My neighbour asked me to install Norton Security on her PC as she wished to go back online, before i started the machine would take 5 minutes to start up and when it did opening folders could take a couple of minutes!!!!! The PC is about 5 years and old and slow it's OS is XP not sure of the spec of the machine but it only has 128 Meg of RAM, i have got a 256 stick of RAM to see if that helps but is there any other thing i can try? I will get the spec of the machine later to see if that helps diagnosing, i have told her to save up for a new one. Regards Mark
On 128MB of RAM, windows will really struggle to do anything useful. You'll need to check what type of RAM her PC uses, and see if theres any free slots.
You should first try using the usual cleaning tools built into windows XP like disk defrag and disk cleaner. After that you could also use anti adware software, altough her computer might not have an internet connection now as you said, she had one before right? Her computer might not have been reformatted since the last time she still had internet and could be infected with lots of spyware or other junk still. 5 minutes to open folders is really long, even with only 128 MB of RAM. Good luck,
Also mate if the PC is already struggling I wouldnt recommend using Norton check out Trend Micro for a spyware/virus scan, AVG Free for a virus scanner, Zonelabs Firewall,Ad-Aware SE for spyware and finally Spybot search and destroy for another spyware program. These are all free and the most effective I have come across.
Thanks for the replies the PC has got a spare slot and i have managed to get a 256 stick i will try that as well as the spyware/ adwrae check, i will let you know the outcome.
delays also occurs due to low HDD space, try to delete unusual stuff and do defragmentation of your computer
