Computor Running Slow

[herfrds]

I have run my virus scans. I have Norton 360 and AVG. Before you say it the AVG has caught stuff Norton let through.
Ran a defragment and disc clean up.
Ran updates. Still going slow.

Did the free offer by Dell for a pc checkup and they wanted $260 to clean up my files.
Is there anyway I can do it myself?

Suggestions?

 

[welasharon]

Download adaware and spybot. They catch stuff the others miss and they are free. Uniblue has some products that help clean your computer. I use the registry cleaner. It has made the biggest difference in the speed of mine.
sharon

 

[FireTigeris]

+1 above

If you know what you are doing you can use CrapCleaner

But two antiviral programs on the same system is asking for trouble, both wont run as efficiently as they usually (but not always) conflict.

Also if you religiously BACK UP YOUR FILES you can 'repair' windows using your windows disk...

Not running Windows 7 yet but most versions windows self corrupt as programs are installed, uninstalled, or updated, or partially un/installed as everything and it's uncle makes changes to the registry anything can cause a little lag.

(I make an Image of my machine when newly installed with all drivers and save/backup my important files so Ian re-image as necessary.)

 

[Runt Of The Litter]

hi herfrds,
theoreticaly; every person can do it themselves whether with help or not,it is so much better to get educated on computer repair because of the costs charged by IT guys,especialy by big companies- and by those who add on extra pointless insurance.



-what are the computer and operating system specs?
how old is it?
are there any noises [such as faint clicking] heard often?
does it take a while to boot up?
are 'dodgy' sites such as bit torrenting/peer to peer ever used?
is there any freezing?
is there any 'BSoDs' also known as 'blue screen of death' errors?
just one more question to add,how big is the hard drive size;and how much of the hard drive is in use?



-norton 360 itself uses up a lot of processes and can create very noticible lag depending on the computer,a lot of the free anti virus and internet safety suites out there are by far lighter on the computer, but it will be handy to know the specs first,as these can often say a lot about any issues.

 

[herfrds]

Runt it is a Dell Studio XPS with Windows Vista.
3 years old.
No.
Takes a long time to boot up.
No idea what you mean.
Yes it will freeze up to the point I have to cut the power to get it unfrozen.
No.
Recovery is 50% free
OS is 80% free.

I just did the spybot and it is running better.

 

[call ducks]

Ok heres my personal opion (feel free to ignor it) Take off Nortan.

here is the most full proof thing to do (but needs a bit of know how)

Did you create back up discs of the computer when you first got it?

If so re-format (But SAVE every file you well need on to a External HDD or Flash Drive or DVD)

second thing to do is Defrag the computer. Every OS fragments up. Defraging "should" help. Find out more info here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows-vista/Improve-performance-by-defragmenting-your-hard-disk

3rd opt ( the one not many people go with) Install Ubuntu OS and get rid of windows. Ohh and there are more options out there.

 

[cupman]

I wouldn't pay $260 to have people look at your computer, for $260 you can probably buy a brand new computer. It's a strong possibility that you have a hardware problem somewhere, if all that other stuff isn't affecting it's performance. Reformatting is always a good bet, but it does suck having to back up all your valuable files and then start over. Maybe 5 years ago I had problems with my computer and I took it to best buy, they told me what my problem was and I replaced the part and it worked. I can't for the life of me remember how much they charged if anything. If you do end up looking to a service to fix your problem I would shop around first. But $260 to "clean up your files" seems like you could very easily pay $260 and not fix the problem.

 

[welasharon]

All I have on mine is spybot and adaware. I took the other stuff off. I use the uniblue registry cleaner but most importantly IMO is I never download music and I am very careful about what sites I visit. I fix my own stuff. I figure if it isn't working I can't do too much more to it. I keep my stuff backed up on external drives. I do photography and have three, sometimes four copies of all the pictures. Two copies at two locations other than my home and two other copies on externals at my home. $260 to clean files is a rip off.
sharon

 

[TriciaHowe]

I run spybot and malwarebytes..... I took Norton off mine. It was crazy slow with it on because it wanted to scan everything. Both of the ones I run are free downloads and as long as you do the updates catch most things that will slow you down....
Good luck to you!

 

[StupidBird]

The family geek runs many of these free wares, and also "C-Cleaner". Just remeber that unless you uncheck the option, it will clear all the cached passwords and you'll have to log back in to sites such as BYC

Ed to add: I don't know computers; I just ask the family geek to fix it.