Computer Help

[Doughboy]

My computer has until recently run quickly online and internet has run quickly. Now, however, it seems to have slowed to a crawl. It takes probably 5-10 seconds to locate each page I click on and pull it up. I have cable through roadrunner and did a bandwidth test and it said 392.3 kb per second. I don't know if that is fast or not and if it is a problem with my cable connection. How can I speed up my computer? I have a 5 year old Compaq Presario running on windows 98, but have until recently nevre had a speed problem. It kinda feels like I have dial-up or a little slower.

Thanks for the help.

 

[KMA]

392 is fast enough that you should not feel like a 56 baud dialup
Have you done the "routine" speed up things?
defrag your disk?
make sure you have enough free space for swap files and such?

If so, call your ISP and tell them.

Is the cable modem "busy" light looking hyperactive? If so that could mean that you're getting lots of "fake hits" due to the recent virus attacks, many of the cable companies have benen hard hit by the recent virus attacks.

 

[Doughboy]

Can you give me a list of the routine things I should do whether it be software or cleaning files or whatever. I am very inexperienced with computers but know some basics, but not a lot. Thanks for your help. I used to have Norton, but for whatever reason that I don't remember we no longer have it. Should I start with that or would something else be better.

 

[redking]

Sup Doughboy,

First you should run scandisk (START>Programs>Assessories>System Tools> scandisk) to check your hard drive for potential errors and fix them if there are any. You should do this pretty much once a day to keep your hard drive running smoothly.

Then, you need to defrag your hard drive. Defrag should be next to scandisk. Defrag your hard drive maybe once a week or twice a month. Defrag take quite a while depending on the size of your hard drive so turn off your screen saver, turn off other programs, run defrag and turn off your monitor then go to sleep. It should be done in the morning or after you come home from work.

Those are the basics. Let me know if this helps and if you need any more tips!