My PC is too slow

[eazy87]

My HP Compaq 6510b has 4gb installed ram but is increadably slow. Apps and games say my requirements are met but are slow when run. Please what is causing this and what can I do to fix it. If you need further system info I will provide.

[mdklassen]

From: http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c01044700

Processor:  Intel Core2 Duo (up to 2.4-GHz, up to 4-MB L2 cache)

Memory: DDR2 SDRAM, 667-MHz, two slots supporting dual channel memory, 512/1024/2048-MB SODIMMs, up to 4096-MB total.
 
Hard drive(s): SATA 80/120/160-GB 5400 rpm, 80-GB 7200 rpm, HP 3D DriveGuard

Display:
* 14.1-inch diagonal WXGA (1280 x 800 and 16M colors)
* 14.1-inch diagonal WXGA BrightView (1280 x 800 and 16M colors)

Graphics: Intel GMA X3100, up to 384-MB shared system memory

How fast is your CPU?

What is the RPM (revolutions per minute) of the disk-drive?  5400, or 1/3 faster --> 7200 ?

Your computer has the maximum amount of RAM -- not possible to enhance performance by adding more.

While the game is running, use CTRL-ALT-DELETE and start the Windows "Task Manager".

Click to the "Performance" tab. It will tell you how "busy" your CPU is, and how much RAM is being used.

It may show that the two processors inside the CPU each are 50% busy, because the game is not programmed to exploit the 2nd processor.

So, instead of one processor running at 100% and the other running around 0%, Windows equally spreads the CPU processing back-and-forth between the 2 processors.

At the bottom of that window, click "Resource Monitor" to run it.

Close "Task Manager".

That "Resource Monitor" has an "Overview" page, which will show how "busy" your disk-drive is.

If it is very busy, consider replacing the "spinning" disk-drive by a SSD (solid-state drive), which is much faster at doing input/output.

Measure, measure, measure.

Is it possible that your anti-virus software is doing a "full" scan?  That will monopolize the disk-drive, resulting in "slow" input/output by other programs.

Are you running anything like Bit Torrent?  That can consume much of your Internet data-transfer speed.

The "Process Monitor" can show which programs are doing the most I/O, and which are using the Internet, and which are using the most CPU.