Frostbite

Hello everyone,

I am not very computer literate. My brother has a Compaq Presario V2000, and here is its description:

Product name: Presario V2000

Operating system: Microsoft XP Home Edition version 5.1.2600

System information: BIOS version F.21

Processor: Mobile AMB Sempron (tm) Processor 3000+
. version: x86 Famly 15 Model 44 Stepping 2
. current speed: 1790 MHz
. cache size: 128 KB

Memory: Maximum capacity: 4.00 GB
. installed memory: 256.00 MB
. memory slot 1: 256.00 MB

Hard drive: Total capacity: 37.2 GB



The computer is very slow on starting up and opening applications, and pretty much everything else. For example, it may take a few minutes to open up Microsoft Word or to open up AOL. When I was searching around online, I read about RAM and how not having enough of it could make a computer go slow. When I looked at the RAM for this computer, it was only 256 MB. I wanted to upgrade the RAM to make it go faster. Does anyone know, by the description of my computer, if increasing the RAM would make it work faster? Would I end up having to upgrade the hard drive's memory and the processor to achieve my goal of speeding up the computer?

Doby

The computer would definitely run better with at least another 256 mb of ram, however, taking minutes to open a application I think there could be other problems. Will get back to this later

Are you sure the computer is virus and spyware clean?
Do you know how to use MS config to stop unwanted programs from starting?
The computer is older, have you ever reinstalled windows?

Frostbite

The computer has Norton Internet Security on it, and I've cleaned it recently, but I don't know if it is completely virus and spyware clean.

I have heard of using Windows to regulate unwanted programs from starting, but no, I don't know how to use it.

My brother reinstalled Windows XP on the computer after he got a new hard drive because the old one stopped working. I don't know if that counts.

speedster123

Enter your device manager:
Start > Control panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager

In there, click view then click show hidden devices

Are there any yellow alerts?

You might not have your chipset drivers installed.

Frostbite

I went to the device manager, and there weren't any yellow alerts. However, after that I decided to limit the number of programs that startup when I log in and I used the help button in the Start Menu to help me to do a defrag and a disk cleanup. After that, the computer seemed to run better, and it didn't take as long to start up and for me to be able to open things like Microsoft word and Adobe acrobat. I would like to increase its RAM though, because I want it to work faster.

Doby

I am going to move this to the laptop forum