Shoutbox

Alright.... i've been wanting some answers to some questions i have but i never got time to post them.... here i go!

A couple of months ago i had a really old sucky computer that ran as fast as the fastest snail on earth... it got on my nerves to an incredibally incredibal point (redundant? ) so i got all fed up and decided to change it for a brand new one. When i got this one i was all hyper to see how good it was, here are its specs:

Pentium 4 CPU 2.66GHz
2.67 GHz (absolutely no idea what this is...)
256Mo Ram
80 Gig HD
64MB graphics card
blablabla
blabla
bla
...

Anyways, i was all happy, this computer was running like speedy gonzales.... it was perfect.... however, i've been using it a lot, and it's speed has gone down... DRASTICALLY.... to give you an idea, clicking start>>my computer takes 30-60 seconds to load.... no bs..... opening a program is HELL and switching between windows is as annoying as guetting melted ice cream all over you fingers and not having any tissue paper.... unless of course you like having half of FireFox mixed with a fourth of an msn window and a fourth of Windows Media Player....

So yea.... I'm sick of this

I ran defrag, scanned my computer for virus/spy/adware, it's clean there. Now i ran some searches on google and i found something on how the computer will use the HD instead of ram when that gets all clogged up.... now this is where another problem comes.... out of the 256 ram i constantly have less than 50 free I have now closed pretty much every program and i have 67 free..... I downloaded FreeRam Pro XP or whatever to solve this problem.... but it only frustrates me to see how much RAM is being used.... To try to solve THIS problem i went to the task manager and tried ot see which program was usign the most memory.... however i had no idea what most of the things were and decided to leave it alone....

Also (yes this is guetting long but it's not over yet ) my computer CONSTANTLY crashes, i have to reboot on average once every hour if i am using it.... internet just stops working.... and that's my first sign.... a coupld of seconds after that... pouf.... nothing works.... to solve this i thought about formatting my whole HD and re-installing XP.... however i can't do that because i have too many files and setting i can't save on a cd or anything (game saves, program preferences etc.....) so would it help if i ran the instal on "fix" or something.... if that even exists on XP?

Last but not least.... damn i forgot..... oh yeah..... is it possible that all these problems be comming from physical lack of ram? As in.... even with 256 ram should i add another lets say 256....? I prefer doing this then formatting my PC if i have the choice....

Now if you are still reading this and started at the beginning.... THANKS! Please help me....


Btw, miracle.... my computer hasn't crashed since i started writing..... or did i speak too fast? *quickly posts*

reformat is the best solution, even tough you don't want to. Don't buy new RAM. I believe that, alll those programs you installed (like Freeramxp and stuff. i'm not blaming freeramxp but i'm speaking in general) leave traces, and if uou don't uninstall them and if they use a specific loader... well then you've got a problem =/

Well, I would reinstall Windows. What programs did you install? I have a Pentium III 800 MHz with 256 MB of RAM, Windows XP, a lot of programs, and it still runs as smooth as the first day. I'd say you have installed too many dodgy programs (or device drivers)...

quote:

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Originally posted by lopardo
I have a Pentium III 800 MHz with 256 MB of RAM, Windows XP and it still runs as smooth as the first day

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mine too, but mines a P3 500, with 384Mb of ram.


the best upgrade possible is to ad more ram. a stick of 256, or even 512 if u can afford it would boost performance.


also, go through the add/remove programs list and get rid of things you don't need. heres a list of alot of processes. Run> services.msc> and disable the ones that are started that you don't like in there,

then run msconfig, and disable the things in the startup tab that are  for programs you don't use anymore, or ui just don't like.

The problem is i don't have heaps of programs, i take care of my computer really well.... so i only have programs that I actually use....

Anyways, i'll go over my programs and see if any are there that i don't use, then i'll run msconfig.... never did that before.... and i have a feeling it will help a little bit.

Leopardo, by reinstalling windows, do you mean erasing everything on my HD too? Or is it possible to just install over the old windows? (similar to how you can just upgrade from 98 to XP without losing anything....)

And bach_m do you have any idea on how much ram costs? Can i install it alone? And of course is any ram stick fine or are there different types for different pc's? (am i becoming annoying with all my questions? )

well you cant update windows xp but you can reinstall it without looseing everything. sorta. you can just delete the windows folder from ms-dos and reinstall but then you loose your regestry, but not your files. so basically you would have to reinstall all your programs that use the regestry and you loose anything set there by them :/

One thing you can do is to insert your win XP cd, and boot from it.
Then go to install windows and select to repair windows...
But that never helped me...
It caused me problems...

So there is a "repair" option....?

What kind of problems?

quote:

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Originally posted by VGProManiac
What kind of problems?

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Well...
I was getting a 'blue screen' (it only had the windows icon and some blue) and it was saying "Setup is restarting......." and after that, it restarts the computer and then it does it again...
So it goes into an endless loop

how about trying a system restore?