The Dell is a dog

[steveo]

An easy one for you PC chaps. My daughter's three year-old Dell takes an age to start up and runs very slowly. There's hardly anything on it except email and a few word files so I don't understand.

Any simple remedies?

Many thanks.

Steve

[Loz]

Probably the best thing is to rebuild it. Windows tends to fill with crap after a while.

[El Pibe]

The hard drive could well be grinding to a halt, this can have huge knock on efects on performance.

Replacing it is cheap as chips these days. You can use maxtor to create an image of you current one on the new one then swap them out.

I had to do this every six months at work. A dodgy batch I reckon.

[steveo]

Thanks but cheap as chips it is not, especially when you need someone to fit it. Isn't there a utility or something to try first?

[Loz]

Have you looked at Task Manager (Start->Run and type in 'taskmgr' and click OK)? The CPU column should tell you what is taking up all your processor time. It should mostly be used by a process called 'System Idle Process', unless you are doing something.

[HAL9000]

The scant symptoms described could be caused by badly written anti-virus-type software or infection by root-kit viruses, malware, adware, spyware, etc.

Try disabling anti-virus software to see if it makes any difference.

Disinfection is often possible but usually not trivial - proper diagnosis is often difficult.

Or it could be something else. Either way, good luck.

[El Pibe]

http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/index.html

This will let you know if it is the hard drive.

As HAL says though, it coud be just about anything.

Malware, spyware, trojans, bots, all can cause all sorts of problems but there is plenty of free software to get rid of these.

It could be the power pack, a virus, ram corruption, PC next to a radiator, rat poo.

I'd start with an anti malware scan, facebook is an increasingly common way of getting infected, my wife had one that was blocking the wi-fi connection on her laptop that she got through an email sent from a facebook contact.

I reckon the harddrive health check is worth doing for sure.

[DulwichFox]

A simple piece of Housekeeping will probably do the trick if you dont already do this.

Delete Temp. Internet Files.

Clear Browsing History and Cache.

Perform a Disk Clean / Defrag.

This should help.

Fox

[Jeremy]

I second Dulwich Fox's suggestion of a cleanup and defrag, and maybe also the anti malware scan. Make sure you remove any data and uninstall and unused applications before doing the defrag.

If the disk is filling up a tool such as TreeSizeFree will help you to figure out the main culprits.

I wouldn't suggest that a layman attempts a complete rebuild.

[steveo]

Layman's the word. How do you do a clean up and defrag? I can just about defrag a mac and I can clean a car

[tog_in_sox]

Hi Steveo,

3 yrs old? Is it running Windows Vista then or Windows 7?

Is it a laptop or a desktop?

If your daughter has been very assiduous and refrained from clicking random links she's encountered in mail and on sites, not been tkane in by various popup dialogs claiming to diagnose her PC, make it better or win the lottery, deleted all unsolicited mail spamming on about garbage of no relevance then I'd say perhaps the hardware was starting to give up. Particularly if it's been used in a dusty environment, around shedding pets, etc.

Have either of you noticed a clicking sound coming from the PC when it's trying to load up or run programs? Very muich the giveaway for a failing harddrive.

If on the other hand it's been used and abused by a happy go lucky user clicking indescriminately without a care in the world and without any due care and attention to occasionally clearing out the "digital garbage" that Windows accrues over time then the "system cleardown" suggested above is worth a good try.

Try installing a great utility called CCleaner. This knows all the usual garbage repositories and enables the clearout in a few clicks. Be sure to select the various entries for the Internet browser(s) you use etc.

Once you've done that reboot the PC a couple of times before doing anything else (I do this as a precautionary as Windows can be very inconsistent in completing its startup after misbehaving.

If you know of software you no longer use then use the Programs and Features console from the Control Panel to remove these. Be sure that you only have one Anti-virus utility installed (Norton and Mcaffee are notorious for being bloated and performance inhibitors), AVG is a good free stop-gap if you care to flush everything else before choosing something you prefer.

Once you've removed all the unwanted software you know about use CCleaner again to flush out all the remains that weren't deleted by Windows.

If you do suspect some kind of infection then do a full and comprehensive sweep with the Anti-virus package you have, being sure that its anti-virus signatures are up to date.

You can also use something like Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to try and flush out further gremlins.

Again once you've removed anything run CCleaner to give it a good rinse

IF after all this things are going better then use the Defrag utility (Go into your Programs menu and find the System Tools folder). Leave the PC alone to run its course.

At the end reboot a couple of times and see what happens.

This could all take a few hours.

OTHERWISE:

IF you can copy off all the data files (letters, photos, music, personal data) that your daughter wants to retain AND you have access to the System Rebuild and other desired Application disks (or System Rebuild utility that some Manufacturers install) then I'd be more inclined to do a completely fresh re-install of Windows as it's the best way to rejuvenate your PC. Your User manual (copy on Dell site) should be able to lead you through this.

Enjoy.

[Undisputedtruth]

I had a similar issue with my laptop three years ago. Tried every trick in the book to increase the startup time. Eventually isolated the problem where there was a conflict between the firewall and antivirus software on startup.

