Quote Originally Posted by DomHennig View Post
Hello Judy,

Sorry for the late response. I haven't been home. We tried everything. My computer is still running slow. Especcially when I have 2 Fire Fox's up, microsoft outlook, excell and word...

It takes a full minute to switch in between. It sounds like a lot, but it never used to be like this.

It's not your fault, I think I'm just going to take it in. Because we tried everything and it is still super slow.
Sorry Dom but all of those programs running at the same time are VERY labor intensive. I personally think you are expecting TOO much, especially with the small amount of RAM you have. You actually have the barest minimum of RAM, 512MB, recommended just to run XP...that does NOT count any other programs you have running along WITH the Operating System because remember, it IS always running. Today 1GB is becoming the standard minimum advised so you are running really below recommended minimum amount of RAM to run XP along with other programs. You have one half the recommended minimum today. Remember, even though the computer ran quickly when you first got it you probably were running XP or maybe XP with SP1, with updates you are now running XP SP3...there is a lot more right there to cut into the speed. If you have updated your Office Program since you purchased the computer then there would be more running there which cuts down on the speed too.

I have 1GB MORE than you do and my computer really flies along without difficulty. My opinion is that is the reason for your slow downs, most definitely NOT the addition of an anti-virus program. That is just ludicrous.
BUT that said, running all those programs at once is also ridiculous. All are labor intensive programs, all use a lot of memory when being used and to expect no slow down is silly, the more programs you use at any given time the slower the computer will be, that is normal.

You can pay to have it looked at, that is your choice but if you are going to spend money then spend it on additional RAM. It is one of the cheapest ways to speed up a computer. I would suggest that you go to http://www.crucial.com/ to check on how much RAM you can add and how much it will cost AND the correct ones to purchase. They have a scan right there on the website which will scan your computer and tell you what you can take and how much it is. I would go with an additional 1GB of RAM. They are generally the very cheapest place to purchase RAM and it is normally delivered by mail in less than a week.

Right now, today you can add a 1 GB of RAM to your computer for $50.00. Easiest thing to do, open the case, and insert the new RAM. Boot the computer to be sure it is recognized, if it is, close the case and you are done.

Something else you can do is be absolutely certain the current settings you have on the computer are the optimal setting to keep the computer running quickly, even with the small amount of RAM on there.
Right Click My Computer. Select Properties.

  1. Click the Advanced tab, and then under Performance click Settings.
  2. Click the Advanced tab, and then under Virtual memory click Change.
  3. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.
  4. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, type a new paging file size in megabytes (MB) in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.
  5. Click OK

To have Windows select the best paging file size, click System managed size. The recommended minimum size is the same as 1.5 times the RAM on your computer, and 3 times that figure for the maximum size.
So you actually have 512MB of RAM on the computer and it shows as 504MB, but most likely you have a built in video card, which eats up couple megs. It's advertised as 512mb, but really its always going to be smaller. Anyway, back to setting the paging file size, your minimum should be set at 768 and the maximum should read 1536. Make those changes and reboot the computer.

You claim your av program is slowing the computer...check it out and see exactly WHAT IS using all that memory.

Open your Task Manager and see what the biggest consumer is...I would bet it is Firefox, not your anti-virus program. The Word program depends on the size of the document, the Excel program depends on the size of the spreadsheet, the mail program would go up and down depending on what it is doing at any given time. I just tried the same on mine, I do have more RAM and I am running Avira not Avast but I opened two Firefox tabs, a Word Document that was two pages, a two page Excel spreadsheet, my Outlook Express (which IS much different than Outlook) and of course my Avira was running...the program with the LEAST memory usage...my Aviria anti-virus program and the highest was Firefox.

Adding some RAM can be one of the most cost effective ways to increase your system's speed.