[troy021079]

Hey guys,

I'm having some issues with my computer running slow and programs freezing with a message saying program not responding I have a feeling my computer (an Acer) just nedds a clean up but it seems to be getting worse as time goes on. I was just wondering is there anthing I can do to stop this happening? I have gone through and cleaned up some files etc I dont use but it has not fixed the problem, what else could be causing it?

Some guidence on how to fix this problem would be appreciated.

Troy

[alan2273]

A couple of things, have you defragged the hard drive lately, and download Crap Cleaner and run that.
CCleaner - Update

[troy021079]

I have defragged the hard drive, I will give cc leaner a go.

Thanks

[Jason]

Welcome to TST.

Have a read of this: Slow Computer? Check here first; it may not be malware

[Albert Lionheart]

Have a quick look to see how many processes are running - ctrl-alt-del and look at the value on the bottom left hand corner - should not be much more than 50 - tell us!

[troy021079]

There are 66 processes.

[Albert Lionheart]

Too many!
To check, go to start > Run type in msconfig and click OK
Click on tab for startup and then disable all (this is temporary so don't worry!)
Click OK and accept the restart.
When the system restarts, there will be a new message box - click in the little tick box to stop the thing repeating itself and now check the system performance. If it is better you then need to go back to the msconfig tool and tick each function and reboot to see which one is slowing things down.
Start with restoring your anti-virus - if you are running Norton then that is probably half your problem...

[troy021079]

Ok I have done what was said above but it appears that nothing is slowing it down, I'm no genious at computers far from it so I hope I haven't missed anything!! I did everything mentioned above and the cpu usage was fine on each except at start up when it would hover at 100% but then drop down to about 1%.

Is there anything else it could be or have I missed something??

Thanks

Troy

[Albert Lionheart]

Back to basics then, Troy - please provide so details of the system for us - at least the CPU type and speed, how much RAM you have, your hard drive size and how much free space.
Also what anti-virus are you using?
cheers

[troy021079]

The computer is an AcerPower, just relaying to you what info I have, Pentium (R), 4 cpu, 3.06GHz, 768 MB ram, 1GB hard drive. How do I tell how much free space I have?

Hope this is right I'm still learning when it comes to this stuff.

Troy

[Albert Lionheart]

A 1Gb hard drive seems very small - perhaps you could check this again!
To see how much space you have left, open My Computer (or click WinKey and E together) and then find your drive in the left hand column. Right click on drive C:\ and then select properties from the list. This should show you a pie chart with a pink but showing how much space you have left. If below 10% this will slow the machine right down. This box will also tell you how many Gb the drive is.

[troy021079]

Ok my hard drive capacity is 72.3GB, used space is 55GB and space remaining is 17.2GB.

Hopefully I have got it right now, I apologise again I'm no genius when it comes to computers.

Troy

[Albert Lionheart]

Providing there are no faults with the drive you are not down to 10% remaining yet although a clearout of old documents, photos and music you don't need would help. Don't forget to empty the recycle bin.
If you have not done this already, in Internet Explorer go to tools, options, delete history. You could also check the settings to make sure that they are no more than 50Mb.
Also get into your windows folder and delete everything you can in the c:\windows\temp folder. There are other folders with temp files in them in the documents and settings\username\local settings\temp - you may need to change the folder settings to see these.
Finally if nothing else works go to system in the control panel and on the advanced tab change the performance settings to be 'for best performance'
Let us know how you get on.

[troy021079]

Well I have done what is asked and I'm still having issues such as programs freezing up, computer running slow and the latest one having to log off rather than just switching user other wise it wont let you log on to someone elses account???

This is very frustating but what else can I do?

Troy

[Albert Lionheart]

Unless anyone else has any ideas, we have covered just about everything we can do except reinstall Windows and all the programs.
One last thing, however... boot the system into safe mode (press F8 repeatedly as soon as the system has loaded the opening screen and select safe mode from the list) > control panel > system > hardware > device manager > display adapters - there should be a single device listed - if more select one at a time and delete all of them and restart the machine. The correct one should reinstall on restart.
The reason for this is I have come across slow systems where the graphics card has installed itself twice and made the system run slow.

[Blackmirror]

How much ram do you have ?

[Albert Lionheart]

He has 768Mb as per his post #10 - so this should be enough...but how slow is slow?

[Blackmirror]

What service pack have you ?