How To Do Just About Everything
By eHow Computers Editor
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If you have a 486 or Pentium computer, you might be able to increase the speed by adding an Intel Pentium OverDrive processor.
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Comments
Anonymous said
on 12/16/2005 1) Windows Services
Many Windows services are enabled by default. Many of these services, however, are not required for your machine to run properly. You should review the services running on your Windows 2000/Windows XP computer and disable those that you don't need.
One way to see what services are running is to use the Services applet found in the Administrative Tools menu. Right-click My Computer and select Manage. Important information contained in the Services console includes the service Name, Status, and Startup Type. You can stop the service by clicking the Stop button. Another way of controlling which services start is using the MSconfig utility. Open the Run dialog box and type MSconfig in the Open text box. The Essential column shows services Microsoft considers essential to running the computer. One service that is well known for slowing down Windows 2000/Windows XP systems is the Indexing Service. This service indexes the content of each hard disk and makes it easier for the Search utility to find files.
2) Runaway processes
Runaway processes take up all of the processors' cycles. The usual suspects are badly written device drivers, and legacy software installed on a newer operating system. You can identify a runaway process by looking at the process list in the Windows Task Manager. Any process that takes almost 100 percent of the processing time is likely a runaway process.
If you do find a runaway process, you can right-click the process and click the End Process command. You may need to stop some processes, such as runaway system services, from the Services console. If you can't stop the service using the console, you may need to reboot the system. Sometimes a hard reboot is required.
3) Disk fragmentation
As files are added, deleted, and changed on a disk, the contents of the file can become spread across sectors located in disparate regions of the disk. This is file fragmentation. Some older operating systems, such as Windows NT, don't have a built-in defrag utility; you must obtain a third-party solution, such as Executive Software's Diskeeper.
Disk fragmentation can significantly slow down your machine. A common cause of disk fragmentation is a disk that is too full. You should keep 20 percent to 25 percent of your hard disk space free to minimize file fragmentation and to improve the defragmenter's ability to defrag the disk. Thus, if a disk is too full, move some files off the drive and restart the defragmenter.
In Windows XP, you can use the defrag.exe command line tool to schedule defragmentation on a regular basis. For Windows 2000, you can use a program such as AutoDefrag to schedule defragmentation.
4) Background applications
Background applications may slow down the computer speed. Background applications are the applications which starts up automatically in the background. Look first for such programs in the Startup folder in the Start menu. Many applications place components in the Startup folder to run in the background. Some of these, such as the Microsoft Office Findfast, can really chew up processor and disk time and noticeably slow down a system. Review each of the entries in the Startup folder and delete any that are unnecessary.
Not all programs that run at startup appear in the Startup folder. Another place to look is the following registry keys:
HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce In Windows XP, run msconfig and check the Startup tab to view startup programs. You can uncheck the boxes to keep individual programs from running at startup.
5) File System Issues
Some file systems work better than others for large disk partitions. If the machine runs Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP, you should use the NTFS file system for best performance.
File system performance is closely related to cluster size and the number of clusters on the disk. NTFS file systems will bog down if you have a 60-GB hard disk configured with a cluster size of 512 bytes. One solution is to use larger cluster sizes. If you set the cluster size to 4K or larger, you will see noticeable improvement in file load times. Please note, however, that large clusters can significantly increase the amount of cluster slack space and lead to a lot of wasted disk space.
Another trick to alleviate file system issues involves tweaking some Registry values (Start Menu|Run|Regedit):
·The first Registry value you can tweak is NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation, which can be found at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem. When you set this value to 1, it stops NTFS from generating the 8.3 file-naming convention used for backward compatibility. If you do not need these old filenames, you can improve performance by preventing NTFS from creating them.
·Another useful NTFS entry is the NtfsDisableLastAccess value, which can be found at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem. This is a REG_DWORD entry, and when it is set to 1, it will prevent NTFS from updating the date and time stamp of directories after they are browsed. If you are not using the NTFS file system, you may be able to improve performance by moving files and folders out of the root directory. With FAT partitions, you may notice a big slowdown in system performance after running scandisk because a large number of .chk files are placed in the root directory.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Use the max amount of RAM the motherboard will support. Use the fastest type RAM the motherboard supports. Use the most current drivers available and the most current BIOS update available.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 When you're overclocking your CPU, a simple heatsink and fan upgrade is all that is needed to keep your CPU cooler. Heatsink and fan combos typically run from $10 to $60 (at least the really nice heatsink and fan combos are almost $60).
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Most software isn't designed to run faster than 233MHZ (especially not on win95or98). Clock your CPU up, but also add another fan to counteract heat(or run it with the case off, but keep the cat away unless you want you box fried by ESD and a crispy cat).
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Since new software requires use of new hardware, I advise you save the $100 and use it to purchase a totally NEW computer IF yours is over 3 years old.
The performance of a faster CPU will not make THAT much difference.