Slow Computer -- Grrrrrrr

[Kayos]

This is my home computer which seems to have gotten slow. It is 6 years old.

Dell Dimension 4550
256 ram
Pentium 4 cpu 2.40
Service Pack 2
AVG anti-virus
ad-aware

only about 4 gb used for photos and songs, no videos or other really huge files on the computer.

Says I have 70% free space on my hard drive

Bought a new printer recently and have it hooked up through 802.11 as well as a cable to this desktop. My 2 laptops are fast and work fine. It is especially bad when I open Word or try to do anything when a job is printing. I did all the regular things...delete temp files, erase cookies...etc...

Any other diagnostics I could try? Suggestions?

 

[buckeyebrewer]

More RAM!!!!!!! Install another gig....that should speed things up.

 

[EdWort]

More Ram and a fresh install of the OS.

 

[Cakehole]

Definately more RAM. You will see a huge increase in performance with 1 or 2 GB. Might also set up regular defragging and see if that helps speed up things a bit.

 

[scottthorn]

As everyone else has said - you do not have sufficient RAM to do, well, much of anything! I do desktop support at a university and we are hesitant to load XP on any computer with only 256MB of RAM knowing there will be performance issues.

RAM might be cheap for you, though there are some types that cost an arm and a leg. If you can buy it at a good price, I strongly recommend you max out what your motherboard will handle. Your PC will seem so fast compared to it's current state that you might want to wear a helmet!

Try newegg.com or crucial.com. Good luck!

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

+1 on newegg.com. I've used them for all my personal computing needs, plus I've built 5-6 servers with parts from them as well. They have the most competitive prices on the web, great shipping times, and a huge selection of products. They also have a nice rating and review feature which makes it easy to find quality products.

The Dimension 4500 series uses DDR PC2700 RAM, and there is still plenty of stock of this on newegg. I've used the Kingston Value series on some of our older desktops at work and never had a problem. Check out this link here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144202. This is only a single stick of 512MB which is only $22 and should be plenty for simple internet, word processing, etc. If you want to run many programs at once, do games, video/picture editing, etc you'll want to get at least 1GB which runs $45-50.
Crucial 1GB: $43.99
Kingston 1GB: $49.99

 

[k1v1116]

gentoo linux will speed things up but you need to know a lot about linux before you can try that. more ram and maybe a serial ATA addin card and a 10,000 rpm sata hard drive will help a lot along with the ram. the good thing about the addin card and the harddrive is that they will transfer over to any new computer you buy and offer the same speed improvements.

 

[Kayos]

Wow, what awesome and fast responses!!!

Well, I will get a gig of internal ram today. While I got you all "on the line" the reason this all came up is because I am buying a hdd camera. I am assuming I need an external hard drive for it. I am thinking 400-500gb. Anyone have recommendations for or against one? Seems like they would all be the same to me. It's just memory, right? Go for the cheapest?

 

[budbo]

All you need is RAM da da da da da....

Pop 2 gigs of RAM in it and it will be fine, 256m is on the minimum end of XP SP2

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Wow, what awesome and fast responses!!!

Well, I will get a gig of internal ram today. While I got you all "on the line" the reason this all came up is because I am buying a hdd camera. I am assuming I need an external hard drive for it. I am thinking 400-500gb. Anyone have recommendations for or against one? Seems like they would all be the same to me. It's just memory, right? Go for the cheapest?

You don't need an external drive with an HDD camera, the drive is inside the camera itself. However, an external drive is a great investment, and you can use it for backing up important files from your computer as well! I personally like the Western Digital brand, but Seagate is great company too - they are both hard drive manufacturers. If it were me I would go for a 750GB drive rather than the 500GB since it is only about $40 more. Check out these ones (again from newegg):

Western Digital 750GB: $164.99
Seagate FreeAgent 750GB: $168.99

The 500GB versions of those will run about $110-$130. Both of these brands have software that comes with the drive that will help you schedule backups, and copy files from your computer. The other route, if you are technically inclined is to buy an enclosure (just the box), and then buy the bare hard drive. It's not very hard to put together and you can save 25-50 bucks doing it your self. The only downside is that you don't have built-in software. Hope this helps!

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

... Seems like they would all be the same to me. It's just memory, right? Go for the cheapest?

