computer help

**JAYROD** · 06-04-2007, 12:51 PM

i have a compaq presario s6000cl, it has 512mg of ram, 80gb hard drive with an athlon 2.08ghz processor. the computer is 3 years old and it has slowed down alot, like it's cluttered up or something. i don't have a great deal of knowledge about these things but i have defragged, disk cleanup and have an antivirus program. i don't want to lay down a bunch of cash for a new computer but i'm willing to spend some money to upgrade this one so it would last a while longer. what are the best things i can do to help this thing out? thanks.

**ebjack** · 06-04-2007, 01:21 PM

Did your compaq come with a restore disk? It restores your PC to "out of box" shape.

I usually back up all my crap to a "stand alone" hard drive and then do a restore on my computer..once a year..( you don't have to have a stand alone hard drive..you can use one of those USB flash drive too)

If yours didn't come with a restore disk, you can purchase one fom Compaq.

this will get rid of all the crap that's bogging down your computer...for a while

**JAYROD** · 06-04-2007, 01:52 PM

yes i have done several system restore and even system recovery and the recovery helps temporarly but it goes back to junk shortly after. i'm hoping i can find a permanent fix and i've seen memory upgrades could be a fix. anybody done this? i was looking at computers the other day and it seems like if you have 512mb you're living in the stone age. i know upgrading my memory would be fairly inexpensive but would it make a big difference adding 256mb or even another 512mb?

**ebjack** · 06-04-2007, 03:17 PM

I think your programs would open more quickly with adding another 512 stick. I only have 768 ram and need more.

**Bryan2** · 06-04-2007, 03:21 PM

Prolly just a shit load of virus/spyware

Clean out all of your temp folders.

Download trendmicros sysclean with the newest updat

and download spysweeper/ewido/adaware spyware removal

download hijack this and keep a log file and post it up before you remove anything cuz if you dont know what your doing you can cause harm.

download cc cleaner and reg cleaner

then run msconfig and remove unneccessary strtup programs.

**ftony** · 06-04-2007, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by JAYROD

i have a compaq presario s6000cl, it has 512mg of ram, 80gb hard drive with an athlon 2.08ghz processor. the computer is 3 years old and it has slowed down alot, like it's cluttered up or something. i don't have a great deal of knowledge about these things but i have defragged, disk cleanup and have an antivirus program. i don't want to lay down a bunch of cash for a new computer but i'm willing to spend some money to upgrade this one so it would last a while longer. what are the best things i can do to help this thing out? thanks.

I assume your running windows XP ??Click start got to run box type msconfig,click on the startup tab,check and see what is starting up at bootup (spyware etc.),close all programs that are not necessary and reboot.it will free up some ram,speed you up a bit.

**Coop77** · 06-05-2007, 12:11 AM

Windows just kind of starts to fall apart after 2 or 3 years of daily use. It's like a poorly built car that starts falling apart after 50k miles. Thanks Microsoft.

I recommend you get a new hard drive, make it your boot drive, and put a fresh Windows installation on it. Good as new. You can keep your old drive as secondary so you dont lose your files.

**shrpskn** · 06-05-2007, 11:32 AM

Nowadays a 3 y/o computer is ancient, a relic, prehistoric, an antique, ect. ect. ect...

Consider selling the one you have and get into a new system.

Good luck,

**juicy_brucy** · 06-05-2007, 11:44 AM

Keep your computer for another year or two. It is still fast as fuk, (just has some junk slowing it down) and from what I can see, all you need to do (hardware wise) is upgrade some more RAM.
Make the jump from 512 MB to 2 gigs. you'll notice a huge difference.
I recommend buying more RAM long before you buy a new computer.

Here is a good read i found on Yahoo pertaining to your situation...
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/5208

Remove spyware. http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/...e_personal.php

Also... this is how I clean my computer for free http://www.ccleaner.com/
It is a free download, and no... they don't ask for money after you use it once.

I hope this helps you.

**JAYROD** · 06-05-2007, 01:54 PM

thanks for the help guys. i just went to get some ram, i was going to get 512mb but 1gb was on sale for only $20 more so i went with that. i'm going to put it in right now and i hope i don't screw anything up. wish me luck.

**JAYROD** · 06-05-2007, 02:17 PM

that didn't take long at all. there was alot of dust kinda like cobwebs all over and i cleaned all that out and there was an extra slot more memory so i just stuck it in and that was it. thanks again.

