my computer is slower than molasses going uphill in arctic winter conditions

[gunsmith]

I do the "crap cleaner" & 0&0 defraq , I'm using clearwire.
Is there anything else?
Usually its the AVG slowing everything down but lately its agonizingly slow.
HELP!

[wmenorr67]

Well what is your total % of used space?  The more space used on the computer the slower it will run.

[Boomhauer]

[Mike Irwin] More RAM! [Mike Irwin/]

Have you got your actual Windows installation CD? You might have to do a complete reformat of the hard disk and reinstall windows in the most extreme cases.

You are talking about using Clearwire. Wireless internet broadband? Is your computer itself slow, or is it your internet speed that is slow?

[gunsmith]

Well what is your total % of used space?

I have no idea.

Wireless internet broadband?

yes.

Is your computer itself slow, or is it your internet speed that is slow?

I have no idea.

[MillCreek]

If you recently upgraded to the AVG 8.0, there are lots of reports on the Net about this being a resource hog and slowing down computers drastically.  After I ran into this problem, I uninstalled AVG.

[Ben]

What prgs do you currently have in your startup?

[gunsmith]

do you mean programs? I guess I have a lot or do you mean when I click start?
When I click start I have opera (hardly use) mozilla (use a lot)
0&0 and Crap cleaner

[Ben]

or do you mean when I click start?

If you look in the lower right on your screen, you'll see some little icons (your AVG symbol will be one). If you scroll over each one, it will tell you what it is (you may need to hit the little arrow thingy to show all your startup prgs). Stuff that auto-loads when you start your computer often slows things down.

[gunsmith]

a windows update, zone alarm,AVG,sound effect,quick time

[RocketMan]

When you say your computer is slow, do you mean everything it does is slow, or just that Internet web pages are slow to load and become visible when you go to a website?

If it is just slow loading web pages, try resetting your modem.  Sometimes you can do that by just cycling the power.  Other modems have tiny recessed reset buttons you can press for a few seconds with a ball point pen.

[41magsnub]

When you say your computer is slow, do you mean everything it does is slow, or just that Internet web pages are slow to load and become visible when you go to a website?

If it is just slow loading web pages, try resetting your modem.  Sometimes you can do that by just cycling the power.  Other modems have tiny recessed reset buttons you can press for a few seconds with a ball point pen.

Erm..  on the tiny recessed button part you had better know what you are doing if you do that one, it may factory reset the modem and wipe out your settings requiring you to probably call tech support and get walked though setting it up again.  Just pull the power.

[Fjolnirsson]

Do you use Firefox? If it is the page loading that is slow, Firefox might be your culprit. I just had to drop Firefox after years. I'm using safari right now, but don't really like it. It IS fast, though.

[Ben]

Is your Zone Alarm a recent version? I actually just had issues with Zone Alarm on my home computer and removed it, and my system boots up twice as fast now, and programs load faster. I'm temporarily using the Windows firewall until I can figure out what the Zone Alarm issue was or else find a suitable substitute program.

As long as you have the Zone Alarm installation file handy, you might want to try temporarily uninstalling Zone Alarm to see if that makes a difference. If it doesn't, you can then reinstall it.

Also check your paging file size. Goto control panel/system/advanced/performance/settings/advanced/virtual memory/change.

See what's listed there. Is the minimum paging file size larger than the listed recommended size? If not, make it larger (go up a half gig or so over the recommended) and see if that makes a difference.

PS -- don't do the paging file thing if you don't feel comfortable navigating there.

[Brad Johnson]

AVG is good, but do you have a good adware/malware scanner, too?  I was having the same problem a couple years ago and it turned out to be a plethora of adware clogging up the works.

Brad

[Phyphor]

Gunsmith, for right now, head on over to Trend Micro's Housecallhttp://housecall.trendmicro.com

Assuming it finds no malware, the next step is to run msconfig (you're running Windows XP, right?)

If MSConfig isn't installed, you can download it (Just google it, it's only a single .exe)

'Course, you'll have to tell us what MSConfig lists as currently running, so we can tell ya what to get rid of.

[zahc]

What do you use the computer for?

If it's just a home internet machine and you don't specifically need to run Windows applications, install Ubuntu and live happily ever after. I did this for my grandma and mother/sister and haven't heard a peep from them since. It's funny how people seem to think or at least accept that it's normal for computers to get slower, bogged down, fragmented, etc.