Do any of these 'PC booster' progs really work?

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Carwash

Señor Member
Location
Visby
Ben M said:
When did you last do a full format and OS and programmes reinstall?

You'll find that doing a full format and starting from scratch will leave your computer noticeably quicker.

Amazed people still put up with this.
 

stewlewis

Well-Known Member
Cleaners and speed-up progs don't work, waste of time and money.

Your old PC will run the same as it ever did when you bought it provided you don't expect it to do any more than it did. With the exception of the HDD, it gets worse over time and slow down correcting errors

A complete format and reinstall make a big difference, clean frensh windows are always brighter, just ask Kim n Agie.

Memory makes the next big difference and is quite cheap. Run CPUID and check the SPD tab for your memory type, Ebay a couple of sticks.

Even browsing the net EATS RAM like mad nowadays, Facebook sessions under IE can use half a gig.

Differing folder sizes: Do you have hidden/system files showing? What is the folder? Could be a file corruption in that folder which would cause a slow down if the system keeps trying to re-read it.
 

peanut

Guest
[quote name='swee'pea99']Seems a tad on the snotty side if you don't mind my saying so. I never asked anyone to 'spend hours bothering to help me', I just asked if any of these miracle programs worked. I'll go check out that ram tester now.[/quote]

I was referring to the last time that you hyjacked Helen's thread and requested that I help you the same way i helped helen. You've obviously conveniently forgotten that you didn't bother to reply to my posts for days on end and then said you couldn't be bothered/couldn't afford it etc (same as this time really) and worse of all you never offered me any thanks for my help.

Thats why I predicted that you would do exactly the same thing again which you did.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
get ccleaner and config it so it runs on start up. once a month run the registry cleaner part of the tool manually, several times until it finds no more problems.

delete your swap space, defrag the thing, using defragler from the piriform and when done manually configure your swap space at a fixed amount a minimum of 3 x the physical RAM in the system.

run defragler once a month

buy some more RAM - RAM for old PC's tends to be expensive; such is life.

using such methods my five year old Dell Inspiron 6000 is still faster than the netbook I'm typing this on so go figure.

btw I do this stuff for a living, even have letters after my name to prove it, so like to think I know what I'm on about. We use these tactics at work on a fleet of several hundred PC's and they work.
 
OP
OP
swee'pea99

swee'pea99

Squire
peanut said:
I was referring to the last time that you hyjacked Helen's thread and requested that I help you the same way i helped helen. You've obviously conveniently forgotten that you didn't bother to reply to my posts for days on end and then said you couldn't be bothered/couldn't afford it etc (same as this time really) and worse of all you never offered me any thanks for my help.

Thats why I predicted that you would do exactly the same thing again which you did.
I apologise if I failed to respond to posts - have to confess I tend to hang out in certain areas and it's not unheard of for me to post a query then forget to check back. Also if I failed to thank you for help. If that's true - and I assume it is - then it's inexcusable, and I apologise for that too.

I do think you were a bit quick to get snotty on this occasion tho'. As I said, I never asked anyone to spend hours helping me, all i asked was whether anyone knew whether any of these progs were worth bothering with. And one of the main reasons I decided not to pursue it was precisely to *avoid* causing you or anyone else hours of hassle.

Oh, I would've responded sooner, but I've only just noticed your post. Sorry about that. ;)
 
OP
OP
swee'pea99

swee'pea99

Squire
Oh, and thanks others for other tips. Appreciated.

FWIW, I've since plugged in an old HD and used it to archive (and remove) loads of old stuff, including things like 3Gb of old .dbx files, which has improved matters quite a bit.

I had thought about the reformat option, incidentally, but apart from anything else, I don't have an OS on CD, so that kind of rules that out.
 

peanut

Guest
its not a problem sweepee thanks for the apology . i was referring to a previous post many months ago in which you requested my help . Lets put it behind us. If you use the email notification option in your posts you will receive notice of when your posts have been responded too. Like you I post on numerous forums and its hard to keep track sometimes.

Hope you get your PC sorted anyway. There is nothing more frustrating than a slow PC ....except one that doesn't work at all of course!;)
 

arallsopp

Post of The Year 2009 winner
Location
Bromley, Kent
Surprised nobody has said "Get a free Ubuntu boot disc and try it out". On a (ahem) lower spec machine, Ubuntu normally outperforms XP. If it works better, install.

Format and reinstall is just part of the Windows owner experience. Even my fast box has has a half life of around 8 months. After that, the pain of reinstalling is less than that of continued use. For most of my machines, I have an image of a fresh disc that I can restore at any time. Takes about 5 mins from boot to ready, including office, photoshop, favourites, printer drivers, etc...
 

Bman

Guru
Location
Herts.
While that is true for a well-used XP OS, If you dont use it everyday, installing and uninstalling app, and browsing the web, it can last years without any slowdown.

Ususally its caused by a build up of processes most that the user doesnt really need running all the time. but not just that.

Anyway, I have a few OS's that have not needed a re-install for a long time.

My server : Win2k3 Adv Server
Old Laptop : win2000 - hardly used
Work Laptop : XP - hardly used as I have a desktop at work

The server OS is solid. Never needs a reboot and is as fast as the day I installed it. My home desktop however, has had at least 5 re-installs in the server lifetime.
 
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