General Chat

For the last couple of weeks my PC has been running very slowly. taking ages to respond or connect. I can't see anything running in the background, all updates have been done. I've Googled for England and tried various suggestions.

I am using Windows 10 and I have moved between Chrome, Firefox and Edge but its the same on all of them.

Any help would be appreciated but please in basic, uncomplicated language.

I am on day 5 of lockdown here in Tenerife and I don't need anymore stress.

Wendy :-) :-(

Have you done a full scan lately
Sometimes too many cookies or PuPs need clearing

I recently had work done on my old windows XP desktop and the engineeer put a different spyware on it and did a full scan
It’s found 1500 ! puPs and it quarantined them, took a while but the pc Is running so much quicker now .
Best it’s been literally for years !

Shirley I have got a virus detector on it that has found nothing. Maybe I'll download a different one and try that. Thank you

If Windows does not have enough memory it will run like a slug.
The slowdown problem is v common with systems having integrated graphics eg intel i3 i5.

try this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUyWEgD8MtA

I couldn't understand the nice foreign lady on You Tube but I have freed up some memory and I'm running a full scan on Windows Defenders.

If I ever get out of lock down I'll take it in to have someone who knows (I hope) sort it out :-0

You will never sort it out properly cos laptops are sold with insufficient memory typically 4TB. Replace the memory module with an 8TB one, 5 mins work ez2do and you will be good t p go. About £ 40 on ebay.
good luck

Is it possibly the strain on the internet resulting from the lockdown?

Netflix is reducing the quality of its streaming because of the load on the net.

Thank you all X

Rollo my problem is on a desktop PC. It is old, bought in 2008, but up to now it hasn't had any problems. I think the problem may be that I don't have enough RAM left.

The spec is
Local disk(C) 464 GB - 75.8 GB used and 388 GB available
Windows 10 2019 edition
Processor - Intel (R) Penrium (R)Dual CPU E2180 @ 200 GHz 199GHz
Installed memory (Ram) 2.00 GB available 221 MB

I ran a memory diagnostic test and no errors were detected.
Windows defender full scan found 3 virus' and removed them
I'm now running a full Malwarebytes scan

As I'm locked down I have plenty of time on my hands :-(

You def need to upgrade the memory - it is very easy to do.
Most socket 775 motherboards use DDR2 memory.
Your motherboard will have either two or four memory slots most likely two with one occupied.
If you have Windows10 32 bit add another 2GB moduke making 4 GB total. THat is the max possible with 32 bit Windows.
If you have Windows 10 64 bit replace the current memory with 2 x 4 GB modules making 8 GB.
DDR2 memory new or used is cheap on eBay. DO NOT buy ECC memory that is for biz servers. If it is a DELL computer get DELL memory as DELL systems can be a bit picky.
There are any number of YouTube videos on how to upgrade memory. Tool needed: a philips screwdriver to open the case. While the case is open take the chance to remove any build up of dust.
You configuration is fine to run Windows 10 but you really do need more than 2 GB physical memory!
byw if you are feeling ambitious you can ug the CPU quite a bit. A 3.0 GHz core duo is around £ 20-30.

Rollo, I'm nowhere near that clever. I can use it in a million and one ways but upgrading working parts is way over my head. Plus I couldn't get the parts at the moment.

It's mind numbing watching Malware bytes doing its thing but it passes the time

Drop Firefox then it is a real memory hog in its latest incantation. MS Edge is your best bet.

Butting in here Rollo, why is firefox a memory hog? could you explain please. And can nothing be done to sort it except change browser?

Firefox deleted still have Chrome and Edge. I've managed to free up a bit more RAM but not much and its still slow.

I'll get more Ram put on it when I can go out to do it. Thanks for all the help and advice

Firefox current priority is to shield users from all kinds of internet bad things, the sort of things that MalwareBytes sees off and more. If you go into the options menus there are lots security goodies.
In doing this Firefox run a "sandbox" which greatly increases the memory used - start Firefox and then look at tasks running and you will see what I mean,
All well and good but it takes a fair wedge of memory.
Most (not all) laptops and desktops have CPUs which have built in graphics. What is called the "address space" for the CPU graphics is subtracted from the physical memory.
Taking the two above matters hand in hand Windows10/32 needs 4 GB memory to run properly and Windows10/64 8 GB.
Most developers assume that these requirements are met. If they are not slow running in multitask mode is inevitable. Edge has been rebuilt to focus on speed and efficiency leaving security to MS Defender.
So long as there is sufficient memory Windows10 is a very good thing for older machines 'cos it is far more efficient than Win7 and before ( as well as much more secure) and can give old kit a new lease of life. The chief downside is drivers for such things as webcams, scanners and audio.
XP did not need much memory being essentially a GUI for DOS8.

there you go

In case anybody wondered I mostly use Firefox myself.