| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Which Registry Cleaner would you recommend? Thread poster: Nikki Graham
|
|---|
Textklick 
Local time: 12:37
German to English
+ ...
In memoriam | Get someone in? | Jun 14, 2008 |
Hi Nikki
Either Google something like "how to install extra RAM" (or adding your model number). You will even see some videos on YouTube listed among the hits, although you won't be able to watch them while doing the job
Failing that, just look in the Yellow Pages. Computer repairs etc. I did that a while back for an issue that could neither be resolved here, nor even by a learned geek I actually managed t... See more Hi Nikki
Either Google something like "how to install extra RAM" (or adding your model number). You will even see some videos on YouTube listed among the hits, although you won't be able to watch them while doing the job
Failing that, just look in the Yellow Pages. Computer repairs etc. I did that a while back for an issue that could neither be resolved here, nor even by a learned geek I actually managed to track down online at Microsoft!
This guy from the Yellow Pages was so engrossed with the problem and was here for three hours until he fixed it. He also usefully pointed some other odd functions that were not 100% and gave me a couple of free aplications that he had on his USB stick. He tried to insist on charging for one hour, but I insisted on paying him a bit more.
For the sake of not too many quid an hour, it's a good investment, especially if you are a bit leery about messing with the insides.
Oh - and if you do that - ask him/her about Norton!
Cheers
Chris ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nikki Graham
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:37
Spanish to English
TOPIC STARTER | I'll definitely get someone in | Jun 14, 2008 |
No way am I going to open up the computer! I've had someone near here before and will contact him again. It's all tax deductible anyway.
| | | | Claire Cox
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:37
French to English
+ ...
| Norton makes things slow | Jun 14, 2008 |
Hi Nikki,
I agree with Chris that Norton could be part of the problem. I'd always had it until this year, but changed over to Avast at a friend's recommendation and am very impressed. Much less memory-intensive and seems to work very effectively behind the scenes too. I have to confess that my 19-year-old son does all my computer maintenance for me and makes it look like a piece of cake.... I shall miss him when he goes off to uni in September! He'll have to train his brother up bef... See more Hi Nikki,
I agree with Chris that Norton could be part of the problem. I'd always had it until this year, but changed over to Avast at a friend's recommendation and am very impressed. Much less memory-intensive and seems to work very effectively behind the scenes too. I have to confess that my 19-year-old son does all my computer maintenance for me and makes it look like a piece of cake.... I shall miss him when he goes off to uni in September! He'll have to train his brother up before he goes.
Best of luck,
Claire ▲ Collapse
| | | | Erik Freitag
Germany
Local time: 13:37
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
+ ...
| Just a remark | Jun 14, 2008 |
Nikki Graham wrote:
It's all tax deductible anyway.
How often do I hear/read this statement! It's just as if people think that tax deductible means that you get the money back.......
| | |
|
|
|
Uldis Liepkalns
Latvia
Local time: 14:37
Member (2003)
English to Latvian
+ ...
| Yes, add RAM | Jun 14, 2008 |
Nikki Graham wrote:
My computer started to become really slow after installing Norton 360, which includes antivirus, firewall, back-up, etc. I have only used up 13.3 GB on the C drive and have 127 GB left. I have 504 MB of RAM. The system details are: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00 GHz 2.99 Ghz. The operating system is Windows XP.
Windows XP supports up to 4 Gb of RAM. I recently added 3 Gb to existing 1 Gb on my also 3 GHz computer and it became much more powerful and faster (only some 3,6 Gb of RAM shows in the system though, as Windows somehow steals the rest).
Anyway, 512 Kb is much too less for any computer nowadays.
However, before buying additional RAM, check how many available RAM slots you have, as well as if these slots are DDR or DDR 2- you can't fit DDR 2 Ram into DDR slot and vice versa.
Uldis
| | | | Shai Navé
Israel
Local time: 14:37
English to Hebrew
+ ...
| som general suggestions | Jun 14, 2008 |
First as many have said, 512 MB of RAM is not enough, good thing that you consider upgrading it to 2 GB. However, as Uldis said there are different types of memory, and different Motherboards (the part that you insert the new memory into) types. Your computer is pretty old (in computer terms) so it won't support the new memories types.
