Extremely Slow Computer

[Guest]

My girlfriend's computer is extremely slow, and I was wondering if anyone
here had any suggestions. She has a Dell Dimension 2350, (I believe) with a
celeron processor. It's not that old (maybe 4-5 years old?).

I am always running her ad-aware and spybot. I just updated her Norton Anti
Virus and ran that last night. At this point, I'm not thinking it's any
spyware or viruses since they've all been deleted and cleaned out. She used
to have spyware, and a lot. Does anyone think that even though it's been
cleaned out, perhaps some kind of "permanent" damage has been done to her
registry as a result of the spyware I deleted from her computer several
months ago? If not, perhaps it's a hardware issue? Any other suggestions? I
guess she may need to defragment also?

Thanks in advance for everyone's help!

 

[Brandon]

A Celeron that's 4-5 years old could just be really slow because it's
outdated. What's more important than the type of processor (alone) would be
to know the speed of the processor, the amount of memory, operating system
(I assume XP home), etc.

It also depends what she's running on the computer. If she's running newer
software on older hardware, she'll notice it being slow.

And no, cleaning out spyware doesn't usually damage the registry. And if it
was truly damaged, you would know it . . . things wouldn't work at all.

Brandon

 

[Guest]

Running the defrag couldnt hurt, same for disc clean-up. I would also clean
out all temp files, cookies and stuff. Also look at the Device Manager and
shut down any programs that arent needed that start automatically (then
config them accordingly). Also it might be a RAM issue

 

[Guest]

Hi Brandon:

Thanks for your quick response. I guess I forgot to indicate some of those
other specifications you were asking about (yes, it's XP home). I don't
really remember exactly how much memory she has, but I know it's sufficient
for her needs. (256?)I've "checked under the hood" and remember seeing the
processor speed, but I don't remember exactly what it is so I'm guessing
about 1ghz. She's not using any specific, fancy software that could be
causing a conflict. It seems like it takes about 5 minutes to boot her system
up.

I know the Celeron is their "value" processor, but I use one on my work
notebook here (my boss didn't want to spend the extra $$$), but it is
certainly fast enough for my needs. Are you saying the older-generation
celeron is that much slower?

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Thanks to all for the assistance. I'll try these other suggestions, and then
convince her to let me build her a new computer if it doesn't work!

 

[Guest]

I meant open the "task manager" (ctrl+alt+del) in the last post, sorry..If
none of that helps Ill shoot some other ideas, I have a Celeron about the
same age (though mine is overclocked), so I may be able to help.. I cant play
Doom3 or anything like that but as far as anything else goes, mine runs as
fast as any Ive seen

 

[Guest]

Yeah, I knew what you meant. But I'm glad you brought it up, because I'm not
entirely certain which programs I need, and which I don't. Everytime I do
that on my computer (to check for viruses and spyware usually) I see a
laundry list of programs that are running. I know it's dependant on the
programs you install on a computer, but is there any way to determine which
are absolutely critical for the computer's operation (like taskmgr.exe) and
others that aren't critical?

 

[Tom R]

It might help to run "CCleaner" and clean the junk off it.
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Good Luck,
Tom

 

[Guest]

You are going to "build" her a new computer and you are posting in this
Forum on how to speed up a 4 to 5 year old PC.....? Suggest you have
her shop in the latest Dell, HP or Gateway catalog, period! :~)

 

[Fred S]

Doug,

You may not want to hear this but Norton is well known for causing
significant performance degradation on many PC's.

I suggest that you at least consider disabling NAV to see if you can
detect an improvement. Needless to say, do NOT DL any programs from the
Internet nor from other disk drives while NAV is disabled but try some
of your other programs and see if there is a difference for you.

I have removed Norton from numerous machines for this very reason and
there are many anti-virus software programs that run extremely well with
MUCH LESS OVERHEAD on the system. Examples are eTrust (Computer
Associates - low cost or free if a RoadRunner client) and AVG (a freebie).

Hope this helps, Fred