SLOW computer (25 seconds to open firefox )!

wavid

wavid

wavid

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17 Dec 2008
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58
I dont understand why my computer is running so slow...back on xp it used to be scary fast!...i remember i never had any problems...instant folder opening...instant firefox opening....now(on win7) it takes sometimes up to 25 seconds to open firefox...and 20 for chrome..most of the time actually....nothing is really running in my task manager...
i turned the aero theme and it did not help...
my specs are...
7800GTX
amd64 3700+ 2.21 GHz
1GB RAM
x2 19" monitors

...i know its not the best but it still should run a lot faster because the downstairs computer is a lot weaker and runs 3 times as fast.....
ive done anti virus scans and registry cleaning etc....i dont know what it could be....it cannot be just becuase of 1GB ram so is there even point in buying extra? the downstairs one has 1GB and works fast.....

and btw my computer is pretty much empty...just backups of photos/movies....and only a game or 2 installed......

please help me...its horrible

(btw i dont have any money for upgrades (100 pounds or so) so i cannot buy a new computer for a while
 
1GB RAM and win7 isn't going to work well mate !
You need minimum of 3GB to run it anywhere well, also the CPU, as much as fast in its times, it's a bit outdated.

100quid ( + cash that you'll get for selling your old bits which should be around 40quid ) can get you an entry AM2+/3 mobo+cpu+ram and that would probably be the best option for you, even better if you're willing to buy 2nd hand then you can actually get quite fast build !
 
wow i didnt think my computer was so outdated lol...the one downstairs also has 1gb and runs fine...i guess maybe cos we only watch movies and pictures on it..i dono....so no point upgrading my ram? maybe il switch back to xp then :(

ill see if i can save up so more money this month...im shocked tbh

oh btw its windows 7 32bit
 
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No idea what he's talking about I run windows 7 just fine and my computer is similar to yours but intel.
my computer as of now is:
Pentium 4 @ 3.2GHz (Stock)
1GB RAM
nVidia 6600GT
and I open chrome in about 2 seconds firefox in about 5-10

So I don't know what's wrong with your computer maybe the hard drive is having trouble reading the files? Try a defrag and run disk cleaner. Hope this helps.
 
OK short research, you have 3 options:

You can either get 775 intel setup which is alright but it's dead socket and if you decide to upgrade in the future you'll need to dump it and get whole new PC:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L Intel G41 (Socket 775) DDR2 microATX Motherboard £37.99
Intel Celeron Dual Core E3300 "LGA775" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £37.59
Kingston 2GB (1x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C6 800MHz Single Channel Memory Module £35.24

Sub Total : £94.31
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £17.95
Total : £120.51

Or you can get entry AM3 setup which will allow you for easy and cheap upgrades, it also performs better but more expensive by a considerable amount:

Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-10666 1333MHz Dual Channel (PVS34G1333ELK) £70.49
Asus M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £51.99
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 245 2.90GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £46.99

Sub Total : £144.23
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £26.82
Total : £180.05

So that's 60 more but gives you much better CPU, motherboard and 2x more RAM that's a lot faster and higher quality as well. Could bring this down by around 30-35quid but I couldn't find any 2GB sticks that are in stock ( from ocUK at least ).

Also if going for this build I'd try to get another 14quid extra for the 785G chipset motherboard which will give you much better features and overclockability if you ever decide to OC any of your CPUs.

--
Also there is 3rd option to go skimp spec with AMD which probably will be a bit better than the intel:

Your basket

AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 245 2.90GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £46.99
Gigabyte GA-M68M-S2P GeForce 7025 (Socket AM3/AM2+) DDR2 microATX Motherboard £38.99
Kingston 2GB (1x2GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C5 667MHz Single Channel Memory Module £35.24
)
Sub Total : £103.16
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £19.50
Total : £130.91


You could also try to get 2nd hand memory for your PC and 2nd hand dual core 939 CPU but those are expensive nowadays since they're hard to get so it's not worth it tbh. That would probably cost you around 40quid for CPU and 30-40 for ram.


Also if you could get the AM3 spec 2nd hand this would bring you to around:
30-40 for 2nd hand 780/785G mobo
25-40 for 2nd hand AthlonII x2/x3 CPU
¬ for 4gb of ddr3 memory
---------------------------------------------
Total = 105 / 130GBP for very strong setup.
 
thanks mason..i did not think it was THAT outdated to struggle so bad with windows 7....il try to reformat AGAIN (5-6 time this year)...and hope itl clean everything up....how fast does your "My Computer" open? sometimes it takes about 10-20 seconds for me...its crazy...i used to be able to play bioshock on high on this computer..now i doubt it would even handle halflife 1..could it be the dual screen setup? i doubt thats whats making it slow

and thanks phoenix..il think about upgrading if i save up abit...prob option 2 or better
 
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wavid said:
thanks..i did not think it was THAT outdated to struggle so bad with windows 7....il try to reformat AGAIN (5-6 time this year)...and hope itl clean everything up....how fast does your "My Computer" open? sometimes it takes about 10-20 seconds for me...its crazy...i used to be able to play bioshock on high on this computer..now i doubt it would even handle halflife 1
Click to expand...

