best way to speed up my computer?

Question

my computer has gotten really slow. here are my current specs:

operating system: windows xp service pack 2
processor: intel pentium 4 cpu 2.20 ghz
ram: 256 mb
hard drive: 40 gb
graphics controller: intel 82845 g/gl/ge/pe/gv

i would like to spend under a hundred dollars. so what's the best way to spend my money to speed up my pc?

Answer 1

To speed up your computer and free up space and memory for free:



Go to the Start Menu> Run

Type in "appwiz.cpl"

Uninstall whatever you don't need.



Next, go to Start> Run and type in "msconfig".

Go to the Startup Tab and uncheck everything you don't want to startup. If you want, you can uncheck everything, and your anti-virus will still restart itself when you log on.



Now go to My Computer> Hard Drive> Documents and Settings> [USER NAME]> Local Settings> and delete everything inside the Temp Folder. (This is a hidden folder so you will need to have "show hidden files and folders" checked in Folder Options) All the files in this folder are just temporary files that your Internet stored for certain websites.



Next, you should install CCleaner; it will get rid of alot of temporary files on your computer. It also has a registry repair system, which is easily the best free one available on the Internet:

http://www.ccleaner.com/download



Another option is to try defragmenting your computer.

Go to the Start Menu and go to All Programs

Go to Accessories and System Tools.

Choose Disk Defragmenter and when it loads click defragment.



Next, go to Device Manger (Start> RightClick My Computer> Properties> Hardware Tab> Device Manager) and expand all listings. Now rightclick and update all drivers.



Another thing I would say is to compress your files if you already haven't.

Open My Computer and right click on your hard drive

Check the Compress Drive button and let it do its thing.



Finally, make sure your Hard Drive doesn't have any bad sectors. Go to My Computer> Right Click Hard Drive> Properties> Tools Tab> Check Now> Check both boxes and Start. It will ask you to reboot, so reboot. This will clear out any bad sectors on your Hard Drive.



These are short-term solutions however. The easiest way is to just upgrade the RAM on your system, but at least the ways above are free.



Good Luck =]

Answer 2

There are several things you can do to increase the "speed" of your computer - but w/ your current specs you need to increase RAM (see step 1 below).



1) Clean up the disk. Uninstall unneeded programs (especially those that run at startup and/or put something in the system tray), run Disk Cleanup, and defragment the drive. This is a good first step that will almost always take a few seconds off boot time and application loads for any computer.



2) Stomp auto-starting programs. Click Start > Run and type "msconfig" at the prompt. Click the Startup tab and look at all that junk that loads when you launch your PC. Do you really need "Adobe Reader Speed Launch"? Probably not. Turn off anything else that looks useless, but be careful not to disable your anti-virus and important system components.



3) Run a full anti-virus and anti-spyware scan. I would recommend using AVG Free Anti-virus, Spybot - Search and Destroy spyware remover and SUPERAntiSpyware remover. These programs are all free.



4) Clean up the registry. CCleaner, available at http://www.ccleaner.com is free and worth running. It will also remove unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.



Those are the easy and free things you can do. If your computer is still slow you need to move on to the bigger guns.



1) Upgrade RAM. This is the one killer trick that will make almost any computer run faster. With an older PC, you will rarely have enough RAM to run today's memory-hogging operating systems and applications, and adding a high-capacity stick or two of quality RAM will give you a quick speed boost. Adding RAM is fairly simple, even for a novice, and you should be able to do the job in 5 or 10 minutes.You can run a free test at http://www.crucial.com and find out what kind of RAM (memory) your computer needs.



2) Reinstall Windows. If the above tricks haven't helped, it may be time to wipe the slate clean and start again, reformatting your hard drive, reinstalling your applications, and restoring your data files from a backup. You'd be surprised how much more responsive a freshly reinstalled Windows system can be, as you've wiped out years of temp files, garbled registry entries, old versions of software programs that have been upgraded repeatedly, and all sorts of other electronic junk. Reinstalling is easy if you have the "recovery disk" that came with your PC, and only a bit more involved if you're using a retail copy of Windows XP. Just be sure you back up everything you want to take with you before you pull the trigger!



3) Upgrade your hard drive. This is a more complicated solution, but if you're reinstalling Windows (per the prior tip) you might consider upgrading to a bigger and possibly faster hard drive, too. Hard disk storage is a performance bottleneck on every machine, and magnetic disks degrade over time. Some performance issues could be caused by a failing hard drive, even, and upgrading to a new model could really put some zip back in your system. As a bonus, you can use the original hard drive for backups or occasional storage, if you put it in an enclosure.

Answer 3

If your virus/spyware free, there are a couple things you can do get your computer working faster. If you using your computer for normal stuff and not gaming. You don't always need more RAM you just need to perform a few maintenance task.



First, if you haven't cleaned your registry in a while. This is necessary. Your registry holds all the information regarding updates, installs, un-installs etc. Each one of those events produces a key. That key needs your PC's resources and free space. So, if you clean your registry, you make more resources available for speed. Do a registry scan if you got more than 20 errors you should clean it.

http://www.delete-computer-history.com/what-is-the-best-registry-cleaner.html



2. Clear your Windows cache files, this is your temporary file. It can grow up to a large volume and stop your computer from using RAM properly. In a sense slow it down by preventing it from using free space.Here is how:



1. Quit Internet Explorer, Firefox, or any other web browser

2. Click Start, click "Control Panel", and then double-click "Internet Options".

3. On the General tab, click "Delete Files" under Temporary Internet Files.

4. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the "Delete all offline content" check box , and then click OK.

