Help me fix a sluggish PC

Hello Charlotte,

there are many things that could slow your Windows PC down. And what makes it more complicated is that sometimes there are none.

1. Try "Tuneup Utilities 2011 or 2012". Run a complete check and fix the bugs (it will do it automatically)
2. Is your hard drive almost full? It should be less 75% full, if not your PC will slow down.
3. 768 of RAM and XP sp3, doesnt sound like a recent laptop??? It might be a good opportunity to get a new one
4. I know, that many will disagree with me here, but with over 13 years of experience in IT, AVG antivirus is trash, especially with older computers. Get something much lighter, like Nod32 by Eset.

hope it helps,

so11

Yes, it's an older laptop. I don't have funds for a new desktop or laptop right now, so I'm muddling through with this one

Is Nod32 a free program? Likewise with Tuneup?

Of course I want something quality lol I was just getting the lay of the land

If you search for MajorGeeks via Google, you will find a website with a huge database of freeware/shareware. They have any software that you can think of that would help with a computer going all the way from tune-up utilities to antivirus programs.

For software that will help to keep the CPU/RAM usage down go to the All-In-One section.

In the description of each software, it will tell if it it's freeware (free) or shareware (not free).

Also once you click on the software for a better overview, you can check the ratings the software has received just to get an idea of how well it does compared to others in the same classification.

Hope this helps.

Another thing concerning Defragmentation.

It was an issue with older computers and older OS, like windows 98.

Today its not a problem anymore, so dont waste your time.

By the way, defragmentation makes your hard drive work really really hard, so doing it decreases its life time.

I think it is a problem of not enough RAM. I have a laptop running xp and it has 1 gig of ram and it runs ok. I have a desktop which has 2 gig or ram and it runs fine. 768 mb is not enough.

Could it be luck?

Whenever my PC used to slow down, I used to do a defragmentation of the drives. Also used CCleaner to delete unnecessary junk.
However, ever since I moved onto Linux, I have never had that problem.
If you like to experiment with your systems, then try Linux Mint 13 on a partition. I have searched and used many OS and finally got to this beauty.

Oh and by the way.. My Laptop is 6 years old running Linux Mint 13 (Cinnamon version) with 1GB RAM and 80GB hard-disk. (too old n low specs).

First you need to find out why it's slow.

Push cntrl-alt-del to bring up task manager and tell us how much CPU and memory are being used. Also- how many processes are running- this one is important.

and as other have mentioned a defragging of your hard drive will help things too.

But honestly- 700 Megs of ram is limping along... it's not going to ever be "fast".

I don't need it lightning speed, just enough for the mouse to catch up to my clicking. I defragged and am running a program to permanently delete data from the recycle bin and download areas. Looking a lot better already. Yay!

Down-grade from SP3 to SP2. Do a disk clean up, disk defrag, and download these two tools:

1) Malwarebytes

2) Spybot search and destroy

Also, see if you can add at least 2GB worth of RAM in your system. Plus, do disk cleanup and see if there are any files that can be compressed. Most times... this will open up alot more space on your hard drive by compressing files that you almost never use.

As already stated install the anti malware (I like Malwarebytes) defrag, run cccleaner, change your system settings by right clicking my computer> properties> advanced> performance> settings> adjust for best performance. Also, remove any unused items on your drive onto an external disk and any unused software in add/remove programs. Reboot the machine.

Be sure to remove any toolbars in your browser, too.

An increase in Ram would help as well.

Buy tune up utilities and run a disk defrag.
You can also run a windows defrag by going start --> my computer --> right click on local disk c and click properties --> then select disk clean up

1. Get a external HD and save your data to it.
2. Re-install Windows.
3. Add RAM, seriously.
4. Store more data on the external HD from now on, or, purchase a larger internal HD

It will feel like new-ish.

Many have suggested it, add RAM. In my opinion, adding RAM is the best bang for the buck upgrade/improvement for a computer.

Also, clean and maintain your computer's registry. CCleaner is an excellent free resource.

Good luck and take care,
Allan

Just want to let you know upfront that I am a Systems analyst for almost 20 years.

You have gotten allot of good suggestions already. I just wanted to add what I would do.

First make sure your computer can be updated for RAM. Go to the manufacturers website and look for your computer and it would usually tell you how much RAM it can handle. If it can handle more RAM get some. It does not cost but around 30 for a gig. Go to best buy or any other computer place that has RAM. Explain to them what type of computer you have and they should be able to tell you which RAM to get. If you need help installing just send me a message and I will be happy to help.

Second someone mentioned to go to task manager and see how many programs are running. That is an excellent idea. If there are tons of things running that will surely slow it down. If you do not know how to turn them off again just send me a message and I will help you through it.

