[Irish2284]

Alright, so I have what is a common question but think I have cleared the usual answers so please give it a full read.

My girlfriend just got a Dell Dimension 3000 Celeron D desktop about 2 months ago. It has in the past 3 weeks been running very very slow. It will take a solid 3-4 minutes simply to open netscape. I have no idea why this would happen.

She is running a Celeron D processor
512 MB of RAM at 400 MHz
80 GB 7200 RPM HD (that is about 1/2 full)

She has uninstalled a lot of the "crap" she put on when she first got it, and has cleared her history and temp. internet files.

I thought it was her RAM but 512MB seems like it would be fine considering mine runs perfectly fine on the same amount and I have twice as much stuff on my computer, not to mention it is 3 years older.

Is there something I am missing? I am wondering if anyone knows a simple things I might be over looking before sitting on hold with Dell for an hour.

[PZEROFGH]

REFORMAT!!!

anyways check for spyware etc, viruses. do a hdd check. defrag. disk clean up.

three programs i use

1) spybot search & destroy
2) ad aware
3) CCleaner

you can just go to filehippo.com and download these if you dont alreayd have them

JOINED: Mar 2005
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STATUS: Online

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Running Slow

Alright, so I have what is a common question but think I have cleared the usual answers so please give it a full read.

the usual answers, all you said that you have no idea why its running slow. and its a dell thats the whole point of why its going slow

[Irish2284]

Originally posted by PZEROFGH


the usual answers, all you said that you have no idea why its running slow. and its a dell thats the whole point of why its going slow

Sorry for the 'newbie' level of this question, but....why would I need to reformat a brand new computer? I have run the spyware, virus, etc programs and nothing.... and the usual answers I have seen before are, clean your history, temp files, cookies, etc. you need new ram....etc.

It ran perfectly fine the first month or so, then began to slow down. Or am I just wrong in my thinking of Dell.... I just cant imagine a company staying in business selling slow slow machines.

ps. thanks for the fast reply.

[PZEROFGH]

ITS A DELL DARN IT!!!

you should move this into the hardwares section not the off topic

[Irish2284]

moved http://www.tech-forums.net/showthrea...threadid=72121

[Trotter]

Hokay... I'll post it again...

OK. Here's a solution for you.

First-
MSCONFIG (when used with the RUN command) opens up the System Configuration Utility. Most of the stuff in there you don't want to mess with unless you know what you are doing or have detailed instructions.

Click the STARTUP tab. The list that it pulls up is everything that you can choose to start up when Windows does.

Why is all of this stuff in the list? Because every program designer thinks his 'creation' is so indispensible that no one could possibly want it to NOT start up with their computer (yeah, right), so they set it into the list and have it to do just that.


Once you're at the list, look it over and see what all has a check mark. Every program that does starts up when Windows loads... EVERYTIME!

If something is checked, but you don't know what it is, Google it and find out.

Once you have seen what is there, uncheck everything that you don't need or want. Keep your firewall, antivirus, broadband drivers, graphics drivers, whatever you absolutely have to have, but uncheck everythign else.

Once you are done, click APPLY, OK, then reboot.

When your computer starts up, you'll get a grey box about the System Configuration Utility. Check the box about 'Don't run on startup' then OK.

If you had a lot of stuff checked, then your comp ought to start up faster and run more stable.

Second-
Download and run AdAware, Spybot, and possibly Microsoft AntiSpyware.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ad-Aware_S...onal_d506.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/SpyBot-Sea...roy_d2471.html
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
(All are free. Be sure to have each one update itself before you scan.)

Third-
Uninstall any unused or unnedded programs you have on your hard drive.

Fourth-
Download and run TweakNow to clean up your computer's registry.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/TweakNow_R...ner_d4134.html

Fifth-
Run Disk Defragmenter START- ALL PROGRAMS- ACCESSORIES- SYSTEM TOOLS- DISK DEFRAGMENTER).

Reboot your computer and see if it cranks up a bit faster, plus it ought to have a lot more zip to it as well.

Read it, save it, do it.

[mikee]

Originally posted by PZEROFGH
ITS A DELL DARN IT!!!

you should move this into the hardwares section not the off topic

Ya when you buy a dell all you get is a really expensive paper wieght.

[Irish2284]

Originally posted by Trotter
Hokay... I'll post it again...

Read it, save it, do it.

I ran tweeknow on my computer (shared folder to my girlfriends)... anyways.

43 safe to delete files, 5-6 unknowns and 2 unsure of files.... most of the safe to delete files look to be system files.... are these really safe to delete

[Irish2284]

Originally posted by PZEROFGH

3) CCleaner

Should I delete whatever CCleaner comes up with, there a ton of things it lists and I dont know what any of them are... google would take an hour or so to do all these.

[DJ-CHRIS]

I just trust CrapCleaner and ignore what they are. No problems so far taking off whatever crap cleaner finds