How to Increase the System Speed?

[vb86 0]

My pc has been working very slowly of late and it takes a lot of time to boot up the pc. Im trying all options and i dont want to format my pc...

System configuration:

P4 2.4ghz

256mb SDram (yes SD)

millenium 845glv motherboard (crap)

80gb hdd (not sata)

creative x-fi xtreme music soundcard

asus geforce4 mx440se graphicd card (64mb ddr agp 4x)

internal modem for dialup

lan card for dsl

router for dsl

switch for dsl and LAN

lg cd rom

sony dvd burner

floppy drive

usb 2 pci card

hdd partitions:

c:20gb

d:20gb

e:40gb

softwares(some of them):

windows xp pro

zonealarm security suite

msn messenger

wmp10

ms office xp

swishmax

dreamweaver mx

itunes

nokia pc suite

bluetooth widcomm drivers

quicktime

realplayer

anydvd (hehe)

creative console launcher

adobe reader

winzip

winrar

ad-aware

spyware doctor

spybot

tuneup utilities 2006

registry mechanic

o&o defrag

limewire

xvid divx codecs

dbpoweramp

skype

dvd lab pro

clone dvd

picasa2

Action taken:

Removed softwares like photoshop cs2 and ulead dvd workshop.

Freed more space in the C drive.(total 18.6gb .. free 4 gb). Other partions also have alot of free space.

Removed all spywares/adwares.

No viruses.

Ran softwares like tuneup utilities to clear the system of errors.

Ran registry mechanic and also defraged registry.

Defraged hdd using both o&o defrag and perfect disk.

Run my comp on selective start up to avoid the junk to load.

Opened my cabinet and cleared every speck of dust and checked all fans.

Have roughly 35 processes running after booting. (dont think i can go any lower as i have checked the net for processes).

Options left:

1.Add some more ram and see if it helps.

2.Remove zonealarm suite and try pc-cillin.

3.FORMAT....(hopefully not)

EDIT:also have nero6 installed.

have changed the value prefetch in the registry from 3 to 5 yesterday.

Any suggestions???

Edited November 25, 2005 by vb86

[abhay 0]

dude one of the easiest options is removing applications while booting

i have a similar config pc execpt for the grapic card of urs! my pc boots in within 1 - 1.25 min's

heres what i have done! may be this could help u

BIOS :-

1) auto detect only the HDD! cdrom and dvd keep on none

2) boot up floopy seek : disabled

windows :-

1) only 8 apps are one startup these include

a)norton antivirus * 2 proceses

b)zone alarm * 1 process

c)nero * 2 process

d)some miss drivers and stuff

2) i have switched off windows themes, auto updates , system restore, remote login ( these consume loads of memory)

3)goto ctrl panel --> admin tools --> services

switch to manual, the unnessary process which run automatically

may be this could help ya out

if not then change ur hardware

*quick time , real player and others have their process starting @ startup shut them down for good. most of our utilz and hardware is the same i dont think if u do the above mentioned tasks ur pc would be slow

Edited November 25, 2005 by abhay

[vb86 0]

ive already covered most of what you have said earlier.. i have just diabled auto update for windows but the balloon which keeps telling me to put them on is irritating.

I have the windows xp service pack2 installed also. 4got to mention earlier.

Also my system has a lot of svchost.exe running when i open the task manager.(five at the moment)...

Edited November 25, 2005 by vb86

[abhay 0]

ive already covered most of what you have said earlier.. i have just diabled auto update for windows but the balloon which keeps telling me to put them on is irritating.

I have the windows xp service pack2 installed also. 4got to mention earlier.

Also my system has a lot of svchost.exe running when i open the task manager.(five at the moment)...

48137[/snapback]

goto ctrl panel --> security center --> change the way security center alerts me

disable all three check boxes(or any if u wish) --> this will stop the nagging baloon

i u agree disable remote login , system restore + themes ull notice the diffrence

and yup disable windows firewall also since u already have zone alarm

Edited November 25, 2005 by abhay

[vb86 0]

i have a very high Page File usage.. fluctuates from 280-450mb.. 430right now.

doesnt that determine that my ram is falling short and the comp has to allocate space on the hdd?

[Vishal Gupta 4]

@vb86

Multiple instance of svchost.exe running in background is very normal.

All machines hv at least 3 or 4 instances running in background.

It depends upon which services u hv selected to run in Computer Management.

So don't worry about those instances.

And for balloon problem, u can disable the Security Center service!

Now what u can do is as follows:

1.) First disable the unnecessary services. For more information read here.