5. Click OK.



3. Manage your startups. Your excess CPU usage is due to too many programs running in the background. You can cut these to barebones by alter your msconfig. Here is how:



1. Open your Start menu.

2. Click Run

3. In the command screen type "msconfig.exe"

4. In the "system configuration utility",click either "service" or "startup" tab

5. Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.

6. Click "OK"

Answer 4

While all of the reasons in the above answers are correct, i disagree with the last one. You should not need to upgrade your hard drive, but instead buy a better video card. Intel Integrated Graphics ( the type of card you have) are pretty slow when your playing games, or running programs that require a good video card.



This is what i think you should do

1.UPGRADE RAM (this is the best thing you can do)

2.Clean up windows/ or re-install it

3.Buy better video card ( most video cards are better then your current one, so it will be cheap)

4. Upgrade Space/Speed, if u need extra speed, buy a new, better, processor that fits your old one, or if u need extra space, buy a new HD.

Answer 5

XP itself needs almost 256MB to run - when you run programs on top of that, things get swapped to disk constantly, and that's orders of magnitude slower than RAM.



And Windows (32 bit) *can* recognize more than 3 MB (or whatever other number anyone gives you) of memory - 4MB, in fact. (32 bits is 4MB.) But that space is shared by the memory on the video card. So if you have a 512MB video card (you probably have less - I'm not familiar with the 82845 - the 82945 comes in 512MB), Windows will see the remaining 3.5MB of system memory. (The less the video memory, the more system memory is usable).



Considering the price of RAM, I'd go with 4GB. The CPU is fast enough. You might want a larger hard drive, but that won't affect speed much. (If your drive is fragmented - more common as the drive has more and more files on it - just defrag it.)



And clean up the drive, stop running programs you don't need, etc. - everything everyone else told you.

Answer 6

You can download ccleaner for free here: http://bit.ly/1Bk5V5C



First open CCleaner

Go to the Cleaner tab and you will be confronted by a very confusing lineup of checkboxes.

To make this brief, below is my recommended setup:

Under internet explorer check temporary internet files, cookies, and last download location. Most users don't really need this stuff. keep history and bookmarks unchecked, history is a maybe, but you don't want to lose bookmarked sites. You can normally leave Windows Explorer, System, and Advanced alone.

Run CCleaner and it will start deleting files.

afterward it will present you with a list of the files deleted, you really don't need to go through it as it will be several pages long.

The registry cleaner is recommended for slightly more advanced users. Use it after uninstalling programs as they will often leave behind incorrect registry entries.

If you decide to run Registry cleaner then review the items detected and always back up the registry (I keep a folder aside for this)

The Tools tab lets you uninstall programs and set startup programs. Why do you need this if Windows has all of these features? Especially with Vista Home Ed. The windows defender software explorer( startup programs) doesn't pick up some entries (however software explorer is easier to use).

Using CCleaner to uninstall programs and then check for leftover registry entries takes less time.

Under Options you can determine how CCleaner cleans your files. I leave this alone.

Answer 7

The best way is to add RAM memory -- your budget doesn't really allow for a new graphic card, and a faster hard drive would make a marginal difference. Your XP however is dying for more RAM, it's running like a slug because it is forced to continually swap memory space on and off the hard drive, which is much slower than RAM. Get at least 1 GB RAM, depending on your machine and RAM type it'll cost $25 - $50

Answer 8

What Is The Best Way To Speed Up My Computer And Make It Faster And Work Properly? -- https://reimagefix.im

Answer 9

You absolutely need more RAM. You can get 2 GB for under $80. Don't bother going much more than that though, XP only supports up to 3 GB.

If you can, get a larger hard drive, or an external one as well (I got 500 GB for about $80). If you move a lot of your personal files onto it, it will allow more room to reduce fragmentation.

Answer 10

First get at least 2gb of ram and one 160 gb hard drive at least. Both will cost you around you 100 bucks. If the problem is with your registry or other system files do a complete recovery which will make your computer as good as new.

Answer 11

My dad's computer was SO slow, I mean really. It would take like 10 minutes just to go on a site, but ever since he bought RAM its fast as heck. It was about $100, he didn't want to spend that much since he doesn't use the computer a lot, but he says it was so worth it, now hes on it like everyday.



Buy RAM!

Answer 12

Best Way To Speed Up My Computer? -- https://reimagefix.im

Answer 13

You would do well to take the advice of our dear contributor, Enigma, who has taken the time to supply splendid information. Well done dear girl! Now, I should think you could also consider painting your machine red, but, if all these fine suggestions prove fruitless then, no offence my good man, but I'll wager your computer may be a heap of cr@p and your best course of action is to upgrade it.

Answer 14

Hi there,

In my opinion Ccleaner is the number one tool for cleaning your pc. I've been using it for more then a year now and it works very well. You can grab your free copy here http://j.mp/UrACoa

It's the best choice.

Cheers.

Answer 15

2 things. The processor can be replaced with one that is 3Ghz.



also, the memory can be replaced (RAM) with 2gigs worth of memory of the same type or similar with compatibility. .

Answer 16

you can get more disk space or memory



im geting some more

Answer 17

Put it in the backseat of a racecar!!! LOL