Old pc getting really slow

L

lowcar100

New Member
Well, my family has had this computer (specs in sig - current -) and recently it slowed down a ton, it can hardly multi-task at all and even during single applications it takes a while to load up the smallest things. If I right click on the desktop with nothing running it takes over 4 seconds to bring up that little menu. It has pretty poor gaming performance (duh) but still plays some of the top games. It played the F.E.A.R demo completely lag free (other than internet lag) on the lowest possible settings. That is still a much larger load that right clicking the desktop though isn't it?
I have tried all I can think of. Today I cleaned it out of spyware etc. then defragged, updated everything, and took it from running 58 processes down to 32. All with no noticable performance increase. The HDD isn't even half way full. Any ideas on what I could do? Keep in mind this is the family pc and I can't reformat it (although I bet that would do wonders) or anything too large. No hardware replacements, just like, things I could do in say 4 hours.

Unfortunately it can't overclock either, I'm locked out because it is an 'HP frustration-builder 3200' plus even if I wasn't I doubt the components would hold up.
 
The PC in your sig is not old. It may not be a gamer pc, by no means it is old.
In my oppinoin old is a 486 , maybe even a socket 7, ok anything under pent 2, 333. I forgot to check in your sig for your OS, so i wll assume that it is XP, even win 2000, do a control alt delete, click task mngr , then the performance tab. what is your cpu usage ? with your computer at a steady state, like now , with no progs running it should be 1 -4 %, I once had a broken anti virus program that would hog the resorces, cpu usage was 95%.
what ant - virus programs do you have ?
DL this program and run, it is a trojan scanner and remover, it is a FULL , 30 day trial. do not forget to update the deffinitions before you run it.
http://www.moosoft.com/thecleaner/cleaner4.exe

also do trend micro's online virus scanner, it is not unusuall to have to run 2-3 different anti virus scanners to get all the viruses
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
will find and remove viruses

also go to spywareguide.com and do ther online spyware removal , on the left side under online tools,, same goes for spyware,, 2-3 diff progs or more
 
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If these things don't work, the hard drive itself might be dying, that's what started happening to mine (minus the excessive programs running part) when it died. One other question, does it take a lot longer for Windows to start up? If so, then I would check out the status of the hard drive, it could be going to a better place... :D
 
Clean out the inside as someone suggested and the harddrive. If possible, reload windows. You can almost always tell a difference
 
To answer a few questions:

It is XP and with IE open cpu usage is 3-6% but went up to 80% opening task manager

I use Norton anti-virus/firewall. It says it's the 2004 edition but we update it whenever updates come out.

I cleaned the dust out about a week ago, but I will do it again.

I have run multiple programs (ad-aware, spybot, norton) but will run more.

Windows doesn't take too much longer to load but after windows is up it takes another 6-7minutes for it to finish booting because of all the crap on startup that my mom wont let me take off. I just shut it all down (from task manager > processes) right away anyway.

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll try running some more programs and cleaning the pc out again.
 
lowcar100 said:
Windows doesn't take too much longer to load but after windows is up it takes another 6-7minutes for it to finish booting because of all the crap on startup that my mom wont let me take off. I just shut it all down (from task manager > processes) right away anyway.
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That might be your problem.
 
I was thinking the same thing, but it has been like that for a while, something like 6 months and just in the last week it has started really slowing down.
 
the cpu is being used up to 80 % ??? ,,, no programs running , not moving the mouse,,, if so that is bad, could be a rogue / broken program not releasing resources , virus or trojan .... click on processes and look for the program that is causing this. idle process should be 80-98% , no others should unless you have a program running in the background,,,, if you find a program terminate it, this will only work till the next reboot, some trojans will come right back. if you find something ,,, post it.
 
dude, u r making me cry (not really)
if that is old, then what is what i am running now?
PIII SLot 1 866MHz w/ 133MHz FSB
192MB RAM
40GB harddrive


dude... i feel sad... can't wait till i haveenough 4 thePC in my sig :)
 
