Reply to: Best way to improve PC's performance?

[MPwannadecentincome]

Intel Atom is designed for wee notebooks working with Linux, XP at the most, surfing and doing the odd office bit.

It's cheap and cheerful (and a bit easier on battery life) - nothing else...

Well some idiot has built a desktop server around it and installed Vista - maybe they were trying to discourage people from using it!

Actually in the end what I did was pulled the ethernet cable out and plugged it into my laptop - much better and cheaper than 8 Euros for 1 hours wireless access time.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

As a Window's user of many years I only every wanted a computer I could use and not to be constantly tinkering with.

That's when I realised Windows is for people who like pulling things apart and exploring new possibilities with different hardware configurations, then, stress when it does not work.

OS X is for people who enjoy working.

I agree with that analysis - so I use Windows and Linux

[cojak]

My concern is finding the drivers after I've reinstalled.

Is there a safe driver scanner out there that I can use once I've reinstalled XP?

[cojak]

I was away on a trip and had to use the computer in the lobby to access the internet. It was an Intel Atom processor dual core running Vista, just browsing is sloooowwwwww. Then tried to use facebook, it ground almost to a halt! Even my 5 year old family PC does better than that with IE8!

Intel Atom is designed for wee notebooks working with Linux, XP at the most, surfing and doing the odd office bit.

It's cheap and cheerful (and a bit easier on battery life) - nothing else...

[MPwannadecentincome]

I was away on a trip and had to use the computer in the lobby to access the internet. It was an Intel Atom processor dual core running Vista, just browsing is sloooowwwwww. Then tried to use facebook, it ground almost to a halt! Even my 5 year old family PC does better than that with IE8!

[vetran]

WHS ccleaner & defraggler.

[dmini]

Download a utility called c-cleaner. Its freeware, will clean up registry, temp files etc, and DOESNT break the system.
It was recommended to me by another contractor, who said he had never seen it break a system (more than you can say for some of the paid ones). Having run it here, and at work places, I can agree

[scooterscot]

Somehow, I just knew that would be your suggestion

Q: My wife of 12 years has left me, and taken the kids - I feel suicidal and have taken to the bottle.

A: Get a Mac! Love, Scooterscot.

As a Window's user of many years I only every wanted a computer I could use and not to be constantly tinkering with.

That's when I realised Windows is for people who like pulling things apart and exploring new possibilities with different hardware configurations, then, stress when it does not work.

OS X is for people who enjoy working.

[bogeyman]

Install OS x...

Somehow, I just knew that would be your suggestion

Q: My wife of 12 years has left me, and taken the kids - I feel suicidal and have taken to the bottle.

A: Get a Mac! Love, Scooterscot.

[dinker]

Fire up MSConfig (just type it into start, run), and get rid of anything you don't need in the start up tab. Lots of programs like to install unnecessary crap in your system tray, and that all hurts performance. My Vista laptop is running much better since I did this.

If you`re going to mess around with the startup list I find Spybot much easier to use than MSCONFIG. If you decide to change the HDD, and you currently have a PATA drive, you`re going to have to splash out for a SATA adapter.

[chef]

if your going to buy and swap your hard disks, always go for the fastest hard disk speed you can afford.. the reason being, with modern speeds of processors/RAM etc, the hard disk read/write speed is usually the bottle neck where data is processed the slowest..

[voodooflux]

Odds are that the drive is fragmented to hell and there are so many bits of junk installed that the easiest move is a format and reinstall.

For machines that the kids are using it's a worthwhile tactic to use periodically.

WHS - Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. You'll probably give it a little more life with a defrag and some general maintenance, but it's sometimes just as easy (and the results generally better) to back everything up, wipe everything off there, and start all over again.

[MPwannadecentincome]

I had a similar problem, family PC.

Got rid of the junk, defragged, still seemed a bit sluggish.

The IE8 came, now it really drags.

Its got a single core CPU which I think is the problem, the task manager performance shows IE8 sucking up a lot of CPU. Memory is only 1G so I suppose it could do with more - when I bought the PC it all ran fine on 0.5G!

I don't think the motherboard supports a dual core, well it does but only expensive ones no longer in production. I will have to research how to change the motherboard as I don't fancy paying for another PC and buying all the peripherals again (already got DVD rewritable, TV in decoder, media card sockets, large HDD, firewire), alternatively will convert it into a file server for all the other laptops in the house.

Good luck with yours anyway!

[TykeMerc]

This is the Family PC, I've a lightening fast laptop for my work, I just want to get the performance back to where it was 6 months or so ago, but thanks anyway!

Odds are that the drive is fragmented to hell and there are so many bits of junk installed that the easiest move is a format and reinstall.

For machines that the kids are using it's a worthwhile tactic to use periodically.

[thelace]

If you're running a PC that old, you might gain a big boost from a HDD upgrade.

This is the Family PC, I've a lightening fast laptop for my work, I just want to get the performance back to where it was 6 months or so ago, but thanks anyway!