Slow computer with low virtual memory

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I tried ignoring the slowness of my computer but now it has gotten too bad. I get low virtual memory messages. I adjust the virtual memory but the message still keeps coming back. It is a dell dimension 3000 with windows Xp and 256 MB of ram. How do I make my computer faster?
 
*Sigh*
I have Dell Dimension 3000's
I've had many problems with my friends who have them, and there just extremely old and have many problems. Most of the problems he had were because he didn't keep up the maintenance of the computer.

How much space do you have left on your hard drive?
- If it's almost full, uninstall a few things on your computer.
Have you defragged your computer recently?
- If you haven't, defrag it. Download JK Defrag and run the exe. Do not run the CMD version.
- Run a virus scan to make sure your free of viruses
- Download CCleaner and run it. It cleans out your internet history etc. Make sure you uncheck the box for saved passwords in the program.

If you want to spend a few buck's on the computer, you could get some new RAM. I would first try the above and then consider this.
 
I can imagine what the system registry looks like after that amount of time since bought new. That model should support 2gb of DDR333/400 memory which would be a big help for sure while seeing the system registry as well as the hard drive cleaned up would the two main concerns.

The CCleaner freeware drive clean up is found at http://www.ccleaner.com/ That will also clear out a ton of useless now empty temp folders to free up a few hundred mb of drive space.

For two automatic registry cleaners one freeware the other a free version of a retail software try Eusing(freeware) http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm and Wise(free version) found at http://www.wisecleaner.com/download.html
 
*Sigh*
I have Dell Dimension 3000's
I've had many problems with my friends who have them, and there just extremely old and have many problems. Most of the problems he had were because he didn't keep up the maintenance of the computer.

How much space do you have left on your hard drive?
- If it's almost full, uninstall a few things on your computer.
Have you defragged your computer recently?
- If you haven't, defrag it. Download JK Defrag and run the exe. Do not run the CMD version.
- Run a virus scan to make sure your free of viruses
- Download CCleaner and run it. It cleans out your internet history etc. Make sure you uncheck the box for saved passwords in the program.

If you want to spend a few buck's on the computer, you could get some new RAM. I would first try the above and then consider this.

I don't know how to figure out how much space I have on my hard drive. I will defrag my computer when I am sleeping.
 
I don't know how to figure out how much space I have on my hard drive. I will defrag my computer when I am sleeping.


Go into "My Computer" in your start menu. You should see a 'C' drive in the menu. Right click it and click properties on the drop down menu. It should bring up a menu with a pie graph of used space vs. free space.
 
Go into "My Computer" in your start menu. You should see a 'C' drive in the menu. Right click it and click properties on the drop down menu. It should bring up a menu with a pie graph of used space vs. free space.

should I use Ccleaner before I defrag? Or does it not matter

free space= 62.7 GB
 
Yea, CCcleaner shouldn't take as long as a defrag would take. Should take about a few minutes at most. Make sure you only check off the 'Saved Passwords' in the internet history section and click run cleaner. You don't want your saved passwords being deleted.

Because you have that much free space, I would suspect you need more RAM and that your running alot of services in the background. Run the cleaner and see if it helps first.
 
Another thing to look in is the startup group found in the msconfig utility before anyone forgets that. Look for anything that doesn't have to be loaded at the time Windows starts up.

Simply type msconfig at the Start>run and click OK to bring that up. By unchecking a few items in there that will help free up more ram since you only have 256mb of memory to work with.
 
forget everything else, the major problem is running XP with 256MB of RAM, dude, RAM is dirt cheap right now, pick up a GB and it'll seem like you have a new computer...

replace your memory with this 1GB Crucial DDR for $22...
 
forget everything else, the major problem is running XP with 256MB of RAM, dude, RAM is dirt cheap right now, pick up a GB and it'll seem like you have a new computer...

replace your memory with this 1GB Crucial DDR for $22...

As I pointed earlier that system should able to run 2gb of DDR memory without any problem being the maximum for the two dimm slots which is more then adequate for Windows there. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim3000/en/SM/specs.htm#wp1075776

As far as just what Crucial memory is compatible with the Dimension 3000 1gb dimms of either PC2700 or PC3200 memory run $30.99 at http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Dimension 3000
 
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