How can I speed things up?

ogetnom27 · 02-21-2005, 03:02 PM

I'm a newbie here, so please understand if that looks painfully obvious in some of my questions.I do a lot of surfing on the net.Yahoo Instant messaging,mailing photos and links as well as music downloads,shopping on e-bay and other e-tailers etc... At times my computer seems to really slow down while going from site to site,to yahoo mail and back and forth from the net to my mail.

I have a high speed cable(Comcast) connection,anti-spy ware,anti-virus,and firewall protection.I do notice that after I re-start(which takes almost 8 minutes) things do speed up.My computer is a Dell 4500 Dimension 1.8ghz pentium4 w/ 128 RAM.It's about 2 1/2 yrs old OS system is xp .What can I do to speed things up in those areas.Also I do have Kazaa Plus and I've heard from some that it's like a form of spyware in sheeps clothing.If you need any other info please let me know.Sign me,
Bogged down in Boston

Rambo · 02-21-2005, 03:35 PM

Hey Ogetnom.

Are you running Windows XP?? The average computer nowadays should have atleast 256 MB RAM, and windows recommends having 256 MB RAM and up (i have 512) if you are running XP.... Have you ran any adware/spyware porgrams, like 'Ad-Aware' and 'Spybot - Search and Destroy'. Although, with a computer like yours, it shouldn't take 8 minutes to reboot...

You could run a program called 'HiJackThis' which give a detailed file of everything and anything running on your computer at that time. If you ask someone like Lorand he can look at it and tell you if you about all the junk that's running on your PC (he did it for me).

Ad-Aware - http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Spybot - Search and Destroy - http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...d,22262,00.asp

HiJackThis - http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

Copy and paste the HiJackThis file (if it is too big to copy and paste as one post, post the rest on a second).

R3D · 02-21-2005, 04:02 PM

heyy

yeah also try and defraging your computer, i really find a big improvment in that.

Blue · 02-21-2005, 04:45 PM

all above, really good suggestions :-). I do think it's the ram though. You really need to run that spyware every few days to remove spyware but do yourself a favour and dont let it run in the background blocking spyware because you just dont have enough ram for that :-). And if you are running Windows XP then your drowning your poor system and it needs ram badly. If your running Win 98 then you'd do yourself a big ol favor if possible and purchase at a "MINIMUM" 128mbs more ram and Winodows XP operating system which i'm guessing your running already ;-).

**Praetor** · 02-21-2005, 06:10 PM

Quote:

yeah also try and defraging your computer, i really find a big improvment in that.

You shouldnt. At most you'll find 1-2% improvement, if that ... and even then, its only a one-time benifit since you'll frag the cluster upon access

Quote:

I do think it's the ram though

Bingo

ogetnom27 · 02-22-2005, 03:56 AM

Then some more RAM it shall be. I guess I should just go to the 512. Any suggestions on a site to purchase? Thanks for your help, much appreciated, Mike
P.S. I am running Windows xp

Tha Killa · 02-22-2005, 04:29 AM

A lot of people like http://www.newegg.com.
And 2 of the "better" companies that make ram that I know of are, Corsair, and Kingston, but it doesn't matter that much I think.

ogetnom27 · 02-22-2005, 05:33 AM

Ok,now i don't have a clue which type of 512 RAM I'm looking for to go in that computer.Any help?

kof2000 · 02-22-2005, 07:06 AM

just dont multitask unless you're going to upgrade the ram to at least 512mb from the things you said you're running.

Rambo · 02-22-2005, 08:52 AM

Well Ogetnom, there are many different types of RAM (they have different numbers of pins, run at different speeds..etc).

If you could tell us what motherboard you're using we would be able to tell you exactly what kind and what speed of RAM you should be looking for.

02-21-2005, 03:02 PM	#1 (permalink)
ogetnom27 New Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 8	How can I speed things up? I'm a newbie here, so please understand if that looks painfully obvious in some of my questions.I do a lot of surfing on the net.Yahoo Instant messaging,mailing photos and links as well as music downloads,shopping on e-bay and other e-tailers etc... At times my computer seems to really slow down while going from site to site,to yahoo mail and back and forth from the net to my mail. I have a high speed cable(Comcast) connection,anti-spy ware,anti-virus,and firewall protection.I do notice that after I re-start(which takes almost 8 minutes) things do speed up.My computer is a Dell 4500 Dimension 1.8ghz pentium4 w/ 128 RAM.It's about 2 1/2 yrs old OS system is xp .What can I do to speed things up in those areas.Also I do have Kazaa Plus and I've heard from some that it's like a form of spyware in sheeps clothing.If you need any other info please let me know.Sign me, Bogged down in Boston Last edited by ogetnom27; 02-22-2005 at 02:40 PM.

