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computer becoming increasingly slow.....

S

scorpionldr

Dec 10, 2002
2,613
74
Dirty Jersey, USA
#1
so i've had this toshiba laptop for a year. all is well, but running stuff like mozilla, or instant messagers, or explorer, I'm just finding programs are starting to freeze for a minute or more at a time and then let me back at it....The harddrive capacity is 111 gigs, I have 74 solid free. At first I thought it was my porno and stuff slowing it down, but I've cleared that and a bunch of other programs that really shouldn't be there....I do have a fair amount of desktop items on my desktop, but that was never really a problem till now......I checked the virtual memory which i have 4095 megs for, the recommended amount is 1519 megs. the machine is running centrino duo with xp media center edition version 2002. 1.83 gigs of processor and .99 gigs of ram.
can anyone help me here?
 
#5
+1 on disc cleanup and defrag.

In all honesty I find this is one thing which is most easily overcome with a format. I tend to keep media files (basically anything which isnt software off a disc) on a seperate HDD. That was I can just reinstall windows and all the software and games, and the computer is back up to speed.

Granted the C drive does get clogged with crap which isnt worth keeping and that'll slow everything down.
 
#6
cleanup, defrag, and then check your startup menu, and disable anything you don't need running "at the ready" as it just sucks up RAM.

Don't mess with the power management settings, but programs you recognize, but don't need running in the background, remove from startup que. Stuff like instant messengers and the like, and especially anything that is a "beta" program...simply because the footprint isn't refined...
 
#9
A lot of people have tons of programs running in the background, especially when that's the default condition on install. Check your startup menu and see what's there and also check your taskbar to see what's always running, or at least waiting. If it's something you don't need to have constantly running, change the properties so that the program only runs when you tell it to.


And buy more RAM.
 
#13
Some good ideas here man. The best have been cleanup, defrag and checking/cleaning your startup menu. Do those first!If you're serious about that porn crack, then, if you haven't yet, run some malware/spyware/virus control. More RAM certainly couldn't hurt of course.

Unless you get a very trusted recommendation, don't even mess with a registry cleaner; most of them out there are crap being sold to take your money and end up making your PC worse.

FTR, Toshiba (awa a couple others) laptops are natorious for the sort of issues you're talking of.
 
#14
so, I checked for drive errors, I did a defrag, I did a disk cleanup, and i TRIED to do an adaware 7 scan (but for whatever reason it overclocks itself in trying to delete cookies/stuff and the program itself ends up crashing).....think this may be an internet thing? i know last night there have been periods where everything was running pretty clean.....although I have been leaving my laptop on this semester a lot more than usual, but I hear that it should be fine because your getting the life of the computer and not wasting it with all the restarts etc.
i'm in the process of getting rid of the indexing thing.
deleted a whole bunch of vsts that could just be sitting taking up space.
if i update my virtual memory, how much should i move up?
 
#15
Use the cheesy Windows cleanup utility, download ccleaner, which is is killer freeware program, and use that, run Ad-Aware and Spybot (both are free), turn off all programs you don't want running at startup (you can start them manually, you won't *disable* anything), disable the indexing service, and run a full defragment.

Also, and most importantly, get another gig of RAM.
 
#18
ahhh, the part of windows that people don't know they pay for...being slow.

defrag and diskclean are some good options. Deleting stuff in the start up folder in programs menu is good too.

also try running msconfig in the run menu, and taking a look at the "startup" tab. uncheck anything that you know you dont need. this takes up a lot of resources...

you could also do a repair installation. which will reinstall all the windows file where they are, but wont delete your information. (no gaurantees). you can do a search on it and there are plenty of instructions on how a what to do...better yet...[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

good luck....and try ubuntu....it works wonders...if your not afraid to get rid of uncle Bill...:ninja::hiding::D
 

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