Help me to optimize an old computer without spending money?

5 thoughts on “Help me to optimize an old computer without spending money?”

1. bagmaN says:

   January 27, 2010 at 6:57 pm

   you can make a computer faster by making the vitual ram faster, you can do this by going on to my computer. right click and go down to properties, a window should open up click on the advanced tab, there you will find something called performence go and click on settings, another window should open up and click on the advanced tab on the new window at the bottom you will find some thing called virtual memory change the memory to 4096 then it should work faster. hope this essay helps

   morgan

2. IrishFire says:

   January 27, 2010 at 6:57 pm

   With a 2.5 GHz machine, you still have a lot of life left in the thing.

   I don’t know of free programs that will clean it up, and of course a google search is going to bring up a lot of crap that will make it worse.

   Your options are thus:

   Load ubuntu, as described. Linux is like a puppy: it’s great once it’s housebroken. I’ve done it on an older machine, pentium II or III. You can do anything you did in microsoft office through open office, and this is your only no $ option. Ubuntu will run a whole bunch of stuff, but you’re only going to be able to use music and movies painlessly if you also upgrade your ram. A gig will cost you between $30 and $80 and should be plenty for what you have in mind, unless you’re secretly a top programmer asking this question for kicks. You won’t need any virus protection.

   If you want to keep windows running, and you want your beast to be allowed to talk to the interwebs, it’ll cost you. I, personally, would call e-machines and ask to purchase the restore CDs. That should run you between $30 and $40. Then, upgrading ram isn’t really optional unless you want to be so frustrated with your machine that you’ll want to throw it out of a window. (which shouldn’t be as much of a problem in your basement.) For XP running nothing fancy, I recommend 1 GB again: $30-80. Shop sales, put it in yourself, and make sure you know what kind of ram you’re looking for. Crack the case open and look for one or two green sticks that look like circuit boards. Finally, if your XP beast will ever see the light of internet, anti malware protection is not optional, and you don’t want the free stuff. Expect to spend up to $50 for antivirus and antispyware.

   So! In conclusion, $0-80 for a Linux machine with some hassle and limited compatibility.

   $90-$170 for Windows with more hassle and more compatibility.

   Happy computing! I’m glad you aren’t chucking it. You’re wise to avoid sinking much money into an e-machine as their hardware isn’t the most reliable in the world, but the specs are good and there may be several more years of computing in that thing.

3. Wyatt Earp says:

   January 27, 2010 at 6:57 pm

   This program will clear all your history and other unnecessary files from your computer.

   Download and run this free program to see if your

   computer is experiencing registry or optimization

   problems. If it corrects your problem then run it

   daily or whenever your system appears to run slow.

   Advanced WindowsCare Personal 2.7.1
   Select the "Download now" button..Not the "Download Here" on the banner.

   http://www.download.com/Advanced-WindowsCare-Personal/3000-2086_4-10407614.html?tag=contentBody;mostPopTwoColWrap&cdlPid=10875987

   Cheers

4. Mr.PainTrain says:

   January 27, 2010 at 6:57 pm

   Install Ubuntu Linux, it comes complete with everything you need and is 100% free! Here’s the version I run on several computers here:
   http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-ubuntu-studio-8.04

5. youmakemeverymad says:

   January 27, 2010 at 6:57 pm

   Yes, put Ubuntu on it. It will make better use of the hardware.

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