Well, it's old to me, I guess it's because I've got high standards...

but the 80% was from opening Task Manager, then it goes back down to normal. Sorry for the confusion.
 
encore4more.... yours it not that old either, probably can not play a lot of the games, I just bought a used pc like that about a year ago for my sisters family ( she is divorced and low on funds) . Her daughter does all kinds of drawing and graphics, and we got her a Tablet for christmas. I added 128m of ram, so she has a totall of 256. If you want to see old, they had a pentium pro running win 98 till I replaced it with the other.:eek:
 
quote - "if i was you i would get the 4200 x2"

This is offtopic obviously, but it seems like just about every thread I check out, regardless of the main topic at hand, someone says something similar to this statement.

Not that it is inappropriate, but it is annoying seeing this all the time. You know what people? I sure as hell could also recommend better components for everyone posting on this forum that wants to build a new comp or has components listed, but I don't. The thing is, for well over 99% of people wanting to build or upgrade a computer, money IS an issue. A person just doesn't pick out random components to build a computer with or base any decisions off of random thoughts. The vast majority of us choose components based off of mainly price, after our "route" is decided, such as AMD or Intel.

Another thing, I find it extremely annoying to read posts (all the time) that say something like, "For only $120 more you could get component B instead of component A, I really think it would be worth it." Well no kidding it would probably be at least close to worth it if YOU HAD THE MONEY TO AFFORD IT. For myself and probably many other people, I pretty much have a SET IN STONE budget where I can't even go $10 over for something like a computer. Unlike a 16 yr old kid that gets to pick out a computer from his parents and can be "anywhere around $1500."

It is of course, a different story when someone could probably find component B more useful than component A for what they want to do with the comp, and prices would match up very close. Anything along these lines is IMO what recommendations are all about.

Rant is over, just figured I would comment on this (IMO) pointless and obvious thing people like to do.
 
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lowcar100 said:
Well, it's old to me, I guess it's because I've got high standards...
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i have high standards... low amounts of money
rahving said:
Unlike a 16 yr old kid that gets to pick out a computer from his parents and can be "anywhere around $1500."
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oh i wish my parents did that:(

ur pc is fine btw... to the first guy... u just should back all ur family's stuff up and reformat it... and i didn't know cleaning out the inside would help... i'll have to try that on mine... what is the best way for getting dust out? dirt devil? or just hands or cloth?
 
the best way to clean out a pc is with a can of compressed air. Actually it is not " air " , it is tetrafluoromethane or R-134A. You may also know this as refrigerant that is used in autos sine the early 80s. So it canfreeze on contact, especially if the can is inverted and the liquid comes out.

also can be used if you think a component is heating up you can cool it with this and see if it starts working again.
 
Viking said:
the best way to clean out a pc is with a can of compressed air. Actually it is not " air " , it is tetrafluoromethane or R-134A. You may also know this as refrigerant that is used in autos sine the early 80s. So it canfreeze on contact, especially if the can is inverted and the liquid comes out.

also can be used if you think a component is heating up you can cool it with this and see if it starts working again.
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thanks i will try it!
my pc is REALLY dusty inside... how much would this increase performance?
 
I agree with Viking and -omega-. Clean the whole thing out, the blower end a vacuum or air pump works well too. thats what I use. You should really clean out the dust from your computer at a minimum of once a year although if you have forced air heating in your house I would recommend doing it more often. I don't have forced air and I have to clean my computers every few months. I suppose it is all where you live. Hope this helps.:D
 
Viking said:
encore4more.... yours it not that old either, probably can not play a lot of the games, I just bought a used pc like that about a year ago for my sisters family ( she is divorced and low on funds) . Her daughter does all kinds of drawing and graphics, and we got her a Tablet for christmas. I added 128m of ram, so she has a totall of 256. If you want to see old, they had a pentium pro running win 98 till I replaced it with the other.:eek:
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Pentium!!! i have seen a pentium 2 but never a pentium!!!
 
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