My current system starts up in twenty seconds. But I'm hoping to reduce this time to around fourteen seconds once I've played around with the settings and reduce the number of startup programs.

[Undisputedtruth]

El Pibe Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The hard drive could well be grinding to a halt,

> this can have huge knock on efects on

> performance.

>

> Replacing it is cheap as chips these days. You can

> use maxtor to create an image of you current one

> on the new one then swap them out.

>

> I had to do this every six months at work. A dodgy

> batch I reckon.

Take note El Phibe. The price of hard drives are not cheap as chips anymore ever since Thailand suffered their worse flooding in living memory. Forty per cent of all hard drives are made in Thailand. HDDs manufacturers are predicting that prices for drives will normalise bythe end of 2012.

[steveo]

Thanks for all that, with a special mention for tog in sox

[DulwichFox]

Hi stevo

At this stage I would not advise you download any program to your PC.

There are too many fake sites out there and you could easily make matters worse by downloading

'Rogue' Software.

My previous instructions would normally be done on a daily basis with the Defrag being done

Monthly.

When you go for Defrag you will be told if your PC needs Defrag or not,

A Defrag can take a couple of hours.

When your Hard Disk is short of space, and you load a new program, the program is loaded

into gaps where space can be found instead of one block.

This makes serching for that programm / file slow.

Defrag simple moves all the bits of a file program into one block making it faster to operate.

Imagine you had several printed documents and mixed all the pages up.

If you still are having problems PM me. I can take a look for you.

I will show you how you can do these things for youself.

Fox.

[El Pibe]

Windows vista onwards basically defrags itself in the background anyway, running a defrag is really only relevant to XP and before.

But it could be that you need to give it a bit of encouragement, in which case here's a how to video from microsoft.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/Improve-performance-by-defragmenting-your-hard-disk

Don't worry about the rogue sites, togs in sox gave you some safe links and suggestions.

[DulwichFox]

El Pibe Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Windows vista onwards basically defrags itself in

> the background anyway, running a defrag is really

> only relevant to XP and before.

>

>

Not True. Windows Vista does not Defrag Itself.

It is just that when you do a defrag there is no progress GUI for you to watch.

So it gives the impression it is running in background.

You certainly should not do anything on your PC/Laptop untill Defrag has completed.

Fox

[KidKruger]

This had been interesting reading.

My 5 yr old Evesham laptop has been a right dog for several weeks now.

I have followed the disk cleanup and defrag points above but it's still slow as ferk, especially so for some reason when I use Outlook.

Thing is I'm doing nothing fancier on it nowadays than i have previously, which is why it's frustrating having this drop in 'performance'.

I'll try the other tips mentioned above on downloading a clearing routine.

Otherwise I guess Christian on Pellatt Rd will have to sort it...

[El Pibe]

I'm afraid vista does run a scheduled defrag, i think it defaults to weekly.

It can be disabled though.

[DulwichFox]

Disk Clean up / Defrag is a starting point.

It may not of worked for KidKruger but could be the solution for Stevo.

No point in doing other things with a fragmented disk.

Also you need to check how much RAM is installed.

Could be some installed application is burning up Ram

Some A/V Software can slow down your PC Especially Kaspersky.

Dells are also notorious for running slow.

Fox.

[Loz]

All,

First and foremost, check how much disk capacity you have left. If you don't have enough at least 1GB or 2Gb free you won't have enough for the swap file and other system files and it will kill any performance.

[KidKruger]

I have 40Gb hard disk.

20Gb is free space.

Last month the disk was almost full, I thought this was the root of the performance issues so I moved 50% to external drive.

I use no fancy video or gaming packages, just Internet, burn the odd CD and use MS tools - boring I know.

Apols to OP for any distraction from his OP.

[Undisputedtruth]

Loz Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> All,

>

> First and foremost, check how much disk capacity

> you have left. If you don't have enough at least

> 1GB or 2Gb free you won't have enough for the swap

> file and other system files and it will kill any

> performance.

Steveo said the HDD just had a few word files and emails so there should be plenty of capacity left. Even for a three year old system.

@dulwichfox, the software mentioned aren't rogue ones at all. In fact they're highly recommended by those in the know.

[DulwichFox]

Undisputedtruth Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Loz Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > All,

> >

> > First and foremost, check how much disk

> capacity

> > you have left. If you don't have enough at

> least

> > 1GB or 2Gb free you won't have enough for the

> swap

> > file and other system files and it will kill

> any

> > performance.

>

> Steveo said the HDD just had a few word files and

> emails so there should be plenty of capacity left.

> Even for a three year old system.

>

> @dulwichfox, the software mentioned aren't rogue

> ones at all. In fact they're highly recommended by

> those in the know.

Not suggesting links were to rogue sites.

But if stevo has capacity problems due to never deleting old Browsing History, Cache & Cookies

There may not be room to instal items suggested.

Need Stevo to come back to us with any progress.

Fox.

[Undisputedtruth]

I'll be really surprised if a modern hard drive can be filled with just browsing data.