Computer too slow for my liking.

[Johnw]

Sal_55 formulated the question :

Anyone know if I can somehow increase the size of the virtual memory?
Or any good progams which can speed up my computer?

One thing we need to know, is the slowness new?

You can play around in here, I personally use these settings, but it
depends on you own requiements, mine are very basic.
Performance
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6346-5032840.html
Right-click "My Computer", then "Properties".
Choose the "Advanced" tab. Under "Performance" click "Settings".
In Visual Effects, click on Custom & untick everything, except these 2 >
Smooth edges of screen fonts & Use visual styles on windows and buttons
( Default has everything ticked, except > Smooth edges of screen fonts
)
Click Apply & then OK.
Advanced
I select Programs for both.
Change
I use > System managed size

 

[mike]

Sal_55

As many have said, increase the RAM and that will make the largest speed
improvement. I would go with a min. of 512meg.

As far as increasing the amount of Virtual Memory goes, this may help a
little bit if it was manually set too low or too high.

I'd like to understand how this helps. If virtual memory is big enough,
it is as big as it needs to be. If it's too small, it increases itself,
or the system refuses to load anything else.
There have been some threads suggesting that one should defrag the
virtual memory and set min and max numbers the same to reduce overhead.
But that relates
to getting stuff on/off the drive quickly and not the actual size of the VM.

Keep in mind that what virtual memory does is use your hard drive in place
of RAM. A hard drive is many, many times slower than RAM so it will not give
you a great increase in the speed of operation of your programs. Using
virtual memory can be a bit tricky. You must balance between what is best
for running the software and OS with the amount of available hard drive
space. Unless you know what you are doing, it's best to let the OS controll
the amount of virtual memory. If you try to set it yourself, you could
actually slow down the machine.

OK, but there's been lots of discussion about manually setting VM
speeding up things.

Many factors come into play when adjusting

 

[Johnw]

Sal_55 explained :

But the computer still lags when I run about 3 processes at the same time.

Fast User Switching and Automatic Updating
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1153279,00.asp
http://www.petri.co.il/disable_fast_user_switching_in_xp_pro.htm
Available on XP Home Edition and on Professional when it's not part of
a domain, fast user switching lets users of the same computer switch
between accounts without logging off. It's a great feature when Mom,
Dad and the twins all share the same computer, but keeping multiple
user accounts active is a burden to a PC's memory usage.
When more than one user is logged on, each user's settings remain
active and the programs activated through his or her account remain
open--even if someone switches to another user account. Sally left
Word, Excel and Barbie Fashion Designer open and Bobby comes along,
switches over to his account and attempts to play Red Faction, he will
notice a definite degradation in performance compared to the last time
he played it when Sally wasn't logged in.
Windows XP automatically disables fast user switching during
installation if the computer has 64MB of RAM or less. For best
performance, make sure only one user is logged in at a time, and if
that becomes a nuisance, disable the feature altogether: go to Control
Panel\User Accounts, click the "Change the way users log on or off"
button, and uncheck "Use Fast User Switching".

 

[Johnw]

Sal_55 laid this down on his screen :

I know some of you will say that in order to run many
programs at the same time I need to upgrade to a better machine, but
currently due to disablity this is the only computer I can afford.

Ok, here is more of my info, sorry about the volume of stuff, but as
you are on a budget, these all help.

