Have your say & ask the experts

One of our PC's is running very slow - gradual deterioration over a number of years.

So far I have:

- deleted programs I no longer use.
- ran defrag.
- ran registryix.
- removed programs from startup.

Any advice on what else I can do?

Download and run Spybot (free) to check for spyware.

In the start menu type in %temp% hit return and delete your temporary files then restart.

The best thing to speed up a PC is to reinstall Windows, I usually do that at least once a year, although with 64bit Vista I've not noticed the slow downs that I used to get with XP.

Have you looked in task manager to see if anything is using a lot of CPU or disk resources? I found once that google desktop was killing my performance and I had to delete and reindex.

and use an expensive mains cable, that'll help

hammill:

and use an expensive mains cable, that'll help

Thanks hammill - on your recommendation I've just ordered The Silver Signature PowerKord from Russ Andrews - I'm viewing the £3350 as a long term investment.

Hope this does the trick.

heystak:

hammill:

and use an expensive mains cable, that'll help

Thanks hammill - on your recommendation I've just ordered The Silver Signature PowerKord from Russ Andrews - I'm viewing the £3350 as a long term investment. Hope this does the trick.

Don't forget one for your monitor

In some ways it depends on the programs that you *do* use, which if they're from Redmond tend to get bloatier with every release. Often, a pile more RAM (3gig max on older machines) can immediately give you a benefit, and it's very cheap nowadays so no excuse not to.

The point about checking what's running even when you have no apps open is a good one though - you may have any number of unnecessary processes running. Anti-Virus software can also be a big resource hog, particularly Norton (IME) - think carefully about whether you want mail to be virus-checked on the way out, for example, and whether applicaitons are virus-checked on startup. As long as you're confident your machine is clean, that is...

How much RAM does it have?

 

Download MALWAREBYTES (Make sure you click 'DOWNLOAD NOW')
http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html
UPDATE and FULL SCAN
Post the log here AFTER youve deleted everything it finds


reboot

Download HIJACK THIS (Make sure you click 'DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION')
http://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/
Click DO A SCAN AND SAVE A LOGFILE (Takes seconds) then post the log so we can see whats running
(do NOT do anything else with Hijack but scan and post the FULL log)

What operating system are you running on the PC, and what are the spec's, if the same OS is running in the pc for a long time, sometimes it's better to do a fresh install as pete321 already metioned.

Running msconfig will let you know what is set to run on startup, click run, type msconfig or msconfig32 depending on the os then have alook at what programs are in the startup tab, untick anything you don't want and reboot.

can you list the programs installed and the OS you are using, oh and the pc specs as well?

heystak:

Any advice on what else I can do?

Stop going on "adult" sites that clog your computer up with spyware viruses and all sorts of rubbish? Just joking Heystak I'm sure you don't do that sort of thing!

Or if you do, use a Mac.

I don't think the mac vs pc thing's gonna help you, but your post reminded me of what things used to be like...

I really don't miss any of the malware/virus/reinstall operating system stuff since I've had a mac. I used to accept being a bit of a computer geek and knew lots of fixes for things, but now I don't need to worry about any of that and things run smoothly without trying!

The advice of others on this post will help you out I'm sure. Good luck.

download CCleaner and it will help a lot

 

Just remember it will remove all of your passwords so make a note of them before you run it

 Also, DeFrag wil help seriously if you have not done so run this

Add as much RAM as you can. A full format and install will give the best results. I generally do this once a year on my PC, and it fast for a few months. Not had the same problem on my MAC.