MR said:
Hi, I want to make my older pc more efficient and faster. Lets say there is
no malware causing the slowness.
It constantly hangs between comands. whether online or offline.
Here is what I have done.
*In RUN>msconfig> startup folrder I have minimized the items that start up
by just 3 items (anti virus for examp)-
*I delete temp folders often and use clean up or ccleaner often. . I just
think that my windows Xp home edition Dell pc has gotten too old. Sometimes
it loads up pages fast and other it drags and I alway keep getting those "
virtual memory low alerts." I have high speed internet too.
What are some NEW things I can still do, besides buy a new unit, to speed up
my pc.
Can I de-select all the NON windows items that i feel are not need in this
area? Or some windows items in the Msconfig > services tab?
Faster hardware:
- More RAM. Faster RAM. Follow the manual on how to use dual-channel
mode regarding what memory module/slot configuration is required. Go
to 3GB, or more. If more than 3GB, the rest can't be used by Windows
XP but can be use for very fast temp file space.
- Faster CPU.
- Prevent CPU throttling due to overheat by making sure its temperature
is low (40-60 C). Use Speedfan or an OEM utility to monitor the
temperature and adjust fan speeds, or just have the fans run at top
speed all the time (which is noisier).
- Faster hard disk(s). Move from 7200 RPM to 10K or 15K (the noise will
go up with the faster spinning hard disk).
Faster software (or access to it):
- Use SysInternals (now owned by Microsoft) AutoRuns to find ALL startup
items. msconfig.exe only lists some of them.
- Make sure you are using NTFS, not FAT32, for the file system in the
disk partitions.
- Disconnect USB devices, especially USB-attached drives (hard disks or
flash) since you may have programs accessing them when YOU don't need
to access them.
- Defrag all partitions (drives).
- Disable the file indexing service. Uninstall any file indexers you
installed (Windows Search, Google Desktop, Copernic).
- Get a more efficient anti-virus/malware program. Some will cause
significant impact on responsiveness of the host, even the big
commercial ones (Norton and McAfee). Don't run more than one AV
on-access (realtime) scanner at a time. If you have more than one
installed, disable its on-access scanner and only use it for manual or
scheduled on-demand scans. If it has a time to schedule its updates,
have them occur when you're not there, like when sleeping at night,
since the updates slow the host. Make sure any scheduled scans are
when you are away from the host.
- Uninstall the mouse driver/software for your brand. Revert to the
Windows-supplied standard driver. Retest to see if slowdowns still
occur. Same for any keyboard software, like Microsoft's IntelliType.
- If you have 2 hard disks (2 physical devices), put the lion's share of
the pagefile on the non-OS hard disk. Leave a smaller pagefile in the
OS partition, like 1 times the RAM size. Create a larger pagefile,
like 2 times the RAM size, in a partition (drive) on the OTHER hard
disk. This reduces conflict between Windows trying to access OS, app,
and data files in its own partition and attempting writes for page
swapping to its pagefile for memory management.
- Check the Event Viewer to see if you have recurring and often errors.
Since no one here knows your hardware and software configuration because
you didn't list it, all anyone here can offer are general possibilities.
