System Tune Up?

Question

Wasn't sure where to post this . . the 'other home systems' forum was blank??   Friend has a Gateway.  It's about 3 years old. Pentoum 4, 1.6Ghz, XP with Svc Pack 2.  128 Meg RAM, hard drive is 54% full. In the last few months this thing has been running s-l-o-w.  WHen you first turn it on, it takes 15 minutes for Windows to get going.  Programs load slowly, the mouse seems to think about what you want before it moves . . .   I've removed programs, deleted old files, cleaned up the registry, defrag'd, disk clean up, removed old restore points . . . . I was thinking of adding more memory and I'm sure it would help, but it was fine as is until recently.   Any suggestions what I can check  / do to speed this thing up?  Could it be a hardware problem?   I've looked for Gate way forums but they don't seem to have the support Dell does. Any suggestions would be appreciated.   Tks

JRosenfeld · Answer

You don't  mention that you scanned for virus or malware. Is the AV up to date? For malware try Adaware, Spybot S&D, MS Antispyware (beta)

EriePAUser · Answer

Thanks for the reply . . . Yes I did scan for viruses / mal-ware. Norton's anti virus is up to date and the scan was negative and I have used Ad Aware and Spybot. No other indidcation that there might be a virus. The machine is just running slow as dirt.

I even cleaned the inside of the tower to make sure the fan was not obstructed and working properly.

Could it possibly just be a hardware problem? Could the hard disk or even the CPU just be boned for what ever reason?

JRosenfeld · Answer

The only things I can suggest, since you've already done all the cleanup, is to check in device manager, make sure all installed hardware is as it should be and look in event viewer, see if there are any errors or warnings of software malfunction.

Does the Gateway come with hardware diagnostics, like Dell PCs do? If so run those.

Message Edited by JRosenfeld on 11-28-2005 11:29 PM

Message Edited by JRosenfeld on 11-28-2005 11:31 PM

100mph · Answer

' ... The machine is just running slow as dirt. ...' If it is the same in Safe Mode, check hardware. If not, see links below. Good Luck!

EriePAUser · Answer

Thanks again for the extra replies. Good suggestion about looking for an onboard diagnostics program. No, it's not in safe mode.

A friend made a couple of suggestions I'm going to try out: 1) Put the PC in safe mode and run the anti-virus / malware programs. He said sometimes viruses can hide from anti-virus programs and by putting it in safe mode, you're basically taking away any "camoflauge" (other prgrams) that could helpit to hide. 2) Run sysconfig from DOS and be sure to uncheck as many start up programs as possible. Even though the task manager may not show anything eating up memeory, there could be some programs initiated at start up that are still sapping the system somehow.

I'm still open to any other suggestions :) I'll post after I try these 2 things and let everyone know if they work.

SteveDrew · Answer

I had similar problems just before my hard drive crashed.   Steve Dimm 8400, Pent 4 3.0, Windows Xp Home, SP2

rollainm · Answer

If you've done everything you say you have, my only suggestion would be to add more ram. I know you say it ran fine before, but that seems a bit of a miracle on just 128mb. 256 is the bare minimum needed to really run XP, preferably 512.

EriePAUser · Answer

It more or less looks like it's a hardware issue and the hard drive is dying. None of the above has helped She bought a Dell today :)  It should be here this week sometime. That'll fix it.

Windows General

System Tune Up?

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