Disable Indexing Services
http://www.tweakxp.com/tweakxp/display.asp?id=1335
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html
Indexing services is a small program that hogs HUGE amounts of RAM and
can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process
indexing and updates lists of the files on your system, so you can
search for them quickly, but it's completely unnecessary.
To disable it, go to the Control Panel and click Add or Remove
Programs. Click the Add/Remove Window Components. Simply untick the
Indexing services and click Next!
And,
1. Browse to your hard drive either through Windows Explorer or through
My Computer.
2. Right click your hard drive icon and select Properties.
3. At the bottom of this window you'll see "Allow Indexing Service to
index this disk for fast file searching," turn this feature off for all
of your drives by unchecking the box and clicking Apply.
4. After that a window will appear, Select "Apply changes to subfolders
and files". If any files can not be updated select "Ignore All".
===================================
How to Disable the Find Fast Indexer
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q158705
8. THE TRUTH ABOUT FIND FAST
http://www.remainsecure.com/whitepapers/hacking/mshidden.htm
=====================================
Not networking, this will help.
1) Control Panel -> Internet Options
2) Connections tab
3) LAN Settings
4) Uncheck "Automatically Detect Settings"
=======================================
http://www.technobabble.com.au/technobabble/html/tweaks/access.htm
http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=145&dPage=3
Just like Windows 2000, Windows XP still fails to set the DMA mode
correctly for the IDE device designated as the slaves on the primary
IDE and secondary IDE channels. Most CD-ROMS are capable of supporting
DMA mode, but the default in XP is still PIO. Setting it to DMA won't
make your CD-ROM faster, but it will consume less CPU cycles. Here's
how:
Open the Device Manager. One way to do that is to right-click on "My
Computer", select the Hardware tab, and select Device Manager.
Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and double-click on "Primary IDE
Channel".
Under the "Advanced Settings" tab, check the "Device 1" setting. More
than likely, your current transfer mode is set to PIO.
Set it to "DMA if available".
Repeat the step for the "Secondary IDE Channel" if you have devices
attached to it. Reboot.
Enabling DMA in XP
http://www.blackmaxpc.com/Guides/DMA.htm
http://www.xtremepccentral.com/foru...9/2002/05/1/885
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/tech/storage/IDE-DMA.asp
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7625
http://www.optorite.com/manual/English/manual/dma.htm
Problems enabling DMA in XP
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6645
http://www.compguysinc.com/techweb/hardware/dma66.shtml
If the computer persists on having only PIO after reboot even though
the hard drive is a flashing super-duper ATA133 and transfer mode set
to “DMA if availableâ€, then you have to do the following:
Remove the primary device in the device manager and reboot! Voilà, now
the harddrive should be running in DMA mode.
Repeat on the secondary IDE channel if necessary.
=======================================
Disable XP support for zip files
http://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/022654.html
http://www.technobabble.com.au/technobabble/html/tweaks/access.htm
Windows XP has built-in support for .ZIP files, so that you can view
them as normal folders. However, the system uses a sizeable portion of
resources doing this, so disabling this feature can increase
performance. It's easy to do, you just have to un-register the
zipfldr.dll, by going to Start -> Run... Copy & Paste > regsvr32 /u
zipfldr.dll < then press Enter. You should see a message telling you
the command was succesfully applied.
========================================
Simple File Sharing is enabled by default if your computer is NOT a
member of a domain
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307874
http://home.earthlink.net/~lreynol929/ruXP/NetSec/simplshr.htm
http://www.chicagotech.net/sfs.htm
To disable Simple File Sharing:
1. Start > My Computer > Tools > Folder Options.
2. Select the View tab.
3. Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) box in the Advanced
Settings area.
4. Press Apply and OK.
How to Disable Simple File Sharing in Windows XP Home Edition
http://www.wikihow.com/Disable-Simple-File-Sharing-in-Windows-XP-Home-Edition
===========================================
Unknown hard drive activity.
Right click an empty part of your desktop > Properties > Display
Properties > Desktop > Customize Desktop > Desktop Items.
Down the bottom of that screen, uncheck > Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard
every 60 days.
=======================================
Auto Delete Temporary Folder
http://www.tweakxp.com/display.aspx?id=2021
First go into gpedit.msc ( only available in the Pro version of XP )
Start > Run, copy & paste > gpedit.msc & press Enter
Next select -> Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates >
Windows Components > Terminal Services > Temporary folders.
Then right click "Do Not Delete Temp Folder Upon Exit"
Go to properties and hit Disabled.
Now next time Windows puts a temp file in that folder it will
automatically delete it when its done!
=======================================
Make icons in Windows appear quicker
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320138
http://www.totalxp.com/networkfolders.htm
In Windows XP everytime you open My Computer to browse folders XP
automatically searches for network files and printers. This causes a
delay in displaying your icons. You probably see the "default" windows
icon and as you scroll it changes to the correct icon. This is how to
stop that...
1. Open My Computer
2. Click on the Tools menu and select Folder Options...
3. Under Folder Options select the View tab.
4. Uncheck the very first box that reads "Automatically search for
network folders and printers".
5. Click "Apply" or "OK"
You should see a dramatic increase in speed when Windows displays your
icons.