I usually stick with Micron/Crucial, Kingston, Corsair on my memory purchases. However, sometimes there are memory modules on there with 95% 5 out of 5 ratings on Newegg. If you get that high of a rating, I tend to take a chance on the product especially if the price is right.

 

[Jekster]

I'm guessing your computer is also bogged down by spyware. Follow the steps on the following page to make sure you computer is clean of any programs that could be unwontedly sucking resources.

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Must-Read-Before-Posting-Hijackthis-Log-t2852.html

 

[ScubaSteve]

tigerdirect.com sometimes hassome sweet deals...especially on LCD's and flash memory. Not bad on the PC stuff either. PC's are way cheaper to build....you might also find something else (new motherboard/cpu) that's affordable.

 

[skier!]

First off to everyone recommending he drop in 2 gbs of ram it's more than unlikely his mother board will not support that if his computer is 6 years old.

Most the model number of your computer so we can look at maximum memory configuration.

In the meantime I would highly recommend you download this and clean up your PC:
www.ccleaner.com

 

[EdWort]

You can't beat FDISK and a fresh install of the operating system. Once you do that, get all the updates installed, then your applications that you use, then image it with R-Drive Image from www.drive-image.com.

Keep all your data on a separate partition or a USB hard drive.

After 6 months of installing and unstalling stuff, surfing the net, the system slows to a crawl. Just toast the system and reinstall the image in about 5-10 minutes. It will run super fast like a new computer but without all the bloated code accumulated on it.

I reinstall my OS every 4 months, just because.

 

[Kayos]

I use ad-aware and also spybot. Those don't seem to help. I also use registry mechanic.

As far as the hdd camera, I need the hard drive for saving videos, not because the camera requires it, but the space makes it necessary.

Model is Dell Dimension 4550

 

[budbo]

I reinstall my OS every 4 months, just because.

Wow, I don't have the patience for that I just clean up the registry every 3 months

 

[Kayos]

Dell states the number of slots is "2", and the max memory is 1024.

 

[EdWort]

Wow, I don't have the patience for that I just clean up the registry every 3 months

Since my data is on a different drive and my bookmarks are backed up with Foxmarks, it only takes about 5 minutes to completely refresh the system.

The registry is very clean, all traces of malware, spyware, bsware and other crap are gone and the drive is defragged completely in the process.

 

[EdWort]

Dell states the number of slots is "2", and the max memory is 1024.

I'm guessing you have a 533 Mhz front side bus. If that is so, Crucial can hook you up for $27.99 per 512 MB stick.

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=750ED13FA5CA7304

They are a great company to deal with.

 

[Homercidal]

+1 on the spyware. It can... no it WILL make your computer run slowly. It can be very hard to get rid of too. If you really want to speed up the system, add the RAM and do a re-install. There is stuff out there that will not get fixed with any cleaning software, unless you have tons of experience and also go in manually and delete, sometimes with a shell CD, like Barts PE.

I highly recommend the re-install, and then use a good anti-virus. Free ones like AVG and NOD32 are good. You can also use AVG's free anti-spyware to help keep them away. Most of all use a personal firewall, like ZoneAlarm. Free for home use.

I have had my OS installed for YEARS and with careful surfing and proper protection I am still clean (except that one time I downloaded a reg key generator, and even then I installed when My virus scan software warned me about it... I REALLY wanted to play that game! Well, a few hours of cleaning got me back on track, but I shouldn't have run it in the first place)

Spyware is everywhere today. Trust me, if you can do a backup of your data, reload the OS and you will be happy afterwards.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

+1 on the spyware. It can... no it WILL make your computer run slowly. It can be very hard to get rid of too. If you really want to speed up the system, add the RAM and do a re-install. There is stuff out there that will not get fixed with any cleaning software, unless you have tons of experience and also go in manually and delete, sometimes with a shell CD, like Barts PE.

I highly recommend the re-install, and then use a good anti-virus. Free ones like AVG and NOD32 are good. You can also use AVG's free anti-spyware to help keep them away. Most of all use a personal firewall, like ZoneAlarm. Free for home use.

I have had my OS installed for YEARS and with careful surfing and proper protection I am still clean (except that one time I downloaded a reg key generator, and even then I installed when My virus scan software warned me about it... I REALLY wanted to play that game! Well, a few hours of cleaning got me back on track, but I shouldn't have run it in the first place)

Spyware is everywhere today. Trust me, if you can do a backup of your data, reload the OS and you will be happy afterwards.

