New computer advice
Discussion
Folks need some help.
I have a fairly old desktop computer that has become increasingly slow, to the point where switching between email, word, Excel and powerpoint can take more than a minute each time.
Typing often lags so the words take ages to appear on the screen etc etc.
The spec seems to be just about OK judging by what is recommended but given that I have had the computer since 2014 I'm guessing it is just past its best, or probably that there are other things this old lump does not have that are now needed with all the latest SW.
Spec says: AMD A8-6500 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 3.50 GHz, 6.00 GB (5.19 GB usable)
64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
I have tried all sorts of things to speed it up (disc is fine, unused programmes uninstalled, health check programmes run, temp files deleted etc but nothing is working. My wife has an identical computer and it is even worse - literally unusable.
So, any suggestions as to what to get as a replacement (budget say £700) or any suggestions as to how to get the sodding thing back to normal operating speeds?
As you will have noted I'm not really a computer guy so I'm just looking for something that works!
I'd prefer not to have to set up a new machine - because I'm an idiot when it comes to that sort of thing, but needs must I suspect.
Ta
I have a fairly old desktop computer that has become increasingly slow, to the point where switching between email, word, Excel and powerpoint can take more than a minute each time.
Typing often lags so the words take ages to appear on the screen etc etc.
The spec seems to be just about OK judging by what is recommended but given that I have had the computer since 2014 I'm guessing it is just past its best, or probably that there are other things this old lump does not have that are now needed with all the latest SW.
Spec says: AMD A8-6500 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 3.50 GHz, 6.00 GB (5.19 GB usable)
64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
I have tried all sorts of things to speed it up (disc is fine, unused programmes uninstalled, health check programmes run, temp files deleted etc but nothing is working. My wife has an identical computer and it is even worse - literally unusable.
So, any suggestions as to what to get as a replacement (budget say £700) or any suggestions as to how to get the sodding thing back to normal operating speeds?
As you will have noted I'm not really a computer guy so I'm just looking for something that works!
I'd prefer not to have to set up a new machine - because I'm an idiot when it comes to that sort of thing, but needs must I suspect.
Ta
Are you technical enough to back up your files?
You can reset a Windows PC, either keeping your files or really re-installing from scratch. It might work or it might be a waste of a couple of hours.
You might have clogged fans or broken thermal paste and be permanently throttled. Fixable if you don't mind learning a little about taking them apart and putting them back together.
Otherwise, buying a new one with that budget will not be a problem.
ETA - my vote at eight years old would be 'C'
You can reset a Windows PC, either keeping your files or really re-installing from scratch. It might work or it might be a waste of a couple of hours.
You might have clogged fans or broken thermal paste and be permanently throttled. Fixable if you don't mind learning a little about taking them apart and putting them back together.
Otherwise, buying a new one with that budget will not be a problem.
ETA - my vote at eight years old would be 'C'
grumbledoak said:
Are you technical enough to back up your files?
You can reset a Windows PC, either keeping your files or really re-installing from scratch. It might work or it might be a waste of a couple of hours.
You might have clogged fans or broken thermal paste and be permanently throttled. Fixable if you don't mind learning a little about taking them apart and putting them back together.
Otherwise, buying a new one with that budget will not be a problem.
I don't mind taking things apart to fix stuff. In fact I think I have already done this on my computer - a few years ago.You can reset a Windows PC, either keeping your files or really re-installing from scratch. It might work or it might be a waste of a couple of hours.
You might have clogged fans or broken thermal paste and be permanently throttled. Fixable if you don't mind learning a little about taking them apart and putting them back together.
Otherwise, buying a new one with that budget will not be a problem.
Cleaning the fan and I think applying more thermal paste or whatever it is.
The fan does come on a fair bit when on video calls etc.
As for backing up files etc - I can always save everything to a portable hard drive and have a go.
If I were to go for the lazy option and buy a new one do you have any recommendations?
Whilst the AMD A8-6500 is no fireball by today's standards, it should still be quite capable of running an office suite.
At a guess I'd say you have some kind of malware which is using up CPU cycles.
Start task manager, got to the 'Performance' tab, take a screenshot and post it here - then we can see how much resources are in use.
At a guess I'd say you have some kind of malware which is using up CPU cycles.
Start task manager, got to the 'Performance' tab, take a screenshot and post it here - then we can see how much resources are in use.
TorqueDirty said:
If I were to go for the lazy option and buy a new one do you have any recommendations?
My only bought PC that I liked - quite a lot, actually - was a Lenovo ThinkCentre "tiny" size. This sort of thing -They come high spec, everything included but are over your budget and in the end not upgradable. Get shiny new monitors? Need new PC.
All of the big "box shippers" are much of a muchness to be honest. I would look at the outlets for a small form factor PC -
Dell - https://www.dell.com/en-uk/dfh/shop/dell-refurbish...
