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Michael7979

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Hey I know some of you out there are in to computers way more then I am. And have A LOT more knowledge about them then me.

 

So I have a question for you all:

 

First off I have a HP Pavillion Slimline for the brains of my computer. It's about 4-5 years old. And as you can imagine it has a lot of crap stored in it. With all the music and photos on it, it has started to slow down in everyday functions.

 

I have no idea about this but I want to know if it is possible to upgrade the memory in it?

And if so any idea what it might cost?

 

Thanks in Advance!

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Depends on the type of memory if its just DDR then it will cost a little bit more because it is older memory and it would run about $50 or $60 but if it takes DDR2 then its a little cheaper about $30 or $40

 

What would this memory go from? And too? Any idea.

 

IE: like 1g to 2g or?

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going into the control panel and checking your system specs for what you already have would be a good start. That way we can help with offering advise on the amount of memory you should upgrade to to achieve your desired speed.

 

Should be something along the lines of:

start menu>control panel>system>system specifications... You'll want to look specifically at RAM.

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OK found this. Does it help at all?

 

Desktop processor E5200

system memory 4 G.B

harddrive 500 G.B

 

DOH!I was typing as you found it...lol

 

 

Although 4 isn't a ton of memory it isn't that low either. Have you(do you know how to) ran a system de-frag ever/lately. If it's moving slow with 4gb then they may be lower speed too.

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going into the control panel and checking your system specs for what you already have would be a good start. That way we can help with offering advise on the amount of memory you should upgrade to to achieve your desired speed.

 

Should be something along the lines of:

start menu>control panel>system>system specifications... You'll want to look specifically at RAM.

 

Yeah I'm probably too dumb to find that out for ya.

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we need the OS your running and your main programs / applications you run.

not sure you really need a memory upgrade but more of either a rebuild of the OS or some basic maintenance. it depends on what you use your pc for but 4gb should be sufficient.

 

Windows

We do not use it for business.... just things like photos, music, searching the web, and so on.

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so it looks like you should have pc2 ddr2 RAM in it. what you may want to do is open the case and look at the RAM sticks and see exactly what they say on them and how many there are. their are a few different formats. Sometimes you have to add 2 at a time sometimes just one.

 

They'll look like this inside

 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4uLjNn84V5KmQpL6Tml506xuVRzUWxgX2ayPLBOf7Kk9ibKtN

 

I would go along the lines of cleaning it first like reefit said though... That may be all it needs is just a clean sweep

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vista is a pig and loves to get slow. but still 4gb should be enough.

The only reason you would want to expand your available ram would be if you are running out of it during regular use and that would either be a. your using more programs than available memory or b. your running background programs that are eating up your resources making less available system ram for your applications that you have in use.

Other things cause system degradation such as file fragmentation and excess temporary / junk files left on the hard drive.

 

1st, empty your trash can and try running the system tools that come with the PC to delete unneeded temporary files. Then run a hard drive defragging tool and let it defrag the system. Next get a good adware removal program like lavasoft adaware or spybot search and destroy, run this and remove all the threats it finds on a weekly basis.

uninstall unwanted programs, toolbars in your browser and little desktop apps that might be running in the background.

 

If you can get through these steps you will probably have a decent pc again.

 

Worst case, backup your files and reinstall a fresh copy of Vista or Windows 7 and your pc will run like new again.

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vista is a pig and loves to get slow. but still 4gb should be enough.

The only reason you would want to expand your available ram would be if you are running out of it during regular use and that would either be a. your using more programs than available memory or b. your running background programs that are eating up your resources making less available system ram for your applications that you have in use.

Other things cause system degradation such as file fragmentation and excess temporary / junk files left on the hard drive.

 

1st, empty your trash can and try running the system tools that come with the PC to delete unneeded temporary files. Then run a hard drive defragging tool and let it defrag the system. Next get a good adware removal program like lavasoft adaware or spybot search and destroy, run this and remove all the threats it finds on a weekly basis.

uninstall unwanted programs, toolbars in your browser and little desktop apps that might be running in the background.

 

If you can get through these steps you will probably have a decent pc again.

 

Worst case, backup your files and reinstall a fresh copy of Vista or Windows 7 and your pc will run like new again.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll get with the wife and see what if any of these things we already have and go from there.

 

On the program part and whats running and what's not........ not an F'ing clue.

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yea it can be a little tricky to figure out without some firsthand experience in troubleshooting pc's. you can press control-alt-delete and run task manager which will show you all the things running in the processes tab. most of the things are required but you can get an idea of just how many things a pc has running in the background. the trick is to figure out what is good and what is not needed or bad.

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Defrag should help a lot. 4 gigs of RAM should be enough for everyday stuff (email, web surfing etc. although with Vista (the biggest POS ever foisted on humanity...IMHO) this may the minimum.) If the internet is slow, you could empty the cache and history in IE. With Windows, oftentimes wiping the hard drive and re-installing Windows will fix a multitude of problems, and is usually suggested to do every 6 months or so.

 

Although I work for HP and appreciate the bump to my bonus check, the best advice I could give is to throw this thing in the trash and buy a Mac. All your problems would be solved....Forever. :D

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Although I work for HP and appreciate the bump to my bonus check, the best advice I could give is to throw this thing in the trash and buy a Mac. All your problems would be solved....Forever. :D

 

For people who now very little about computers and just want it to do what you want it to do, Mac is the best by far. For everyone else it is arguably still the best...:p I own both but my mac has always been 100% reliable and well, even the best pc can't do that(whistle)

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Michael, if you still need assistance I will be online all day. Just hit me up. I can remote in and assist for the most part. If your OS is in need of a reload then I wont be able to do that remotely but everything else I can. If you want I can take a look at it and see what modifications or adjustments I can make to assist you.

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OK found this. Does it help at all?

 

Desktop processor E5200

system memory 4 G.B

harddrive 500 G.B

 

 

Google 'ATF Cleaner' and download and run it - this will find all sorts of temporary files and remove them in one fell swoop. Very safe - I've used it thousands of times without issues.

 

Next goto http://www.download.com and search for 'malwarebytes' - download and install. During the last step of the install it will ask you if you would like to download updates - go ahead and let it update itself. After updates run a quickscan and see what it finds - you can then choose 'remove selected' (lower right corner of the screen I believe). If it doesn't ask you to reboot after that go ahead and reboot.

 

Now run that defrag on the drive.

 

Lastly, you can right-click on 'My Computer' and choose 'Properties' then 'System Performance' (I think) and choose the option 'maximize or optimize system performance' (this option will turn off much of the menu fades and user interface prettiness than is not necessary and takes system resources).

 

There could be any number of items running in the background soaking up CPU cycles but that more involved than a single post.

 

I will second or third the Mac suggestion when you start looking for a replacement :-)

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For people who now very little about computers and just want it to do what you want it to do' date=' Mac is the best by far. For everyone else it is arguably still the best...:p I own both but my mac has always been 100% reliable and well, even the best pc can't do that(whistle)[/quote']

 

so good that only like 2% of computer users in all aspects are MAC users. By all aspects I am takiing into consideration business as well....so for instance my company only has like 10k PC's and 0 MAC's....pretty good ratio right there(naughty)

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so good that only like 2% of computer users in all aspects are MAC users. By all aspects I am takiing into consideration business as well....so for instance my company only has like 10k PC's and 0 MAC's....pretty good ratio right there(naughty)

 

The general population, as a whole, is not known to be the best informed on a great many subjects. Computers are just one of them. The Nov. elections are another prime example. If people were better informed, more people would own Macs and the Democrats wouldn't have done as poorly as they did. :)

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