**shrpskn** · 06-05-2007, 02:51 PM

Good to hear...a RAM upgrade is an excellent choice for speeding up older systems. A 1GB upgrade should have your system smokin'!

Good luck,

**JAYROD** · 06-05-2007, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by shrpskn

Good to hear...a RAM upgrade is an excellent choice for speeding up older systems. A 1GB upgrade should have your system smokin'!

Good luck,

it's smokin! thanks.

**JAYROD** · 06-05-2007, 03:49 PM

my system is now showing 1.43gb of ram. i still know at just over 3 years old this 80gb hard drive is cluttered somethin aweful and i'm thinking a new hard drive or adding an external hard drive. i'm not sure the best way to go on this as far as bang for the buck, any suggestions.

**juicy_brucy** · 06-05-2007, 06:09 PM

did you go to those links I provided? Those programs will also speed you up by removing all the crap that is on your DOS.

Good on ya for getting a gig of RAM. you won't need to buy a new computer for quite some time now. It must be flying now.

**JAYROD** · 06-05-2007, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by juicy_brucy

did you go to those links I provided? Those programs will also speed you up by removing all the crap that is on your DOS.

Good on ya for getting a gig of RAM. you won't need to buy a new computer for quite some time now. It must be flying now.

yes i did and thank you for the links. i do virus scans often and downloaded a registery cleaner and also spybot search and destroy and they did noticably speed things up but after adding the gig of ram today it has really sped up. in the yahoo tech article it talked about reinstalling windows and upgrading the hard drive and after the difference the memory upgrade has made i think if i add another hard drive i could get alot more use out of this computer. i know my ram is sufficiant now but my hard drive space is very low. i was thinking at the least adding an external hard drive. would this be better than replacing the existing one? one problem is i don't have a windows xp disk to reinstall so that's why i was thinking an external drive. your thoughts? thanks.

**shrpskn** · 06-05-2007, 07:09 PM

I find that the regular, combined use of "Spyware Doctor" and "Evidence Eliminator" keeps my system running at peak performance.

Worth a looking into IMO.

**juicy_brucy** · 06-05-2007, 07:30 PM

Originally Posted by JAYROD

yes i did and thank you for the links. i do virus scans often and downloaded a registery cleaner and also spybot search and destroy and they did noticably speed things up but after adding the gig of ram today it has really sped up. in the yahoo tech article it talked about reinstalling windows and upgrading the hard drive and after the difference the memory upgrade has made i think if i add another hard drive i could get alot more use out of this computer. i know my ram is sufficiant now but my hard drive space is very low. i was thinking at the least adding an external hard drive. would this be better than replacing the existing one? one problem is i don't have a windows xp disk to reinstall so that's why i was thinking an external drive. your thoughts? thanks.

I got a 320 gig external HD. When my 80gigs gets full, I dump it onto the 320... Glad that your computer is kicking ass!

**shrpskn** · 06-05-2007, 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by juicy_brucy

I got a 320 gig external HD. When my 80gigs gets full, I dump it onto the 320... Glad that your computer is kicking ass!

Shit! That is an assload if data!!!

**JAYROD** · 06-05-2007, 07:54 PM

Originally Posted by juicy_brucy

I got a 320 gig external HD. When my 80gigs gets full, I dump it onto the 320... Glad that your computer is kicking ass!

thanks again for the help.

**JAYROD** · 06-05-2007, 08:21 PM

as far as reinstalling my windows xp i made a recovery disk and i'm wanting to know if this has xp on it or how can i found out if it does before i wipe out the hard drive (which i won't do unless i'm certain xp is on the recovery disc).

**shrpskn** · 06-05-2007, 08:30 PM

If you made your recovery disk with your current OS, which I assume is XP, then the OS installed from the recovery disk should be the same.

**Coop77** · 06-05-2007, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by juicy_brucy

I got a 320 gig external HD. When my 80gigs gets full, I dump it onto the 320... Glad that your computer is kicking ass!

Just a tip about external drives.. You can buy what's called an external enclosure for about $20 and put a normal hard drive in it. It's a lot cheaper than an actual external drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...nal-Enclosures

**juicy_brucy** · 06-05-2007, 11:13 PM

Thanks bro. I'm already set, but I'll keep that in mind.

Originally Posted by Coop77

Just a tip about external drives.. You can buy what's called an external enclosure for about $20 and put a normal hard drive in it. It's a lot cheaper than an actual external drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...nal-Enclosures