PC Question

[bookiekilla]

DJ....or anyone else that knows a thing or 2 about pc's....

I got this dell pc at home this week (it's practically brand new)...it's a Pentium 4, huge hard-drive, 256mb ram, all the works....i actually took got it from my uncle, he's had it for a few months and never uses it, so he told me I could have it. He's hardly used it, infact the hard-drive is practically empty.

Now, I thought i knew a thing or two about computers, I'm on them all day at work, (althought it's not for tech support), it's programming...but this shit has me confused

Anyway.....this one is running really slow. Not just on the internet, but just loading MS word, and other applications.

XP was installed on the computer. I reformatted it, re-installed XP (home edition), installed Service Pack 2, ran virus check on it....it's pretty much a clean pc now....but it's still running real damn slow....any thoughts as to what the hell i can do to make it run faster???

[DJTranks]

#1 - DO NOT put Service Pack 2 on their - Not stable and can be harmful to your comp.

#2 - I would upgrade to 512-1Gig of ram.

Also depends on how much you run at once, with 256 running
XP with MS Office and internet can slow it down some.

Other than that it shouldnt be running slow.

[bookiekilla]

Thanks DJ! I'll take Service Pack 2 off....but as far as the Ram...there's not much on the PC....and it's running REALLY slow....i'll upgrade the memory also later this week....hope it helps....thanks again..

[DJTranks]

Let me know how it works for you, thanks.

DJ

[bookiekilla]

DJ...one more question....for some reason, I can't access Yahoo from this pc most of the time. I've got to other computers on my home network and they have no problem getting onto yahoo (mainly for mail), but this one has a lot of problem access Yahoo....any ideas?

[DJTranks]

What does it say/do when you try to access yahoo. Is it just the page or email or both..

[bookiekilla]

It's both....yahoo and yahoo mail....just says page not found....like i'm not online...

[bookiekilla]

Here's what it says.....

It happens to a couple of different website....yahoo especially....the other one is South African Airways website...i was trying to find out a flight status and it said this also....

The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please try the following:

Click the Refresh button, or try again later.

If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.

To check your connection settings, click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options. On the Connections tab, click Settings. The settings should match those provided by your local area network (LAN) administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).
See if your Internet connection settings are being detected. You can set Microsoft Windows to examine your network and automatically discover network connection settings (if your network administrator has enabled this setting).
Click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options.
On the Connections tab, click LAN Settings.
Select Automatically detect settings, and then click OK.
Some sites require 128-bit connection security. Click the Help menu and then click About Internet Explorer to determine what strength security you have installed.
If you are trying to reach a secure site, make sure your Security settings can support it. Click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options. On the Advanced tab, scroll to the Security section and check settings for SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, PCT 1.0.
Click the Back button to try another link.



Cannot find server or DNS Error
Internet Explorer

[DJTranks]

Alright Bookie - will respond when I am at work in the am!

[rjp]

BK, first thing is definately upgrade the memory. How fast is the processor? I assume it's over 1GHz... in which case it seems you surely want more memory. Also check to see if you can't figure out how many RPM the HD is. Atleast 7200, I hope. Last thing I can think of is it could be overheating. IMO Dell makes a decent computer but I've heard some horror stories. Their cases are all custom and shit.

How are you trying to connect to Yahoo? Dial-up, cable/dsl, wireless? Your problem could lie somewhere in there. :thumbs:

[DJTranks]

Try a few things -

Delete your temporary Internet files and cookies. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel
- Double-click Internet Options.
- Click the Temporary Internet Files, click the Settings button.
- Then click the Delete Cookies button and confirm this decision by clicking Yes at the next prompt.
- Next click the Delete Files button and confirm this decision by clicking Yes at the next Prompt.
- Click OK to apply these settings.
- Now shutdown and restart your computer and test your connection to see if this has resolved the problem.

Also try to install JAVA if its not already installed.

Also try to download firefox and try to connect through their.

Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/)

Try those then get back..

