MAKING SYSTEM FASTER

as there is pretty much nothing u can do. adding ram is rather expensive maybe 100 bucks so it isnt worth it. only think i suggest is maybe wiping both hard drives and only installing necessary stuff.

write hard to read and it most forums it's considered rude.

More RAM .. say up to 512MBs, usually enhances system performance especially with modest processors and so do 7200 RPM HDDs and enough disk space. Windows doesn't do well with minimum hard disk space. You'll need to know the MB make, model and revision number to get the right RAM for the upgrade. 'CPUZ' is good at getting you that indo.

VAPCMD

Seriously if you are young, then don't mess with it. If you can work full time then go get a job, save $800 have someone who isnt a noob help you spend $600 on new parts and keep the other $200 for repairs if you botch the job.

You will learn a lot more and the 1.1ghz box. If I had it, I would scrap the RAM buy 1 stick of 512MB of the fastest soppourted, install Open32 XP on it, a stripped down auto installing, zero config xp that installs to a meager 900mb. Then I would install a torrent downloading program, Tight VNC and of course, folding at home. Then I share the hard drives on my network, make it fold and download and could be accessed by any computer with VNC installed. I wouldn't bother with a keyboard or mouse.

Thats what I did to my 500mhz celeron POS with 2x20gb hard drives and a 10gb hard drive.

But don't expect much.

Make the startup list skinny.

Clean all the unneeded files off those HD's...get brutal.

Defrag.

I would reformat your HD and add back only necessary programs, install an adware removel program like AdAware and use it often, install a lean anti-virus program like NOD32.

Other than reformatting - as you have been advised - there's not much that you can do. You have some outdated items indicated.
Star saving some money for another system. Seriously.
I went the same route in my younger years. Before all was said and done, I'd blown 600 clams and still had a s
low PC.Good Luck.

I have a computer that is older and slower than yours, with less memory. It was still running pretty snappily, but was completely obselete.

I downloaded Ubuntu Linux and installed it on there. It should be faster and more stable than your Windows ME, and you'll still be able to surf the web, make Skype calls, do serious work on it, listen to MP3s, etc. It's free to use, and they'll even send you CDs for free.

You can install it onto your 6 gig hard drive and still leave Windows on the big one too. That way, if you get a new computer, you can use Ubuntu and the Samba software as the means of transferring files from the old one.

Some people have tried to give answers, but they've only hit a few things. I have a Sony VAIO laptap, 850 MHz w/ 20 GB hard drive. Here are some things I would recommend:

1. Memory upgrade. A memory upgrade is one of the cheapest things you can do. Don't buy fast memory unless your computer can support it. If you put fast memory into a slow CPU bus, it will perform the same as memory matched to your CPU bus and you will have wasted your money. I would go up to 512 MB. Make sure you know what kind of memory to get, and then buy it cheap on ebay or check pricegrabber.com or frugal goole and others.

2. Scan for memory resident programs that install at startup and get rid of them. You can run a scan online at PCPitstop.com. They will run diagnostics on your computer and make recommendations based on what they found. Under the Windows section in the results, they will tell you all the processes that are running, which ones are needed, and which ones you would get better performance from by not having them start until you need them.

3. Scan for viruses and spyware. Others have suggested reformatting your hard drive. This is a long and time consuming way to get rid of spyware. A better way is to download SpyBot search and destroy from http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html. It is free and will detect and remove spyware. It also has a tool for controlling which programs run at startup. You can get free antivirus software from Avast at http://www.avast.com.

4. Turn off any fancy feature settings in Windows that give special effects - such as fading and shadowing. From Windows XP (I think ME is similar), you do this by right clicking on ''my computer'', select ''properties'', click the ''advanced'' tab, then click the ''settings'' button under ''performance''. You can de-select many special effects that eat up processor time. I usually leave only the ''smooth edges of screen fonts'' active.