+1 on the Nod32 antivirus/antispyware program. I ran this on my home computer for a while and liked it so much I bought it for the company I work for. It's running on 7 servers (Server 2003), and 15+ workstations running XP Pro, and Vista Business and no problems in over 4 months. It is very lightweight and non-invasive, and comes with a reasonable price. IMHO, much better than the big names out there.

 

[JVD_X]

Nix my last comment about adding memory. Seriously... SIX years old? My god... was Nixon President when you bought that computer? Do you have to ask granny to milk the sheep before you can have breakfast? Is Columbus your cousin? Is the gold rush still on in Cali?

Just pulling your leg of course... but...Just get a new PC.

You can get a really decent PC (when compared to what you are using now) @ bestbuy for $300 plus another $50 for another gig of RAM.

 

[malkore]

First off to everyone recommending he drop in 2 gbs of ram it's more than unlikely his mother board will not support that if his computer is 6 years old.

Most the model number of your computer so we can look at maximum memory configuration.

Not to mention if he's planning to EDIT video on this machine, he'll want more RAM.

I used to do a bit of editing for fun, and working with uncompressed DV format video is a HUGE load on the RAM and CPU.

honestly I probably wouldn't use a 6 year old PC for video editing.

 

[Kayos]

Just to update

I got a 512 stick to add to my 256 WOW! What a difference! Thanks for the great responses, guys!

I have 2 other laptops that are much newer that I will be doing all of my editing and video stuff on, I just wanted the 500g ext. hard drive for storing the edited videos on.

BTW....does anyone else think it is just rediculous that a 6 year old computer is thought of as prehistoric? We get a interest free computer loan every 3 years and I have done it for the past 3 computers straight. It just seems wrong that if I am not replacing the last computer with a new loan it is outdated. Crazy stuff. I better go invest in some tech stocks now.


Thanks again, all!

 

[scottthorn]

Work: We buy all our PCs from Dell with a three year warranty. Once the hardware is no longer covered it's time to consider a replacement.

Home: Take an old PC and beef it up with as much RAM as you can and then assign it a purpose. I've got one for editing audio (I record live concerts), one for multimedia playback, another for browsing the web/general use, and one for uploads/downloads/torrents (distribution of my recordings - not stealing!). If you keep the software installed to a minimum, you can still squeeze a lot of life out of an old computer.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

I dropped $390 to build a new desktop.... Building a computer is ridiculously easy. After reading a few tutorials and spending a day researching compatibility (something that any tech-savvy friend could've explained to me in less than 30 minutes), I built my computer in just a few hours out of parts ordered from Newegg.

Specs (and approx price):
Intel e2180 1.8GHz dual core ($100)
2 gigs of DDR2 6400 ($40 after rebate)
Gigabyte GA33M-S2 Mobo ($80)
160Gig SATA HD ($60)
nVidia GeFroce 8 series video card ($60)
UltraFly Micro Case ($50)

Basically, I bought the best values I could find. End result is a blazing fast Linux machine. Best of all though, I bought a motherboard that will allow some upgrade potential. For instance...

Recently, I had a program that lagged for about a half of a second when bringing it up from being minimized (oh the horror!), so I bought 4Gigs of RAM for the computer and can upgrade to 8 later on if I wind up using a 64bit OS.

The Intel e2180 is overclocked (perfectly stable) to 2.9GHz. And when it ceases to be adequate, I can drop a faster chip, or a quadcore in there for nothing more than the cost of the chip.

It has 4 SATA connections, so I don't need to swap other HD's when I fill this one up... just add a second one... and a third... and a fourth. This machine is about 6 months old now and I recently added another 750G Hard drive. That should last me awhile.

That's my mantra when building/buying computers now. It needs to be good by today's standards and I need to be able to at least double the performance with simple swaps. Of course, this eliminates all the Dell/Gateway/etc computers from consideration, but it's the price I pay for being able to make heavy-duty upgrades for a hundred bucks or so at a time...

I figure by the time I need 8 Gigs of RAM, they'll cost about $80 for another 2 sticks of 2Gig RAM. I figure by the time a quadcore makes sense, I'll get one for under $150. And I can already get a better video card for $100.. I just don't need it yet.

