pages open real quick now). OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600 OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation System Name JOEL-D0F670B45A System Manufacturer Compaq Presario 061 System Model ER978AA-ABA SR1803WM NA620 System Type X86-based PC Processor x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 9 GenuineIntel ~3201 Mhz BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD 3.06, 12/19/2005 SMBIOS Version 2.4 Windows Directory C:WINDOWS System Directory C:WINDOWSsystem32 Boot Device DeviceHarddiskVolume1 Locale United States Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)" User Name JOEL-D0F670B45ACompaq_Owner Time Zone Central Daylight Time Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB Available Physical Memory 63.24 MB Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB Page File Space 2.33 GB Page File C:pagefile.sys No offense intended using the word computer geek I just wanted to grab the attention of you computer gurus. I need basic info in simple (me) terms on what I can do myself, at home, to upgrade my PC's performance. I'm fairly handy with the computer, but I'd call myself a computer dummy, so I need this explained in layman's terms. What can I buy online to install into my existing PC to make it faster (open pages faster, download faster etc.)? This is what I have now: OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600 OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation System Name JOEL-D0F670B45A System Manufacturer Compaq Presario 061 System Model ER978AA-ABA SR1803WM NA620 System Type X86-based PC Processor x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 9 GenuineIntel ~3201 Mhz BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD 3.06, 12/19/2005 SMBIOS Version 2.4 Windows Directory C:WINDOWS System Directory C:WINDOWSsystem32 Boot Device DeviceHarddiskVolume1 Locale United States Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)" User Name JOEL-D0F670B45ACompaq_Owner Time Zone Central Daylight Time Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB Available Physical Memory 77.41 MB Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB Page File Space 1.03 GB Page File C:pagefile.sys What I'm hoping for, is something I can purchase and install myself to make this PC faster and more memory.... What do you think?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
260ZRED Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 who cares about displacement oooops I meant 'memory' if its fast? =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zwitha383 Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 Well if you use all of that stuff (that's running in the background) then you just need more ram. You will notice a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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