5. As others have suggested, defragment your hard drive regularly. Another trick is re-partition your hard drive into two drives, C: and D:. Make the D: partition just big enough for your windows swap file (virtual memory) times two. For instance, I use a 1.5 GB swap file on a 3 GB partition. This keeps the swap file from causing your main drive C: from getting fragmented very quickly. The swap file can be managed by following the exact same steps in 4. above but then selecting the ''advanced'' tab and then the ''change'' button under the ''virtual memory'' section. You can tell what size you want for the paging file and where you want it to be. You can use partition magic (not free) to do this without having to reformat your whole hard disk.

6. Run PCPitstop.com to find out how fast your hard disk is. If it is slower than 20 MB/s, then you can get an external USB hard disk that is 20 MB/s, which is faster than your internal disk. By getting and external disk, you can keep it when you do upgrade to a new computer. My old VAIO actually has USB 1.01, which is only 1.5 MB/s. I added an external firewire hard disk and I get 18 MB/s. My internal hard disk is 13 MB/s.

7. PCPitstop has a nice little software package for a modest price called PC optimize that will check your registry and make tweaks that can improve your internet connection and computer's performance.

So, here are 7 easy things you can do for very little extra cost. I still use my VAIO 850 MHz as a nice little email, internet browsing, word processing, photo editing, and light use machine. It's not powerful enough to edit video or for gaming, but it's still very useful.

I had 3 old units under the bench in my computer room that I intended to upgrade and soup up. One day I put them all out in the back yard, went in the house and got my 12 ga. shotgun. When I stepped out the door they got fast real quick. The last I saw they were heading over the next ridge, and I think they are still on the run.
All ''joking'' aside, I would junk it, you can build a new workable system today for less than $600, and a higher end system for around $1000.
Fred

If you notice, most folks are recommending buying/building a new computer. All of the replies are giving you pretty good reasons why. Here's another one: Windows ME is going to the 'non-supported' status in the very near future (if not already)... and even supported, it can be a 'bear' to work with when it has issues (which is often).

Even if you were to upgrade to XP, you will find that the time it will take to ''prepare'' to upgrade is a lot since some upgrades to drivers, BIOS, etc. need to be done BEFORE you load XP -- and then the rest of the driver, etc, upgrades go on after the XP load. IF you're lucky everything you need will be available -- chances are, they won't and you'll be unable to totally upgrade without losing ''something'' during the process.

While it sounds like you're somewhat content with your machine (and you also sound like one of these folks that are ''proud'' to still be using a oldie), start doing some research and comparitive shopping for a new one. ''Back-to-school'' specials will be abundant very soon and you can get a great machine at a really good price.

Good luck!

I have a 233 pentium with 256M of RAM that I had Windows ME on and it was so slow that you started doing something and had to walk away for a while and do something else. I just use it for extra network drive space, so speed isn't really an issue for me. Try Windows 98 or, better yet, Windows 2000. I loaded W2000 and am amazed how much faster it is. Linux is another option. It'll still be slow but at least it'll be useful. If you're doing much more than internet surfing or word processing, I'd have to recommend a new PC

I don't know how much you can afford to do, but if there's any way you can, get rid of Windows ME. Microsoft gave up on it a long time ago. People with Windows 98 Second Edition are better off. If you could afford to buy a Windows XP Home upgrade version on eBay that would be the best route. I hope you are using the 30GB hard drive as your primary hard drive; if not, install the XP on it (using NTFS file system), install your applications, then copy your data from the 6.4GB drive onto the 30GB drive, then low level format the 6.4 and remove it from your system. Your motherboard probably supports ATA66 or ATA100, and the 6.4GB drive only supports ATA33, at best, and it's not going to give you optimal performance. Make sure the CD-Rom or CD-RW drive is on the Secondary IDE channel by itself, not sharing a cable with the hard drive.

Second, upgrade your memory to 512MB or more, preferably with matched memory (2 identical sticks of 256MB or 1 512MB)- you could start with 1 256MB stick and buy a second later if you buy a commonly available brand like Crucial, Kingston, PNY, etc. Third, buy a faster video card on eBay- Your motherboard probably supports 4X AGP so look for a 64MB or 128MB video card that goes up to 4X, which should be pretty inexpensive since most common video cards now are 8X AGP or faster.
If your board has integrated video, buy a fast PCI video card of a model similar to the 4X AGP cards you see on eBay, and disable the onboard video.

