slow computer

[seare]

My dell dimension (3 yrs old) has started running slower that it used to, and i have done everything 2 get it to run quicker, i have done virus scan with mc afee, ad-aware scaned it, cleaned the registry, done disk defrag and clean up, and it still runs slow: any one got any other ideas??

[vehelpfulguy]

One extreme measure is to re-install Windows.

Over time Windows picks up all sorts of crap, such as registry entries, unwanted programs, programs that autostart, and so on.

You could clear the disk and start again, first making sure you have all the programs you need to re-install everything.

Note that Microsoft have aded lots of extra security featues in XP such as with Service Pack 2 and IE7.

If you have installed these they will probably slow down your system.

If it is the internet that is slow try going into Internet options on your browser and deleting all the files.

The browser usualy loos in your internet cache to see if a file is there before it downloads it from the web.

If you finish up with thousands of files in your internet cache then it can take longer to look through them all then to download it from the web.

[seare]

the internet isnt really slow, its just for example when you click "log off" it takes a while to do so.

[pauln90]

Is your hard drive almost full ?
How much memory have you ? some extra could help.

You say you have cleared out old files but a utility that has helped me in the past is "Tune up utilities" now on version 2007.

You can download and try it for 30 days for free.It usually finds a lot of "dead wood"

You can find a trial here

http://www.download.com/TuneUp-Utilities-2007/ 3000-2086_4-10629494.html

[seare]

it has a 232GB hard drive and we have only used 15GB so it isnt that

[Tefler]

I had a similar problem recently. Doubling the amount of RAM (ie the processing memory, not the hard drive) has helped greatly. The other thing I've been advised to do is stop using Norton as my antivirus, as, I'm led to believe, it takes a lot of processing power up.

[seare]

how do u double ram?

[rowan1990]

well if you want your pc to run faster then all u need to do if ur willing enough is to format the primary drive (hard drive) and install windowa back on it

[Tefler]

To double the RAM, I bought some extra from the Internet and stuck it in a slot in the computer. I'm sorry this doesn't sound very technical - I was being talked through the process by a techie and have no idea now what I did!