A few questions about upgrading my PC.

JoeR

Newbie
First thing I wanna say is I love this forum :P I've learned so much in the last hour or so just from reading old threads!!!

My PC has been acting up A LOT for a while (Including: freezing, 5minute boot times, 25 whopping minute shut off time at times [whats that about!?] and internet browsers closing off all the time in the middle of videos and general lag as well like the simplest of programs taking ages to load properly...) so I've decided to upgrade my RAM which I only learned I could do thanks to this forum! And I'll be ordering it from Mr Memory in a few days.

I've also read about upgrading the Processor and the Motherboard which brings me to the reason I'm making this thread, how do I go about doing upgrading them, is it easy??, where should I buy new ones?, would you recommend me doing so?(like, are there any reasons NOT to) and what ones should I get? (if there is more than one type..)
I also did a quick Google search prior to making this thread and found another forum with a similar thread and I read that you need to update a ''BIOS'' and get a new Graphics Card if your gonna bother with upgrading a processor...I don't know what most of that means so if anyone can dumb it down for me it'd be much appreciated!! :)

A few details about my PC if it helps.
It's an Acer Aspire T180, 512MB RAM, 160HDD, OS is Windows Vista Basic. There's also a sticker on the front(I know, what a n00b:P) saying ''AMD, 64 Athlon-X2'' I dunno what that is but it might help you guys in answering my Questions.
Thanks you for reading all that lol !!!
Joe
 
First off, be sure that you are getting the proper RAM. You can go here to verify that: RAM Memory Upgrade: Dell, Mac, Apple, HP, Compaq. USB drives, SSD at Crucial.com
Unless you are having major issues, there is no reason to change out your motherboard and processor. If you were doing major video editing or rendering, then yes, but then you would prolly just start from scratch and build it. Same goes for graphics card. Gaming or something else that is graphics intensive would be the only reason I could see right now. I think that you will be more than satisfied with upgrading your RAM.
Something else to look in to would be removing any unneeded programs. A good utility for that is here: http://www.techkings.org/useful-free-applications/6430-revo-uninstaller.html
Also cleaning up temp files and fixing registry errors can solve quiet a few problems such as what you have been experiencing. I use this tool regularly to help keep my running smoothly. Ccleaner
 
just upgrade your ram memory and follow ferg advice, i have in the past and i really am benefiting from it, you need to keep your PC maintained in order for it to work smoothly. ;)
 
The most RAM consuming Program I will be using is Sony Vegas 10 and I wouldn't call it major video editing so I'd say I'm grand with just the RAM being upgraded rather than the whole lot, thank you !!! :)
Joe

just upgrade your ram memory and follow ferg advice, i have in the past and i really am benefiting from it, you need to keep your PC maintained in order for it to work smoothly. ;)
Thank you :)
I'll buy that Ccleaner program too as it looks good, is it 19.95 per year or forever?
 
The most RAM consuming Program I will be using is Sony Vegas 10 and I wouldn't call it major video editing so I'd say I'm grand with just the RAM being upgraded rather than the whole lot, thank you !!! :)
Joe


Thank you :)
I'll buy that Ccleaner program too as it looks good, is it 19.95 per year or forever?

it is free mate, you can download it from the website; CCleaner - Standard
 
Go me for not looking lol
Thanks again j4v3d :)

i've saved you £20 :)

no problem mate, just happy to be of assistance to you, there is a thread somewhere on here, just search for it "CCleaner" awesome piece of software, im addicted to it (y)
 
That you did!!!
And thank you :) I'll go take a look now for that thread, it's currently analyzing so I'll let it do it's business lol
 
That was why I linked you directly to the download as opposed to the homepage. It is easy to confuse the fact that it is free but at least j4v3d got the info before you let any money go. Forgot to mention about keeping an eye out and being sure to opt out of any toolbar installations during the process with both of the aforementioned programs.
I have never run Sony Vegas, but I imagine that you will see an immediate improvement with your upgrade to you RAM. http://www.techkings.org/members/j4v3d.htmlAlso from what I have read, your pc only ships with a 250 watt power supply, which would be severely underpowered for todays high powered GPUs.
 
While all the advice you've been given so far is sound, you don't mention how old the machine is & to what level it has been degraded by installing and uninstalling software?

