Very Slow Running PC, Help?

Factual Questions
1

Here’s the situation:

I’m trying to help out a family friend whose PC could not possibly be running worse. You start any smaller less memory intensive program and can go get a cup of coffee while it opens. Larger programs on the scale of MS Word and Excel, you could read War and Peace while it opens.

So far, I’ve removed 4 files infected with Trojan.Downloader (using Norton), and removed a bunch of Spyware/Scumware using both Adaware and Spybot. I got him up to date with Windows updates which seemed important considering his little know how and love of opening EVERY email attachment. I tried to eliminate any non-essential programs from running during start-up and I’ve examined the running Processes and nothing seems too fishy (but I wish I could prevent more of them from running - any ideas?). Finally, I disabled XP’s sliding, fading, dropping menu’s which are a performance waste anyway.

What else can I do to speed this up?

Specs:
1 Ghz Celeron, 128 megs of RAM, Running WinXP

Thanks.

2

Well, more RAM may help. Have you tried defragmenting the hard drive and running an antivirus scan? If he opens every attachment, god knows the viruses he may have.

3

128megs of RAM? I would say that’s the major bottleneck. Not much you can do but add more RAM, or sit and wait for all the thrashing to end every time you run a program.

4

Buy more RAM. It will definitely run quicker with more memory. 512MB total would be more than enough, but 256MB should suffice if they don’t want to sink too much money into their computer.

5

After everything loads, which depends on what you have on startup, check to see how much free memory you have. One time I ran Xp on 128M & there was only 25M free…which is why things were slow.

6

Oh, and here’s a guide to the Windows XP services that you can turn off: http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/winxp_services/

7

From what I know of XP, 128 MB ram ain’t gonna cut it, that’s your problem right there.

8

Yeah, XP is a piggy. I have to say it is the most reliable MS OS I have ever used though, FINALLY!!!

9

Yep, get more memory. In the meantime, you’ve made a good start. I suggest disabling extraneous services and setting a manual, static page file.

10

I’m going to go against the grain here - I don’t think memory is your main problem. Yes, XP likes at least 256MB, but it will run acceptably with 128MB; nowhere near as bad as you’re describing. Have you tried using msconfig to disable the drivers and services you don’t need?

11

Thank you all.

I took everyone’s advice and bumped up the RAM to 256. Then, I took Running with Scissors advice and disabled all non-essential services in MSConfig. It still runs slightly slower than I would expect, but my friend was so blown away by the results he gave me a $80 gift certificate to Ruth Chris Steakhouse. I tried to refuse but I love that place…