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How to revive an old computer?
I have a Dell XPS 410 that is probably 4-5 years old. It has an Intel Core 2 2.66GHz processor, 3070MB RAM, 32-bit Vista Ultimate 3 232GB HD's. First off this has been a GREAT computer over the years. In the last 1-2 years however, it has become very slow. To the point where if it's on for a while with programs open, it's almost non functional. It'll take 30 seconds to open a folder. If I restart it'll be a bit quicker, yet still slow and then again fade into an even slower mode. This computer has had a hard life. I NEVER turn it off, the HD's have been maxed, files deleted, programs added & deleted, etc.
So I'm wondering if there is any way to "revive" this old machine and get it back to it's original functioning speed. All computers I've ever had last 3-4 years and then slow down to where using them is painful. Is this a hardware issue or software?
What are the steps I can take to first diagnose the issues (hardware vs software) and what can I do to clean up the system and restore it's original speed?
tgsmith
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June 8th, 2011 04:00
DLTom,
Yes, you can "revive" the XPS 410.
First, I would disconnect power, open the case and clean the card fan, processor fan and heat sink. I'm pretty sure you'll find quite a bit of lint if it's been running constantly for 4-5 years. Part of the slow operation may be due to the processor slowing itself down due to excessive heat.
Next, I would back up all data, documents, pictures, music, etc.. Then I would examine just what programs and services are loaded at startup. For example, look at the Start Menu Startup folder. Programs such as Kodak Easyshare and printer monitoring programs can bog down a system. I usually just cut these programs and paste them to the Desktop. That way I can crank them up when needed. You can open the Task Manager and look at processes to see what's hogging your CPU usage.
Some antivirus programs such as Norton and McAfee can also hog resources. Adding and deleting programs can leave what I call "residue" registry entries. Most of these companies have utilities to clean out existing registry entries after uninstalling an old version and before installing a new version. For example, Symnatec has its Symantec/Norton Removal Tool (symnrt.exe) and CleanWipe to remove Symnatec Endpoint Protection. I am not a big fan of registry cleaners as these can remove shared entries that will require you to reinstall or repair some programs after cleaning up the registry. In Internet Explorer you can click on Tools|Internet Options, go to the Advanced tab, scroll down to the Security section and check the "Empty the temporary Internet files folder when the browser is closed". Some toolbars can really slow down surfing. The reason is that when you open Internet Explorer, the toolbars link to their sites, update their toolbars and then allow Internet Explorer to open your Home Page.
Once you've uninstalled unneeded programs in Control Panel|Add/Remove Programs, you need to defragment your hard drive(s). Auslogics Disk Defragmenter is a program I use quite often.
You can manually increase your Virtual Memory Space in Control Panel|System. In System Properties, click on Advanced|Peformance Settings|Advanced|Virtual Memory. There you can custom size your virtual memory. Note that this reserves space on the hard drive for swapping programs between installed RAM memory and a reserved portion of the hard drive. Its maximum decreases the amount of hard drive space available.
These are just a few recommendations. The ultimate solution would be to backup your data, be sure you have the disks and product keys for any installed software, do a Factory Restore of your system, reinstall your programs and restore your backup data. This will put your system back to its "as-shipped" condition. The procedure to perform a Factory Restore of a Vista System is discussed here: support.dell.com/.../document
I'm sure others will come along and offer additional suggestions.
Recently, I "revived" my old bench tester, a Dell Dimension 4100 P3 with 512Mb running XP, to monitor cameras at a convenience store. It ran 24/7 from December 1999 to January 2005 in a corporate client's accounting office. I used it 24/7 from January 2005 to June 2009 in a bench test setup. You can't keep a good machine down.
Let us know how you fare.
Tony