General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: Hollywood on May 08, 2008, 05:28:13 AM
Title: Utilities to speed up an old computer?
Post by: Hollywood on May 08, 2008, 05:28:13 AM
I have a pretty old computer, but it typically runs well. It's a 500 mhz Pentium III and usually runs everything fine, but as I've put more stuff on it, its slowed down a ton. Programs delay in opening, and on a restart it takes forever for everything to load. A main part of it is probably from having SpySweeper and Symantec Antivirus running in the background. I can goto msconfig and see whats running, although I'm not sure exactly which services are and aren't needed. I have rarely ever found a single thing of spyware/malware/virus with these programs, so I might just remove them and try to find a lighter version.
Anyone have any good tips or utilities I can use to speed up this obsolete beast? ???
Title: Re: Utilities to speed up an old computer?
Post by: Vizzys on May 08, 2008, 05:31:17 AM
why do you force yourself to use such archaic hardware in this day and age, that wont even cut it for web browsing in this internet
I remember my 600mhz pentium 3, oh god no
get an Athlon 64 or something at least, socket 939, cheap as balls now
Title: Re: Utilities to speed up an old computer?
Post by: demi on May 08, 2008, 05:38:42 AM
Man dood, you should use this program, it doubles ur RAM
http://www.sci.fi/~borg/rambooster/
Title: Re: Utilities to speed up an old computer?
Post by: crimsondynamics on May 08, 2008, 06:06:25 AM
If upgrading is out of the question, there are a few things you can do:
- defrag your hard drive (sorry - do this AFTER you get rid of unwanted software and installed the software you want, preferably once after uninstalling, and again after installing. Download JKDefrag - it's free, and beats Windows' defrag by a country mile.) - do NOT load up any software during startup (the tradeoff is your computer will take longer to load the application for the first time; once it's running the performance will be equal to having it load during startup) - If your computer supports it, do NOT shutdown your computer; send it to standby or hibernate mode - Uninstall everything you do not use - Use a registry cleaner to get rid of unwanted / unnecessary / remnant registry keys from the uninstall - Visit this website to get the software you need (they do not require install, so will keep your registry light, which will keep your OS snappier): www.portableapps.com - Check and make sure your swapfile is of a reasonable size (or if it's on at all)
If you want a really exhaustive laundry list of ways to optimize your PC and are running XP, go through this manual: http://www.tweakguides.com/files/TGTC_XP_4.0.zip (http://www.tweakguides.com/files/TGTC_XP_4.0.zip)
You can also net a significant gain in performance if you up your RAM, which is really cheap nowadays. That, and / or a new CPU (it'd probably have to be second-hand though, but then again, for the kind of mainboard you must be running, they are cheap as chips).
Title: Re: Utilities to speed up an old computer?
Post by: Powerslave on May 08, 2008, 12:18:42 PM
Disregard everything posted in this thread. Go to www.moreram.com and download more RAM.
Title: Re: Utilities to speed up an old computer?
Post by: Kestastrophe on May 08, 2008, 12:47:16 PM
I would try installing Windows Optimizer
(http://i29.tinypic.com/a3ob4g.jpg)
Title: Re: Utilities to speed up an old computer?
Post by: Mupepe on May 08, 2008, 12:51:54 PM
:rofl :rofl
I used to use Kazaa to download those optimizers.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
i was like 12, leave me alone!
[close]
Title: Re: Utilities to speed up an old computer?
Post by: Powerslave on May 08, 2008, 12:55:49 PM
used to use
Title: Re: Utilities to speed up an old computer?
Post by: Mupepe on May 08, 2008, 12:57:30 PM
Title: Re: Utilities to speed up an old computer?
Post by: Tauntaun on May 08, 2008, 12:58:12 PM
You could get a new comp that would dust that one for like $300.
Title: Re: Utilities to speed up an old computer?
Post by: Hollywood on May 08, 2008, 03:38:20 PM
I'll get rid of Symantec. Note: its not Norton's Antivirus stuff, its a Symantec Corporate Edition I got from the University they let you download. It seems lighter than the full on Norton's, but it seems like every Anti-virus I've used over the years causes more problems than the problems they are trying to stop.