Lenovo - https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/sale/clearance/
HP - https://www.hp.com/gb-en/shop/Offer.aspx?p=c-HP-Ou...
At that budget aim for an i7, 16GB, 500 GB NVMe, and a graphics card.
Old PCs are more than capable, certainly your use doesn't sound like it should be problematic for your machine. I'd put money on there being a solution, whether that's reinstalling everything, or adding a few new bits.
The best solution for you is probably a question of how much money you want to spend vs how much you need to spend. I would say the options are loosely:
1. Reinstall everything, if the hard drive isn't an SSD replace it with one that is. If you can fit more RAM increasing that to 16Gb is probably worth it, more than that, probably not worth it. Find the manual for the motherboard, see what the fastest processor it supported is and see if you can find one on eBay that's cheap enough to make sense.
2. £150 will buy you an ex-office machine that will work perfectly well, better than your existing machine and without the hassle of the above.
3. Go on Gumtree and look for a Gamer's spare machine, you'll get one for £500 that will be miles better than what you have. Often they have the graphics card removed and sold separately, but you don't need that, but if it's left you can sell that and end up paying very little for the machine.
4. Buy what you want for what you want to spend. You won't buy a machine that isn't miles better than you need, so just buy what you like the look of after shopping around a bit.
The best solution for you is probably a question of how much money you want to spend vs how much you need to spend. I would say the options are loosely:
1. Reinstall everything, if the hard drive isn't an SSD replace it with one that is. If you can fit more RAM increasing that to 16Gb is probably worth it, more than that, probably not worth it. Find the manual for the motherboard, see what the fastest processor it supported is and see if you can find one on eBay that's cheap enough to make sense.
2. £150 will buy you an ex-office machine that will work perfectly well, better than your existing machine and without the hassle of the above.
3. Go on Gumtree and look for a Gamer's spare machine, you'll get one for £500 that will be miles better than what you have. Often they have the graphics card removed and sold separately, but you don't need that, but if it's left you can sell that and end up paying very little for the machine.
4. Buy what you want for what you want to spend. You won't buy a machine that isn't miles better than you need, so just buy what you like the look of after shopping around a bit.
TonyRPH said:
Whilst the AMD A8-6500 is no fireball by today's standards, it should still be quite capable of running an office suite.
At a guess I'd say you have some kind of malware which is using up CPU cycles.
Start task manager, got to the 'Performance' tab, take a screenshot and post it here - then we can see how much resources are in use.
Memory usage seems to be quite high. Nothing running really other than a few powerpoint slide decks, word docs, email and internetAt a guess I'd say you have some kind of malware which is using up CPU cycles.
Start task manager, got to the 'Performance' tab, take a screenshot and post it here - then we can see how much resources are in use.
Downloaded core temp program to check CPU temp and it is 28C
In increasing order of cost:
But as said, spending just a little more on something pre-owned will give an even better result and will be a lot less hassle.
- Wipe & reinstall
- Install an SSD
- Increase the RAM
But as said, spending just a little more on something pre-owned will give an even better result and will be a lot less hassle.
TorqueDirty said:
Memory usage seems to be quite high. Nothing running really other than a few powerpoint slide decks, word docs, email and internet
Downloaded core temp program to check CPU temp and it is 28C
The 22% CPU usage is a bit of a concern if the PC was largely idle at the time of taking the screenshot..Downloaded core temp program to check CPU temp and it is 28C
I have a web browser with about 45 tabs open and various other apps running. CPU usage: 3%
In task manager, go to the 'Processes' tab and click on the 'CPU' column to sort by process usage (get the highest usage to the top) and post a screenshot of that.
deckster said:
In increasing order of cost:
But as said, spending just a little more on something pre-owned will give an even better result and will be a lot less hassle.
This is what I would do first, backup all of your data before you proceed obviously.- Wipe & reinstall
- Install an SSD
- Increase the RAM
But as said, spending just a little more on something pre-owned will give an even better result and will be a lot less hassle.
A clean install will work wonders and it may just be that that is required in all honesty.
The more apps you install the more background processes and RAM will be used regardless, I used to backup and reinstall probably once a year maybe every 18 months when I was a windows guy and the difference in performance was noticeable.
Assuming you do the above the next thing as per deckster's post would be to start to look at the hardware, an SSD drive adds instant performance with practically zero load times compared to your standard spindle disk, adding more RAM will provide additional "bandwidth" and your PC will be able to load more data into RAM rather than requesting it from the disk (equals time).
