New Computer

[theakstonium]

I buy a new computer to get a better faster etc machine and then transfer everything from my old computer to the new one. My old one was running slowly because of general programme/startup congestion. Won`t the new one run just as slowly because I am simply transferring all my problems from one computer to another.
Could I solve this by keeping everything from my old computer on an external hard drive and just putting brand new stuff on my new computer?

[NORMANTHEDOG]

computers dont just run slowly because of your content on it, your processer and memory,come into it as well as a lot of things,are you on broadband or dial up,try upgrading it with a better and faster processer

[theakstonium]

Thanks Normanthedog. Have thought of upping memory from 512 up to max allowed of 2Gig but had not thought of changing the processor. Is this easy DIY job?

[NORMANTHEDOG]

dont know really,my next door neighbour is a whiz kid pc man,so he does it all for me,but i should think its not that hard.

[vehelpfulguy]

You cannot just upgrade the processor with the latest one as it may not fit your motherboard.

When motherboards are made they normally take a certain type of CPU (Intel or AMD) and also a certain speed of CPU.

Although a motherboard may take one that is slightly faster than the one you have there will be an upper limit on the speed of CPU your motherboard will take.

For example suppose you have a 1.8 Ghz CPU. Your motherboard may take a 2.0 Ghz or 2.2 Ghz but maybe not much more than that.

Have a look at the documentation that came with your PC or motherboard and see what speed of CPU it can take.

To be honest putting in a slightly faster one will not make much difference (a little maybe but not a lot)

Generally, if you want to upgrade the CPU you have to buy a new motherboard, and if you buy a new motherboard you probably also have to buy new memory.

[vehelpfulguy]

theakstonium,

You seem to be a little confused between programs INSTALED on your computer and programs that STARTUP when your PC starts.

When you install a program on your PC (a game, a word processor etc) they do not normaly autostart. They only start up when you select them to start.

Some programs do autostart, but these are generally very small programs that should not slow your PC down.

There is a useful program called WinPatrol that will list all the programs that autostart and you can look through the list and change them so they DONT autostart.

You can download WinPatrol for free from here

http://www.winpatrol.com/

[vehelpfulguy]

theakstonium,

You will gain far more by upgrading the memory from 512Mb to 1Gb than replacing the processor.

I would not bother to go above 1Gb (unless you are doing something like Video editing) as you are not likely to use more than 1Gb of memory during normal computing.

[Disco Fever]

If your toolbar at the bottom of your screen has loads of icons on it then all of these programs start up when your PC does slowing down everything, you need to go to Start the click on Run, then type in "msconfig" once the window comes up then click on startup at the top of the page. All you need to do then is uncheck the boxes of the stuff you dont want to load, like MSN, Yahoo, Realplayer, Quicktime once you have done this then click OK followed by restart and then youll find that you PC will load a hell of a lot faster....

[theakstonium]

Thanks guys for your help. Have tried all suggestions ( inc Winpatrol Thanks for that vehelpfulguy ) but no difference.
Think main problem is amount of stuff I have on and in particular I use Norton. My impression is that Norton is all encompassing and pokes its nose into everything and slows everything down no end.
The plus side is that everything is very secure so I have
no worries about hacking etc.
I shall probably up my memory and see what happens.

Again many thanks

[broadgate]

i recently bought a new comp aswell as my old one was slow... i loaded all my personal files (documents, music, vids, pics) onto an external harddrive as u said in the original question. I also moved programs onto my hard drive - but only the ones that had the full installer saved on my comp. for the rest of the programs i had them on original CD or was able to download them off the net again. Im using my new computer now and its fine...

[romko]

you should run anti spyware progs and scan regularly (progs such as ad aware of spybot seek and destroy- both free!).Have a good, updated firewall. i used norton and now have zone alarm. Trojans installed by port sweepers (online entities scanning for unprotected accesible PC ports) slow down your system and screw things up in all kinds of ways.

i also second the idea of using msconfig to see if you can eliminate unnecessary progs starting up.

[Aprilis]

To keep your computer running at it's optimum you must also do regular system 'housekeeping'. For instance, you need to regularly delete all cookies and temporary internet files, defragment the hard drive, run disk cleanup etc.

Apologies if you already do all this but the amount of people that don't astonishes me.