I have this computer that is old--but like a favorite pair of old shoes. It nearly ran out of hard drive memory so I deleted all but the basic programs. I gained 4GB back on the hard drive but the speed, especially MS browser is extremely slow. Much more so than before. Any advice is appreciated--I have a new computer, just want to save this one to do word processing and check email.

Best bet would be a rebuild with the recovery discs after you backup your data.

Forgot to add that it is running XP SP3 OS, has 27GB hard drive, 769mb RAM, and IE. It still accesses MS Office 7 at an acceptable speed, but IE is slow. If I just add RAM will it speed up internet site loading?

Forgot to add that it is running XP SP3 OS, has 27GB hard drive, 769mb RAM, and IE. It still accesses MS Office 7 at an acceptable speed, but IE is slow. If I just add RAM will it speed up internet site loading?

Part of the problem is that the unit isn't worth very much. So most of its value is going to be in how much you cherish the machine. Current value (up to $100)


If you expand the ram (yes it helps) it looks like the ram max is 2 gigs. To go there is around $60. Another thing to speed it up is to look for a ssd drive. Yours has an ATA interface. You might not find one (cost unknown). But if you can those 2 upgrades will get you running pretty quick.

SSD is solid state so there are no moving parts.

Thanks, I will probably add RAM as suggested and use a external drive for storage.

Adding hardware to an old machine like this would be a waste of money in my opinion. Why dump money in to a system that is just going to be used for web browsing and email? Try running msconfig and disabling any un-needed services and startup items. Also try running some freeware programs out there such as CCleaner and what not. Upping the pagefile may help as well. See this forum for some more tips on making XP run faster. I'm assuming this is XP given the age of the system?

How to make windows xp run faster - Computer Forums (http://www.computerforums.org/forums/articles-computer-server-software/how-make-windows-xp-run-faster-211437.html)