computer problems

[shopping_carts_]

ok i have a amd 1.3 ghz...256 ram...windows xp pro...and my computer is as slow as like my moms computer thats 4 years old...

all i have on the computer is bryce...photoshop..premier...norton and the programs that came with windows...but my computer is soooo slow...

ill be surfing the internet running media player and talking on msn...and its just so incredibly slow...does any body have any idea whats wrong with it?

btw...a little window pops frequently saying i have low system memory...but i have 256 ram and am doing like absolutley nothing on the computer to make my system memory low!

as well i ran that ad aware program to get rid of all the spyware and it got rid of like 178 programs but theres very little difference to my computers preformance...

help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Matrixhasu77]

Originally posted by shopping_carts_
ok i have a amd 1.3 ghz...256 ram...windows xp pro...and my computer is as slow as like my moms computer thats 4 years old...

all i have on the computer is bryce...photoshop..premier...norton and the programs that came with windows...but my computer is soooo slow...

ill be surfing the internet running media player and talking on msn...and its just so incredibly slow...does any body have any idea whats wrong with it?

btw...a little window pops frequently saying i have low system memory...but i have 256 ram and am doing like absolutley nothing on the computer to make my system memory low!

as well i ran that ad aware program to get rid of all the spyware and it got rid of like 178 programs but theres very little difference to my computers preformance...

help would be greatly appreciated

When is the last time you actually defragged your harddrive? That is the first thing I would recommend that you do (Make sure you do it at least once a month too). Also, I'd buy some more ram because 256 is the bare minimum required to run XP. I'd suggest getting another stick of 256 or 512.

Reformatting your drive and reinstalling XP should help also but only do that if you have a place to back up everything you want to keep. You say you had a lot of spyware on your system... I would go ahead and reformat to make sure that there are no remenants left(Again, only if you can backup important data).

Running a lot of background processes or startup programs can also hinder your computer's response time. Some people also say that having Norton on your system can slow your computer down(I have Systemworks and Personal Firewall but rarely see a difference).

Running Preventative Maintenance on your computer will keep it running at peak performance.

Good luck!

 

[F1man]

Do a virus scan, too. You might have the W32 worm.

 

[shopping_carts_]

yeah i know norton slows my system down so much but my mom makes me keep it on because shes paranoid ill get a virus and shell get it through our network...im saving up to buy a new stick of memory...and i defrag every wednesday...

id love to reformat my computer but my computer but i built it out of spare parts and i got the hard drive off of my uncle that was wiped clean and had xp on it so i dont have the disc...

i might try and get a reformat disc off of someone

and thanks alot f1man and matrix

 

[Burnout]

It could theoretically be a bad stick of memory. Download a version of MemTest86 and run it. Also, left-click your taskbar, select taskmanager, goto the performance tab and see how much free memory you have. You could also goto the proccesses tab and select to sort by memory usage by clicking the memory usage button. If something is using massive amounts of memory look into it.

Why don't you download a antivirus prog such as AVG 6 Free Edition which doesn't use nearly as many system resources, provides almost daily updates, and is free to use?

 

[shopping_carts_]

id like to but my mom bought norton and shed get upset that she spend like $100 on it and im not using it...

i looked into the memory usage...should explorer be using 30 mbs? and should messenger be using 25? everything else looked normal

 

[Burnout]

Those are fine. How much free memory do you have total?

Did you run memtest86? You really should.

 

[shopping_carts_]

i have around 78-80 mb free...ill run the memtest86 later tonight when i dont need my computer...i think i do need to invest in some new memory though

 

[Solid Fro]

I've used XP on 1 GHz workstations with 128 MB of RAM and they ran well enough. Sure, it wasn't the fastest rig on Earth, but it did it's job.

Try this : Control Panel > System > Advanced > under Performance > Settings > Advanced > under Virtual Memory > Change > check System Manage Size > Set > OK

 

[shopping_carts_]

k i did the changes you suggested in the virtual memory...im going to bed now so i wont be able to see any differences until tomorrow when i use the computer, but ill let you know if they work

thanks alot