02-21-2005, 03:35 PM	#2 (permalink)
Rambo Diamond Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,829	Hey Ogetnom. Are you running Windows XP?? The average computer nowadays should have atleast 256 MB RAM, and windows recommends having 256 MB RAM and up (i have 512) if you are running XP.... Have you ran any adware/spyware porgrams, like 'Ad-Aware' and 'Spybot - Search and Destroy'. Although, with a computer like yours, it shouldn't take 8 minutes to reboot... You could run a program called 'HiJackThis' which give a detailed file of everything and anything running on your computer at that time. If you ask someone like Lorand he can look at it and tell you if you about all the junk that's running on your PC (he did it for me). Ad-Aware - http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ Spybot - Search and Destroy - http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...d,22262,00.asp HiJackThis - http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html Copy and paste the HiJackThis file (if it is too big to copy and paste as one post, post the rest on a second). __________________ "75% of all statistics are made up, including this one. 62.481% of people who read that believe it is true. *And if you're one of the 37.519% who don't, copy and paste this into your signature." -* tlarkin, Cromewell, and Rambo. Intel E6300 Conroe @ 2.8 Ghz GigaByte GA 965P DS3 LGA 775 Sapphire Radeon X1800XT 256MB GeIL 2 x GX22 DDR2 Kit = 4GB RAM Antec TruePower 2.0 TP-II 550 Watt

02-21-2005, 04:45 PM	#4 (permalink)
Blue VIP Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: London Ontario Age: 35 Posts: 3,555	all above, really good suggestions :-). I do think it's the ram though. You really need to run that spyware every few days to remove spyware but do yourself a favour and dont let it run in the background blocking spyware because you just dont have enough ram for that :-). And if you are running Windows XP then your drowning your poor system and it needs ram badly. If your running Win 98 then you'd do yourself a big ol favor if possible and purchase at a "MINIMUM" 128mbs more ram and Winodows XP operating system which i'm guessing your running already ;-). __________________ FOLDING FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND :F@H Team 44358

02-22-2005, 07:06 AM	#9 (permalink)
kof2000 Diamond Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Oahu Age: 26 Posts: 6,273	just dont multitask unless you're going to upgrade the ram to at least 512mb from the things you said you're running. __________________ QX9650@4.2 swiftech \|9600@3.0 9700 nt 780i \| 790fx 8gb ddr1200 \| 8gb ddr1200 2x150gb 3x1tb \|2x250gb 3x8800gtx \|3x2900xt 1gb 2x20xdvdrw \|2x20xdvdrw 15in1 card reader \|15in1 card reader ng15/g9 \|ng15/g9 1200w psu \|1200w psu 2x28" LCD \|2x28" LCD

02-22-2005, 08:52 AM	#10 (permalink)
Rambo Diamond Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 3,829	Well Ogetnom, there are many different types of RAM (they have different numbers of pins, run at different speeds..etc). If you could tell us what motherboard you're using we would be able to tell you exactly what kind and what speed of RAM you should be looking for. __________________ "75% of all statistics are made up, including this one. 62.481% of people who read that believe it is true. *And if you're one of the 37.519% who don't, copy and paste this into your signature." -* tlarkin, Cromewell, and Rambo. Intel E6300 Conroe @ 2.8 Ghz GigaByte GA 965P DS3 LGA 775 Sapphire Radeon X1800XT 256MB GeIL 2 x GX22 DDR2 Kit = 4GB RAM Antec TruePower 2.0 TP-II 550 Watt

02-21-2005, 04:02 PM	#3 (permalink)
R3D Silver Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Scotland, Glasgow Age: 20 Posts: 108	heyy yeah also try and defraging your computer, i really find a big improvment in that.

02-22-2005, 03:56 AM	#6 (permalink)
ogetnom27 New Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 8	Then some more RAM it shall be. I guess I should just go to the 512. Any suggestions on a site to purchase? Thanks for your help, much appreciated, Mike P.S. I am running Windows xp

02-22-2005, 04:29 AM	#7 (permalink)
Tha Killa Gold Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 496	A lot of people like http://www.newegg.com. And 2 of the "better" companies that make ram that I know of are, Corsair, and Kingston, but it doesn't matter that much I think.

02-22-2005, 05:33 AM	#8 (permalink)
ogetnom27 New Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 8	Ok,now i don't have a clue which type of 512 RAM I'm looking for to go in that computer.Any help?

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