A friend of mine called me up today and told me her computer was running slow. I have no idea where to begin to start looking for the solution, can anyone give me a little starter? She has a Win98 computer, 64 megs of RAM. As far as I know, her computer is capable of enabling DMA on her hard drive. Would that be something to try? I was sifting though older postings here, and found that DMA was the solution to many peoples' computer slowdown problems. Other than that, is there anything else that I can try? Could it have something to do with network properties?
A slow computer... how can I make it faster?
- Thread starter Zincq
- Start date
Is she saying it just started to run slower??? If so I doubt she probably went in and turned off dma mode....
I would look at or ask of recent software and hardware installs...
I would look at or ask of recent software and hardware installs...
She's not a computer person, so I doubt any new hardware. Actually, I know that no new hardware was installed. She had also mentioned that the problem went away for a while. But that was only after not having turning on the computer for 2 weeks. Do you thin heat is an issue here? Such as, the harddrive not being able to cool sufficiently?
Well if she isn't used to shutting down computer or restarting it alot she is most likely running into slow down when the system uses all the available ram and starts swapfile on the harddrive...ONly way to fix this is get more ram, restart to free up memory (something older windows OSes were not good at), or get a program called cacheman and let it manage your memory...It will free up memory when it is not being used and at set levels do this along with defrag memory which speed things up a bit...It also lets you see how much memory is being used at a time...
64mb to todays standards is dreadfully slow..If cacheman reveals only 32 or so after win98 bootup often startup programs (shown in systray often) can steal 10 more leavin here with only 22...Now try opening an excel and internet explorer and you start having slowdowns...
64mb to todays standards is dreadfully slow..If cacheman reveals only 32 or so after win98 bootup often startup programs (shown in systray often) can steal 10 more leavin here with only 22...Now try opening an excel and internet explorer and you start having slowdowns...
I think more memory would definately help. You also might want to look to see what programs are running in the background and that appear in the taskbar when the computer is booted. Getting rid of those, if they're too many, can help. Also, defragmenting the disk drive can sometimes help, too.
Get her more memory. 64MB is just not enough for even fairly old software. Besides that, you should definitely enable DMA if you can. You should also look through her BIOS settings enabling and disabling anything that will improve performance. Disk defragmenting is always a good idea to do on a regular basis. Especially with a program that optimizes the data in a specific order. Make sure to disable any startup programs that are unecessary. This involves looking through the registry as well as the startup section of the start menu. Actually, if she can backup the important data she has one her comp (Or she has no real important data), format the harddrive. Do a clean install of Windows on a separate smaller partition from the rest of the things on the harddrive. Prevent her from installing unecessary things. Keep the disk clean, it helps a lot.
There's also a program called "task bar program.exe" that someone on this forums was nice enough to inform me about. Basically, it lets use deselect those programs that load up automatically. Of course, you could disable necessary programs. If you can't find it on the web, PM me, and I'll e-mail it to you tomorrow (its 88k).
I recently had to deal with a friends computer, gave me the same complaint "my computer is running sooo slow", he had just about every program starting up, the guy never defragged his drive and scandisk posted some many errors it wasn't funny...like others said...take useless programs out of start-up, run scandisk, run defrag...and most important get them more memory...i would even consider doing a fresh install of windows.
First thing...goto RUN, type msconfig, use the last tab, and uncheck things that auto start like- realplayer, quicktime, AIM, yahoo, etc, the only ones you may want to leave are scanner programs-(so the 1 touch buttons work), and printer programs. If in doubt do a search here or on google for "msconfig" there are plenty of sites that explain the safe things to remove.
Next get her some more memory, she should have at least 128mb, very noticeable difference from 64mb. If she plans on keeping that computer for another year at least, get her 256mb, Win98 can go alot longer between reboots with 256mb.
Defrag and scan disk are also a must do with Win98.
Also make sure that she hasn't filled the HDD, if the drive has less than 300-400mb free, then it will cause huge problems.
That's about all i'd recommend for you to try as you say your new to computer tweaking...
Next get her some more memory, she should have at least 128mb, very noticeable difference from 64mb. If she plans on keeping that computer for another year at least, get her 256mb, Win98 can go alot longer between reboots with 256mb.
Defrag and scan disk are also a must do with Win98.
Also make sure that she hasn't filled the HDD, if the drive has less than 300-400mb free, then it will cause huge problems.
That's about all i'd recommend for you to try as you say your new to computer tweaking...
Lots of well meaning advice being given out here - HOWEVER....!!!!
1. What is the Chipset of the motherboard?
2. Processor speed/type?
3. Type of RAM? (72pin/168pin?)
I ask this because if it is an older TX chipset or such like it will only use 64MB of RAM and thats your lot!
No point doing anything until you know what is under the hood.
BreakApart has some very good (free) advice with can make a huge difference to any system with any amount of RAM installed.
I always try to aim for 94% system resources free at Windows boot up, however, I managed to better that just after Xmas with my buddies new Duron 1000Mhz system using an 810 chipset - we managed to get 96% free!