Third How many virus programs do you have running? Sometimes they can interfere with each other and cause massive slow down. I would suggest just one antivirus program but you can have something like AVG (should still be free) to run with it. Also someone suggested spy bot search and destroy I use that also so can you with the other two. Also make sure to use the CCleaner at least once a week to get rid of all the junk you don't need. That should be about all you need for protection.

Fourth Be careful on what you download cause allot of things can have malware attached and you not know it or even trojans.

#5 and the most important. Make sure that the computer is not overheating. Feel the bottom of it and if it feels real hot (should feel warm) then you might consider getting one of those laptop cooler pads they will usually have a fan to help the laptop run cooler.

Also you might consider when you can to get a newer laptop. I just bought one for about 400 in best buy and it a decent laptop. Not top of the line but not bad.

If I can be any further help just let me know

I have an idea yes your first problem is you don't have a lot of RAM.

After that you have AVG running on a PC I don't neccessarily consider fast enough to be running AVG.

I'm working on an intel quad for music production, and EVEN I uninstalled AVG after noticing the hit my CPU takes just having it installed.

So my personal recommendation is remove avg and stop using it. It was rarely effective for me at finding viruses, and all it did was slow down my computer.

Once you have AVG uninstalled, I suggest you download ComboFix.

Combofix is one of the most powerful/free antispyware/registry cleaners I know of.

It can also harm your computer if not used properly.

However, I don't know a thing about using it "properly" and KNOW that it works better than even most paid programs I've had.

It doesn't have all the fancy real time monitoring stuff that other virus software has, but I honestly hate that stuff and prefer just doing daily or weekly scans (this should all be in past tense as I don't actually do scans anymore).

Even malware bytes I consider a good program, but its real time virus protection slows down my computer, so I kept it turned off except for when it was time to run manual scans.

Like I said, your biggest issue right now is AVG. Untill you take that off you're not going to notice any real improvement in your speed.

Then try downloading combofix and getting in the habit of using it. You will also very likely find that combofix is able to find things that AVG or spybot can not. I know this because I had both running on my pc at one point, and combofix always seemed to identify problems these other 2 never did. This was same with maleware bytes and various other programs.

However, I still recommend using maleware bytes with combofix as they both seem fairly competent (even though I like combofix better) and if these 2 didn't seem to work, I'd know it was time to reformat my pc.

Overtime what wound up working BEST for me (I just don't care about viruses now) is installing a virtual machine on my PC. This eliminates all the bs imo. I use the virtual machine to log onto the internet, so all viruses/spyware will infect the virtual machine and not my main computer.

A virtual machine will act like a wall and if you use your PC properly, ONLY the virtual machine can ever get infected. When it does you simply wipe it out (its like a virtual desktop so you wind up with 2 desktops, one that is virtual one that is real) then reinstall it. It will take all the viruses and crap with it. This protects your main pc from EVER getting infected, and makes it easy to wipe out/restart from scratch just by wiping out the virtual machine.


Good luck! -Red

If it's a laptop running XP I doubt it would hold 2 GB of RAM.

She has 700Mb so she has a 512 and a 256. So I'd SWAG she only has two RAM slots. Best she can probably do is 1 GB- or an extra 256 Mb. Nice, but not earth shattering.

Reinstall would have been my suggestion as well, but I'd bet she has the machine set up and dialed in and it would take a day or two to complete redo it update the OS and reload all the extra programs, browser add ons, restore the backed up files etc.

Plus, on top of that. It seems the defrag she ran was somehow fatal, as she has not checked back in yet.

Hi Charlotte,
I had the advice of an HP Tech and he said that CCleaner was one of the best to use. He even told me to be careful of some of the free trial of paid programs as they can make it look like there are files on your computer when there are not.

Do you Defrag and run Scan disk? Have you run any spyware programs to check for spyware? If you have spyware on your computer it can make it run slow.

Here are a couple of good spyware programs.

Spybot - Search & Destroy

Ad-Aware by Lavasoft

I would also suggest increasing your ram, as you do not have enough. Depending on the programs you have installed, they could be using a lot of memory and can slow down your computer.

(@blamethecaffiene)

Exactly, its a last resort because its powerful and works that well.

If you think AVG is all that its cracked up to be, I have something to tell you, its not.
My brother is a total tech nerd of 35 years working for At&t and he gets paid very good money to fix major websites/servers/computers for corporations like dunkin donuts, kodak, nikkon, walgreens and other similar sized businesses.

They trust him because he knows his ****. Its also the reason he makes 6 figures a year, and I never see him working. His job is to "maintain" a lot of these systems/servers, and because he is able to do it properly, he winds up doing very little work correcting problems caused by ignorance.

You would NEVER see him recommending AVG to any of his clients.
A while back (like 3 years) he recommended it to me, I used it, recommended it to a lot of musician friends who work in big studios and NEED the fastest systems possible.

They ALL hated AVG.