You mention 25 minute shutdown at times? That would suggest serious fragmentation & or invalid registry entries?

One of the best performance boosting upgrades you can achieve on your PC is to add extra RAM (memory) along with a cleanup program such as Ccleaner but depending on how degraded your operating system is, it may be that you need a clean install. Did you system come with recovery discs? or a recovery partition on the hard drive?

One final thing you should consider is your security software. The likes of Norton, McAfee and most of the other bloated efforts including the recent issues of AVG are all responsible for hogging system resources and causing incredible lag in both page and program loading times. If you use any of the afore mentioned security programs (or indeed any of the commercial pay for offerings) you should seriously consider removing them (using their relevant removal tool) and installing one of the equally good if not better free programs such as Microsoft's Security essentials.
 
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From one Joe to another :)

Just a note to say if you do go through the clean install route, Your system should have a recovery partition as Gman mentioned. and you should I think be able to use it by going to something like Acer management in your programs list, and finding recovery options . Or another way is that you can normaly tapping ALT+F10 buttons when booting the Desktop. If you go this route you will loose any programs that you have installed previously so they will need reinstalling, the factory installed programs will be fine. Also ensure that you back up any documents, pictures, music etc to a USB drive so you can transfer them back after computer back to origional installation.

Whatever you do, upgrade that RAM to 2 or 3GB
 
First thing I wanna say is I love this forum :P I've learned so much in the last hour or so just from reading old threads!!!

See Joe told you you'd love this place :)
These guys on here know what they are talking about and will save you loads a dosh!!!!
Never purchase anything until you have looked on here. Any Anti virus malware progs ( or infact almost anything for your pc) search on here 1st as there are links to various progs that you do not need to fork out for!
I have learnt to "search TK" before i buy anything whether it be programmes music films games etc

Youll have your pc running faster and smoother in no time :)
 
As Noel suggested, Registry Mechanic is one of the better registry cleaners, but be careful of such tools!, some of the offerings out there are way too aggressive and can actually cause more problems then they solve ;)
 
While all the advice you've been given so far is sound, you don't mention how old the machine is & to what level it has been degraded by installing and uninstalling software?

You mention 25 minute shutdown at times? That would suggest serious fragmentation & or invalid registry entries?

One of the best performance boosting upgrades you can achieve on your PC is to add extra RAM (memory) along with a cleanup program such as Ccleaner but depending on how degraded your operating system is, it may be that you need a clean install. Did you system come with recovery discs? or a recovery partition on the hard drive?

One final thing you should consider is your security software. The likes of Norton, McAfee and most of the other bloated efforts including the recent issues of AVG are all responsible for hogging system resources and causing incredible lag in both page and program loading times. If you use any of the afore mentioned security programs (or indeed any of the commercial pay for offerings) you should seriously consider removing them (using their relevant removal tool) and installing one of the equally good if not better free programs such as Microsoft's Security essentials.
Hi Gman, thank you for the post :)
I think we got the PC around 2007 but had no internet access 'till 2008 when we began using it more often.
I have ran the Disk Defragmenter a few times so far and have it set to run every Sunday, the System actually did come with a Blank recovery CD and I only re-installed windows about 3-4 weeks ago in the hopes that all this laggy performance would just stop, no joy.

I have AVG and it does take a while to load up on start-up, as does the little Acer toolbar on the top of my desktop page and I'll take your advice and remove it and get Security Essentials :)
Thank you!!
Joe

---------- Post added at 09:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:49 PM ----------

Thanks Jodav:) I have done a clean install but I think maybe when I get my RAM I'll run another one so it's like new and just install programs I know I'll use.
@Linny, thank you :) I certainly do!!! And I'm already coming on here to look for things, it's awesome :grin:
Thanks Noely and Gman :)
Joe
 
Make sure to use the correct removal tool to uninstall AVG. (Remember to run the AVG Identity Protection Remover tool also, if you have that option installed)

Do not use the add\remove programs to do it (y)

Make sure also that you only download MSE from Microsoft's site HERE: Some rouge site are offering fraudulent lookalikes ;)
 
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regular defrags.a good registry cleaner.and a good disk cleaner.maintainance is everything.
 
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