From: not@this.address.com   
      
   Peter Chant wrote:   
      
   > Dear aowxp,   
   >   
   > my parents PC is some years old and is now running very slowly.  It is   
   > running XP and is fully updated.  It was quite a reasonable spec when   
   > new.  I'm wondering if there is some issue I've failed to spot or just   
   > whether the updates over the years to XP and other software such as web   
   > browsers have means that this once reasonable machine is now no longer a   
   > reasonable specification to run XP.   
   >   
   > The machine (from memory):   
   > 	Athalon XP 2.0 GHz   
   > 	1GB ram.   
   > 	AGP graphics (I think - will be due to its age).   
   > 	   
   > I can't remember the disk size but I think there is plenty free.   
   >   
   > Symptoms are that it takes a long time to boot and when a user logs in   
   > there is a lot of disk activity before the machine becomes usable.  Any   
   > disk related activity is slow, Loading Firefox is slow, I'd estimate   
   > 10-15 seconds to load.  Chrome is noticeably faster.   
      
   This slowness is indicative of a system running out of   
   RAM and using virtual memory which is on the hard drive, and much   
   slower access than real RAM.   
      
   Cold boot your system, and after most disk activity ceases, load   
   Task Manager:  Right click on the task bar; pick Task Manager.  Go to   
   the Performance tab.  How much RAM is being used?  If it's more than   
   half, too much stuff is being loaded at boot time.   
      
   > I've looked at the running processes and there does not appear to be   
   > anything unexpected hogging the machine.  Virus checker is behaving.   
   > With no user interaction the CPU utilisation is low - as you would   
   > expect.  I did try running linux on it a year or two ago on a second   
   > disk and that was slow as well - that tends to eliminate any specific   
   > software installation issues as a source of concern.   
   >   
   > Thoughts?   
      
   Yeah.   
      
   1. Run Disk Cleaner   
      
   2. Do a malware scan.  Malwarebytes AntiMalware and SuperAntiSpyware,   
   the free ones, are excellent. Do the full scan, follow the prompts.   
   Start with AntiMalware.  Be patient.  These scans can take hours.   
      
   3. Run Disk Cleaner, again; then Defrag your hard drive.   
      
   4. Download and install CCleaner. Go to the Startup section and see   
   what's being loaded.  It will take some research to find out what   
   everything is, but most of time, most of the stuff in Startup can be   
   unloaded.   
      
   After all this, your system should perform better.  If it doesn't, get   
   back to us.   
      
   Stef   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)