advice on upgrade, please!

[newbie2001]

Hi, my p.c is so slow it needs crutches to move! i have a very good security package called Bullguard, which was bought, it detects & protects my ports from sniffers/attacks etc, so have run scans regulary, have no worms/viruses etc etc.
now from starting up, to being able to open the internet is around5-7 minutes. everything is so slow, i have run a registry cleaner, all o.k
i defrag when it needs doing.
basically, i have 8 icons on my desktop, so only essentials.
i want to speed this thing up, but dont know what part/s are the ones giving me the problems. can you work it out?
i dont want to buy new hard drive & processor & ram if it is only 1 part that needs replacing.
last time the tower was upgraded, we had new hard drive installed, but had to pay £60 extra to haxe xp2000 put on the new drive, the shop did not give us a cd copy! i have the win xp key, if new hard drive again, can i use the key i have or will it cost me £60 again?

heres what i know.
win xp2000 version 2002 service pk3
computer AMD Athlon xp2000
1.67GHZ
256Mb Ram
(hard drive this morning checked) c used space 11.9GB
free space 64.3GB
capacity 76.3GB

now i have no idea what much of that means, i just know my p.c needs upgrading, as i delete cookies/internet files etc, regulary to keep my p.c from getting cluttered up, but as the hard drive has lots of free space, it must be RAM? or the processor? any advice would be appreciated!
Thank-you.

[newbie2001]

Well, snowed under with replies! which one do i read first!

[Administrator]

I think everyone has been busy sun bathing with the weather in the UK!!

Your memory is a little low, I would suggest you get that upgraded. The shop should have given you a CD for the Windows Installation, so it sounds like they are not doing their job properly.

Also, what registry cleaner do you use?

If you need a professional optimisation service, and your based near Manchester give us a call.

[newbie2001]

Thanks Gareth, we have had 1 new hard drive fitted since we bought the original tower in 2000. first time, upgrade was in about 2004.
The original tower came with windows pre-loaded, so when the p.c packed in the first time, a shop charged us for a new windows version to be pre-loaded on to the new hard drive, we also had a new processor fitted & a new tower case-so what we had done in 2004 is what we have now. The shop did not supply us with the disc, just £60 to put a version of win xp on, i have managed to make a back up disc of win xp on a cd-a recovery version but don't know if it will work!
I will certainly get the memory upgraded-so thanks for the advice, the shop would of charged me £25 to tell me that! i know from previous dealings with them-they charge for a quick inspection & advice, even if you will be spending money in their shop!.
Thanks again for the help. ps, i used CC cleaner, as i read some very bad threads, (hundreds) to do with Reg cure (the one with the most ads & linkbacks on the web. can supply link if you wish.

[Administrator]

£60 for a PC format PLUS XP is a little cheap, which could indicate they used a dodgy copy. But you never know.

Yes you are correct about RegCure, best to avoid things like that. CC cleaner however is fine!

[newbie2001]

(04-21-2009 08:34 AM)Gareth Roberts Wrote:  £60 for a PC format PLUS XP is a little cheap, which could indicate they used a dodgy copy. But you never know.

Yes you are correct about RegCure, best to avoid things like that. CC cleaner however is fine!

Well so long as the RAM makes a difference, i will be happier. I will be using a different P.C repair shop to get the Ram this time, a new place has opened pretty much near to where the other one is-so guess what i will be buying this weekend.

Cheers again Gareth.

[Administrator]

Let me know how you get on!

[newbie2001]

(04-27-2009 09:43 PM)Gareth Roberts Wrote:  Let me know how you get on!

Well went to see Maxwell computers, in town. told the guy behind the counter about the problems.
He stated very clearly that he thought increasing the RAM probably would not make a great deal of difference. He also said he had a P.C upstairs awaiting a RAM upgrade and he had told that customer pretty much what he was telling me.
So as he did not really suggest anything, but he did say in a round about way that we should consider a new tower.
The thing is after we paid this one off on HP & then upgraded it-it seems stupid to me to buy a new tower when this one just needs speeding up, we did get that nasty anti-virus 2009 (Virus) & that destroyed the ability to set or use any restore points. so maybe it's just a case of buying yet another copy of XP and starting over?

[Administrator]

More memory will make a difference, personally. It's one of the best upgrades you can do.

256Mb is not much for XP. I would say 1GB is about average thesedays. 2Gb for Vista. More memory means more programs will be loaded into memory before paging, which for sure means faster performance.

My bet is they are trying to get a PC sale out of you, like most PC repair companies... it's daft really. Do you have a license key for your XP install? Whenever someone installs XP for you, make sure they provide you with a sticker for the side of the PC with the license key. If not, they are not installing a legitimate microsoft copy - in which case get it looked into by microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/licensing/ho...http://www.microsoft.com/uk/licensing/homeuser/software-p


It's a shame your not closer to Manchester, or our repair company would take a look for you. It probably wouldnt cost you more than £50 and we'd have it running like new for you.