Upgrades for my Parents Computer

2007-06-04 11:41:32

#1

Darkfire: Helping you help yourself; +34|6949| Texas

Ok, so basically my parents own a computer that they have had for around i want to say 3 years. It is horribly slow. Booting it up and trying to get online makes you want to rip your hair out. It freezes on almost everything, but will "come out of it" in a couple minutes, in which time you can make yourself a sandwich or something along that line.

The big problem, though, is that they have stopped using their computer and have migrated up to mine, which they get on every second I'm not there. i.e, i get up to go to the bathroom, come back and my mom is halfway through checking her email on my computer. Not good. Not good at all.

I talked to them about this problem, and they have agreed to fork over some cash if i can "fix the slowness" with it. This was yesterday. Since then i have gone through their hd and deleted all the unused programs i could find, run a virus and spyware scan, run multiple disk cleanups and defrags (using DiskKeeper) and opened the case to spray out the thick piles of dust covering everything.

This whole process that took hours made somewhat of a difference, helping loading times and such only slightly, although it did silence the comp a great deal. I also noticed while cleaning it out that they only have two RAM slots.

Which leads me to the big question, on a minimum budget (not sure how much yet), what should i buy for their computer to help all of the above??

Their specs are:

Build- HP stock crap
Cpu- Intel Celeron D 345 3.06ghz
Ram- 512mb of pc3200
HD- 160gb
Motherboard- cpuz says it an Asus Guppy, whatever that is

Thanks in advance for any help, Darkfire

2007-06-04 11:59:28

#2

Mitch92uK: aka [DBS]Mitch92uK; +192|6706|United Kingdom

tbh man, depending on their budget ... you could get basically reuse what they've got ... and get a C2d, a gig or two of ram ... perhaps wipe and reuse the HD, CD Drive, PSU, Case etc. ... not sure what to recommend about a mobo - fresh copy of windows etc.

Last edited by mitch212k_2 (2007-06-04 11:59:43)

2007-06-04 12:11:12

#3

kylef: Gone; +1,352|6964|N. Ireland

I need a budget.

2007-06-04 12:19:16

#4

Darkfire: Helping you help yourself; +34|6949| Texas

i'll try to find out and get back to you on the budget

2007-06-04 12:24:51

#5

Jameseyy: Banned; +108|6699|Scotland!

If it was me, and I had a strict budget I'd just upgrade the ram and reformat.

2007-06-04 12:27:09

#6

Microwave: _; +515|7126|Loughborough Uni / Leeds, UK

You can get a basic dell with everything that is fine for family usage for a few hundred pounds.

2007-06-04 12:27:13

#7

Titch2349: iz me!; +358|6823|uk

Jameseyy wrote:
If it was me, and I had a strict budget I'd just upgrade the ram and reformat.

For a basic home PC, an Intel Celeron D just about cuts it....

Last edited by Titch2349 (2007-06-04 12:28:00)

2007-06-04 12:29:17

#8

max: Vela Incident; +1,652|7038|NYC / Hamburg

Titch2349 wrote:
Jameseyy wrote:
If it was me, and I had a strict budget I'd just upgrade the ram and reformat.
For a basic home PC, an Intel Celeron D just about cuts it....

and so should 512MB ram, although 1 GB will increase performance

_{once upon a midnight dreary, while i pron surfed, weak and weary, over many a strange and spurious site of ' hot xxx galore'. While i clicked my fav'rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning, and my heart was filled with mourning, mourning for my dear amour, " 'Tis not possible!", i muttered, " give me back my free hardcore!"..... quoth the server, 404.}

2007-06-04 12:33:01

#9

White-Fusion: Fuck; +616|7023|Scotland

Format the pc
Get rid of the ram and buy 1 gig of new ram

=

Fast

Last edited by White-Fusion (2007-06-04 12:33:32)

2007-06-04 12:33:38

#10

Titch2349: iz me!; +358|6823|uk

max wrote:
Titch2349 wrote:
Jameseyy wrote:
If it was me, and I had a strict budget I'd just upgrade the ram and reformat.
For a basic home PC, an Intel Celeron D just about cuts it....
and so should 512MB ram, although 1 GB will increase performance

Yeah, but if he wants to spend part of the budget to upgrade, i was thinking upgrading RAM Would be more beneficial than going C2D

2007-06-04 12:43:59

#11

elite.mafia: Banned; +122|6925|USA

REFORMAT IT!!! those specs are perfectly good for a web browsing computer. Just take care of the damn thing... You don't need a new computer for them, unless they plan on gaming... wow.