2.) Type msconfig in Start -> Run and goto Startup tab and uncheck all unnecessary applications, like hkcmd.exe (for hot keys of ur VGA drivers), quicktime tasks, etc.

3.) Goto System Properties, then goto Advanced tab and click on Settings button under Performance section and remove all shadow and animation options.

It should increase ur system speed

EDIT: Also clear the PREFETCH folder under WINDOWS directory.

[abhay 0]

i have a very high Page File usage.. fluctuates from 280-450mb.. 430right now.

doesnt that determine that my ram is falling short and the comp has to allocate space on the hdd?

48140[/snapback]

yup that dose ! but i had 256 k RAM till a week ago! right now 1 gb of RAM!

have been using the similar system since pat 2 may be 2.5 yrs i never had a problem like u have stated

u should also include

visual studio 6.0

visual studio 2003

visual studio 2005

sql server

sun studio

macromedia studio mx

addobe photoshop cs2

borland c++ builder

many many sdk's

+ 95% of ur softwares

in my pc ! i never had a problem with my pc till date! my pc also used to fluctuate between the specfied level

Edited November 25, 2005 by abhay

[Chirag 5]

Maybe its cumbersome! But a clean format of C Drive, every 6months reduces alot of headaches!! really helps!

[vb86 0]

Maybe its cumbersome! But a clean format of C Drive, every 6months reduces alot of headaches!! really helps!

48144[/snapback]

thats a last resort.

thanke everyone

[IC£MAN 0]

Dude i had the same problem..... I ran a spyware program and got to know that i had over 500+ spywares. Delleted them and now my comp is back to its origional state.

Norton anti virus reduces ur speed to. Try Kaspersky for an aniti virus its great.

OOOOPS sorry forgot to tell you ..... try the ultimate troubleshooter its a great program.

[RajanPERT 0]

U can find some useful info here http://www.rimweb.in/forums/index.php?show...d=44452&st=30

Also if possible, increase ur memory to 512 MB. Annis suggestion is also good. Just check!

Thanks and Take Care!

[amitbt22 2]

1) set ide controllers dma mode on

2) defrag every partition

3) In startup & recovery option disable operating system & recovery option wait & debugging option

4) try Dr web antivirus

5) install autopatcher xp latest version It patches all winxp bugs till date.

6) Turn of system restore

[Puneet 0]

Firstly, NAV s**ks. its too high on resources. You should try your hands on NOD32 or AVG. Both are low and resources, and as effective as NAV. Also, Zone Alarm is not one of the resource friendly firewalls. Try Kerio or AVG.

A combination of disk-cleanup, defrag and msconfig almost always works. And not to mention, RAM is the more important than processor speed for the usual working of the comp, maybe an upgrade to higher DDRAM would boost up your PC a lot.

[amitbt22 2]

But for DDRRAM he has to upgrade motherboard also for good results & compatibility

[linuxguy 0]

Try avast! Its not bad at all!

[ashoksoft 83]

Lowest on resources ... I would bet my butt on using AVG. Accepted that I use a lot more processing power... but still even on my lappy AVG does wonders!!

Speed has never really been an issue ... but hey first things first.. learn the art of chucking NAV.

Cheers

Ashok

[vb86 0]

err.. ive already mentioned that ive chucked NAV.. i use zone alarm.. anyways.. my comp guy is bringin some ram along for testing purposes.. also , im in no mood to change the motherboard since i plan to get a new machine in 2007 only when vista's been out for a few months and we have a comprehensive review ready.. im not going for avg only because i would still be using ZASS as a firewall and it would still hog the resources.. so..

thanks again..

[Chirag 5]

u must check wid a new RAM, for sure. I've had a similar issue, and after months of cross-verifying each thing, finally found that it was the RAM, which was the culprit!

[RajanPERT 0]

Ok to close some program running in background, please send us the Hiajck This log in a form of File.Please attach it as attachment so i can download it for further diagnoses. But before running the HijackThis u need to extract the content of the Zip file to Program Files folder. You have to run HijackThis from program files folder.

for downloading, link of Hijack This.http://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis.html

Thanks and Take Care!

[vb86 0]

i had replaced my 256 with a gig of ram(just for trying) a while back.. though apps loaded faster, booting time was virtually the same.. so i guess, a c:\ format would be the best option.. ill avoid it though as long as i can.. the remaining processes left cannot be disbled as i have made a thorough check and tried different combinations over 2 weeks..

ill wait till vista releases and get a hi config pc.. ill retain my soundblaster xfi xtreme music and the dvd writer.. i think getting a new system now doesnt make sense because the config right now is good enough and i want to wait till vista launches.......