What can I do for regualr PC maintenance

[Guest]

Hi,

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop running windows XP SP2. It's 2+ years old
and is slowing down and showing it's age. I would like to know what can I do
to bring it back to its performance when it was fresh out of the box.....

I regularly run programs like ccleaner, lavasoft and have av set up (AVG). I
also run programs like defrag etc.

Is there anything else I can do? Would it be worthwhile re-installing
windows XP etc.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Regards

Djuro

 

[Ed Metcalfe]

Hi,

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop running windows XP SP2. It's 2+ years
old
and is slowing down and showing it's age. I would like to know what can I
do
to bring it back to its performance when it was fresh out of the box.....

I regularly run programs like ccleaner, lavasoft and have av set up (AVG).
I
also run programs like defrag etc.

Is there anything else I can do? Would it be worthwhile re-installing
windows XP etc.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Regards

Djuro

Is it worthwhile reinstalling Windows? It will certainly be faster after
you've done it, and then you'll start reinstalling all your applications and
you'll be back where you started. Reinstalling Windows is rarely necessary
and certainly not for performance improvements.

I'd recommend checking what applications are running on startup and removing
unwanted ones. AutoRuns and Process Explorer are useful for this. Startup
Inspector is less comprehensive but easier to use.

Ed Metcalfe.

 

[Gerry]

Have you check whether you still have programmes installed you no longer
need?

Have you checked whether you need all the programmes loading on booting
the computer to load?

Use Autoruns to find any unwanted start ups!
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in
the System and Application logs in Event Viewer for the last boot. No
Information Reports or Duplicates please. Indicate which also appear in
a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you
should double click for further information. You can copy using copy
and paste. Often the link will, however, say there is no further
information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

Hi,

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop running windows XP SP2. It's 2+ years old
and is slowing down and showing it's age. I would like to know what can I do
to bring it back to its performance when it was fresh out of the box.....

I regularly run programs like ccleaner, lavasoft and have av set up (AVG). I
also run programs like defrag etc.

Is there anything else I can do? Would it be worthwhile re-installing
windows XP etc.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Regards

Djuro

Two links where you might find lots of thoughts:

"5 ways to speed up your PC":
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx

"Performance Tweaks":
http://www.tweakxp.com/performance_tweaks.aspx

Regards,
Ka2H