Why is my computer so slow?

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JaredFrost95

JaredFrost95

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Jul 25, 2011
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It's actually my friends PC, I had a spare dell xps 400 so I put my old 9600gt in it and gave it to him with a clean installation of windows 7 ultimate 32 bit. Specs are listed below. When I gave it to him everything was running well, exactly how it should given the specifications. He would play gmod and minecraft almost maxed out with an almost perfect framerate. Now the computer just isn't what it was 6 months ago when I gave it to him, on garry's mod he gets about 30-50fps even in single player. He is careful about keeping it clean. Deletes temp files often enough and hasn't even come close to filling up his 150gb hdd somehow. There is no virus protection, he just scans with malware bytes about once a week. He had norton for a little while since it was free with his internet provider or something, but I quickly convinced him to get rid of it. All temperatures are within reason, it's not dusty inside, there are no funny processes in task manager. He has iTunes but no apple related things are running. What's going on? Is there a trustworthy free application I can use to check the health of individual components? Any information you need, just ask.

Dell XPS 400
windows 7 ultimate 32 bit
pentium d (whichever pentium D comes in this pc)
2gb (4x512mb) unsure of frequency
150gb hdd
9600gt 512mb PNY
 
Solution
Deus Gladiorum
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JaredFrost95

JaredFrost95

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Idk I trust malwarebytes, always fixed the problem for me. I'll do another scan in safe mode right now... If you have a free scanner that doesn't run in the background I'd be glad to hear it.
 
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StarTrek2013

StarTrek2013

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Sep 19, 2013
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Get him to download Avast free antivirus plus ZoneAlarm free firewall. Also, you were wrong to get him to get rid of Norton. Norton is the best on the market, it is light on resources and is the hardest to beat in terms of hacking. It includes the insight network which is a huge database of good and bad files. This is as useful as a virus database because this can help prevent malware and pups which are potentially unwanted programs from running. I would advise your friend to save up money to buy some new parts. I would star with the hard drive and ram and eventually save up money to get a new GPU and CPU.
 
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Deus Gladiorum

Deus Gladiorum

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Have you tried CCleaner? It's a godsend, and compared to the rest of what I'm about to recommend, it's easily the fastest choice for trying to clear up problems with a slow PC. Assuming your problems aren't component related, CCleaner will speed up your system by removing a crap ton of junk. It's easily the most popular and trusted system maintenance program/PC optimizer.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

If it is a component issue, you can check with a variety of programs, most of which are stress-test related.


If it is a component issue, then the first component to check is the one that's the most susceptible to failure: The HDD. Use HD Tune and check the health tab. If everything is listed as "ok" then your HDD is fully functional and in great shape.
http://www.hdtune.com/


Try to test your memory with Memtest86. Some people only use it for one pass (1-2 hours) to check the health of their memory and some people leave it running overnight. If you want to be thorough, overnight tests are good. If you don't get any errors during the duration of the test, the RAM is fine.
http://www.memtest86.com/

For your processor, try stress testing it with Prime95. Try some small FFTs and if it can run for a good 2 hours or so (or again to be thorough, try for overnight) then your CPU is stable and functional.
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

UPDATE: Oh yeah and obviously there's always the chance you have a virus. Especially since there's no antivirus. Some people can roll without an antivirus, others cannot. I personally don't like to take the risk.

+1 to StarTrek2013. I don't know about ZoneAlarm but avast! has got to be the best free anti-virus out there. Back in those dark times when I used to rely on my mom to buy my computers from QVC I just used McAfee which was crap in comparison. I'd get a virus at least once every 3 months. Since I became more computer literate (and bought my own PCs which weren't loaded with bloatware and had a ridiculously high price : performance ratio) I switched to avast! and have never caught a single virus since.
 
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bryonhowley

bryonhowley

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Oct 24, 2011
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What is the problem with having a it run in the background? Do you not want the virus scanner to catch the virus before it can infect the system? That is the reason for it running in the background and most of them do not impact system performance anymore. At least install MSE if nothing else.
 
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JaredFrost95

JaredFrost95

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Jul 25, 2011
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Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but every virus protection I've used dramatically decreases performance on machines like this that only have 2gb of memory,mcafee, norton and a few others have all had negative affects on my computer(though mcAfee seemed to do the best) I honestly don't know what happened to his computer but I have been using my custom built gaming rigs for years now with no virus protection other then scanning every once in a while and my PC's have remained extremely healthy, only change in performance was whatever was happens to seconday storage devices over time.

 
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JaredFrost95

JaredFrost95

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I usually use virus protection on any pc I'm not using for gaming. Anything I use to game with or doesn't get heavily used by the less tech-knowledgeable people in my house does not have any protection other than malwarebytes and a close watch.
 
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Deus Gladiorum

Deus Gladiorum

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Don't be confused, all background anti-virus will impact system performance. It's obvious, and I've played with enough computers to know this and anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. I prefer having Malwarebytes and a background anti-virus, as it helps tighten the security. avast! and Malwarebytes complement one another quite well. As any anti-virus or malware scanner becomes more popular, the chance of a virus it can't detect increases because more viruses are programmed with avoiding that specific program in mind. Having both helps greatly. But like I said, some roll with it, some don't.

More importantly, I suggest you just go ahead and try out CCleaner and the stress-testing programs I recommended.
 
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D

dev893

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Feb 5, 2014
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1st off your first issue is your running windows 7 ultimate. Home premium is just fine for a standard everyday user unless he is connecting to large networks there is no reason for him to have ultimate. second WTH are you thinking not having a virus protection. I am running AVG on windows 7 home premium 32-bit 3gb ram on a dell XPS 400 2.8 Pentium D dual core and have no issues besides still running the graphics card that the computer came with (I plan on swapping it out soon)
 
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