blim87

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Apr 2, 2009
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This may be more of a hardware question but I guess we'll find out. My grandmother's computer is a Core 2 Duo - E6300 Allendale with 4 GB RAM. the hard drive is 160GB and is about 35 to 50% full.

The computer seems to run a little slow every so often. When I say slow I mean it takes longer than a P4, 512MB RAM, Win XP to open folders, programs and the Control Panel. However, it is faster when it comes to actually running programs. On the P4 it takes forever to scan and clean with CCleaner, but with the Core 2 Duo it's very fast. I just don't get why it takes longer to open things.

I thought it was spyware/malware but I'm not finding any. The HiJackThis logs are also clean.
I thought maybe it was the security software but this happened after the computer was reformatted and totally different security software was installed.

There are a ton of programs and games on the computer. Only about 50 running processes.

The only things I can come up with are: corrupted user profile, problem with the wireless laser mouse, or overheating. I really can't believe any of those would be the problem.

Anyone have any better ideas?
 

blim87

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Apr 2, 2009
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I know nothing about that. My guess is that the company that (custom) built the computer didn't upgrade the drivers before sending it to her. She has a Nvidia GeForce 6200 video card and I found 2005 drivers for it. They kept causing the computer to freeze when she tried to watch videos. I installed new drivers and that particular problem is all fixed now. I can't believe the company that built the computer wouldn't bother to upgrade the drivers. But maybe that's not their responsibilty.

I guess I should check all the drivers then?
 
The company that built the computer may have used factory cd's for the drivers. They aren't always the most up to date drivers. However, that shouldn't cause a severe performance lag. It's more likely that there is a process lagging the system.
 

mangoletsi

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Apr 5, 2009
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Hello Blim87

Your grandmothers problem is defineately to many processes starting when you turn on the computer.
As a comparison, my pc only has 23 processes compared to your grandmothers 50.

It's like an olympic runner, they are very streamline and very fast. If you tell one of them when they are on the starting blocks. When the gun goes off, I want you to go to the kitchen, wash the dishes, cook the dinner, make the beds. Then obviously that runner will be slower then the other runners because they've got to deal with all that rubbish first.

Thats basically wrong with your grandmothers computer, she's told it to wash the dishes, cook the dinner and make the beds everytime she turns the computer on.

Basically, you need to tell the computer to stop doing all the rubbish stuff when you turn on.

1. click on start
2. click on run
3. type in msconfig and press enter
It will open system configuration utility

4. click on the tab on the top called startup
read through all the programs listed there and un tick the ones you dont need.
If you dont recognise what they are, just type its name into google, and it will tell you what it is.
Once you have un ticked the rubbish ones,

5. Click on ok, and restart the computer.

Hopefully you should see a big difference.