Surely that points to your harddrive causing the slow down?
 
wavid said:
thanks mason..i did not think it was THAT outdated to struggle so bad with windows 7....il try to reformat AGAIN (5-6 time this year)...and hope itl clean everything up....how fast does your "My Computer" open? sometimes it takes about 10-20 seconds for me...its crazy...i used to be able to play bioshock on high on this computer..now i doubt it would even handle halflife 1

and thanks phoenix..il think about upgrading if i save up abit...prob option 2 or better
Click to expand...

just tested it and it took 4 seconds :P
 
Might be borked HDD as well. Guess you can try plugging it to the other PC and install win7 on that HDD in the other PC and see how that works.

But still I seriously doubt it runs well on p4 ....
Guess we have very different definitions of 'running well'.
For me if it doesn't go smoothly when having multiple firefox tabs open while listening to winamp and having something else in the background with some youtube tabs it doesnt run well.

Well, if you decide to upgrade and get that better AM3 setup with 4gb ram your definition of FAST will change as well and you'll notice how slow your current setups are ...
 
I had an Athlon64 3000+ (2Ghz) with 1 Gig of RAM running Windows 7 32bit and it was fine, certainly no 25 seconds to open firefox. It seemed a lot crisper than the XP installation I had on my other hard drive.

Must be something amiss. It should not take that long.

Windows 7 is a memory hog and struggles on 1Gig so would probably be better to go back to XP or grab another Gig of RAM. By the way I have W7 on my Daughters laptop and that has a 1.6 Ghz celeron CPU with 2Gigs and it's also fine.
 
I updated Firefox to the latest and it speeded up no end. check to see if you're up to date.

Have you checked the router, firewall and windows network settings? Unlike M$ to bork Firefox, but you never know. Does IE boot quicker?

andy.
 
Tbh if you're using your computer just for that and things open slowly,

Why not spend the 100 quid on an SSD? it will open things really quickly.

Opening movies will still take a while on your (possibly) buggered HDD but it doesn't matter so much.
If you got important apps such as firefox + OS + your media playing program on there it should be fine.

Oh and heres my CPU pro spec :P i7 owners eat your heart out, I know you're jealous.



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i think your hard drive is the problem myself, download hdtune 2.55 and run the benchmark and post a screenshot with the results please.
if your hard drive is as old as the rest of your machine it will be slow as even the raptors from a few years ago are slower than modern hard drives.

and win 7 will run fine on your machine, i have it on an athlon xp 2500 with 512 mb ram and it runs fine.
 
HAHA! These things always make me laugh.

Before you start taking out a second mortgage on your house to speed up your PC, maybe try re-installing Windows first.

I get slated on here a lot for doing so, but:
1.) I install a fresh copy of Windows
2.) Install all the programs required
3.) Apply all the tweaks and settings
4.) Take an image of the HDD using Acronis True Image

Then if I ever get even a slight slow down, I save a few things (bookmarks, files on desktop, game saves, etc) run Acronis True Image and literally FIFTEEN MINUTES later I've got Windows running fresh as the morning sunrise.

Easy.
 
PhoenixUK said:
1GB RAM and win7 isn't going to work well mate !
You need minimum of 3GB to run it anywhere well, also the CPU, as much as fast in its times, it's a bit outdated.
Click to expand...

This is a gross exaggeration. I have been running win 7 with just 2gb of ram (one kit in process of RMA) for about a month now and can even play bad company 2 on max settings with no problems at all. I was even running with just 1gb for a bit, web browsing etc was fine, maybe a bit slower but no where near 25 seconds to open fire fox.

I think people seriously over estimate how much ram a modern PC actually needs to run well.
 
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2GB should be plenty for what you want to do. I run Win 7 on my netbook which is no better than your desktop and it flies. I'd make sure your HDD isn't borked, and then get get a new HDD if need be, and a 2GB RAM kit for good measure.

Also an SSD might not be such a silly idea. I know it's throwing money at old hardware, but I'm certain there are a few articles on really old computers with SSD's in, and the performance increase is fairly surprising.
 
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