fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
My kids are perfectly well clogging up our machines... Laptops etc and tablets.... Keep on top of clear out routines above
Your ideas are intriguing to me and i wish to subscribe to your newsletters.
I could wipe it. I have XP and that is gonna be a bit obsolete. When you have a wiped PC how do ya get an OS installed? How do ya start from nothing?
It has recently become very slow when opening multiple tabs, it can rarely play a YouTube clip without bad stuttering, the screen has gone black/blank for maybe a minute on about 3 occasions in the last week or so. I don't use it to store or play films; i only do the usual email/sufing etc. Just opening Ebay (when the PC has been on for a while anyway) can take a minute to load before i can log in to it. Malwarebytes hasn't found anything and i use CCleaner. I'll try those free things, thanks much.Rereading your post and a couple of the responses makes me think...why exactly do you think your computer's dying? Eight years needn't be that old. Both my desktops are that and more, and they work fine. It could be just that you're clogged up with crap accumulated over the years. First thing I'd do is download and install (if you don't have them) Advanced SystemCare, Defraggler and Spybot Search & Destroy (all free), run them, then see if anything's changed. If not, as others have said, the best way to get a 'new' computer is to reinstall Windows from CD. That really will make a difference. If that doesn't work, then start thinking new.
Maybe i need to find out if i have a a recovery partition built in. Little problem; i've been trying to back stuff up to CDs but it simply hasn't been working. However, i think a micro SD card will do. Just photos and text docs really.+1 for the Homer Simpson quote.
Re the reinstall, don't worry about 'getting hold of a copy of XP', your PC should have a recovery partition built into the HDD with a copy of XP squirrelled away on it; you initiate the recovery and the PC wipes the "used" partition of the hard disk and re-installs windows from the recovery partition. Result; the PC is software is as it was fresh from the factory software wise. Clears up all the digital guff which accumulates naturally over the years.
I think, but don't quote me, if you boot the PC and start tapping F8* straight away, you should get a black screen with a load of options on it, you are looking for things like "repair my PC", "fully recover my PC", or "destructive recovery". Don't fret the use of the term "destructive"; this simply means remove and destroy all user created (non-factory) data, which is the best way to go as 'soft' recoveries which purport to maintain user data end of creating more hassle then they solve.
* It may be F2, I can't remember for Dells.
Or, you may want to hunt through your start menu and create a "recovery" CD. Same trick, it just copies the XP installation files onto CD (plural, you'll need a few handy) and does it from there. This is actually a good move to make regardless of whether you chose the CD or HDD recovery.
Unplug all USB devices other than the mouse/keyboard (printers, wireless adapters etc) else you may have problems with the USB drivers post-re-install.
Back up everything you want to keep first onto an external USB key or HDD.
Above all else, DO NOT INTERRUPT during the recovery. During recovery your PC has wiped all of its instructions on how to operate. It'll be fine if left to its own devices, but if you power if off during, best case scenario - you have the recovery CDs and have to go through the process again. Worst case scenario, you don't have the CD's, cant re initiate the recovery process because your computer has deleted the part of its programming that tells it how to, and you have to throw it in the bin.
If your PC is crashing alot or simply slow, this will in all likelihood sort it.
I've had the same PC for over 20 years now.
Changed the motherboard, memory and PSU over Christmas, but it's still the same PC.
Maybe i need to find out if i have a a recovery partition built in. Little problem; i've been trying to back stuff up to CDs but it simply hasn't been working. However, i think a micro SD card will do. Just photos and text docs really.
Goodnight and thank you
Rereading your post and a couple of the responses makes me think...why exactly do you think your computer's dying? Eight years needn't be that old. Both my desktops are that and more, and they work fine. It could be just that you're clogged up with crap accumulated over the years. First thing I'd do is download and install (if you don't have them) Advanced SystemCare, Defraggler and Spybot Search & Destroy (all free), run them, then see if anything's changed. If not, as others have said, the best way to get a 'new' computer is to reinstall Windows from CD. That really will make a difference. If that doesn't work, then start thinking new.
I've had the same PC for over 20 years now.
Changed the motherboard, memory and PSU over Christmas, but it's still the same PC.
Sorry...should've warned you. You have to be really careful when you're installing any of this free software - they're set up by default to dump you with all sorts of crap you don't want. Before you click on 'next' or 'ok' on any screen during the install process, look for a button that says 'decline' or somesuch. The program you want will install just the same, just without the crap.Thanks for this. It has speeded up my laptop a lot. The defraggler seems very good.
However a word of warning. The Advanced SystemCare stuck a load of rubbish in google chrome so had to spend a bit of time removing it.