 

[ScubaSteve]

+1 on building the desktop. Best kept secret.....and you learn quite a bit in the process. LCD's are on sale all the time for dirt cheap.....so you can still have a streamlined setup. I can't wait for the day that we can start building laptops. They are soooooo overpriced and frequently unreliable/need special attention from a tech. Really, if they had a standard size case/LCD, you could slide in whatever upgrades you'd like. I can't see why this wouldn't be possible, except that the companies are looking to limit compatibility in search of sales/ price gouging.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

I've been building my own PC's for personal use for almost 10 years now. I started doing this because 10 years ago you couldn't find a computer capable of running the newest games for a decent price. This is still true to an extent, but my main reason for still building my own computers is the ability to upgrade. If you stay on top of the technology you can buy the parts which will enable you to upgrade for years. After the initial investment, if you just upgrade one component every year or so your computer will still be a great performer. I just sold a 5 year old computer to a friend for $300 bucks. You'd think at 5 years old the thing would be slow and out of date. However, this machine has a dual core 2.4ghz CPU, 3GB RAM, 500GB SATA hard drives, and a nice 256mb video card. I started with a good motherboard that I could add on to, and put about 100-200 into the computer every year. It's my budget way of always having a fast computer, and not having to drop $1000 all at one time...or go in debt to some bank for it.

Like others have said, assembling the components of a computer is pretty easy. The hard part, if you're not experienced, is installing the operating system and device drivers. For instance, it takes me about 30-45 minutes to assemble a new computer...and about 2 hours to install the O/S and drivers. Add more time on that if you have a lot of data to transfer from your old computer, or want to install a lot of other applications. Many people think the time spent is not worth it, but I think it's a lot like brewing your own beer. Yes, you spend more time, and perhaps even more money than a store-bought product. However, if you do it yourself you get a product which is superior and tailored to your own desires.

 

[capntang]

I have also opted to build my own in the past - for the past 10-12 years or so. I recently had to replace my aging desktop, and while I could have built my own, I opted to go for a Dell. I only needed a low-end Desktop (actually the specs were very similar to Sir Humpsalot's - E2180, 2GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, DVD-RW). The advantage with the Dell was the included 20" widescreen flat panel monitor. I got it all for $379 plus tax.

I sold the monitor on Craigslist along with my ancient Dell 2000FP 20". Officemax was selling a Soyo 24" MPVA-based flat panel for $350, so I picked up one of those with the proceeds from the sale of the other two monitors. All in all, I got the computer and a surprisingly decent 24" flat panel for less than $450 total.

If you didn't need a monitor, you could sell the included LCD display on Craigslist and come out of a deal like that with a $200 computer. There's just no way to build a computer like that for $200.

Higher-end systems are another issue entirely. If you're gaming or something, you'll almost always come out ahead by building it yourself.

 

[NitrouStang96]

More Ram and a fresh install of the OS.

I reinstall my OS every 4 months, just because.

Listen to this guy, he knows what he's talking about. There a lot of things that will add up to a fast computer, but your bottleneck was clearly your RAM. And a fresh OS install is, unfortunately, paramount to keeping most people's computers up to speed, especially on a low RAM, single-core machine.

BTW....does anyone else think it is just rediculous that a 6 year old computer is thought of as prehistoric?

No. One year old is middle aged, 2 years old is WAY over the hill, and 6 is definitely prehistoric

The prehistoric machine is all you need for a lot of things though, and is completely sufficient for a lot of tasks. Video editing, however, is not one of them. My parents are rolling an old machine and it's just fine for them. Half gig of RAM, 1.6GHz AMD Sempron. I wouldn't want to do anything but basic cutting for web videos on it - render times would certainly be horrendous.

 

[skier!]

... End result is a blazing fast Linux machine...

Just keeping the hardware constant and just moving to Linux you are going to have a faster machine. Linux isn't for everyone but there are some good distros out now for users who have decent skills such as Ubuntu.

I have two identical laptops each has 2 GB RAM and 2.2 ghz Core II duo processor. One running Ubuntu and the other XP and the Ubuntu laptop will destroy the XP laptop in terms of performance.

Linux is much "lighter" and less bloated when booted compared to XP.