The only people who like AVG are your mainstream consumers who don't really need extensive virus protection and don't have as much to lose as other larger businesses do. They probably have never really compared AVG to other programs, and have no idea how slow/ineffective it really is.

I'm not recommending combofix as a replacement, maybe I should have worded that better. What I AM suggesting is you get in the habit of using it, and at least learn some fundamentals of how to use it properly. Like I said, I'm not an expert, but its served me better than AVG ever could.

In the end, moving over to virtual machines is always your smartest bet. Once you use a virtual machine, you'll understand why they're so powerful.

I don't care what anti-virus program the OP uses, I just strongly recommend against AVG. I can't tell you how many computers my brother gets with AVG installed on it and they are all packed to the brim with spyware/viruses that AVG NEVER FINDS. First thing he does is uninstall AVG, backs up everything, then wipes the slate clean. Starts fresh, and will usually recommend a virtual machine.

If the person doesn't want it, he has his own antivirus software through at&t that he installs I don't know the name, but it works far better than AVG does.

I know lots of people like AVG, but the speed issues even on faster systems is preposterous. I've compared it to enough other programs to know it does nothing special, its slower than a turtle, and my PC still gets tons of garbage with it installed.

Just my opinion, take it for what its worth - Red

ps. like other people said you can also go to accessories > system tools and run BOTH a system clean up and a defrag. This will always usually give you a bit more speed.

21,000,000 results for "anti virus software" definitely DOES NOT help your case.

Even if the OP upgrades to 2gb ram, AVG is still killing her memory usage. She will have a faster pc, but nowhere near as fast as it will be WITHOUT AVG.

Software is definitely not useless, otherwise there wouldn't be such a huge market for it.

So that statement was really just as ignorant as they come.

-Red

I've defragged my hard drive and it's running quicker now. Interesting about the AVG slowing things down. I'm going to take a peek at Combofix and see if it's something that will work with what I've got. This computer is a stop-gap between buying a new desktop, so I don't want to sink money into it right now. I've been keeping an eye out for a good deal with faster processing and memory capabilities.

You should also update your antivirus software. A good one to use is something called Kaspersky. You can get it at your local Walmart.

Charlotte,

I've seen a few comments here about NOD32 letting a virus through. ESET (and NOD32) have a pretty good reputation generally and tend to get attention when something slips through because it is actually a little unusual. I would recommend some form of proper anti-virus but also point out that many of the main stream ones can get quite bloated over time and your PC grinds slowly every time you start up. From what I can tell the likes of Kaspersky and ESET (though not free) tend to have quite a light footprint on your PC (which will be quite important for someone with an older PC that's a little short on RAM).

Again, as its an older PC I would suggest a regular defrag (possibly using the built-in check-disk facility first, followed by Disk cleanup, before then doing a defrag. Check-disk does a sanity check of your hard disk to make sure there are no corrupt sectors causing problems. Disk clean up then cleans up old files and temporary files etc. and then with these out of the way your defrag will be more efficient.
A couple of other pointers would be:
1) A standalone hard disk (USB type will do) is a good option because you can put "all" your folders and documents on it and keep the hard disk free of non system "stuff". You can get a pretty hefty sized one for a lot less than the price of a new PC. This has the advantage that you keep your Hard Disk space free to allow your page-file to expand if it needs to. (The page file is a type of virtual RAM because it is actually using some of the Hard disk space to store what would normally go in RAM). If you are short of RAM the page file can get quite large and quite busy and load your CPU just shuffling pages in and out of virtual RAM). It also means that if you have a system crash you don't lose all your data. You can simply plug your standalone hard disk into another PC and carry on. This practice also means your anti-virus scans will complete much faster because it can do a system scan without having to trundle all through the data files as well.
2) I highly recommend getting your hands on some backup software that can create images. (Possibly something like Nero but probably NOT something like Norton which can get horribly slow). Then every so often when things are running smoothly - set the backup software to create a system image of the C drive - (Note: I didn't say backup but system image) - (but store it on the standalone hard disk). That way if you suddenly find your system has started to behave very strangely -going slow, crashing or similar then don't bother to try to fix it. Just slam the image back onto the C drive and be up and running again in probably less than 15-20 minutes. Just remember that Microsoft do regular updates and your last image can get out of date so re-create the image every now and then and it won't have too many updates to catch up with if you need to reload it. (Obviously one assumption with this suggestion is that you are using a standalone hard disk for your data otherwise the image will have to include all your data files and they could get out of date very quickly).

As an aside, I personally would be cautious about recommending a registry cleaner to anyone that isn't highly conversant with advanced PC maintenance. They can easily do a lot of damage if something goes wrong.

Another advantage with these options is that if you do buy a new PC/laptop then these are all portable to your new PC/laptop.

Hope that helps.

Blow it up and get a Mac

what do you describe about "slow" miss?
some problems ends with some conclusion