 

[Johnw]

Sal_55 brought next idea :

I know some of you will say that in order to run many
programs at the same time I need to upgrade to a better machine, but
currently due to disablity this is the only computer I can afford.

Doing this in between watching footy, these are worth doing, everything
I have given you I have done myself on XP Pro, 2.8 GHz & 1 gb of ram.

If your computer is NOT a laptop/notebook then you can stop Hibernate.
Hibernation, reserves disk space equal to your RAM.
http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=145&dPage=5
The mysterious hiberfil.sys
http://www.softwarepatch.com/tips/hiberfil-sys-xp.html
===========================================
For those that may notice that Select All, includes Prefetch, there are
some occasions when you have to clean prefetch, this is one of them.
ATF Cleaner
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Secure-cleaning/ATF-Cleaner.shtml
http://www.atribune.org/
http://www.atribune.org/content/view/25/2/
Forum
http://www.atribune.org/forums/
This program is for Windows 98/ME/2K/XP and Vista!
Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program.
Under Main choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
If you use Firefox browser
Click Firefox at the top and choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please
click No at the prompt.
If you use Opera browser
Click Opera at the top and choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please
click No at the prompt.
Click Exit on the Main menu to close the program.
For Technical Support, double-click the e-mail address located at the
bottom of each menu.
This will remove all files from the items that are checked so if you
have some cookies you'd like to save. please move them to a different
directory first.

 

[Sal_55]

Sal_55 laid this down on his screen :


Ok, here is more of my info, sorry about the volume of stuff, but as
you are on a budget, these all help.

