Slow Processing Speed Options

[bazjonster]

Hi Guys

Being pretty much a computer novice I thought I might try and seek some advice from somebody. Recently the processing speed of my computer has slowed down quite dramatically. My OS is Windows XP (Home Edition, Service Pack 2) and my processor is only a AMD Athlon 2600+ with a system that has got 512mb of RAM.

Whilst it is not the biggest/fastest system in the world at the best of times over the last few weeks it has got painfully slow! It seems to have coincided with (probably coincidentally) me installing Trend's PC Cillin 2007 version Anti Virus package and also a webcam onto the computer.

I have run diagnostic tests with Error Nuker (free version only) and Registry Fix (full version). These both picked up various faults which were repaired but has made little difference to the processing speed. Full anti-virus checks revealed no infections at all.

Is it purely a case of having to upgrade the size of my RAM?
Any suggestions or advice much appreciated.

Many thanks

[alphomega]

Its really most likely windows sloppy memory management, an application can gobble the whole system resources in extreme cases.

Press cntrl+alt_del to enter task manger, then click on processes, this will give a list of undescriptive processes or running apps and will show how much memory or cpu usage is being consumed.

Decoding this list can be a problem though!

[yatis]

Personally i think this sounds like (since you have just installed a new anit-virus) that it has a real time scanning function, this can slow down your computer speed dramatically (as i found the hard way) and really can only be solved by either turning off real time scanning (which is a risk but you can run sceduled virus checks or do it manually) or you may have to buy yourself some more RAM, 1GB i suggest will be enough. Make sure if you do buy more RAM that it is compatable with your computer, otherwise try and see if it has a real time scanning function turn it off and see if it helps at all, this is also do-able through your task manager-prosses like stated above, but you must know what your turning off b4 you cancel it. If you cancel something that has a dramatic affect on your PC just re-start and it will be running again.

[tigernut]

all of the above, plus, see link below



http://bestukforums.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=6754