If you're overclocking your system, set an alarm! Its in
the BIOS, on some systems, in software on some others.
You probably won't ever want the CPU hotter than mid-50
degrees C unless you're experimenting and on top of it
with excess cooling capacity for quick heat dissipation,
because chips and board can get partially cooked, then
thoroughly cooked, which amounts to slow and damaged, and
dead.
Pull your network connection out and see if things pick
up right quick. If so, learn how to capture and evaluate
packet traffic at your network connection, and see what
is so busy that it slows your machine down.
Search "packet sniffer" on the 'net to get started. And
definitely look at the Task MAnager to see if something
local is hogging resources.
Update your virus scanner's DAT files every day. Scan
daily (at least daily, more if your machine is heavily
active on the net, or in the firewall's DMZ because you
are into online games). Make sure your scanner monitors
email, downloads, compressed files too.
Spyware sniffers can help. Try PestPatrol (also scans
memory and cookies) and manually delete spys from
registry and file tree (or buy it and delete them with a
click of a button). No affiliation, just a satisfied
customer. Try several spy detectors, they all find some
different issues, in my experience.
Use Windows Help (Start menu) to find the XP application
that cleans up hard disks and frees disk space. Run it,
delete that bunch of temp stuff it finds that isn't
serving any useful purpose. Then, run through you
directory tree (use use FIle Explorer>Search> files of a
size greater than (pick a number, I start around 1 Meg).
Sort the list of files it finds by size, recycle any
substantial-sized files in the list that you don't want.
The point is, 2 gigs free isn't really a lot of head room
if (for example) you have a gig of memory and a paging
file that can go to 1.5 gigs. So get as much free space
as comes easily, then get your disk all error free and
combed out--see the following steps--so the disk can run
effiently.
In Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer
Management>Storage>Disk Management, right click on each
fixed disk (just C: for you, right?) and select
Properties>Tools tab>Check Now button to find and
automatically straighten out cross-linked files (these
can result from crashing or improper shut down while
files are open). They can really suck the vigor out of
your system--if you have these, this error search and
repair will give immediate improvements (you might want
to do this first, because they can be a big drag, if your
system is dog slow). Now, still on the Tools tab,
Defragment Now button. If your files are not more or
less in contiguous blocks already, they will be in a hour
or two when it finishes. At least in the pre-NTFS days,
this could add a lot of efficiency to disk reads, maybe
not so much with the post-FAT file systems.
Controversial thing to do: go to your computer
manufacturer's support site and get the latest BIOS file
for YOUR system. READ the download descriptions v-e-r-y
carefully and make sure you get the BIOS update for your
exact motherboard/BIOS or system board family. Get the
recommended flash utility, and the recommended version of
that utility, and follow the instructions to the letter,
ans you prepare and eventually flash your BIOS. There's
nothing like a fresh BIOS flash to get the system's
cobwebs out, especially if you have been changing BIOS
settings often. Not everyone will agree with this
recommendation because it carries some risk if the BIOS
update fails, for example, you might not be able to boot
(follow the instructions and you should be OK. If it
fails to take, do it again, following those instructions.
Careful people do the flash twice to ensure it takes).
After flashing, jumper your motherboard to clear the
flashed BIOS to default settings, and go into BIOS
settings at boot time and set options. Hope you know
what you're doing, this is pretty important. Maybe study
the BIOS settings or write them down before flashing.
Some options may change or disappear when you flash,
usually by design.
Find the windows app that checks your system files for
correct version and authenticity. Run it. Trojans and
malware, corrupt files, and the incompatibilities that
get into your system from installing lots of wares will
get fixed this way, or so they say. It seems very
complicated to me, and maybe even prone to confusion and
bad recommendations, so I try not to use it much.
Now back in Windows Help, read up on Virtual Memory and
Paging Files, then set the paging file size to zero, and
reboot. FAster? Set it back to some fraction of the
recommended 1.5*system RAM. What fraction you try next
ultimately depends on how you use your computer. 1.5
times RAM may be the right setting for you....
Clear IE's cache. If it gets full, IE will crawl.
Delete all temp/cache/cookies if you arent worried about
losing auto logins and such. You could also increase the
size of space allocated to IE temp and cache files if it
is full.
Indexer off, delete indexes (unless you use them
. See
Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer
Management>Services and Applications>Indexing Service.
Better? Anyway, its good exercise, isn't it? Good luck.
--Skookum