Disable Indexing Serviceshttp://www.tweakxp.com/tweakxp/display.asp?id=1335http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html
Indexing services is a small program that hogs HUGE amounts of RAM and
can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process
indexing and updates lists of the files on your system, so you can
search for them quickly, but it's completely unnecessary.
To disable it, go to the Control Panel and click Add or Remove
Programs. Click the Add/Remove Window Components. Simply untick the
Indexing services and click Next!
And,
1. Browse to your hard drive either through Windows Explorer or through
My Computer.
2. Right click your hard drive icon and select Properties.
3. At the bottom of this window you'll see "Allow Indexing Service to
index this disk for fast file searching," turn this feature off for all
of your drives by unchecking the box and clicking Apply.
4. After that a window will appear, Select "Apply changes to subfolders
and files". If any files can not be updated select "Ignore All".
===================================
How to Disable the Find Fast Indexerhttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q158705
8. THE TRUTH ABOUT FIND FASThttp://www.remainsecure.com/whitepapers/hacking/mshidden.htm
=====================================
Not networking, this will help.
1) Control Panel -> Internet Options
2) Connections tab
3) LAN Settings
4) Uncheck "Automatically Detect Settings"
=======================================http://www.technobabble.com.au/tech....com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=145&dPage=3
Just like Windows 2000, Windows XP still fails to set the DMA mode
correctly for the IDE device designated as the slaves on the primary
IDE and secondary IDE channels. Most CD-ROMS are capable of supporting
DMA mode, but the default in XP is still PIO. Setting it to DMA won't
make your CD-ROM faster, but it will consume less CPU cycles. Here's
how:
Open the Device Manager. One way to do that is to right-click on "My
Computer", select the Hardware tab, and select Device Manager.
Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and double-click on "Primary IDE
Channel".
Under the "Advanced Settings" tab, check the "Device 1" setting. More
than likely, your current transfer mode is set to PIO.
Set it to "DMA if available".
Repeat the step for the "Secondary IDE Channel" if you have devices
attached to it. Reboot.
Enabling DMA in XPhttp://www.blackmaxpc.com/Guides/DMA.htmht...ww.optorite.com/manual/English/manual/dma.htm
Problems enabling DMA in XPhttp://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6645http://www.compguysinc.com/techweb/hardware/dma66.shtml
If the computer persists on having only PIO after reboot even though
the hard drive is a flashing super-duper ATA133 and transfer mode set
to "DMA if available", then you have to do the following:
Remove the primary device in the device manager and reboot! Voilà, now
the harddrive should be running in DMA mode.
Repeat on the secondary IDE channel if necessary.
=======================================
Disable XP support for zip fileshttp://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML...le.com.au/technobabble/html/tweaks/access.htm
Windows XP has built-in support for .ZIP files, so that you can view
them as normal folders. However, the system uses a sizeable portion of
resources doing this, so disabling this feature can increase
performance. It's easy to do, you just have to un-register the
zipfldr.dll, by going to Start -> Run... Copy & Paste > regsvr32 /u
zipfldr.dll < then press Enter. You should see a message telling you
the command was succesfully applied.
========================================
Simple File Sharing is enabled by default if your computer is NOT a
member of a domainhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/307874http://home.earthlink.net/~lreynol929/ruXP/NetSec/simplshr.htmhttp://www.chicagotech.net/sfs.htm
To disable Simple File Sharing:
1. Start > My Computer > Tools > Folder Options.
2. Select the View tab.
3. Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) box in the Advanced
Settings area.
4. Press Apply and OK.
How to Disable Simple File Sharing in Windows XP Home Editionhttp://www.wikihow.com/Disable-Simple-File-Sharing-in-Windows-XP-Home...
===========================================
Unknown hard drive activity.
Right click an empty part of your desktop > Properties > Display
Properties > Desktop > Customize Desktop > Desktop Items.
Down the bottom of that screen, uncheck > Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard
every 60 days.
=======================================
Auto Delete Temporary Folderhttp://www.tweakxp.com/display.aspx?id=2021
First go into gpedit.msc ( only available in the Pro version of XP )
Start > Run, copy & paste > gpedit.msc & press Enter
Next select -> Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates >
Windows Components > Terminal Services > Temporary folders.
Then right click "Do Not Delete Temp Folder Upon Exit"
Go to properties and hit Disabled.
Now next time Windows puts a temp file in that folder it will
automatically delete it when its done!
=======================================
Make icons in Windows appear quickerhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/320138http://www.totalxp.com/networkfolders.htm
In Windows XP everytime you open My Computer to browse folders XP
automatically searches for network files and printers. This causes a
delay in displaying your icons. You probably see the "default" windows
icon and as you scroll it changes to the correct icon. This is how to
stop that...
1. Open My Computer
2. Click on the Tools menu and select Folder Options...
3. Under Folder Options select the View tab.
4. Uncheck the very first box that reads "Automatically search for
network folders and printers".
5. Click "Apply" or "OK"
You should see a dramatic increase in speed when Windows displays your
icons.

Thanks for the all the advice folks. you're so kind.
If I do an anti-virus/spyware/defragmention etc, then immediately
afterwards
the system runs quite quickly. But within about 24 hours the system
slows down again.
I know this suggests I should set automatic defragmentation,
antispyware checks to run
every night,but I can't be bothered to do that. So until I can buy
some more RAM, I think
I will have to find a program that enhances the speed of my computer.
In the past
System Mechanic has done quite a good job,but I wonder if there's an
even better
program out now?
When I say that when I run 3 proceses or so, the system runs slow,
it's not only that.
For example,when you minimize Realplayer, it should minimize almost
immediately,
and this happens most of the time, but sometimes it takes 1 whole
minute (!) for the
program to minimise.
Maybe I'm expecting too much, but this is the kind of performance
you'd expect from
one of those old Pentium 120 MHz computers, not a 1.5 GHz one. I'm not
really into
conspiracy theories, but I wonder if there's some top-secret cartel
which is ensuring
computers keep on crashing, in order for them to keep selling
customers newer and
newer,better and faster machines. I mean, televisions don't crash like
computers.
Thanks again and sorry for the conspiracy theory.

 

[Johnw]

Sal_55 explained :

I will have to find a program that enhances the speed of my computer.
In the past
System Mechanic has done quite a good job,but I wonder if there's an
even better
program out now?