[bookiekilla]

rjp/dj...thanks fellas!

rjp, i'll upgrade the memory this weekend. I'm connecting to web using a Cable modem, which is on a home network. I don't think the problem is coming from there, because I can access other sites just fine.

dj, I tried to delete the cookies and temp file a while back and it didn't work. I'll give firefox a try...but i'll do it this weekend after i put the memory in there. I'll also install Java on it.

I appreciate all the help fellas. I'll mess with this thing on the weekend.....thanks again!!!!

[beermantm]

rjp, i'll upgrade the memory this weekend. I'm connecting to web using a Cable modem, which is on a home network. I don't think the problem is coming from there, because I can access other sites just fine.

firewall could be blocking the sites. check your security settings in your browser also. Try to find that thread that Billy posted a while back with the tune up utility.


thread (http://www.ultimatecapper.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61078)

[DJTranks]

Anything?

[bookiekilla]

Well...I installed more memory in the pc....that helped a little...but not much. It still runs slower than one of my laptops which is a Pentium II. And this is a Pentium 4. FireFox didn't solve the issue of not being able to get to Yahoo. I haven't tried the tune up utility yet that Beer was talking about. I'll try that this weekend. This shit is getting frustrating!

[Chimney]

I'm not too confident this will help. But you might as well try a BOOT TIME time virus scan. Download this free anti virus software run a boot time virus scan

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home2.html

I switched to this from Norton when my subsription expired and the first scan found some things Norton had ignored...
From what I remember it asks you to do a boot time scan after you install it. If not you have to go to the options to schedule one, don't just run a normal scan..

Hopefully you find a virus and it fixes your computer... LOL

Worth a shot.. GL

[MAJOR]

Depending on what windows version you have , you can also try this trick :

go to start , click run ,
type in msconfig,
click o.k., then go to startup :

if you see any check marks besides anything simply click disable
all then restart computer.

I find this helps
it run faster...

check that often like once a week...


:thumbs:

[DJTranks]

Originally posted by MAJOR
Depending on what windows version you have , you can also try this trick :

go to start , click run ,
type in msconfig,
click o.k., then go to startup :

if you see any check marks besides anything simply click disable
all then restart computer.

I find this helps
it run faster...

check that often like once a week...


:thumbs:

I would not advise doing that, msconfig is for programs you want to disable at boot up. Always look at what you are checking off before you do so.

However - the problem is, that this is a P4 and it should not be running slow by any means. You reformated and it still ran slow, so something is not right with that. Ill look into more solutions.

[bookiekilla]

DJ..I agree bro. I have P4 at work, infact it's almost the same specs and it's also a Dell, and it runs 10x faster than the one at my house...

[beermantm]

maybe the problem is not software based but hardware based. Maybe the hard drive is going or the processor itself is faulty. It sounds to me if the programs are running ok but just slow it could be a hardware problem.

[DJTranks]

Right Beer -

Bookie - I agree with Beer, lets try a new Hard Drive... For a test run go buy a small HD or if you have an extra that you know is in good condition - then try that.

Swap it out - reformat - then lets see what happens.

[MAJOR]

From Microsoft :

Run disc defragmentor
Speed up yor hard discs.
Go to systems properties and under performance tab click file system.
On hard disc tab set read-ahead optomism to full

clean your operation
to see when you last ran defrag right click my computer drive ,
select properties ,click tools tab to see date
if you have more than 100 fonts installed they'll use resources.
uninstall ones you don't use
defragment hard disc via programs,access,system tools,disc defrag
delete cookies on internet options
keep desktop items to a minimum
change size of recycle bin so it takes up less space right click chose properties
adjust slider to percentage
search for *txt files.most are advice notes and can be deleted
the more disc space you have = faster.
try to keep at least 600 mb free space
find files taking space by clicking start ,find,files and look for ones over 5mb not being used
run disc fragmentor once a month to keep start up files in one placerather than several fragments so they load quicker