12 replies to this topic

[Bayta]

Lately, my computer's been really slow. I was wondering if there was any way to speed it up. The problem might be that my only hard drive is getting very low on memory (like, 150 meg on average). I'll be installing a second hard drive soon, and moving a ton of stuff to there, so that'll probably help. But is there any other way to speed it up? It's really been bugging me lately.

[Taco Chopper]

Generally, I would try to defrag it. Go into accessories on the startup menu and look in system. That would probably speed it up a lot more.

[Ben]

Check to make sure that nothing unnecessary is running - also, open a command prompt and run chkdsk. In addition, yes, defragging is a good idea.

However, having 150MB of space left is dangerous. You generally want to keep at least a gigabyte free, for operating system use (for the swap file, mainly - the system uses a portion of the hard disk as RAM.)

[Rocksfan13]

Have you checked your temp files?

I've seen very fast systems get bogged down due to an over abundance of temp files. Start there, then the defrag. But if you system is saying memory low, then replacing the hard drive isn't gonna do squat. Having low space on a hard drive usually won't effect performance, although I have seen it happen before. Increasing RAM would be a better bet.

[CastChaos]

Once my laptop was very slow. I run CCleaner and it removes more hundred MBytes. My laptop was fast again. Also, click Ctrl+Alt+Del once (WinXP) to bring up the menu that shows what are running. If something uses more than 10% of the CPU (when running no any particular programs) then you should stop it. When being idle on the desktop, a background program should use only 2-5%. The only exception is the most bottom one the "system blackout" or something such.

[BackStab]

Scan your computer for spy ware, I once had a spy ware program on my computer that used up at least 40mb of ram, also when I would close it it would just open up again.

[Bayta]

Yeah, I'll try defraging it. I have no idea what it means though. And about the amount of space left... I'm getting a second hard drive installed on my computer, so I'll be able to move a ton of stuff from my C drive to the new D drive. Oh, and for the record, my C drive only holds 6 gigabytes!!!

[Ben]

Eh. If your machine is that old, it's probably not worth installing a new hard disk. You can get a budget PC that is better for like $299.

[Bayta]

Yeah, but I got the hard drive out of a box of salvaged computer parts. It should still work though. The only thing I need is a cabe to connect it to the power. And that'll only cost like, $3.

So, it's either pay $3 to get a new hard drive in the computer which should speed it up considerably, or spend an extra $300 (that neither of my parents really have) on a new computer

Besides, ZC seems to work on my computer better than any of my dad's.

Edited by Beta Link, 20 July 2007 - 04:58 PM.

[BackStab]

My windows 98 has a 10 gig hard drive and is kinda fast(faster then my Windows XP)but I just let my friend borrow it so I have no idea how fast it is now.

Edited by BackStab, 20 July 2007 - 05:04 PM.

[Golden Chocobo]

Defrag. It's free, and it works. You could also delete programs on your computer that you don't use anymore, to free up some space.

[Bayta]

I'm actually deleting programs I don't need all the time!

Also, what exactly does disk defragmenting do? Disk defragmenting is what you're talking about, right?

[Ben]

Disk defragmenting rearranges data on the disk so that the computer can access it more efficiently. It takes a long time but if your drive is really fragmented, it's worth doing.