Slowness usually has more to do with maintenance than the need for an
upgrade. You may have accumulated problems over time that can be
corrected, but there's no easy fix.
There are some ideas here that will help:
http://www.ehow.com/way_5283570_troubleshooting-windows-xp-slow-performance.html
Defragmentation will probably help, and a spyware scan is probably in
order. Use Malawarebyte's software and delete anything it recommends
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
Ccleaner will help with cleaning up unnecessary files:
http://www.ccleaner.com/
If you post a Hijack log, we can probably identify unnecessary programs
and services:
http://download.cnet.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html
Your HD is getting fairly full and that's not helping. Ccleaner will
help, but you may want to look into removing programs and files you
don't need or use.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [PCBUILD] novice level questions re upgrading 5 year old vaio
desktop
From: Cynthia Kammann <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, January 19, 2010 5:38 pm
To: [log in to unmask]
Let me say right up front that I don't claim to know much about
computers, but I do have a 19 year old son, who perhaps thinks he knows
more than he does, but is very helpful. ;-)
My computer is running slower and slower and I think it may be because
it needs to be upgraded, or perhaps I just need to scrap it for a new
one (?). So I'm looking for advice. If its worth upgrading, how would I
go about doing that?
Its a Vaio Pentium 4, 3.40 GHz, 1 GB RAM, and 225 GB HDD (with about 50
GB free), and a RADEON X300 series graphics card. Windows XP Media
Center, 2002 edition, service pack 3. It has a nice, Sony large flat
screen monitor that came with it, so is also 5 years old.
I use it mostly for email (Outlook), internet (Firefox), creating
documents (WORD), EXCEL for spreadsheets, photo storage and some photo
manipulation with a Nikon program, watching my library of knitting
instructional videos (using ImgBurn to rip them and daemontools lite to
watch them), watching tv through Comcast (sometimes recording a program
to watch later), and watching the occasional movie online at Netflix. Oh
yeah, and backing up my PALM phone and downloading podcasts from radio
(Creative Central) and syncing them to my Creative Zen.
I use Windows Live OneCare for virus protection.
I remember when it responded to commands faster than I could snap my
fingers. It no longer does that, which is why I'm thinking it may need a
faster processor or more active memory. I don't even know it its
advisable or even possible to do this, so that's my question.
Any and all advice would be appreciated. Just please use novice-speak,
or I won't get it.
Cynthia
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