slugggggg!

unwashed potato! · 16 Jul 2006 at 17:52

my dads coputer is a slug so we are going to be buying some more RAM probably today to try and improve this, but aswell as that i am also wondering if you can recommend ways in which to speed this slug up before the RAM arrives.

Bascailly recently, well in the last year the computer has gone very slow, and just seems to get slower as time goes by. at first it was slow to shut down, then to start up, e.g. it loads the user background and startbar, but then it still takes ages to do the rest, and then after everything is loaded, the first time to load things like IE/firefox, Outlook, it is very very slow and takes like a mintue to load it up.

Is there anything i can do to stop this long loading and shutting down time?

i heard that sometime msn can do something with OE and IE which causes them to go slow first time, and it can be stopped but typgin something by going to start, run. anyone got this thing i need to type?

next to the clock ther is norton, norton interent, correct connect, and safely remove hardware symbols. Can any of these be got rid of?

i know thre is some applicaiton which has been on this coputer for years called khooker.exe (i think it ends with .exe) is this a virus or part of xp. Im not sure as its been here since day 1 almost which is more then 3/4 years.

would you reccomend a change in virus protection as i know norton is terbile, i use avast and avg free and they are fine.

only problem is that this is my dads compuet, and is connected to the internet if you catch my drift so i can't search on the computer too much.

thanks guys

marc_howarth · 16 Jul 2006 at 19:47

loading times can be quickened by going into Start > Run > msconfig

move along to the startup tab and here you can change which programs you want to load at startup

Indy500 · 16 Jul 2006 at 19:50

Could you post hardware specifications?

unwashed potato! · 16 Jul 2006 at 20:43

256mb ddr pc2100 ram, onboard graphics card, intel pentium 4 cpu 2.00

anything else

i have done msconfig ages ago, stopped a few things running but still kept things like norton, correct connect etc

Indy500 · 16 Jul 2006 at 20:44

hard disk(s), optical drive (s), power supply?

It may be that a CDRW is on the same IDE channel as the hard disk, which can cause a big slowdown.

unwashed potato! · 16 Jul 2006 at 20:58

sr4470 said:
hard disk(s), optical drive (s), power supply?

It may be that a CDRW is on the same IDE channel as the hard disk, which can cause a big slowdown.

gosh, how can i find all this out without having to turn the coputer off?

Indy500 · 16 Jul 2006 at 20:58

addy_010 said:
gosh, how can i find all this out without having to turn the coputer off?

Device manager.

Although for the PSU you will have to turn it off.

t31os · 16 Jul 2006 at 21:21

Remove software you dont use anymore.
Remove windows components you dont use.
Disable services not needed.
Defrag after every install or unistall, and defrag often.
Clean out temporary files, and of course defrag.
Type .exe names from the taskmanager into google if you find any suspicious looking ones.
Put spyware protection on the PC and clean it of all spyware.
Clean the registry.

There's always more, and of course if you run multiple programs at once, its a good idea to have more RAM.

A healty PC is a faster PC, you just have to take care of it. Educating the user will benefit the PC and user more then giving it a clean once a year to.

chrislusty · 17 Jul 2006 at 09:27

I would remove norton and use Avast with Windows firewall or Zone Alarm, I would google the .exe found running in task manager to see if any could be removed. I would download CCleaner, and see if that makes a difference.

Also run Search and Destroy and Windows Defender to see if there is any spyware running too.

If you can back up all important info and you have all the CDs that came with the PC then i may be inclined to do a re-install, after the new RAM. This way no spyware or any virus will be on the system.