Hav'nt used it myself, you can try this one.

Advanced WindowsCare Personal
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/Advanced-WindowsCare.shtml
http://www.iobit.com/
http://www.iobit.com/WindowsCare.htm

 

[Johnw]

Sal_55 explained on 20/03/2008 :

I mean, televisions don't crash like
computers.
Thanks again and sorry for the conspiracy theory.

Overheating is the biggest enemy of computers, dust slows down or stops
the fans.

Cleaning a Laptop/Notebook Computer
http://mobileoffice.about.com/od/usingyourlaptop/a/cleanlaptop.htm
http://lifehacker.com/software/life-hacks/ask-lifehacker-keyboard-cleanliness-037671.php

Information about cleaning computer components
http://www.computerhope.com/cleaning.htm
http://www.wiscocomputing.com/articles/maintenance.htm
http://www.librarysupportstaff.com/4compcare.html
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial118.html
Getting The Grunge Out Of Your PC, Fred Langa cleans the dirtiest PC he
can find, and along the way shows you how you can easily tackle yours.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=2
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=3
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=4
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=5
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=6
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60403472&pgno=7
Quiet noisy computer fans with a drop of oil
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6255-5034842.html?tag=tt

 

[Sal_55]

Sal_55 brought next idea :


Doing this in between watching footy, these are worth doing, everything
I have given you I have done myself on XP Pro, 2.8 GHz & 1 gb of ram.

If your computer is NOT a laptop/notebook then you can stop Hibernate.
Hibernation, reserves disk space equal to your RAM.http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=145&dPage=5
The mysterious hiberfil.syshttp://www.softwarepatch.com/tips/hiberfil-sys-xp.html
===========================================
For those that may notice that Select All, includes Prefetch, there are
some occasions when you have to clean prefetch, this is one of them.
ATF Cleanerhttp://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Secu...rg/http://www.atribune.org/content/view/25/2/
Forumhttp://www.atribune.org/forums/
This program is for Windows 98/ME/2K/XP and Vista!
      Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program.
      Under Main choose: Select All
      Click the Empty Selected button.
If you use Firefox browser
      Click Firefox at the top and choose: Select All
      Click the Empty Selected button.
      NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please
click No at the prompt.
If you use Opera browser
      Click Opera at the top and choose: Select All
      Click the Empty Selected button.
      NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please
click No at the prompt.
Click Exit on the Main menu to close the program.
For Technical Support, double-click the e-mail address located at the
bottom of each menu.
This will remove all files from the items that are checked so if you
have some cookies you'd like to save. please move them to a different
directory first.

Sorry if this is a stupid question,but if I stop hibernation mode,
then can I resume it later on?
Also, what is hibernation mode? Is it the same as standby?

 

[baynole2]

Well, not always. For example, ram for "Coppermine" boards is expensive,
just as I predicted years ago when Intel made circuitry that required
specially-tweaked sims for it.

Richard

Yes this is true. Older, slower memory costs more than the newer stuff
(I bought a gig of Kingston Value PC5300 recently at Office Depot for
$25!!).I guess because the older memory isn't being mass-produced for
OEMs.

 

[Brian Arthur Robertson]

Sorry if this is a stupid question,but if I stop hibernation mode,
then can I resume it later on? Also, what is hibernation mode? Is it
the same as standby?

What is Hibernation Mode?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibernate_(OS_feature)

Understanding the difference between Hibernate and Stand By.
http://www.timeatlas.com/mos/Term_t...g_Differences_Between_Hibernate_and_Stand_By/

How to disable and re-enable Hibernation.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920730



--
Brian Arthur Robertson

http://brian.arthur.robertson.googlepages.com/freesoftware

http://brian.arthur.robertson.googlepages.com/rare-ware

 

[Big Al]

