RE: Processors

**TrekCaptainUSA** · June 23rd, 2008, 06:41 PM

Okay, here's a very big question on the behalf of a businessperson I know.

His office computer runs Windows XP Professional with an Intel Pentium 4 processor (2.8GHz), and 0.99 GB RAM. His computer has been running very slow lately, and I wonder if upgrading the processor on the computer would make it run faster and stop freezing up on his email program.

If that is not what should be done, could adding more RAM make the computer run faster and not cause the email application to freeze up randomly?

**slgrieb** · June 23rd, 2008, 08:44 PM

No to all of the above, I'd say. I would start with malware scans (Spybot 1.5, Eset's online scan, for instance) and then get back to us if the system is clean. It also wouldn't hurt to know what program he uses for email, and what is running at startup. Really though for just about all business software, his system is far more than adequate.

**Ferrit** · June 23rd, 2008, 10:19 PM

Well i cannot quite believe that temp internet file slow pc's down on a regular basis.
Unless its something nasty stuck in there. And if that's the case then,
slgrieb's suggestion of malware is correct as i thought it was when i first read the problem.
Just set the browser to delete them on exit if you feel there may be something bad in there.
As for defrag every week, that's really not necessary with systems using ntfs. They place the files quite different then 98 did and its not nearly as messy. Realistically if you don't install and uninstall a lot of software then you don't really need to defrag a lot. Granted any fragmentation is a slight hit to the pc. But as i said its not a hugely noticeable thing. Defragging will help but the percentage is seriously low for gain.Nothing like the slowdown your indicating.
I would say the slowdown is somewhere else. Malware or something/things running in the background killing the resources.
That's for the slowdown. Now as to the freezing up. That could be a large number of things including whats running in the back ground.
It may be poor software. Failing hardware, malware, viruses etc etc etc

**NooNoo** · June 24th, 2008, 03:05 AM

If it's his email program - how many emails has he got stored? Have they ever been reindexed? Does he have smiley faces in the email interface?

**TrekCaptainUSA** · June 27th, 2008, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

If it's his email program - how many emails has he got stored? Have they ever been reindexed? Does he have smiley faces in the email interface?

NooNoo, I can say that he has a lot of emails, but they are primarily comprised of text, and the emails are occasionally transferred out of local hard drive storage and transferred to network storage space.

Originally Posted by OMGmissinglink

Defragment:
How often is a defragment preformed on the PC
One of the easiest ways to make your computer run faster is to defragment your hard disk. While you work and play each day, files get scattered across your hard disk, and your PC has to work harder to find and assemble them.

His computer is rarely defragmented, and I will start with that, first...

Originally Posted by Ferrit

Now as to the freezing up. That could be a large number of things including whats running in the back ground.
It may be poor software. Failing hardware, malware, viruses etc etc etc

The software which is used is primarily made by Microsoft, and as to whats running in the background, I did not bother to check that...

Oh, and sorry I didn't get back to this for a while... i've been busy...