[kenne]

I have HP-Compaq Presario desk top S4020 with window XP home. It is running very slow, i have over 20 Gig of free space and 1Gig of RAM. It is slow at start up and when opening any file or software, How can i make run faster . It is even slower when on the internet. I have taken off the virus check but there is no change in speed. How can restore it back to it normal speed. .

[SpiritWind]

:D Hi :
Basically speaking, the 2 MAIN Reasons of a "slow" computer are :

1) Unnecessary program(s) 2) "Malware"

No use dealing with these until AFTER the "no icon(s)" problem in your other thread is

resolved . I will mention that having an antiVIRUS program "running" on a computer is

extremely necessary . Also wise to have at least 1 antiSPYWARE/antiTROJAN program .

[Passiveson]

The most common cause of computer lag is a severely fragmented registery. Your computer is registery dependent, relying on the registery to track program locations, r/w virtual memory on the hard drive, update system operations and the IO of data. When the registery becomes severely fragmented, these operations lag proportionately. Defragment both your registery and your hard drives to improve preformance.

For optimal preformance, you can reset the size of the page file system. This may take numorous attempt to find an optimal size. to large it easily fragments rapidly, to small restricts your OS of an ample space for swapping out data.

Sometimes your computer may lag because stored temporary files (that are compressed) become huge and the processor spends a lot of time searching, decompressing and processing them. Same with temporary internet files. The large volumes require processor time and slow down operation. Scheduling a routine time for your computer to automatically delete these files can dramatically increase it's preformance.



Good luck.

[LincolnSpector]

Passiveson said:

The most common cause of computer lag is a severely fragmented registery. Your computer is registery dependent, relying on the registery to track program locations, r/w virtual memory on the hard drive, update system operations and the IO of data. When the registery becomes severely fragmented, these operations lag proportionately. Defragment both your registery and your hard drives to improve preformance.

I've seen some pretty good evidence that fragmented hard drives no longer effect performance.

Some years ago, I wrote a utility suite roundup for PC World. Both the PC World Test Center and I personally did extensive testing to see which defragger resulted in the faster computer. Not only did all of them come in at a dead heat, but so did the fragmented PC.

So I called Steve Gibson, who understands hard drives as well as anyone. He explained that improved caching (I think it was caching, but I'm not about to go hunting for my notes), inside the drives, makes fragmentation a non-issue with modern drive--at least for performance.

Defragging is still a good idea, because if something bad happens to your drive, it increases the odds you'll get your data back.

Lincoln

[Passiveson]

Thanks Lincoln, Though the data may prove true on the newest drives, I still require defragmenting my drives regularly since they are older (2002- 2004). I find if I dont defrag regularly, my processor speed is markly deminished.

[drmsucks]

Kenne - If you are still looking for help, @Spiritwind was leading you in the proper direction - most likely (assuming that this "slowness" is a recent condition) the problem lies in a malware infection. The problem most assuredly is not due to "registry fragmentation" and, most likely, not due to page file configuration (you do have a page file set up, right?) or hard drive fragmentation.

My suggestion is to go to a forum that has a good anti-malware section and follow the forum directions for getting help - a suggested forum is the ComputerHope forum (http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php).

Best of luck.

[coastie65]

Hi kenne, Two things to try 1 ) download and run www.CCleaner.com then 2) do a defrag. Let us know how it does after that. coastie

[Passiveson]

>The problem most assuredly is not due to "registry fragmentation" and, most likely, not due to page file configuration (you do have a page file set up, right?) or hard drive fragmentation.



Opinion, not fact. Explain?

[drmsucks]

Experience.

[Passiveson]

lol

Well for sure I'm convinced, "cuz you say so". !http://forums.pcworld.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif!



Perhaps all those help and support guides from Microsoft that tell us to defrag the registery to improve speed and preformance are just to fool us?

I mean what does Microsoft know about computers? They just designed the OS (imperfect as it is), they couldn't possibly know how it works, or don't work.

Reference: PCWorld

http://www.pcworld.c...nloads/file/fid,65031-order,0-c,systemresourcestuneup/description.html
h5. "Cleaning your Registry with a tool such as Eusing Free Registry Cleaner will go a long way toward speeding up your PC--but it won't go all the way. Even when you clean out the Registry, it may still be bloated. That's because over time, the Registry becomes defragmented, particularly when you add and remove Registry entries. This free, simple tool defragments the Registry, and gains you a bit of hard disk space. More important, though, is that it speeds up your PC's access to the Registry by compacting it--and that means a speedier PC. The program is free, it's simple to use, and it speeds up your PC...what else could you ask for? "
--Preston Gralla

Could our own Preston Gralla be mistaken? Or worse yet lying?