I'm stuck at 89% with my current system though
But I have 512MB so it's not a big deal really
1. What is the Chipset of the motherboard?
2. Processor speed/type?
3. Type of RAM? (72pin/168pin?)
I ask this because if it is an older TX chipset or such like it will only use 64MB of RAM and thats your lot!
No point doing anything until you know what is under the hood.
BreakApart has some very good (free) advice with can make a huge difference to any system with any amount of RAM installed.
I always try to aim for 94% system resources free at Windows boot up, however, I managed to better that just after Xmas with my buddies new Duron 1000Mhz system using an 810 chipset - we managed to get 96% free!
I'm stuck at 89% with my current system though
But I have 512MB so it's not a big deal really
gtd 2000: I am curious how you managed to get a Duron running on an 810 chipset. Last time I checked the 810 was an Intel chipset.
Yes that was my first reaction too - I told my buddy to get an ECS K75SA motherboard - he came back with a box with an M810 chipset??
It's one of those all-in-one solutions - which I specifically said - "Do not get anything other than the ECS K75SA - if the guy in the shops says this other board is better call me ASAP"
When asked why he bought that board (same cost as ECS) he said like clockwork, "The guy in the shop said it was a really good board!"
Groan.......
It's one of those all-in-one solutions - which I specifically said - "Do not get anything other than the ECS K75SA - if the guy in the shops says this other board is better call me ASAP"
When asked why he bought that board (same cost as ECS) he said like clockwork, "The guy in the shop said it was a really good board!"
Groan.......
Yes indeed - that appears to be the one
To be honest I didn't pay a great deal of attention to the board, just gave him a lecture
But it runs very nicely and was a breeze to setup
To be honest I didn't pay a great deal of attention to the board, just gave him a lecture
But it runs very nicely and was a breeze to setup
How long has it been since she reformatted? My comps usually get so messed up after a long time that they need to be reformatted to work 2x faster.
<< which I specifically said - "Do not get anything other than the ECS K75SA >>
Geez, Is that how you treat your friends? real shame.. you can do better than that by many, many miles.
Hehe - I didn't mean that was the "motherboard" of choice - it was simply that he wanted me to build him a reasonably priced system and the best value board was the ECS one.
He also knows nothing at all about computers and was worried about buying the parts - so I said
<< Do not get anything other than the ECS K75SA - if the guy in the shops says this other board is better call me ASAP >>
Any the final outcome is that he is very pleased with the performance of his new PC and happily fragging away in RTCW every night - probably much to the dismay of his GF
He also knows nothing at all about computers and was worried about buying the parts - so I said
<< Do not get anything other than the ECS K75SA - if the guy in the shops says this other board is better call me ASAP >>
Any the final outcome is that he is very pleased with the performance of his new PC and happily fragging away in RTCW every night - probably much to the dismay of his GF
<< Geez, Is that how you treat your friends? real shame.. >>
You never told your friends? "ONLY buy X, its the best one for your situation!" (perhaps gtd2000 is very familiar with the ECS board, so it makes sense)
I have done that MANY times, my friends are known to bring home the exact opposite when i only "recommend" something, then they complain for weeks how what they purchased doesn't work like they wanted.
Duh, goober that's why i TOLD you to buy X and not what YOU bought! :sarcasm:
Friends have a humor value of 9.5
Laughing at strangers = priceless
Get really basic-
Open the box, knock out the dust bunnies, check the connections.
Make sure the drive isn't so full of crap that Windows doesn't have room for the swapfile. Scandisk, Defrag and set them up to run regularly thru task scheduler. Eliminate unnecessary startups thru msconfig. Run Ad-Aware to dump the spyware. Run something like Norton Utilities to tidy things up. If she has Office, turn off fastfind, it's a mess. Check system properties to make sure everybody is happy.
64meg is a little light on memory, but that's not really the issue if it's running slower than usual. 512meg won't do any good if Windows is chasing its tail around in circles.
Open the box, knock out the dust bunnies, check the connections.
Make sure the drive isn't so full of crap that Windows doesn't have room for the swapfile. Scandisk, Defrag and set them up to run regularly thru task scheduler. Eliminate unnecessary startups thru msconfig. Run Ad-Aware to dump the spyware. Run something like Norton Utilities to tidy things up. If she has Office, turn off fastfind, it's a mess. Check system properties to make sure everybody is happy.
64meg is a little light on memory, but that's not really the issue if it's running slower than usual. 512meg won't do any good if Windows is chasing its tail around in circles.
Much appreciated for all the advice. Everything seems to be running well. I've left the computer on for 6 hours and when I got back, it was still running at peak performance, or close to peak performance at least. Thanks ya'll.
Thanks ya'll.Umm I don't have anythign to add..so I'll just make a SA comment here.
I bet she just upgraded her IE package
I bet she just upgraded her IE package
And breakapart, if i'm not mistaken, PC-CHIPS 810LR or LMR uses SiS 730S (or similar) chipset with integrated video and lan.
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