Slow pc help ?

[oldtechie]

Help PC run faster?

Question for any PC 'guru' out there. Hope it's useful to general population:
How to reset/release memory and speed the system back up w/o doing a restart?
I have a 5yr old Dell Dim.4600, P4@2.4Ghz, 1MB RAM, XP-Pro/SP3, ATI A-I-O 9000Pro video card w/64MB (weak, but it works and not ready to but a Quadro FX yet). I run everything on this one machine - eCab, Firefox, email, QB Pro, Quicken, etc-etc-etc. Sometimes in-out of several of them (and others) during the day. I'm a solo custom remodeler and also a semi-techie from a prior life and spend WAY too much time trying new stuff keeping the system 'clean' via utilities like CCleaner, EasyCleaner, Reg cleaners and defraggers.
I have read that Windows often does not 'release' memory that has been "assigned' to an application after that app is closed, and so the 'sludge' builds up and slows down the system until you do a Windows restart. Problem is it takes my system a LONG time to fully shut down & restart so I avoid it as much as possible.
So finally here's the question - is there a 'shortcut' way to 'flush' the 'held' resources without doing a full restart ?
One suggestion I read was to open TaskMgr (Ctrl-Alt-Del), shut down explorer.exe, and then re-start it.
Any suggestions ?:frown:

 

[Psych]

For the most part, Windows does release the memory after the application (more specifically, the process) closes. The task manager shows a lot of basic information about memory allocation, so examine it to see if anything is being a particular resource hog.

How long have you left the computer on? In my experience, XP doesn't really slow down all that much unless it has been on for more than a few days.

EDIT: Yes, you should restart the explorer.exe process. You'll probably get a minor speed improvement from that. Also, I don't want to insult your computer savviness, but I still have to mention that most slow downs are caused by spyware and such.

 

[badnewcastle]

Originally posted by: oldtechie

One suggestion I read was to open TaskMgr (Ctrl-Alt-Del), shut down explorer.exe, and then re-start it.

Would be my suggestion along with buying some More Ram

 

[lucasorion]

when you run task manager and look at the processes tab, do you see any apps hogging memory?

 

[robphelan]

also, make sure you disable any process you don't need such as MS Messenger/Communicator, quicktime, etc.. that load on booting up your PC.

Start -> Run -> msconfig

go to the Startup tab and research if there's anything you know you don't need. that should help a bit - especially with boot times.

you should also peruse the Services tab for the same types of items.

 

[Unheard]

Not to be redundant from the other post, but try this method:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

just to see if anything nasty shows up.