You mentioned that you purchased the computer from Dell (a brand name computer) so I believe that the Dell support asked you for your model number and all i... See more First as many have said, 512 MB of RAM is not enough, good thing that you consider upgrading it to 2 GB. However, as Uldis said there are different types of memory, and different Motherboards (the part that you insert the new memory into) types. Your computer is pretty old (in computer terms) so it won't support the new memories types.
You mentioned that you purchased the computer from Dell (a brand name computer) so I believe that the Dell support asked you for your model number and all in order to verify that they have the appropriate memory type and that your computer supports it. If not it is better to contact them again and verify these details before you pay for something that won't fit. I wouldn't recommend upgrading to more than 2 GB at the moment since 32bit OS (like your windows) can't handle the full 4 GB of memory, and since your hardware is kind of old 3 GB is also not a good option since older system might not work good (or at all) with 3 GB of RAM.
The new RAM will certainly improve your computer's performance, however I want to emphasize an issue that was brought up in earlier replays, Norton is a bad choice. It is a system resource hog. I would very much encourage you to remove it from your system, it is not just the resource issue, it might cause (or already causing) some more problems.
A very good antivirus replacements are: Avira AntiVir, AVG, and Kaspersly.
A good firewall (and free) is Comodo Firewall.
If you are looking for a suite (Antivirus, firewall, anti spyware) than Avira suite or Kaspersky Internet security suite are recommended . All of the above are pretty light on resources and are better in what they are doing than Norton.
I guess that you are reluctant to uninstall Norton since you already paid for it, if so I still encourage you try the alternative (all have free trails) and check if you like them or not.
You can always re-install Norton after this little experiment.
Now to some general solutions to free up some system resource.
First disable unnecessary system services. These are services that load up in the background and you don't need many of them (not to mention that some are security threats).
To access your services, goto Start>Run there type services.msc hit Enter, and the services window will popup.
Here are two good resources that will explain about each service, and whether or not it is recommended to disable it or not (bare in mind that if you disable a service and find out that something is not working you can always activate it again).
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm#Services (scroll down for the list).
Another thing to do is to disable unnecessary start up items. These are the softwares that boot up with your system (Antivirus, Firewall, Messenger, etc.) some are important but many are not. It is always recommended that the start up list will contain the bare minimum that you absolutely need (Security in general), and all the other softwares should be launched by you manually when needed. To disable some components you can goto Start>Run there type msconfig, and in the window that popup goto the startup tab and uncheck unnecessary items (you can always ask here for an advice). Another option is to to so from the previous recommended software ccleaner.
This will free up some more resources even before the new RAM arrive. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Textklick
Local time: 12:37
German to English
+ ...
In memoriam | From the U.K. Sunday Times today | Jun 15, 2008 |
" Q: I have a laptop with an external 500GB hard drive, but I keep getting a message that the virtual memory is low. What does this mean?
A: virtual memory is memory space created on your hard disk by the operating system. It is used to supplement your physical Ram memory when a program needs more Ram than you have installed on your computer. You can run low of virtual memory when you have insufficient free space left on the hard disk (in which case, delete some files or fit... See more " Q: I have a laptop with an external 500GB hard drive, but I keep getting a message that the virtual memory is low. What does this mean?
A: virtual memory is memory space created on your hard disk by the operating system. It is used to supplement your physical Ram memory when a program needs more Ram than you have installed on your computer. You can run low of virtual memory when you have insufficient free space left on the hard disk (in which case, delete some files or fit a larger disk) or when a faulty program uses more memory than it should. See tinyurl.com/rptnu for more help."
Strange that they did not suggest adding RAM as suggested in this thread. There was something else they wrote that struck me as equally odd.
I assume/hope that replacing your hard drive is not on the agenda!
