computer performance slow despite upgrades

Question

Can anyone help me? We have a Dell Dimension 4400, with Windows XP.  We've added 2 other harddrives and some RAM, so we actually have 1G RAM, 20G on the original drive C, 40G on the second, E and 200G on the third,F.  Our processor is a Pentium 4, 1.7 GHz.  C  is just about full, E is 3/4 full and F has over 90% of free space. One might think that performace would have improved i.e. starting up the computer, starting up software programs, performance in big games being just fine etc.  (As far as games are concerned we've stored them on F and installed new graphics hardware which we have plenty of room for. But the issues were there prior to installing the games,so why would almost anything at all take FOREVER to do what it's supposed to do?    Thanks

niberg01 · Answer

I already have Ad-aware and Spybot and scan semi-regularly. Maybe I should do it daily. I suppose I don't do a virus scan often enough? I think it is set to scan automatically every so often. Anyway, I try to keep things clean. I just don't get it. Know anything about page filing? Would that affect anything?

Thanks

Denny Denham · Answer

niberg01,

Do you scan for spyware (I assume you routinely scan for viruses with your antivirus program)? If not, download Ad-aware from here, Spybot from here and Microsoft AntiSpyware from here. Check online for updates to their databases then run them and delete all the spyware they identify.

Mary G · Answer

Also, XP needs lots of room to move and swap files and if your C drive is full, Windows will be slow. Three hard drives is one drive too many, too, especially if you installed a hard drive with an optical drive on the same cable. You should probably remove your smallest drive and reinstall XP, all the updates and all your programs & backed up personal files on the 200 gig. All your programs need to have some parts installed on the main boot drive, even if they are installed on another drive.

niberg01 · Answer

Sounds dangerous.  How in the world would I do that? Thanks.

RoHe · Answer

Run BIOS setup (press F2 before XP loads) and see if there's a speed setting for the Pentium CPU with options like "Normal" and "Compatible". Make sure it's set to "Normal".

Mary G, might it be easier to just have the pointer for the swap file point to one of the HDs with more space?

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 01-06-2006 01:33 PM

Windows General

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