Speed up your PC

By: Scott Brown

Speed Up Your PC

Is your computer running slowly? Windows XP telling you that you
have low memory? Adding memory to your current computer is one
of the cheapest, easiest upgrades that you can do yourself!

There's a few things you can do to make sure your getting the
most out of your current hardware.

For Windows XP go to control panel, system, advancded,
performance settings, advancded, and then change under virtual
memory. In this screen click the radio button that says Custom
Size and put in the biggest number under Maximum Size that
Windows will alow. It's based on the free space on your hard
drive, mine is set at 4,096MB with an 80GB hard drive. Another
thing you can do is shut off all those little programs sucking
up your resources.

Go to start menu and click run. Type in msconfig then click the
startup tab. This is a list of all the programs that start when
you turn on your PC. A few may have icons in your task bar by
the clock. If you reconize any you don't need just unselect them
click apply and ok. Then you'll be prompted to restart your PC.

If your are running XP you can turn off some of those visual
themes to save some memory. Simply right click any where on your
desktop and select properties. Then under appearance you can
change your theme to the classic sytle which will speed things
up a bit if you can still stand the look of your new 'old'
desktop.

Finally you can get more memory installed. Any new computer
these days should have at least 256MB of memory. If your running
an older system chances are your running on 128MB or possibly
much less.

Be sure that the memory you purchase is compaitable with your
current motherboard, check with the manufacturer to find out
what you need. For instance if your motherboard only supports
PC2100 (266MHz bus speed) then anything over wont work!

Installing your new memory is pretty straight forward. Remove
your PC's case. Locate an empty slot, or remove the older memory
if there are none. To install and remove memory there are two
small 'handles' on each end that secure it into the slot, these
must be lifted and then synched back down onto the new memory.
Also, the memory can only go in one way, look at the grooves on
it to see. Be sure to wear a anti-static strap during any
procedure. The small static charges can damage the delicate
electronics in your computer.

About the author:
Founder of AVmechanic Free
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