my mac laptop already bit it (hard drive fried)

and now my oldish PC seems to be headed down a scary path as well. i cant even watch streaming video without it being choppy and non-responsive

how the hell do i fix my computer woes??

i built this machine myself about 6 years ago and it has basically been used for burning DVDs and that sort of thing since i got my newest mac in 2004

i am running windows XP pro, service pack 3 (but i have no idea where my original disc is)

1.83 ghz athlon
1gb ram
geforce 5500

i have all the latest drivers and such,

and i cannot afford to rebuild this machine... or buy a new OS... or fix my laptop

anyone have any suggestions??

could be that you might be very low on space in your HD...and you can always do a virus scan and defrag, a full defrag. that should help out a bit.

57% free space

10% frag

i want to punt this thing

Try the fee download ccleaner or crapcleaner, run it at its default settings and clean.

Also download the free Adaware from lavasoft and run it.

Go to start/run/ and type: msconfig and hit enter.
Then go to the startup tab and remove everything that is non essential.

You should also try disabling any supposed virus software (or firewall software, which can be especially headache inducing) in your system tray and see if this makes a speed difference. Alot of Norton and Mcaffee, and even Zonealarm services can bring your system to a crawl.

Then download the program hijackthis, and do a services scan and try turning off anything that looks suspicous. You can also see startup services that do not show up in msconfig here as well.

Finally, if you find that your virus/spyware software is slowing you down. Try the free AVG antivirus. And give it a go with a nice initial scan.

Or you can always sell some toys and get a cheap refurbished Mac mini from the Apple store and be done with it.

Hope this helps!

This is a must. Windows loads the OS with so much garbage that you don't need, and it slows your system down. XP is bad enough but Vista is an absolute fucking joke. You need 2 gigs of ram just to run the OS at a decent speed.

If you're not sure what startup items to remove, there are sites that explain what each app is doing...some are essential so be careful.

As a non-expert, my only advice is to check the task manager when you notice a slowdown (hit ctrl + alt + del). Go to the Processes tab and see if anything is sucking up the CPU power. If it is a specific program or process, you can Google it and go from there.

Agree totally with disabling as much of the antivirus stuff you can. I have mine check incoming email and that is it! Internet Explorer itself now steps in and blocks activeX controls, popups etc. so why double up with anti-virus software as well.

Also definitely check the msconfig and disable anything you can. You'll be urprised how much stuff is still running from programs you probably thought you uninstalled years ago!!!

I wouldnt completely rely on IE to block stuff. There are still tons of javascript and buffer overflow exploits that can get you, though I agree that turning off virus scan programs can help get better performance.

Also, run your spyware removal tools under safe mode, with just the bare essentials loaded. This will help to get rid of some of the trickier crap that gets on one's machine.

Reformat and get rid of all your pr0n.

i want to reformat so bad - but i have no OS to put back on it (my discs are MIA)

whoa whoa whoa.....back up the pr0n first before you reformat haha

ah there's plenty of free stuff out there. when you pass the age of 22 or so, you really only care about a few minutes out of those movies anyway

oops i meant to say AGE of 22... not 'page'

Two things:
1) It sounds like the hard drive might be on its last legs. Most consumer drives are rated to last only 3 years max. And hard drives are very cheap nowadays, so get a new one and mirror the stuff on your current drive and all should be good.
2) As far as pr0n goes, 8Gig USB keychain drives cost about $25 max nowadays. Perfect!

I like it, pr0n on the go!
However, 120GB external notebook drive is like $50.

External hard drives are so cheap now. i've thought about getting one to use as storage for ps3 stuff but dumb ass Sony made it so the ps3 will only recognize a portion of any external hard drives...30gb from what i've heard. still, it might be worth it just to store all the music, movies, and photoshop projects.

Also try cleaning up your registry. I just use Windows Live Onecare, which is free btw, to do just that.