cleanup without reformat/reinstall?

[kunar]

well my computer's been gradually getting slower and slower, and i've been having browser crashes fairly frequently as well (firefox and chrome both) so i was hoping somebody could recommend some sort of cleanup utility or similar that might be worth giving a shot. i'm running windows xp, and don't have another copy of an OS to use (disc got scratched beyond repair) so a reformat isn't really an option unless i decide to use linux, or win98 (lol) btw, i'm running AVG free and spybot both. anybody recommend any utilities for me?

[DRIFTGOD187]

when was the last time you ran a defrag or error checking tool ??? also disk cleanup will speed things up.

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/295/defragl.jpg (http://img198.imageshack.us/i/defragl.jpg/)

[kunar]

i just did a defrag and an error check, it had been a while since the last time i've done either. the disk cleanup is part of another utility that i've been trying, but nothing has seemed to make much difference.

[Nhaz]

how much hard drive space do you have left? Machines that are low on hard drive space will get slower and slower.

also. whens the last time you told chrome and firefox to dump its caches?

[kunar]

how much hard drive space do you have left? Machines that are low on hard drive space will get slower and slower.

also. whens the last time you told chrome and firefox to dump its caches?

used space is ~20GB, free space is ~55GB, total ~75GB

all of firefox and chrome's stored info was cleared today, but it's done on a fairly regular basis.

it does seem slightly better since i've done a few things to it today, i would be willing to bet that some more ram would help things considerably, maybe thats what i'll do. i've got a 2.8 GHz processor and only 256 MB ram

[Nhaz]

rams a tad low. 2 gigs is the average amount of ram in a computer nowadays

[schmoo]

a new install is the only good way to clean
up. you don't need your original disk,
the numbers aren't on it. use any
xp disk that has the service pack
you want (you don't want sp3) and your numbers.
you can use nlite to strip features from xp
and to make an iso image to burn your
own copy.
you can use bart pe to boot up and make
a restore folder or recover from one.

[kunar]

alright, this is a noob question, but how do i know what ram to buy?

[BlackBII]

Find out what motherboard you have, then look it up.

[Jaymz9350]

use any
xp disk that has the service pack
you want (you don't want sp3) and your numbers.

I believe (because i've had this very issue before) you have to use an install disk with the same service pack as your original. If your key is for SP1 you need a SP1 key.

[schmoo]

I believe (because i've had this very issue before) you have to use an install disk with the same service pack as your original. If your key is for SP1 you need a SP1 key.

may be true for sp2, my computer is a home theatre so
i use sp1. but my key is sp 0.
there is also a problem with generated keys
and later sp's. i have never had a problem
with legit keys.

[User Name missing]

what brand of PC do you have? what processor? whats the current memory configuration? do you have 2x128 chips or 1x 256? have you tried running virus and adaware scans? how many processes do you have running after a fresh reboot? normal is up to 50~, all of mine usually hover around 44-48 processes.

[Jay FX4]

Upgrade the RAM!!!!! That is the single biggest and most important upgrade you can do. Memory has more of an effect on everyday performance than a fast processor. And a fragmented and or/full hard disk will have little, if any, noticeable impact on performance. Slap in 2 or more GB of RAM and it will be a whole new machine.

[superdave1984]

alright, this is a noob question, but how do i know what ram to buy?

Go to http://www.crucial.com and run their memory scan tool. It will tell you what you have and what you can get. Reasonably priced too.
For cleanup, go here. Follow the directions. It works.
http://www.osiris-spywareguide.com/

[kunar]

the crucial memory scanner says it couldnt figure out what's compatible with my computer... but here's the spec sheet on the mobo (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=845GEM-L). at startup, theres somewhere around 35 processes running.

newegg has memory i could use, but i was surprised at the price. looks like it's gonna be $60-70 for 2GB, which is the max that this mobo will support.

[fastpakr]

2x1GB PC2100 SDRAM on eBay for $20 shipped (http://cgi.ebay.com/2GB-KIT-2x1GB-DDR-PC2100-DDR-266MHz-CL2-5-ECC-HYNIX_W0QQitemZ190313969931QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_D efaultDomain_0?hash=item2c4f98b90b&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A15|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1 |293%3A1|294%3A50)

[kunar]

2x1GB PC2100 SDRAM on eBay for $20 shipped (http://cgi.ebay.com/2GB-KIT-2x1GB-DDR-PC2100-DDR-266MHz-CL2-5-ECC-HYNIX_W0QQitemZ190313969931QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_D efaultDomain_0?hash=item2c4f98b90b&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A15|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1 |293%3A1|294%3A50)

i didnt look on ebay, cause i don't really trust buying electronics on ebay. i guess with my budget dwindling as fast as it is, it may be worth taking a chance though. not to mention that memory doesnt 'wear out' so theres less chance it will be DOA

[Jay FX4]

i didnt look on ebay, cause i don't really trust buying electronics on ebay.

