How can i get the most out of this computer?

[Le 3eme oeil]

It's a Dell, there's no sensors for them.

So basically I'm wasting my time..?

 

[worshipme]

PC Wizard 2008 is a good generally accurate program. I wouldn't know about Dell and sensors as I have never owned one because I hate them.

 

[Le 3eme oeil]

PC Wizard 2008 is a good generally accurate program. I wouldn't know about Dell and sensors as I have never owned one because I hate them.

Yeah they kind of suck...
Also, I was wondering if there are things that are basically like updated pentiums 4s. Right now I have the one that came with this Dell about 6 years ago and i was wondering if they have newer ones out that are a lot faster and i could just replace mine with a newer one.

 

[blackjack]

Yeah they kind of suck...
Also, I was wondering if there are things that are basically like updated pentiums 4s. Right now I have the one that came with this Dell about 6 years ago and i was wondering if they have newer ones out that are a lot faster and i could just replace mine with a newer one.

I think you will have to check out the manufacturers web site to see whats compatible or check your PC M/B manual,

p.s have you tried downloading the trial of Everest, does that work on Dells ?, thats a gem of a program.

 

[Le 3eme oeil]

No, but ill go to that major geeks website and get it after my computer is done running Defrag

 

[colorblindjimbo]

Right now the only computer I have is my family's approximately 6 year old dell. Its a dell dimension 4500 with a pentium 4 processor. This is what I use everyday and will use everyday until i finally do my first build.

I was wondering what are all the things i can do to make this run better than it is right now?

The thing is, with this computer the performance goes up and down. It us currently running at 1794 MHz and is going smoothly for what it can be like. I have had a bunch of problems with this going extremely slow and having all sorts of other errors in the past that my uncle has had to fix. For a while i couldn't even boot the computer because when I would turn it on it would get stuck loading xp and go to the blue screen or just go all black and say stuff.

Could stuff like defrag make this fun faster?

Uninstall all anti-virus programs
Then do this:
1. Start>Run>MSCONFIG
2. Startup>Disable all
3. Services>Check("Hide all microsoft services)>Disable all

If that doesn't work, reformat.

he asked for performance, not security

 

[muz]

PC Wizard 2008 is a good generally accurate program. I wouldn't know about Dell and sensors as I have never owned one because I hate them.

well if you have never owned one how have you come to the conclusion that you hate them
i own one and it isnt bad at all it works fine just like any other computer


Anyhows to speed it up and get the most i reccomend
running full virus and spyware scans
maybe upgrading ram if possible and if you havent already reached max
run cc cleaner
also the speed thing you are mentioning could be speedstep look in the bios to turn it off i think
also dust out the case to make sure everything is clean in there
delete unwanted junk from your hard drive
any other optimisation programs everyone mentions

 

[Le 3eme oeil]

Is CC cleaner the same thing as going to accessories/system tools/disk cleanup?

Also, can i run defrag and disk cleanup at the same time or will they just interfere with each other?

 

[colorblindjimbo]

Is CC cleaner the same thing as going to accessories/system tools/disk cleanup?

Also, can i run defrag and disk cleanup at the same time or will they just interfere with each other?

You won't get a noticable increase in performance from defragmenting and cleaning temporary files. You are probably getting bad performance because you are running newer programs on older hardware. Try to close down as many applications as possible that you are not using to free up system resources. Keep in mind anti-virus programs are good and all, but they are the largest system resource hog, so if you can live without one (aka use common sense), you will see a much faster computer.

Try to do what I said in my previous post.

 

[blackjack]

Ccleaner is a free software you can download that removes temporary INTERNET files cookies that sort of thing it isn't a disk defrag, if you select disk cleanup then it will ask you if you want to defrag as well, disk clean up is a few program's in one, disk clean up will remove unused program short cuts of your desktop and temporary INTERNET files etc similar to Ccleaner, selecting defragment will shuffle your drive to remove all empty spaces, clusters to refile your system so it runs faster, another thing to do is run a SCAN DISK of your drive and select recover and repair bad sectors. this keeps your HDD HEALTHY.