Slowing PC

634 Views 6 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Houndog777, Jun 3, 2008

swampydrill

Discussion Starter · Jun 2, 2008

I have noticed my laptop getting slower doing certain things, a few months ago it would take about 45 mins to convert a dvd to mp4 using a program of mine, now it takes 3 1/2 hrs. I have deleted all my temp files etc, there doesn't seem to be an application that is starving the processor power, anyone got any ideas. I have a 1.6 ghz centrino laptop running XP, 500mb memory, 80 gb hard drive.

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Houndog777

· #2 · Jun 2, 2008

Hi, this app will clean your laptop and registry...........
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

But you maybe need a clean inside of the laptop and also to uninstall progs you don't use or need.
This prog will also let you disable progs that start along with your laptop.........usually updaters etc and usually all pointless.

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swampydrill

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jun 2, 2008

I have already ran Win clear and removed nearly 20,000 files.

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Houndog777

· #4 · Jun 2, 2008

Winclear only clears your internet history.................you must clean the whole hdd and registry and stop those startup progs.

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tecknomage

· #5 · Jun 2, 2008 (Edited)

When you say "deleted all my temp files, etc" how?

There are several built-in tools to use to clean hard drive space:

Disk Cleanup in the System Tools folder (which includes deleting temp files), just do NOT clean compressed files
Internet Options, [Delete Files] to clean the Internet Cache **suspect this may be your main problem**
Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, JAVA entries (if they exist), see comment below

You should be using #1 & 2 as part of a software maintenance routine.

JAVA in Add/Remove Programs: For whatever reason if you are using Sun JAVA and you keep it up-to-date, the update is ADDED. JAVA updates do not overwrite the older versions so you can end up with gigabytes of hard drive space being used for old (no longer needed) versions of JAVA. You should keep only the latest version, and uninstall the older ones.

No longer needed Win Update backup files: When you use Win Update, it makes backups of the files changed so you can remove/uninstall the update if need be. But if the update has been working without a problem for a period (I use 6mths) you are unlikely to uninstall it, so you do not need the backup files. You do want to remove the backups BUT YOU WANT WIN UPDATE TO SEE THE UPDATE AS BEING INSTALLED.

There is a nice and safe 3rd party tool to do this; Update Cleanup Utility (shareware) and worth every penny. See the screenshot. It removes the update backup files, removes the entry in Add/Remove Programs, BUT leaves the Update Logs as is so Win Update sees them installed.

By the way, IF you install SP3 you'll note that all your SP2 Update entries disappear in Add/Remove Programs.

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swampydrill

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 2, 2008

I have used the tools mentioned and also downloaded and used CCleaner, it still doesn't work any faster, most of the files were removed with win clear.
Wondering if i need to upgrade my memory?

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Houndog777

· #7 · Jun 3, 2008

You could try reseating your memory. Straight in and out, blowing any dust away
Run off mains power, to negate the battery as being faulty.
Try updating or changing your burning software and cleaning your DVD with a cleaning disk.

Have you installed any programs lately that are memory intensive?
Have you disabled all the crap in Startup?

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