2007-06-04 12:49:12

#12

_j5689_: Dreads & Bergers; +364|7188|Riva, MD

Use Firefox instead of internet explorer. It's faster and less prone to viruses.

2007-06-04 12:54:00

#13

r2zoo: Knowledge is power, guard it well; +126|7067|Michigan, USA

_j5689_ wrote:
Use Firefox instead of internet explorer. It's faster and less prone to viruses.

Impossible to be faster, since IE is built into windows and does operate smoother, regardless of your pc specs. As for viruses they dont hop onto your computer just because you have IE.

On topic go with the RAM, added a measly 512mb to our HP and got a decent improvment on speeds and such.

2007-06-04 12:56:22

#14

max: Vela Incident; +1,652|7038|NYC / Hamburg

Titch2349 wrote:
max wrote:
Titch2349 wrote:

For a basic home PC, an Intel Celeron D just about cuts it....
and so should 512MB ram, although 1 GB will increase performance
Yeah, but if he wants to spend part of the budget to upgrade, i was thinking upgrading RAM Would be more beneficial than going C2D

very true. I'm thinking that a reformat itself should cut it though. But upgrading ram should be the next step

_{once upon a midnight dreary, while i pron surfed, weak and weary, over many a strange and spurious site of ' hot xxx galore'. While i clicked my fav'rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning, and my heart was filled with mourning, mourning for my dear amour, " 'Tis not possible!", i muttered, " give me back my free hardcore!"..... quoth the server, 404.}

2007-06-04 13:04:50

#15

Stormscythe: Aiming for the head; +88|7020|EUtopia | Austria

max wrote:
Titch2349 wrote:
max wrote:

and so should 512MB ram, although 1 GB will increase performance
Yeah, but if he wants to spend part of the budget to upgrade, i was thinking upgrading RAM Would be more beneficial than going C2D
very true. I'm thinking that a reformat itself should cut it though. But upgrading ram should be the next step

QFT

Still, I'd rather not consider upgrading the RAM, 512MB is enough for an office PC. 1Gig for multimedia and 2+Gig for gaming, video editing, etc. At our school we have office PC's (XP) with 256MB of RAM and hell-a-lot of tools/games/spyware, etc. installed by lil' kiddies and they still worked well enough.

PS: Disconnect the PC from the internet while formatting, reinstalling and installing firewall and AV tools. Have them all configured before doing anything else. Then only install Office and the like, and if it's solely an office PC, don't even bother installing anything else.

2007-06-04 13:32:21

#16

The#1Spot: Member; +105|7011|byah

r2zoo wrote:
_j5689_ wrote:
Use Firefox instead of internet explorer. It's faster and less prone to viruses.
Impossible to be faster, since IE is built into windows and does operate smoother, regardless of your pc specs. As for viruses they dont hop onto your computer just because you have IE.

On topic go with the RAM, added a measly 512mb to our HP and got a decent improvment on speeds and such.

Firefox uses less resources when loading up web pages. The demand for firefox is less so you are less likely going to get a virus from using the program. Even if microsoft created the internet browser it dosent mean its faster and plus your acting like your 6 or just an ignorant corrupted child.

2007-06-04 13:42:25

#17

Tdog2007: Giggity Giggity; +25|7184|US

Darkfire wrote:
Ok, so basically my parents own a computer that they have had for around i want to say 3 years. It is horribly slow. Booting it up and trying to get online makes you want to rip your hair out. It freezes on almost everything, but will "come out of it" in a couple minutes, in which time you can make yourself a sandwich or something along that line.

Their specs are:

Cpu- Intel Celeron D 345 3.06ghz
Ram- 512mb of pc3200

HA! you dont know the meaning of slow! I have a P3 700mHz computer with 256mb ram. BEAT THAT!!!

but seriously what the guys said before reformat it & get more ram. the Celeron D is fine, it must be all the crud it's gotten over the years (if never been formatted).