Lastly, if you have the money you might research your motherboard and upgrade the CPU to the fastest model supported. Of course, if you're not a particularly diligent shopper, you can spend enough money doing these things to buy a new system, so do your homework and shop wisely.

While I agree with several of the comments advising you to replace your PC or upgrade to Linux/Windows XP, there are some things you can do to speed up your current machine without spending a lot of money and without changing your operating system.

1. You say you have 194Mb memory. I'm guessing that either you have two sticks of RAM, one 128Mb and one 64Mb or you have 32Mb of shared memory for onboard video. If the former is true, Replace the 64Mb stick with either another 128Mb stick or a 256Mb stick, depending on your financial resources. Whatever your configuration is, upgrading RAM is the most economical "bang for the buck" you can do to improve your net performance. More RAM is better, but whatever memory upgrade you decide to do, do not bother going over a total of 512Mb as long as you're going to keep Windows ME.

2. Since you have two physical hard drives, move your swap file (virtual memory) to your D:\ drive (assuming D: is your second hard drive.

3. Create a D:\Temp directory and modify your autoexec.bat file with the following statements:
SET TEMP=D:\Temp
SET TMP=D:\Temp

4. Move your Internet Temporary Internet Files directory to D:

5. Go into the control panel-add remove programs and remove any programs you don't need, plus any windows programs you don't use or need.

6. Go to Start-Run, type msconfig, go to startup and disable any startup programs you don't really need to run automatically. Examples include Adobe Speed Launch, Microsoft Office startup, Microsoft Messenger, etc. All will run ok when you click their links, they just won't start quite as quickly, but if you don't use them, they're just sitting there, taking up system memory and CPU resources. Reboot and check the box in the warning msg you'll get that says "do not show this msg again" (or something like that)

7. Even though Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 98 and ME, you can still get all the available patches and security fixes. Do not download any hardware updates unless you are having problems with your hardware. Reboot even if they don't tell you to.

8. Run scandisk and fix any problems it reports

9. Defrag your C: and D: drives.

10. Do a google search for regclean (free). Download, install and run it. There are other registry cleaners, of course, and you are free to try any of them, but I'm trying to keep this as simple and low-cost as possible. Run regclean and remember to make a backup of your current registry before you run it. Reboot.

That's about the end of free or low-cost things you can do to a WinME system. Windows ME is probably one of the worst operating systems that Microsoft came out with in recent recorded history, but if it's working for you, good. Don't mess with it too much.

Lastly, in deference to some of the other posts, start saving your pennies for a new system.

Good luck!

When you are running a slower computer, with the smaller amount of ram you have to ask yourself a big question. Faster old computer with older windows type that you cant even get updates for anymore. Or have slower, small ram with a newer or newish windows? Weird question right? not really if your stuck on cash your pretty much stuck. With the old geezer 95, and win 98 they dont need to much to boot up, wether it be processor speed or memory 95 and 98 take less also less hard drive space taken up. the newer the windows the more space it takes, and more speed and memory (ram) it needs to work. The bigger the hard drive the more it can store but with bigger hard drives it takes ages for a slow processor to do anything and even worse once the hard drive is full or semi full. It's amazing if your computer can get passed the windows startup. *smiles nice big grin* If you want something that works and can get past the money problem (now or in time) get yourself a nicer newer faster computer. Heaven for me was a 1.?ghz processer with 80 gig... list goes on brand spankin new toshiba that just flew * (it was worth the wait it took to get the money for it) once windows start up screen came up a couple of enters and in 3 seconds flat I got threw the windows start up. Dont have money? Save up, forget about ur old stone aged computer (the more dough or things you put in it, it will be longer before you can afford a newer faster computer). if it takes to long, get a spare job *smiles* Afterall you can try every trick in the book but the older the machine the slower the processor is. Which altogether means *to slow to upgrade*

