slow to respond

[carmalee]

For a week or so now have noticed that my computer appears to 'hang' when I give it an instruction - only to comply maybe 30/40 seconds later - basically a lack of response - it appears to be very, very marked on answerbank but really minimal when running some other programmes. where are my knights in shining armour to help me please?

[Old_Geezer]

They've rusted solid.

I get quite a delay here too. I tin it is the numebr of ads and pictures and stuff that the page insists it loads before you can do owt.

A good first practice is to run virus checks and adware/spyware cheks to remove anything running in the background that ought not be there.

Then check if you have enough memory.

[Old_Geezer]

I can not believe how many typos. I think it is 'one of those days'.

[carmalee]

thanks for that OG (aka my knight in shining armour) - how do I check if I have enough memory?

[Old_Geezer]

One can never have too much.

Right click my computer, chose properties, look for how much RAM is says you have, post it here for others to comment on/laugh at.

You can use this to see how much you could have.
http://www.crucial.co...AAG-:20110527153645:s

[carmalee]

old geezer - I'd far rather be laughed/with so may well post my findings - thanks Sir Galahad

[Answerprancer]

Does your anti virus software do a 'scheduled scan' regularly ? If so, that can slow things down.
Otherwise, It might be that you just need to clear your cache/cookies, other otherwise, you may have a connection problem, try doing a speed test:
http://www.speedtest.net/
The result should match (near enough) the speed you are supposed to have as set by your provider eg. I have 10 meg broadband, and my result came up as 9.84 which is ok.

[carmalee]

wish we could do this between consenting adults and in the privacy of our own homes Old Geezer but here goes .. is the info you want 2.79GHz, 2.00GBOF RAM?

[Old_Geezer]

Aye, I was going to suggest http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download if the scans failed to find owt. Trouble is for the uninitiated it can remove things you wanted, such as history and suchlike. Can be a bit daunting to set it up if you've not tried it before.

[Old_Geezer]

I'd have thought 2G would be enough.
Make sure you do the scans and take Answerprancer's advice too.

[carmalee]

Answer prance -how do I and what are chache/cookies - what are the implications of clearing them and yes, my antivirus performs regular scans as do the malware application.

[RATTER15]

I had the same problem until I switched to Firefox yesterday and totally sorted the problem.

[Old_Geezer]

Mmm... IE does seem to use a lot of CPU and resource. Unsure why.

I'm having to go soon, do consider the CCleaner though.

[carmalee]

ratter15 - you are talking to a technophobe - what do you mean by <<<<until I switched to firefox>>>> and why would that make a difference? thanks

[Old_Geezer]

He means he downloaded the Firefox web browser from the Net and now uses it instead of Internet Explorer.

[RATTER15]

Carmalee, I imagine you are using Internet Explorer, Firefox works the same way only better, its just a browser but with more security it appears, I think most of the Techies on here use Firefox. Its certainly safe to use.

[RATTER15]

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/fx/ try this. its a little different and takes a little getting used to as well.

[carmalee]

thanks R15 and Oldg - will do some investigation -

[carmalee]

R15 - do I have to do anything complicated like uninstall my existing ISP before I down load Firefox should I choose to change?

[RATTER15]

Just download it, if it asks if you you want it as your default browser say yes. that's it, you can still use internet explorer.

[RATTER15]

Nothing complicated, don't need to uninstall anything, if you don't like it you can just change back again.