2007-06-04 13:51:19

#18

kylef: Gone; +1,352|6964|N. Ireland

Tdog2007 wrote:
Darkfire wrote:
Ok, so basically my parents own a computer that they have had for around i want to say 3 years. It is horribly slow. Booting it up and trying to get online makes you want to rip your hair out. It freezes on almost everything, but will "come out of it" in a couple minutes, in which time you can make yourself a sandwich or something along that line.

Their specs are:

Cpu- Intel Celeron D 345 3.06ghz
Ram- 512mb of pc3200
HA! you dont know the meaning of slow! I have a P3 700mHz computer with 256mb ram. BEAT THAT!!!

but seriously what the guys said before reformat it & get more ram. the Celeron D is fine, it must be all the crud it's gotten over the years (if never been formatted).

I have an old computer somewhere with 56kb of RAM

Last edited by leetkyle (2007-06-04 13:51:29)

2007-06-04 13:54:10

#19

Tdog2007: Giggity Giggity; +25|7184|US

r u using it tho?

2007-06-04 14:10:43

#20

max: Vela Incident; +1,652|7038|NYC / Hamburg

I'm running a Pentium 100 with 16MB ram (i think, gotta check some time) at my parents second place as a file server. XP actually runs nicely on it for a machine from '96.

_{once upon a midnight dreary, while i pron surfed, weak and weary, over many a strange and spurious site of ' hot xxx galore'. While i clicked my fav'rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning, and my heart was filled with mourning, mourning for my dear amour, " 'Tis not possible!", i muttered, " give me back my free hardcore!"..... quoth the server, 404.}

2007-06-04 19:18:01

#21

ceslayer23: IN YOUR MIRROR; +142|6832|CLOSER THAN I APPEAR

Hey man, all you have to do is reformat that thing. That hardware should be fine to run an office PC, but if you want, it wouldnt hurt to upgrade the RAM, but everything else seems ok to me. Just make sure to reformat.

2007-06-04 19:23:20

#22

r2zoo: Knowledge is power, guard it well; +126|7067|Michigan, USA

The#1Spot wrote:
r2zoo wrote:
_j5689_ wrote:
Use Firefox instead of internet explorer. It's faster and less prone to viruses.
Impossible to be faster, since IE is built into windows and does operate smoother, regardless of your pc specs. As for viruses they dont hop onto your computer just because you have IE.

On topic go with the RAM, added a measly 512mb to our HP and got a decent improvment on speeds and such.
Firefox uses less resources when loading up web pages. The demand for firefox is less so you are less likely going to get a virus from using the program. Even if microsoft created the internet browser it dosent mean its faster and plus your acting like your 6 or just an ignorant corrupted child.

Wait, what? All im saying is that IE runs faster in windows, because its built into the OS rather then around it, giving it quicker access to files and such throughout windows. Firefox in my experience required more resources then IE did. As for viruses I will continue to say just because you use IE doesnt make you anymore succeptible to viruses, out of the viruses ive had, ever single one came from a bad download or not scanning a file before opening, never from using IE. Hell got my worse virus using firefox, why? Downloading a file I shouldnt have. Not sure how I was being a 6 year old by pointing out a simple fact, but if it came across as that (no idea how it did) I apoligize, ive used both, I liked FF right up until IE7 not like I havent done both.

http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html <<<Graphs and such

/end derail

Last edited by r2zoo (2007-06-04 19:26:02)

2007-06-04 20:02:30

#23

Cheez: Herman is a warmaphrodite; +1,027|6910|King Of The Islands

Are the hard-drives running in PIO mode? I have to bring this up every time I hear 'slow load times and I've cleaned everything out'.

My state was founded by Batman. Your opinion is invalid.

BF2S Forums Upgrades for my Parents Computer

Jameseyy wrote:

Titch2349 wrote:

Jameseyy wrote:

max wrote:

Titch2349 wrote:

Jameseyy wrote:

_j5689_ wrote:

Titch2349 wrote:

max wrote:

Titch2349 wrote:

max wrote:

Titch2349 wrote:

max wrote:

r2zoo wrote:

_j5689_ wrote:

Darkfire wrote:

Tdog2007 wrote:

Darkfire wrote:

The#1Spot wrote:

r2zoo wrote:

_j5689_ wrote:

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