Cheers
Chris ▲ Collapse
| | | | Uldis Liepkalns
Latvia
Local time: 14:37
Member (2003)
English to Latvian
+ ...
| I guess adding RAM to laptop is not so easy | Jun 15, 2008 |
if possible at all. I have never taken apart any of laptops I've had, but I imagine that contrary to workstation PCs- where I'm constantly adding and changing something, there hardly are any free slots or unused space
Uldis
Textklick wrote:
Strange that they did not suggest adding RAM as suggested in this thread. There was something else they wrote that struck me as equally odd.
| | |
|
|
|
Textklick
Local time: 12:37
German to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Uldis Liepkalns wrote: if possible at all. I have never taken apart any of laptops I've had, but I imagine that contrary to workstation PCs- where I'm constantly adding and changing something, there hardly are any free slots or unused space Uldis
Oh yes - laptops! You're right, Uldis. Thanks for pointing that out. (It's Sunday.)
Cheers
Chris
| | | | | | Textklick
Local time: 12:37
German to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Hi Ivana
Yes - I know. I just wanted to clarify the point that the paper was writing about laptops, because Nikki was writing about a PC.
Odd suggestion for the paper to make, isn't it? I'd expect better advice from a newspaper - at least from the Sunday Times.
Cheers
Chris
| | | | Nikki Graham
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:37
Spanish to English
TOPIC STARTER | Thanks to all again | Jun 16, 2008 |
Shai Nave wrote:
First as many have said, 512 MB of RAM is not enough, good thing that you consider upgrading it to 2 GB. However, as Uldis said there are different types of memory, and different Motherboards (the part that you insert the new memory into) types. Your computer is pretty old (in computer terms) so it won't support the new memories types.
You mentioned that you purchased the computer from Dell (a brand name computer) so I believe that the Dell support asked you for your model number and all in order to verify that they have the appropriate memory type and that your computer supports it. If not it is better to contact them again and verify these details before you pay for something that won't fit. I wouldn't recommend upgrading to more than 2 GB at the moment since 32bit OS (like your windows) can't handle the full 4 GB of memory, and since your hardware is kind of old 3 GB is also not a good option since older system might not work good (or at all) with 3 GB of RAM.
My computer has a service tag number, so the Dell agent was able to look up all the details and recommend the maximum amount of extra RAM (2 GB). Actually, my computer is not that old. I only bought it 18 months ago, and I obviously assumed I had bought enough memory for my purposes. It would have been far simpler to have had the extra memory installed before the computer arrived rather than at this late stage. Never mind. You live and learn... I am just not good at all this computer stuff. I simply want it to work, and work fast.
Thanks for all the recommendations for other antivirus programmes. I will look into this if the extra 2 GB doesn't solve the problem (and when I need to renew my Norton subscription).
As for the other stuff you mentioned (disabling unnecessary services), I did have a look, but it all seemed far too complicated for me, so I just hope that the CCleaner I used has solved a few problems.
| | |
|
|
|
| Sorry textclick ;) | Jun 16, 2008 |
I was a bit fast there. Yes, it is indeed strange advice - seems overkill.
Nikki, I seriously think you should do a backup and then reinstall Windows. I did it for friend recently and it worked wonders. I will do it myself when my OS is a year old - that's when it starts slowing down.
| | | | Thorson
Local time: 13:37
Danish to English
Claire Cox wrote:
Hi Nikki,
I agree with Chris that Norton could be part of the problem. I'd always had it until this year, but changed over to Avast at a friend's recommendation and am very impressed. Much less memory-intensive and seems to work very effectively behind the scenes too. I have to confess that my 19-year-old son does all my computer maintenance for me and makes it look like a piece of cake.... I shall miss him when he goes off to uni in September! He'll have to train his brother up before he goes.
Best of luck,
Claire
Good recommendation. I used to have a Norton subscription until I got a virus it didn't detect. Never a problem since installing Avast.
I also have WinPatrol to keep an eye on things and make sure there are no stealth installations or additions to my startup.
I forgot to mention--Ccleaner asks if you want to back up your registry before cleaning--do it.
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2] | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Which Registry Cleaner would you recommend? | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop
and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
More info » |
| | TM-Town | Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business
Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
