Pincher Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 I've got a 3 year old Compaq desktop that just seems to get slower and slower - I have tried CCleaner, Lavasoft etc etc but it doesn't want to know. It running behind a wireless router with built in firewall, has Norton running as well as Windows Defender. Any suggestions? P.S. Only about 50% disk space is used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamD Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 Wipe it and re-install is usually the best bet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 Try regclean - available from http://dw.com.com/redir?pid=881470&m...4_4-881470.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pincher Posted September 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Wipe it and re-install is usually the best bet... [/ QUOTE ] I aasume that means I will have to get all the programs I have downloaded () put back on again though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamD Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 yup, give regclean a go as Shark_90 suggests first though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A8_Tony Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 Pincher, to be honest with your pc being so old, you'll find that most modern software will show how slow your existing system is. The life expectancy of most pc's is about 18-24 months. This is not only due to the speed at which the hardware is improving, but also due to the requirements of most modern software. The two go very much hand in hand. In my opinion, I'd suggest retiring the old pc to some other duty (for the kids perhaps) and investing in a new one. You'll not make the system too much faster by running the above, knowledgeably recommended, software. Particularly if you're using a modern pc at work and this is giving you the benchmark for comparison. Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustynuts Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Try regclean - available from http://dw.com.com/redir?pid=881470&m...4_4-881470.html [/ QUOTE ] It says this is suitable for windows 95, 98, NT. No mention of XP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 well it runs on xp, ive just done it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 Rusty - M$ stopped supporting it a long time ago, but it does still work. I'm an IT man by trade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustynuts Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 I didn't doubt it, just questioning whether it was any use to me. I'll give it a run now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponge Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 I'd ged rid of Norton - always found their stuff to be resource hogs. But if I were you I'd do what Sam suggested - format and reinstall. If it's getting so bad you have to ask about it, it's probably beyond help. It's always a goo idea to do a clean install once in a while anyway. It keeps things fresh. Just don't forget to back up your stuff first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky Posted September 9, 2006 Report Share Posted September 9, 2006 Pincher, pop into DOS, and type the following: Format C: /s This will remove a lot of things and thus improve the speed of the PC! The above advice may not be that accurate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pincher Posted September 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2006 Cheers Tony - I suspected that that may be the case. Shocking that you spend a fortune on something only to find it virtually obsolete in a couple of years!! I might try removing all bits of software that I have accumulated on it that I haven't used for a while and move all pics, videos etc to an external HD. I have a laptop as daily use but a lot of my Business stuff is on the desktop. I'll try the Registry cleaner as well but I would have thought that CCleaner takes car of most of that. I also seem to have an awful lot of stuff as part of Startup that I have no idea what it is - that could be part of the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted September 10, 2006 Report Share Posted September 10, 2006 Mate Go to Start Menu > Run and type msconfig and press enter. This brings up a system window, and one of the tabs is Startup. That will let you turn the things that the computer is running at startup on and off. You can probably interpret what each one is by looking at where the program is starting up from (it shows you.. ie c:\program files\Norton etc) and you can turn off whatever you like. The good thing about that section is that none of the software running in there is necessary for Windows to run, so you can turn off as much or as little as you like. Go through it and turn some things off. If you find that it has shut down a program that you like or need to have running, just go back in and turn it back on. No problem You'll probably find a lot of dross in there that isn't needed at all. And if you find anything that has a program location of "xxxxxx.exe" instead of "c:\program files\norton" etc then turn it off. Same goes for things residing in the "c:\windows" or "c:\windows\system32" directory. Many viruses/trojans/adware type programs stick themselves in the directories that make them sound important for exactly that reason - so they sound important and people are less likely to try and delete them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pincher Posted September 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2006 Cheers Ben - will give it a go tonight Stand by for PM's with screenshots You wouldn't think I work in IT as well would you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted September 10, 2006 Report Share Posted September 10, 2006 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pincher Posted September 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2006 Sorry Ben! Looks like tomorrow now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R32North Posted September 11, 2006 Report Share Posted September 11, 2006 I have to say that my PC (5 years old) was running like a dog so I up'd the RAM to 1.3 GBs and now it flys. I have 20GB system disk and a 120GB data disk. Some cleaning, tidying and got Norton to f*** and now its pretty quick for an obsolete box!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colmartin Posted September 12, 2006 Report Share Posted September 12, 2006 In my opinion it all comes down to what you do with a system as to if it actually needs replacing. I tend to do a clean install of windows as a first action because even on new systems, a poorly configured system will be fairly slow. After installing a clean install of Windows, you should do the following: Make sure you have the latest drivers for your hardware as this can have an impact on performance, Use MSConfig to disable any unwanted apps from starting at start-up (this can have a dramatic impact on older systems) If you have 2 hard drives installed, move the page file to the second drive. Make sure your Spyware is up to date (if you don’t have any, install some!) Run Scan Disk and Defrag tools regularly Finally, if you have an old system, you might get a small performance boost by installing some more ram, but I’d only do this if you can get it cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted September 13, 2006 Report Share Posted September 13, 2006 Keep your discs formatted to NTFS too - much quicker and better than FAT32. Also, NTFS doesn't need defragging Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colmartin Posted September 13, 2006 Report Share Posted September 13, 2006 I have all my drives set to NTFS but they still need a defrag from time to time. Going totally off topic for a second and rather technical but there is a point to this... on my SQL 2000 Server course, they informed us if we were using a Object Oriented database doing a defrag on your drive will screw up the db because it uses the file allocation table as a reference to the data location which it stores in the DB, doing a defrag moves the data but because the move has been done outside of the DB it can no longer find the information. Would this not suggest it is normal practise to defrag on an NTFS partition, and that it does have an effect? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted September 13, 2006 Report Share Posted September 13, 2006 Not sure to be honest, but I've never found it necessary to defrag an NTFS volume, and I have read literature saying that it's just not necessary and to let it do it's own thing. To me defragging a drive is something Computer Shopper used to tell Windows 95 users to do. I'm not having a go, but do you see what I mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waylander Posted September 13, 2006 Report Share Posted September 13, 2006 switched my sister's creaking old laptop for Norton to Nod32 and I was so suprised by the improvement I switched myself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted September 13, 2006 Report Share Posted September 13, 2006 Yes, for the record Norton is complete bobbins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colmartin Posted September 14, 2006 Report Share Posted September 14, 2006 I'll second Nod32, it's very reliable and also uses very little system resources (which is why I went for it) I've been told that Dell ship it with some of their servers now so it's got to be fairly good. Quickly going back to the NTFS and Defrag, there is a company called DisKeeper, they are a Microsoft Gold Partner and their app is designed for use on Windows Server 2003, XP and NT 4.0 (all of which are NTFS) It is quite a common misconception that you don't need to defrag NTFS but in my mind it is nothing more than a misconception! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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