Slow system

[gbferrell]

Hello,
I'm at wit's end. Last summer, my 650 PIII computer got zapped in a lightning storm. My friend graciously gave me a Dell Dimension 2350. Since that has a 2 Ghz Celeron processor, I thought that I would have a big increase in computing speed. I was really disappointed when this didn't happen and now I'm really disgusted because my youtube videos play choppy and the overall computing experience (boot time, programs loading, internet surfing, etc.) is really slow. I have 5 Mbs cable internet that runs at the advertised speed. I've tried a slew of things including running antivirus, spyware cleaners, defragging, etc. The system has 1 GB of RAM, which is 3 times more than my previous system. It has what I though was a better video card too- a Radeon 1300/1550 vs. the old Creative Labs Annihilator Pro but the Radeon is a PCI card, whereas the Annihilator Pro was AGP. Do you think that could be what's slowing down this computer? Also, I have the Radeon in the second PCI slot instead of the first. I know that's not optimal but I can't see where that would make such a huge difference. Every time I play an online video, Task Manager says that the CPU is running at or near 100%, which I thought was a clue to the slowness. I also have 2 Maxtor 7200 RPM HDs. I should probably break down and just buy a newer computer but being an IT pro, I am just so curious as to why this computer is so slow when I don't think it should be, given the fact that it has a 2 Ghz processor.

 

[pjmelect]

The hardware is good and should be about ten times faster than your old system, but I don’t know what software you have running, a clean install of the operating system is my recommendation, but if you are unable or unwilling to do this then look very carefully at your installed software. You may have viruses or other nasty’s run hijack this to find out what is running when you start your computer and prune as necessary.

 

[gbferrell]

I didn't think the PIII was fast- I just thought the 2 Ghz processor and extra RAM should have made the same system a lot faster. Since I originally posted, I've ruled out the video card. If I change to the integrated video, there is no discernible change in video playback. Also, in the computer school I work at, we have some systems that are more antiquated than this with less processor speed, memory, etc., but THEY play the same videos without choppiness. It's not my internet connection either because my 1.5 Ghz Athlon machine with 256 MB RAM plays the videos OK although that system is slower in general.

Pjmelect, you are probably right- the machine needs a clean OS install but I'm inclined to prefer to buy a new machine if I'm gonna do all that work. I doubt that the problem is viruses- I'm pretty security conscious and regularly update and run Windows Defender, Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware, AVG and recently installed Malwarebytes. True, I didn't run Hijack This. I guess I should try that. Thanks for your input and thanks for confirming that the computer should be faster than my old one.

 

[gbferrell]

The hardware is good and should be about ten times faster than your old system, but I don’t know what software you have running, a clean install of the operating system is my recommendation, but if you are unable or unwilling to do this then look very carefully at your installed software. You may have viruses or other nasty’s run hijack this to find out what is running when you start your computer and prune as necessary.

Sorry, I neglected to mention in either of my previous posts that when I got the newer computer, I swapped out the hard drive for my 2 hard drives that I had in the old computer. They are 7200 RPM drives but still they run slower than they should. In retrospect, the solution is almost certainly to wipe the drive clean and reinstall XP. I'd thought that since I only installed XP within the last 2 years that it shouldn't be slow but then I remembered that I probably only upgraded from Windows 98SE to preserve my files, programs and settings and didn't perform a clean install. I've had the computer for 10 years and that's a lot of stuff that I didn't want to have to reinstall so I just upgraded. That has to be the problem. Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees. You are right pjmelect- a clean install is the logical line of action. Thanks

 

[gbferrell]

Best answer selected by gbferrell.