• pinkblush said on Aug 10, 2006....

  maybe you have so many programs that initializes during start up. you could see the performance of your computer by viewing the task manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL). Maybe during some program installations you have unconciously installed them with the [ load during start up ] check box on. Or maybe your computer lacks memory. Try to uninstall some programs that you do not actually need. Defragmentation is also one way to make your computer load faster.

• durianshortcake said on Aug 10, 2006....

  Thanks pinkblush! I will try deleting unused programs first. Defragmentation takes a long time, right?

• Weird_World said on Aug 11, 2006....

  durian Hey how you doing?? Using a lot of graphics?? Whats your RAM, and speed of your processor... Tell me and I will give you some advise then... Crtl+Alt+Del=warm boot(turning on the comp)... after switching it on is called=cold boot.... warm boot might usually opens the "Task Manager", if you using some form of Windows... And you can always check in the "Task Manager", and find the tasks which are not responding, and some are taking a lot of memory space... Close the ones you think are taking too much memory(but some might be system program, so make sure that you know what you are closing, or it will shut-down the comp...) Hope this helped... Take care... Adious S

• durianshortcake said on Aug 11, 2006....

  WW, forgive my ignorance. How am I to know how much RAM my computer has? *embarrassed* Btw, according to the Task Manager, my browser has the biggest memory usage. Will wait for your reply. Thanks in advance!

• Weird_World said on Aug 11, 2006....

  O.K. durian, I was away... Nothing like that dont think about ignorance, we learn something everyday, and each moment.... Go to "My Computer", and right click on it. Click properties and open "Properties" and then click the "General" tab... It will give you information about your comp, like "System", "Registered to", and "Computer". Check out computer, and you will find everything, RAM and speed of processor(it is in GHz).... And if ieploxe is taking max memory then its o.k.. But you can find some of the programs which you have installed in your comp, which you are running, but are virtually running still... You can find them, names are easy, like the names of the program. End them... I hope this helped, or maybe you are bored like hell... Anyways take care... Adious S

• durianshortcake said on Aug 11, 2006....

  WW, of course I wasn't bored. I'm learning a lot from you. Ok, here's what the General tab says: 248 MB of RAM 2.39 GHz Btw, I use Opera browser, and I have 11 windows open. Hehe. Is that too many? Thanks again!

• Weird_World said on Aug 11, 2006....

  durian, What about graphics?? Anyways RAM and processor are o.k.. Yeah I think thats the problem 11 windows?? Check the Task Manager on how much memory it takes for 1 window, then multiply by 11.... I think you should format, and defrag... O.K. but take a back-up before defrag.... And take care.... Adious S

• durianshortcake said on Aug 11, 2006....

  The browser's usage is 73,160 K for the 11 windows. So, I just closed some. So far, the speed is faster. But I'm not sure if this has any effect on my start up speed. I'll try to see the next time I start up, then I'll let you know. Thanks much! Take care, too. =)

• Weird_World said on Aug 11, 2006....

  durian, I know the start-up, wont go with this, thats why I said to format... If that doesnt work, then defrag.... And check the "Task Manager", there will be a lot of programs, which neither the comp, nor you will be using. Close them... For the time being your comp will be faster... If you are using graphics, then increase your RAM. Processor is o.k., dont need to change... Take care Adious S

• durianshortcake said on Aug 11, 2006....

  I'm actually trying [b]not[/b] to reformat again (how redundant huh!). It takes too long, and I still don't have the time to backup my files. Ok, I'll try deleting the unused programs first but if the speed still doesn't improve after that, I'll have to work overtime so I can backup the files. I'll update you. Thanks! :-*

• GMNIMan said on Aug 11, 2006....

  The biggest culprit of a sluggish computer is an over-loaded registry. Invariably uninstalling programs is not enough to bring your PC up to speed, to what it was when you first install the OS. The strongest indication of a congested registry is if your computer takes a long time to start up. This is because the system will be going through all the registry entries loading all the links, shortcuts, file associations and other values many of which would already be redundant. You will be surprise at just how many invalid registry entries there can be. I have seen invalid entries of more than a thousand. In more than 20 years I have done a lot of system recovery, maintenance etc, in fact long before Windows even saw the light of day, ever since the good old days when MSDOS was the only way to go. With Windows, cleaning up the system registry is alway one of the first thing that I would do. I can say that the Windows registry system is one of the most poorly design system of any OS out there, but because we are now stuck with it, there is no better way for Windows short of re-writing the whole OS from scratch. Linux anyone? Anyway, the solution? Clean up your registry! How? It is possible to do a manual clean up of your registry using [b]Regedit[/b], however unless you truly what you are doing, I strongly advise against this. You may just end up with a vegetable sitting on your desk or lap. Instead install one of the many registry cleaning program available. Registry First Aid from ||{1}|| is one which I have used and works very well. Run it about once every week. Next run a registry compression program like well... ||{1}||. Another thing, your RAM is too small. Get at least 512Mb, no less. Just do these and bring the snap back to your PC...

• GMNIMan said on Aug 11, 2006....

  Further to the above... Have you checked that your PC is free of any worm/virus? Any infection will definite slow down your system, and some will literally make it crawl. Most worms will also modify your registry to prevent you from running a registry checking program like Registry First Aid which of course wil instantly detect a false registry entry. Such worms will actually force your PC to reboot if you try to run a registry cleaning program. So if you have installed a registry cleaning/checking program and your computer reboots when you try to run it, you can be assured that you have a resident worm running inside your system. Update your AV definition database and purge those buggers out. Cheers.

• bloc said on Aug 11, 2006....

  there's a real good chance that you have a virus. I would check that first.

• bomb1c said on Aug 11, 2006....

  I caught my first virus in years the other day on my PC. After some research I was able to remove it. Make sure your next computer is a MAC ;)

• GMNIMan said on Aug 11, 2006....

  ... or a Linux box :-)) Both the Mac OS and Linux come from the same roots, Unix. Remember, the best upgrade for your Windows PC is a Mac. And the best Windows PC are the latest line of Macs with the Intel engine. Well as they say, "Intel inside, dumb outside!"

• durianshortcake said on Aug 13, 2006....

  Thanks for the help GMNIMan, bloc, and bomb1c! I have an AV installed on my pc and I run it everyday. I also just updated it recently. So far, it says that my pc is free from virus. But my question is, could it really detect all kinds of viruses?

• bloc said on Aug 14, 2006....

  there is a real chance that it won't recognize all viruses, but it should catch the vast majority of them. Does it run really slow after startup?

• durianshortcake said on Aug 14, 2006....

  bloc, after deleting some programs that I don't use anymore, startup was a bit faster. There are still other programs that I rarely use that take up big memory space but I can't just delete them. I'm still planning to use them in the future.

• GMNIMan said on Aug 15, 2006....

  If deleting programs helps a bit, then you really should consider a full registry cleanup. No other way, save for re-installing your Windows. Trust me! Also delete any unecessary apps in your Startup folder, in fact [b]Registry First Aid[/b] can also help you to pick and choose which apps you want to load at startup.

• durianshortcake said on Aug 15, 2006....

  Isn't there any free version of the Registry First Aid?

• bloc said on Aug 15, 2006....

  "There are still other programs that I rarely use that take up big memory space but I can't just delete them. I'm still planning to use them in the future." They shouldn't take up memory (ram) unless they are running. Are they running?

• durianshortcake said on Aug 15, 2006....

  Nope, they're not. Adobe Photoshop and Limewire take big memory space even if I'm not running them.

• bloc said on Aug 16, 2006....

  If they are taking up memory (how do you know that they are?) then they are running even if you didn't start them. I know limewire will start itself, but I've never heard of photoshop doing this.

• durianshortcake said on Aug 16, 2006....

  The [i]Add or Remove Programs[/i] feauture of the Control Panel specifies the size of the program. I told you, I'm ignorant about these tech issues. So, do you mean that the size of the program isn't the same as the memory they're using up?

• GMNIMan said on Aug 21, 2006....

  durianshortcake wrote...
  
  Isn't there any free version of the Registry First Aid?
  
  You didn't hear this from me, but you can easily find it by searching through eDonkey or eMule. Less easily using Bittorrent.
  
  Anyway SC is not the place to discuss this...
  

• StrangeOne said on Aug 29, 2006....

  Whoooaaaa! Before recommending any kind of registry tinkering to a newbie... defrag first, and then get more RAM!! 248 MB is very little for a modern computer, in fact anything under 1 GIG is likely to slow it down.
  
  Find someone knowledgeable to get and install a 1 Gig stick of RAM for you, it should help cure what ails.
  

• Tech-Rant said on Jul 20, 2007....

  New ram, new ram, NEW RAM! It's always the fix to this problem with older computers.

• anonymous said on Feb 27, 2008....

  hi, Maybe what you need is memory. or check start=run=msconfig click starup, uncheck, this will free your open programs in the task bar yoyo.

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