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General discussion

should I just get a new computer with windows 7?

Sep 27, 2010 1:37AM PDT

I have a Dell Studio desktop Q8200 (2.33 GHZ) WITH 4 GB of DDR2 SDRAM at 800 MHz. Hard drive is 500 GB. It is running Vista OS and is up-to-date with all the updates. It was purchased in May 09. Of course the 1 year warantee has expired.

For the last couple of months it has been running extremely sluggishly...takes forever for my home page to come up, and links clicked from the home page take a while to load...even solitaire takes a while to load.

I know the computer should be diagnosed hands on, but...in your opinions, based on experience...is this a computer issue or a Vista issue? I could buy Win 7....should I? or get a whole new computer? It is just used for basic surfing, emailing, word processing. Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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I would persevere.
Sep 27, 2010 5:32AM PDT

At the very last resort you could 'upgrade' to Windows 7, but the issues you describe may just need work to resolve.

You say it is running sluggishly but then refer to a browser home page, so is the problem with the browser, or with the computer in other ways?

If it is just the browser, which browser are you using? If just Internet Explorer 8, (IE8), I would hazard a guess that it has bad or corrupted Add-ons installed.

A quick test. Goto Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools and select "Internet Explorer (No Add-Ons)". This will open IE8 in it's 'Safe Mode' without 3rd party toolbars, add-ons, etc. Can you use it now without problems? In this mode many web sites may not display properly, but since this is only a test that doesn't matter.

If IE8 works faster in this mode, then the problem is Add-ons and you can start testing which add-ons by opening IE8 normally and go to Tools > Manage Add-ons, and try elimination tests.

The other thing of course is viruses and malware. You don't say about that so all we can say is you need a Firewall, an Anti-virus scanner, and a couple of anti-malware scanners.

Finally, I would recommend you download and install and then use another browser, like Firefox, Opera, Safari, and so on. It helps to keep malware to a minimum.

Mark

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thanks
Sep 27, 2010 6:32AM PDT

I do have anti-virus and a firewall. None of that was an issue. I took a couple of programs off plus used FireFox, and it seems to be working faster now. Thanks for your help.

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Windows running slow
Oct 8, 2010 3:33PM PDT

In my case I had a Quad core machine with Vista installed. Had to re-install Vista every 6 weeks or so as once the computer had installed all the Windows updates, it just went slower and slower. It ran best with no updates! Had an AV program and various anti-spyware software. Consider myself pretty computer able but just got fed up in the end as this problem had been going on for a year. So I bought an iMac. This computer simply works - its magic. Prior to this I'd spent many years on various Windows computers and learnt a great deal on fixing problems. Life now could get a bit boring as I don't get any problems!!