scubagal
September 17th, 2005, 01:15 AM
If I wanted to find out why my computer that is running win98 runs sooooo slowly, takes a life time to boot and is on dial up, how would a novice go about it? It is a Pentium 2, 10 gig HD, 128 MB RAM, is a Gateway, and has a few games, McAffee AV software and a few other minor things. It uses People PC for dial up Internet access.
I went into msconfig and disabled a few things that ran at start up, but I'd like to boost the machine if possible. Would adding some RAM help? Fill me with the knowledge. :rotflmao:
Tom
September 17th, 2005, 10:44 AM
Howdy scubagal,
Unless you are running some programs (like games) that max pc resources, 128 RAM should be sufficient. Though adding more always helps.
If you haven't run a defrag recently you should do so. Also best to clear out stored info (temp files etc.) that slows down some functions. Everyone has a favorite, and I use CCleaner (http://ccleaner.com/) (free) to regularly remove the debris of daily operations. In addition, you should always be using updated anti-malware programs religiously. I would suggest Ad-Aware SE and Spybot (links Here (http://free.hostdepartment.com/h/hypnotizeminds/index.html) from CTH's hypnotizeminds) in addition to your McAffee.
A big culprit in slowness is when many programs continue to operate "in the background". Go Here (http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html) , scroll down to Official Downloads, download and run StartupList, and post back here the log it creates. Perhaps someone here can identify what other items you can eliminate to speed things up.