Thanks for the tips, again.
Backing-up everything on cd-roms is what careful,wise,prudent ppl do.
I'm definetely not one of those. I would have thought there might be
some shareware program which would somehow transfer all the old files
into your new computer. But that might be wishful thinking on my
behalf.
If I search for new RAM, does it have to be Dell RAM, or can it be
made by some other company? If I'm lucky enough to find the RAM very
cheaply, then what's the most I can upgrade my machine to?
Are you sure that installing new RAM is as easy as just opening up the
computer and inserting it onto the clips? If the hardware companies
are making it that easy,well the computer repair men will be out of
business in a few years!
If I do decide to increase the RAM, since the computer is already
open, are there any other cheap upgrades I can make? Don't say
graphics card since I'm not into playing games.
if I get a new soundcard, will the quality be appreciably better than
my current one? if it'll only be a small improvement, then I can't be
bothered.
Thanks for all the advice and bye friends.

You can get a larger drive, this would give you more virtual drive
space. Its not as good as Memory but it will give you space. I kinda
think 20 gigs is a bit small.

You can image a drive to move it. Thus you lose nothing. I've done it
8 times and have no issue doing the following.
I've seen on seagate they allow you to download a free copy of their
utility to back and move data. Its looks like its Acronis backup, just
relabeled.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

I know this sounds hard but you just put a new larger drive as a 2nd
drive, use the tool to mirror (image) the old drive onto the new one and
then remove the old drive and make the new drive primary single. If
you understand all that, then you're 90% there.

I did this to my laptop using an external USB enclosure to upgrade from
80gigs to 100gigs. An enclosure for 19$ or so is another idea or buy
an enclosure and drive combo and then once you transfer everything you
swap drives and use the old drive for backup.

Sorry don't know your financial constraints and even a cheap drive may
be a lot. And as much as I think this is easy, it can be hard if you
are not technically inclined. Memory and Drives are only plug and play
for the most part.

I had an old laptop with 30 gigs and I had the same issues as you did.
But could not find any "major" way to improve things. Yes you can make
small steps and constantly clean things. I even did a batch file to do
it for me routinely.

 

[Sal_55]

You can get a larger drive, this would give you more virtual drive
space.  Its not as good as Memory but it will give you space.   I kinda
think 20 gigs is a bit small.

You can image a drive to move it.  Thus you lose nothing.  I've done it
8 times and have no issue doing the following.
I've seen on seagate they allow you to download a free copy of their
utility to back and move data.   Its looks like its Acronis backup, just
relabeled.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=DiscWizard&vg....

I know this sounds hard but you just put a new larger drive as a 2nd
drive, use the tool to mirror (image) the old drive onto the new one and
then remove the old drive and make the new drive primary single.   If
you understand all that, then you're 90% there.

I did this to my laptop using an external USB enclosure to upgrade from
80gigs to 100gigs.   An enclosure for 19$ or so is another idea or buy
an enclosure and drive combo and then once you transfer everything you
swap drives and use the old drive for backup.

Sorry don't know your financial constraints and even a cheap drive may
be a lot.   And as much as I think this is easy, it can be hard if you
are not technically inclined.   Memory and Drives are only plug and play
for the most part.

I had an old laptop with 30 gigs and I had the same issues as you did.
But could not find any "major" way to improve things.   Yes you can make
small steps and constantly clean things.   I even did a batch file to do
it for me routinely.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Why didn't I think of that? Of increasing my hard rives capacity
whilst I had my computer open to increase it's RAM? Maybe coz I'm a
retard. But that's another story.
Is adding some GB's to my hard drives capacity as hard as increasing
the RAM or is it easier?
Since I missed something as obvious as increasing my computers hard
drive's memory, can anyone please be kind enough to think of any
other upgrades I might as well make whilst I have my computer already
open?
Bye brothers.

 

[someone]

Opening up a Dell computer is very easy to do. It requires no tools, just
thumbscrews. Check your manual. It gives directions for adding RAM and
adding another hard drive. If your Dell is like my Dell (4100 series, and
it sounds like it may be the same), the specifications in your manual will
tell you what kind of RAM you can use. It had originally non-ECC PC133
SDRAM. The manual shows you how to add another block of RAM, and it
requires no tools. You merely, basically, just insert it. When I upgraded
to 512 MB, I had to take out both blocks and insert two new blocks of 256
each. The maximum for my computer is 512. Installing another hard drive is
more complicated, and I have not done that yet, but the instructions are in
my manual. It does involve taking out some screws. If you buy the RAM from
a website, it will diagnose your computer and tell you what kind you need.
Any computer store can do that too.