Hi, the answer to speeding up a PC is never simple, the specifics of the system often come into play but in a case like yours, here's where I'd look:

1) remove start-up items (all those software that start when you boot up your PC); they can cause major delay and memory load, thus slowing down your machine. The basics you'll want to keep running when you start up are: antivirus, software firewall, drivers (video card or printer interfaces for example)

2) I know it sounds awful, but clean up your machine, I'm hoping you already keep it clean of viruses and adware... but just in case

3) add more RAM, 194 megs of RAM is very nice to run your basic Windows ME config, but once you get all of today's software installed and loaded up in memory, it's often not enough. Check your motherboard and max that out if you can to 512 or more megs of RAM. You should be in for about 40-50$ on Ebay depending on the specs of your motherboard. You must check which kind or get your local geek to do so if you don't know how. Most likely you'll be looking at SDRAM but find your motherboard model # (usually printed near the CPU) and type it in your favorite web search engine.

4) Keep your hard drive well defragmented. All Windows versions come with a disk defragmenter. Not keeping a organized HDD is one of the most common reasons for computer sluggishness... It's like reading a book when all the pages are spread all over the floor. Keeping the bookpages in order usually makes it a lot faster to read a book, keeping your HDD in order will do the same.

5) Keep Windows and your other software installed on separate drives (install Windows on your 6.4GB drive and most your other software on the 30GB drive) It's probably not an option at this time, as all your applications are most probably already installed, but keep it in mind if you ever need to start from scratch. In order to get the benefits of this you will also need to switch your cables around in order to put your HDD on separate connections (cables). Bear in mind that you will not get as major an enhancement from this as you would with the other solutions.

I think that covers the basics. BTW, an AMD 1.1 is more than ample processing power for most of today's basic user needs (including an upgrade to Win2k or XP but don't expect to be able to get anything if you switch to VISTA, that ones gonna need a major system to run at all.) Don't expect any hardcore gaming capabilities, or to be editing long home videos, but if you're running web applications and office software, playing music and managing pictures, you'll have that machine running quickly enough for years to come.

Hope it helps!

i would suggest format pc using ur window xp cd(or whatever cd u have.)
first back up ur wanted data (really important)
turn off ur pc
turn on ur pc and insert cd
and then format cd on the disk c, it will automatically delte everything on the drive c and back to the condition which ur first start it.

IF you don't want to wipe your drives and reformat using the small drive for your OS, then let's get started:

512MB is the MAXIMUM amount of memory that Win ME will properly recognize. IF you can find a stick so you can boost your memory to 512MB total somehow and do it cheaply (PNY), then go ahead. Go to these sites and tweak Win ME the way they say:

http://www.mdgx.com/me1.htm

http://www.dougknox.com/

http://www.winguides.com/registry/

Set your Virtual memory settings to these amounts:

First box:512x2= 1024 in 1st box

Second box:1024x2=2048 - 1 = 2047 in 2nd box, close window

Download TweakUI and use the tweak settings in it for further performance gains.

Empty Temp, Temp Internet and Cookies folders.........

Make sure HDDs are set for DMA

Type msconfig.sys in the RUN Window on the Menu and turn off apps that start up and are not needed

Do complete system maintenance and make sure all unused programs/apps are removed first.


You might just be better off to save all your data files, your address book (.pst files), your pics, etc. and burn(copy) them to a cd and just reinstall ME clean. If you do get all the updates now and SAVE them to your hard drive as they're not going to be available much longer and install up to the latest you can get, update all your hardware drivers to the latest for ME, then do the tweaks, copy your docs/pics/etc, back onto your drive re-enable your antivirus, make sure that your firewall (zone alarm, free), spyware/adware detector/removers are updated (adaware, spybot, hijack this , all free), your popup stopper (panicware, free)is installed and check things out. While your at it, pull the side covers off the tower, take a can of compressed air and blow the insides out so there is no dirt chunks, hairballs, etc inside the case. There is more but too much to go into on this thread..the basics have been covered..........