I wouldn't either.

[fastpakr]

eBay is all about doing your homework. Buy from a seller with a solid reputation and a guarantee that it will work. I've been doing it for years. You're purchasing memory for an older system. Why spend $60-80 when you could spend $20 for the same thing and put that money towards something else?

[kunar]

eBay is all about doing your homework. Buy from a seller with a solid reputation and a guarantee that it will work. I've been doing it for years. You're purchasing memory for an older system. Why spend $60-80 when you could spend $20 for the same thing and put that money towards something else?

well that particular seller has nearly 200 trouble free transactions on record, with a 100% rating, but they don't offer any sort of guarantee on the parts. i cant believe it's that expensive though, i bought 2 gb ram for my mother's desktop brand new from newegg and it was just over $20. it must be a difference in the type of memory each system uses or something i guess...

[fastpakr]

Hang on - I linked you to the wrong type of memory. You don't want ECC.

Edit: I'm not finding what you need for less than about $50 even on eBay. Might as well grab this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231039) at NewEgg.

[kunar]

Hang on - I linked you to the wrong type of memory. You don't want ECC.

Edit: I'm not finding what you need for less than about $50 even on eBay. Might as well grab this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231039) at NewEgg.

that one's ddr400, which according to my spec sheet is incompatible (unless it's backward compliant?) either way, i dont have the budget for something like that right now. i've spent too much on my car and my truck both, now i'm gonna be broke for a while.

[fastpakr]

I believe it's backwards compatible. Somebody else can confirm that.

I'll look around the office tomorrow. Might have something floating around.

[schmoo]

my nice clean system runs just
fine with 256 meg. more ram
just encourages sloppy habits.

[Bruce]

I buy all my computer parts from new egg..

Have you dumped or deleted your prefetch folder?

I dump my cookies cache history temp files and such once a week.

Im running windows XP pro sp2 with only 1 gig of ram with no problems.

[Jay FX4]

I buy all my computer parts from new egg.

+1

[Mark_88]

the spec sheet link wouldn't work for some reason, but it seems to be looking at the 845GEM MoBo...since you've gotten plenty of advice the only thing I would say is updating the RAM would improve performance of the system considerably...

I was running Win2K with 256 Mb of Ram and it was a dog with an 1800 Ghz processor...when I dumped in another 500 Mb of RAM it improved quite a bit...but I had to buy the older style SDRAM and that stuff is getting very expensive...

[fastpakr]

Yep. Even 1GB would probably be plenty for you and make a very noticeable improvement. I checked around the office and can't find any DDR modules. Found a few old 168 pin modules ranging from 32 to 128, but that's it for the older stuff.

Look at this (http://cgi.ebay.com/1gb-KINGSTON-PC2100-DDR-KVR266X64C2-512-2-512mb-Chip_W0QQitemZ200349638907QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_De faultDomain_0?hash=item2ea5c4e0fb&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A15|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1 |293%3A1|294%3A50) for $25 on eBay or this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141437) for $39 at NewEgg. Either will help you out a lot.

[mgn465]

when was the last time you ran a defrag or error checking tool ??? also disk cleanup will speed things up.

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/295/defragl.jpg (http://img198.imageshack.us/i/defragl.jpg/)


Cant believe that u still use that version of windows...Dude upgrade it to Vista or atleast xp

[Jay FX4]

3.5" floppy = LOL

[BlackBII]

Cant believe that u still use that version of windows...Dude upgrade it to Vista or atleast xp

Pfft. I'd rather run 3.1 NT than Vista.

[kunar]

alright guys, thanks for the help. i'll figure something out.

btw, anybody want to recommend a linux distro thats user friendly and will recognize 2 processors and 3GB ram? oh and about a dozen drives lol... scsi and ide both

[97RangerXLT]

Before you go and spend money on more ram (which you do need) down load ccleaner. it will fix all of your invalid registry entries (which will slow your machine down horribly), clean up all of your caches to allt he browsers and media players on the machine, and allow you to edit your start up to remove any things that you do not want loaded into your 256mb of ram at start up. You do not need itunes or adobe reader to phone home every damn time the computer is on the net. all this does is waste valuable RAM.

Here is the link to Ccleaner:

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

AJ