 

[Big Al]

Opening up a Dell computer is very easy to do. It requires no tools,
just thumbscrews. Check your manual. It gives directions for adding
RAM and adding another hard drive. If your Dell is like my Dell (4100
series, and it sounds like it may be the same), the specifications in
your manual will tell you what kind of RAM you can use. It had
originally non-ECC PC133 SDRAM. The manual shows you how to add another
block of RAM, and it requires no tools. You merely, basically, just
insert it. When I upgraded to 512 MB, I had to take out both blocks and
insert two new blocks of 256 each. The maximum for my computer is 512.
Installing another hard drive is more complicated, and I have not done
that yet, but the instructions are in my manual. It does involve taking
out some screws. If you buy the RAM from a website, it will diagnose
your computer and tell you what kind you need. Any computer store can do
that too.

Brain surgery is easy if you know what you are doing. Still....
Memory, other than getting the stuff and the right type, is a simply
slide in (newer types at an angle, then straighten up) and done.

HD's if you have a desktop is not that hard. But you have to set master
or slave if you put it inside. Normally a single cable allows 2
drives, HD/CD/DVD etc. One is always master and one is slave. Better
cables etc can be set to auto select. Old school is to set the jumpers
on the back, one to master and one to slave. You can find specs for
most every drive on the web if its not on the drive. Don't change your
current drive if you want it to continue to work.
If you have your HD and CD on one cable, then you need a 2nd cable to
get a 3rd device. Most Motherboards have 2 controllers allowing 4
drives. Once installed in XP, you might get a notice you have new
hardware, or you go to control panel / administrative tools / computer
management / disk management. You can partition and format from there.

Once formatted you have a "D" or "E" drive to play with. You can now
use trueimage etc to backup the Main drive to the new 2nd drive. Once
mirrored you remove or flip the drives around (change jumpers), and boot
of the now larger drive. Or you can remove it. I'd leave it in. Use
it for backup even with Windows backup or manually dragging. Any
backup is going to be better than nothing when you crash.

The logic of backup is to put the backup on a different drive. A backup
to the same drive has no value if that drive goes belly up.

 

[Holz]

I have a Dell computer with about 20 GB hard drive and 128 RAM. Also
it has a 1.5 GHZ processor. The problem is the computer takes too long
to perform functions, especially when I run a lot of programs at the
same time. I know some of you will say that in order to run many
programs at the same time I need to upgrade to a better machine, but
currently due to disablity this is the only computer I can afford.
I have run virus checks and run Adaware and Spybot. Also I have turned
the system restore percentage from 12% to about 8%. Doing all this I
have noticed some improvement. But the computer still lags when I run
about 3 processes at the same time.
Anyone know if I can somehow increase the size of the virtual memory?
Or any good progams which can speed up my computer?
Thanks and bye friends.

My lawn mower has 1 GB RAM, does it tell you anything?
Get memory! If you give the asset tag I will send you some for free due
to your mentioned condition. I do a lot of charity work for schools,
retirement homes and disabled associations, I will be more then happy to
help you.

 

[Holz]

Anyone know if I can somehow increase the size of the virtual memory?
Or any good progams which can speed up my computer?

Xubuntu Linux. Made for low end computers, no virus scanner spyware
scanner or anti anti needed.just work.

 

[Sal_55]

My lawn mower has 1 GB RAM, does it tell you anything?
Get memory! If you give the asset tag I will send you some for free due
to your mentioned condition. I do a lot of charity work for schools,
retirement homes and disabled associations, I will be more then happy to
help you.

Now you really shocked me! A lawnmower with 1 GB RAM! Soon the
lawnmowers will be smarter than us and take over the planet! Please,
don't give them too much memory. I don't want to die being chased by a
super-intelligent lawnmower, Terminator style.
Thanks for being so grateful to donate me some memory for free.
Youy're very kind. But what's an 'asset tag'?
Thanks again.