As everyone else has said upgrade to a ssd and increasing the memory should cover you
Or a ex-office machine as a replacement for easier option
That said I think one or two folks have suggested some kind of virus/malware could be the cause and I agree this is a possibility
I’d run a full virus scan with whatever av you have, if you don’t have one then install windows defender and scan with that
Also install malware bytes and scan with that
Obviously also scan the hdd you back up to
There’s little point upgrading or getting a new machine and moving data to it if your unsure if it’s been compromised or not
Or a ex-office machine as a replacement for easier option
That said I think one or two folks have suggested some kind of virus/malware could be the cause and I agree this is a possibility
I’d run a full virus scan with whatever av you have, if you don’t have one then install windows defender and scan with that
Also install malware bytes and scan with that
Obviously also scan the hdd you back up to
There’s little point upgrading or getting a new machine and moving data to it if your unsure if it’s been compromised or not
It's on the limit for RAM, what OS is it? Windows 7 was recommended 8GB, minimum 4Gb wasn't it? Either way, I would price up an SSD, 8,12 and 16Gb RAM options and see where that leaves you. I think you're wasting money putting expensive components in or trying to get the last 1%, so look at a cheap SSD and non-branded RAM. I'm not up on prices, but I think the other guestimate of cost was a lot higher than I would have thought, I think you can do SSD and RAM for well under £100.
I would guess that the issue is you're wasting resources swapping stuff in and out virtual memory because you don't have enough actual memory.
But like I said, it depends how much you want to spend as little as possible and how much you want something decent really good.
I would guess that the issue is you're wasting resources swapping stuff in and out virtual memory because you don't have enough actual memory.
But like I said, it depends how much you want to spend as little as possible and how much you want something decent really good.
TonyRPH said:
The 22% CPU usage is a bit of a concern if the PC was largely idle at the time of taking the screenshot..
I have a web browser with about 45 tabs open and various other apps running. CPU usage: 3%
In task manager, go to the 'Processes' tab and click on the 'CPU' column to sort by process usage (get the highest usage to the top) and post a screenshot of that.
I have Norton installed which I hope is keeping the malware at bay.I have a web browser with about 45 tabs open and various other apps running. CPU usage: 3%
In task manager, go to the 'Processes' tab and click on the 'CPU' column to sort by process usage (get the highest usage to the top) and post a screenshot of that.
CPU has been tracking at 9%, until I opened up the snipping tool the get a screen shot and then hit 30%
Adding more RAM looks quite easy so happy to try that. SSD Hard drive seems easy enough assuming I just copy everything on to a portable drive and then copy it back again - although I'm not sure if doing this means all the programmes need to be set up again? I'm a numpty at this.
Wiping and re-installing would probably leave me struggling to get everything back up and running what with lost passwords etc.
CPU usage below:
paulrockliffe said:
It's on the limit for RAM, what OS is it? Windows 7 was recommended 8GB, minimum 4Gb wasn't it? Either way, I would price up an SSD, 8,12 and 16Gb RAM options and see where that leaves you. I think you're wasting money putting expensive components in or trying to get the last 1%, so look at a cheap SSD and non-branded RAM. I'm not up on prices, but I think the other guestimate of cost was a lot higher than I would have thought, I think you can do SSD and RAM for well under £100.
I would guess that the issue is you're wasting resources swapping stuff in and out virtual memory because you don't have enough actual memory.
But like I said, it depends how much you want to spend as little as possible and how much you want something decent really good.
Happy to lob £100 £150 at this if it avoids me having to buy a new computer and set the whole thing up!I would guess that the issue is you're wasting resources swapping stuff in and out virtual memory because you don't have enough actual memory.
But like I said, it depends how much you want to spend as little as possible and how much you want something decent really good.
I can do HW, but SW is the devil's own language as far as I am concerned.
TorqueDirty said:
I have Norton installed which I hope is keeping the malware at bay.
In all seriousness: this on its own could be a significant part of the problem. Norton is a notorious resource hog and entirely unnecessary if you keep up-to-date with Windows patches. Uninstall it and I suspect you will see a decent and immediate improvement.TorqueDirty said:
No. SODIMMS are generally speaking for laptops and DDR4 is likely to be too modern for your computer.Crucial have a system scanner which will recommend the right stuff so run that and it should tell you what will work.
deckster said:
TorqueDirty said:
I have Norton installed which I hope is keeping the malware at bay.
In all seriousness: this on its own could be a significant part of the problem. Norton is a notorious resource hog and entirely unnecessary if you keep up-to-date with Windows patches. Uninstall it and I suspect you will see a decent and immediate improvement.@TorqueDirty Seeing the individual processes, your CPU usage doesn't show anything untoward.
But as suggested above - bin Norton AV it's junk - once it's uninstalled, Windows should re-enable the built in malware protection, but if it doesn't it will alert you and guide you to enabling it.
TorqueDirty said:
Pearls before swine, mate.I would be wary of throwing money at upgrading an eight year old PC. Your motherboard won't run current DDR4 RAM or an NVMe "disk". You might struggle to buy the correct bits at all. If you buy newer parts they will be wasted running in slower modes, or if you buy the correct parts they are already obsolete.
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