Oh help me, Techi Wan Kenobi, You're My Only Hope

[m31andy]

I'm a bad fiancée. After spending a few months talking about doing something to cuvalwen's incredibly old computer (and not doing anything about it), I finally got round to transferring a lot of files off it (no room on the 20Gb hard drive) and defragging it. This should've made the thing a little faster at least, except there was no virus software on the computer beforehand and so I loaded up Avast.

Suffice to say the computer is now running *slower* and I'm definitely not flavour of the month.

[Yes, I did know this was an issue with Avast beforehand - and AVG, for that matter, but it was that or let the two trojans we found carry on, unabated...]

So, my wonderful *techie* friendslist, please to be helping. I'm in dire need of decent (preferably free, but not necessarily) virus software which doesn't make the machine run like molasses on a cold day. Is there such a thing?

Also - any tips or encouragement to get the damn thing running a little faster / better would be incredibly wonderful as well.

(To let you know what I'm dealing with, the vital statistics are: AMD processor, 600MHz, 386Mb RAM, 20Gb hard drive, Windows XP Home, Service Pack 3. Slower than a turtle on dope.)

You are all utterly wonderful!

Comments

[gmh.livejournal.com]

More RAM if at all possible. XP likes >512MB.

Mind you, a 600MHz AMD has to be ~10 years old? - one of the first-generation Athlons or so.

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

It's definitely old... Duron - so, from googling it, April 2000.

What's the odds on being about to support that much RAM? And how would I be able to tell???

[narenek.livejournal.com]

If you know the make/model (of either the base unit or the motherboard) then you can use Crucial's web thingy

I suspect Bob has the right idea, it's a rather aged system which will take a fair chunk of effort to get a small improvement out of it.

I'm duty bound to suggest putting linux on it for optimum bang for the buck :-)

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

Ta chuck. I'll check that out, but I can't see there's any point in upgrading the RAM.

I'm tempted to go down the linux route for a similar spec laptop which is poorly performing as well. But, you know, I got confused when faced with Xandros, let alone thinking along the lines of "maybe Ubuntu isn't good enough"....

eep!

[ian-wyrdness.livejournal.com]

Buying RAM for such an old machine would be a complete waste of money.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

On the contrary; it's the cheapest way of getting some performance increase out of it; when I had a K6-2 533 running Win2K and gave it more than 128MB, it was a real shot in the arm.

Most motherboards of that age will take up to 768MB of RAM no problems - 3 x 256MB SDRAM PC133. You can pick up 256MB of RAM dirt cheap in the computer fairs in London; again, we're not talking a truly long-term solution; but you can get a few more months or a year or so out of an ancient system, which can make a difference if you're not flush enough to afford a new PC.

If you're going the new PC route, I would keep an eye on Dell - every now and then they have a habit of putting up short-term offers of a basic PC box for £99; it's usually not a great machine performancewise, but it should scream in comparison to a Duron 600.

Of course, I might happen to have a motherboard and processor and RAM and a graphics card going spare very shortly, as it's upgrade time here - it's not exactly new (Athlon 64 3700+, 2GB RAM, Asus nForce m/b, Nvidia 7800 GTX - about 4 years old) - but it's free and does work!

[gmh.livejournal.com]

What other people said - check the motherboard manufacture.

As I said below, though - it's upgrade time here, so I'll have various innards going free to a good home if you'd like them - it's not exactly new (Athlon 64 3700+, 2GB RAM, Asus nForce m/b, Nvidia 7800 GTX - about 4 years old) - but it's free and does work!

[bob]

spend ~300 quid and buy a new machine.

[bob]

life is too short to fiddle with old machines.

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

There are some folk out there who'd disagree with that. (But they're Classic Mac users, in the main...)

[ian-wyrdness.livejournal.com]

Don't throw money at it on upgrades. New computers (even laptops) are dirt cheap now. You can find some great bargains, like this, for example, on Ebay.


I'd either replace it with a new computer that will be way faster, or ditch Windows and put Linux on it.

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link!

Well, until I can buy a new computer, I'm going to have to do something. (The Linux method is out as well - C isn't a fan!)

But we'll see.

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

NOT NORTON ANTIVIRUS. It slowed down my computer like something crazy.

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

Definitely not! That's well known! *G*

[dancesontrains.livejournal.com]

Malware Bites or Spybot + more RAM.

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

I'm running Spybot as well - I had thought that Spybot did a different job from anti-virus software - adware vs. malware. I'm I incorrect in making that assumption?

[dancesontrains.livejournal.com]

Oops, you're right /o\ I misread and thought you were looking for something to get rid of trojans.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

Call in the Ancient Greeks?

[dakfinv.livejournal.com]

I don't know how much it is (I got my copy free when I worked at Best Buy) but I LOVE Kaspersky. I never even notice it's running and when it works great when it does spot a virus.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

I really like PCTools Spyware Doctor, and you could also try the new Windows one.

[cuvalwen.livejournal.com]

Honey, you are NOT not flavour of the month. You very definitly my flavour of every month.
U haz a flavor!
(Sorry.)

I think comments to the effect of a new computer are valid, but I'm used to it running at the rate of continental drift anyway. And it's just the start-up that being noticably slow.

X

[lunrwolf.livejournal.com]

More RAM will help. A complete reinstall will help, though will drive you demented. I favour AVG over Avast, but it's largely a matter of preference.

I have a slightly newer machine going begging, but I suspect that's more or less rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic!