Trimming and slimming my computer

The Black Hunter

Hello fellows

I have a fairly decent computer, I've had it a while, sure, and I know computers slow down over time, but the last little while it has run like the slowest kid in class after an oversize dinner, it feels like it is huffing and puffing and stumbling over itself out the gate, boot-up takes aaaaages

It is running 92 processes, which I'm sure is just ridiculous, but I don't know how to filter out what I need. Any other tips would help as well

Esh

The Black Hunter wrote: »

Hello fellows

I have a fairly decent computer, I've had it a while, sure, and I know computers slow down over time, but the last little while it has run like the slowest kid in class after an oversize dinner, it feels like it is huffing and puffing and stumbling over itself out the gate, boot-up takes aaaaages

It is running 92 processes, which I'm sure is just ridiculous, but I don't know how to filter out what I need. Any other tips would help as well

Backup your files and do a full OS reinstall.

TychoCelchuuu

Backup your files and do a full OS reinstall.

Buttcleft

clean out your heatsinks

Then backup your files and do a full OS reinstall.

eternalbl

You could defrag to start, then use msconfig to remove stuff from startup to see if that helps. Just google anything on the startup tab to see if it's anything you want, but nothing there is needed for windows to run properly.

If it's as slow as you make it seem, maybe run a virus scan and a malware tool.

kaliyama

Clean out your heatsinks (i.e. fans for CPU and elsewhere) with a can of compressed air and a paperclip to retrieve the remaining dust from between the metal flanges over your cpu.

Backup your files.

Format your hard drives.

Then do a full OS reinstall.

Thanatos

I have a process I go through at work whenever someone's computer starts getting too slow:

1. Download & install Spybot Search & Destroy and MalwareBytes Anti-Malware.
2. Update & run Spybog S&D and MBAM.
3. Run msconfig, shut off everything on the "startup" and "services" tabs. Anything I don't recognize, I Google.
4. Defragment the hard drive.

It's best to do things in that order.

Alternatively, it's probably easier and more effective to back up your files, and reformat.

Thanatos

Also, if you haven't maxed out the RAM on your mobo/OS already, RAM is pretty damn cheap right now, and can be a small upgrade that you get a lot of value out of.

Ramen Noodle

kaliyama wrote: »

Clean out your heatsinks (i.e. fans for CPU and elsewhere) with a can of compressed air and a paperclip to retrieve the remaining dust from between the metal flanges over your cpu.

Backup your files.

Format your hard drives.

Then do a full OS reinstall.

If you're running Vista you should upgrade to 7 while you're at it. Vista got pretty good after some updates but 7 just feels so much better.

illig

if you're up for a little work, and you're going to be reinstalling again, i highly recommend buying a small SSD hard drive to replace your current drive... 60GB for ~$150 is about the sweet spot right now and it makes an unbelievable difference to how fast any machine will boot and launch all applications

keep the current drive as a music/movie/file/porn storage or whatever

really, the best bang for buck upgrade right now

Dunadan019

Thanatos wrote: »

I have a process I go through at work whenever someone's computer starts getting too slow:

1. Download & install Spybot Search & Destroy and MalwareBytes Anti-Malware.
2. Update & run Spybog S&D and MBAM.
3. Run msconfig, shut off everything on the "startup" and "services" tabs. Anything I don't recognize, I Google.
4. Defragment the hard drive.

It's best to do things in that order.

Alternatively, it's probably easier and more effective to back up your files, and reformat.

if you know how to run msconfig, go with this. it is both effective and quick for people that don't want to reinstall a bunch of programs and its about as easy as its gonna get. afterwords, I would uninstall programs that you don't need anymore as well.

if you don't have the knowledge with computers to do that, then just do a fresh OS install... it would be a headache for anyone to talk you through doing it without being there.