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Solve : Do I need a new hard-drive?? |
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Answer» My daughter-in-law has a Dell Dimention E520 computer, she was saying it's beginning to run very very slow. Her hard drive saids it has 64.4 GB CAPACITY, she's using 48.4 GB with only 16.0 GB of free space, or 20% free space left, is she going to need a new hard-drive? Windows XP with 512MB RAM? Will run better with 1GB RAM. 2- 3 GB would be even better!!Ok, I'll check it with Advanced SystemCare and post the results.... As far as her hard drive only having 20% of free space left, would this make her pc run super slow, and what about having 86 programs running, is that about normal? Thanks...........I would say 86 programs is NOT normal. You need to go through the pc and uninstall a whole bunch of programs or reinstall the operating system altogether (better option). To uninstall unused programs, go to Control Panel and open "Add/Remove Programs". Go through the list and uninstall programs that you know you don't use. Be careful not to uninstall necessary programs, though. If in doubt, give us a shout. If you think you want to tackle reinstalling the operating system, let us know. It's a bit more involved.You could also check preference settings in some of those programs. If these are programs that automatically start when the computer is started, they may have a setting to not start when Windows starts. For example, I have Yahoo! Messenger installed but I have it set to not start when Windows starts. I don't often use it, so there's no reason to have it starting with Windows starts. I can just start it when needed. Quote from: mark227 on February 04, 2011, 05:20:20 AM As far as her hard drive only having 20% of free space left, would this make her pc run super slow, ...No, 20% should not make it run super slow. But, it's getting to the point where free space needs to be monitored. Getting down to 15% and lower can have a slowing EFFECT. A larger hard drive is not necessary if free space can be maintained at about the present level or greater.I'm hoping they mean 86 processes...not programs.86 processes seems excessive, especially with 512MB RAM. No wonder it's running so slowly.Go to Cruical and use their memory scan to tell you what you have now, and what upgrades are available. http://www.crucial.com They have good prices and service, but even if you don't buy from them it's a good starting point. I'm guessing you have two 256MB memory sticks. If you replace even just one of them with a 1GB memory stick, for a TOTAL of 1.2 GB, you will see a noticeable performance improvement. Back in the old days when hard drives were much smaller than today's, and space was tight, it was a standard routine to check your hard drive often for unused programs and get rid of them to free up space. It's something you need to do on a regular basis since you are getting low on free space. It's either that or get a bigger hard drive. I also should add that if your free space goes below 15% (it's not a hard fast number) you will have a problem defragging.We brought the computer to a repair shop and the the guy said we needed to expand the ram, he put in two GB of ram and tuned it up. He took off our CCleaner, Malwarebytes, and our anti virus software Microsoft Security Essentials. He said having these things on your computer could harm it so he installed a diffrent anti virus software and charged us $50 extra dollars. The last shop we had the computer in said there was nothing WRONG with having these programs on and it was good to run Microsoft Security Essentials at least once a week. Is Microsoft Essentials good to have for anti virus protection, and is it alright to run the CCleaner and Malwarebytes in case of a computer threat? Is this guy just try to make extra money off us or what, can anyone help us out? Thanks..... Quote Is this guy just try to make extra money off us...Sure looks that way to me. The previous shop was right and this guy was wrong. I used Microsoft Security Essentials for awhile on my Windows XP system which only has 512MB of RAM and noticed it sometimes used a lot of memory. Since the computer only has 512MB of RAM, I decided to remove Microsoft Security Essentials and install avast! Antivirus. With 2GB of RAM, I see no reason to have removed Microsoft Security Essentials. How is your computer running now? What antivirus program did the guy install? Quote from: mark227 on February 11, 2011, 10:00:19 AM We brought the computer to a repair shop and the the guy said we needed to expand the ram, he put in two GB of ram and tuned it up. He took off our CCleaner, Malwarebytes, and our anti virus software Microsoft Security Essentials. He said having these things on your computer could harm it so he installed a diffrent anti virus software and charged us $50 extra dollars. Can he actually do that with without your permission?? You asked for a RAM upgrade, it's got nothing to do with him whats on your PC, unless thats normal practice in the US, he's just ripped you off $50. Quote from: reddevilggg on February 11, 2011, 10:30:51 AM You asked for a RAM upgrade,...I'd agree with you, reddevilggg, if he had specifically requested installation of more RAM. Unfortunately, I have the impression that was not a specific request, that the request for service was more along the line of "My computer is running slow. Can you diagnose it and make it run better?" Quote from: mark227 on February 11, 2011, 10:00:19 AM We brought the computer to a repair shop and the the guy said we needed to expand the ram ...Put some more RAM on that computer ! Applications run low because of the slow RAM and slow processor! The hard drive is the last thing that it is slowing it down but you can also change it, because nowadays with these new media you really need it! Quote from: robinson100 on February 17, 2011, 08:41:40 AM Put some more RAM on that computer ! Applications run low because of the slow RAM and slow processor! The hard drive is the last thing that it is slowing it down but you can also change it, because nowadays with these new media you really need it! another instance of someone not reading the OP, or anything else in the thread for that matter |
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