I won't say you're wrong but I'm afraid I can't just take you at your word on this. The evidence disagrees with your statement, but thanks for the input.

[coastie65]

Hi kenne, I faile to mention one thing. After doing the Hdd defrag run this : auslogics-registry-defrag.en.softonic.com/ . It is a registry defrag and very good, as well as FREE. coastie

[coastie65]

Passiveson said:

lol

Well for sure I'm convinced, "cuz you say so". !http://forums.pcworld.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif!






Perhaps all those help and support guides from Microsoft that tell us to defrag the registery to improve speed and preformance are just to fool us?


I mean what does Microsoft know about computers? They just designed the OS (imperfect as it is), they couldn't possibly know how it works, or don't work.


Reference: PCWorld


http://www.pcworld.c...nloads/file/fid,65031-order,0-c,systemresourcestuneup/description.html]{color}

>
>
> h5. "Cleaning your Registry with a tool such as [Eusing Free Registry Cleaner will go a long way toward speeding up your PC--but it won't go all the way. Even when you clean out the Registry, it may still be bloated. That's because over time, the Registry becomes defragmented, particularly when you add and remove Registry entries. This free, simple tool defragments the Registry, and gains you a bit of hard disk space. More important, though, is that it speeds up your PC's access to the Registry by compacting it--and that means a speedier PC. The program is free, it's simple to use, and it speeds up your PC...what else could you ask for? "
> --Preston Gralla

Could our own Preston Gralla be mistaken? Or worse yet lying?


[color="#0000ff"]I won't say you're wrong but I'm afraid I can't just take you at your word on this. The evidence disagrees with your statement, but thanks for the input.

[/quote]


I agree although, I'm not a big proponent of registry cleaners. If you don't know what you are doing, you can do more harm than good running those things. I am inclined to think what it needs is a good cleaning and defrag, including a registry defrag. We'll see. coastie

[tek101]

Add to Coastie ...If you really need your space in HDD .....
Do a Wds(itself) disk clean up ..and click more option ...to clean out most ......BUT the last System Restore point .

!http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1!

!http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1!

[coastie65]

One other thought. Yiou said you had over 20 Gb of free space left, you didn'Y say how big your Hdd was. If you have an 80 Gb Hdd and you have 20 Gb Free, then you have used 75 % of your Hdd and that will cause things to start slowing down as well. coastie

[drmsucks]

@Passiveson - I have no desire to "convince" you of anything. The OP has a problem with a slow computer. My procedure, assuming that the slowness came on quickly, which the OP did not state, is to rule out malware, then proceed down the well worn "my computer is slow" path.
@Kenne - 1) Get a malware specialist to look at a HijackThis log, properly generated from your computer, and correct any malware issues, 2) run Windows Disk Cleanup, 3) download, install and run ccleaner (www.ccleaner.com/), but, first read here: [http://docs.piriform.com/ccleaner/introducing-ccleaner,] 4) check all of your "startup" programs and disable any that you do not need; Autoruns ([http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx]) is arguably the best tool available, but can be intimidating - spend some time with it, 5) run Windows Scandisk (check for errors) on all hard drives and "fix" any errors, 6) defragment the hard drive using Windows built in defragmenter or a 3rd party defragmenter; I like jkdefrag, particularly this version ([http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/jkdefrag_portable]), 7) verify that you have at least 15% hard drive free space; if not, uninstall any unused programs, delete any unnecessary or duplicate data files, reduce the amount of the hard drive available for restore points, etc, 8) verify that a page file (swap file) is set up and set for Windows to manage it (there may be more efficient swap file configurations but do proper research before overriding Window's automatic operation), 9) defragment the page file ([http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.aspx]), 10) check to see what Windows services are running and verify that you need each one; this is a good resource: [http://www.blackviper.com/;] DO NOT disable any service unless you ABSOLUTELY know what it does and that you do not need it, 11) run ccleaner's registry cleanup tool; be sure to back up the registry first; be advised that ccleaner's registry cleaner is fairly non-invasive but that there is always a chance that a mistake in the Windows registry can/will render your system inoperable. If at the end of this process your computer is still "slow" and you are certain that your hardware, including the hard drive, is not slowing down the system (overheating, for example), you may want to consider a re-install of Windows; but, remember the first three steps to re-installing an operating system: 1) backup your data, 2) make certain that you have backed up ALL of your data, 3) triple check to be certain that all of your data has been backed up! Finally, more RAM may speed up your system - unless you do a lot of memory intensive operations, a total of 2 GB will get you the most bang for the buck in XP.

Best of luck.

[alexartox]

You may try some free registry cleaners : http://www.registryc...challenges.html



Another free tool TuneXP 1.5 is very effective in speeding up Windows XP, highly recommended.

http://download.cnet...4-10290929.html