I'm using a two year old HP 2.6 gig 512ram 'puter and it's been running pretty slow lately.  The OS is XP with media center.  I mostly use it for surfing the web.  I do run Nortons internet security and Webroot Spysweeper.  I've scanned for both and come up clean.  

It seems like pages take a while to load (cable modem) and at times my computer takes 3-4 seconds to respond to a click of the mouse.  That really ticks me off.  If it's my computer who is it serving when it's not listening to me?

I don't know a lot about this stuff but I'm not a complete idiot.  Where should I look first to free up resources?

one thing to try.  all the icons down near the time are using some of your system resources.  some more than others.  spysweeper AND norton are going to use alot of memory because they use real-time protection.  that was if a virus / trojan / home page hijacker is opened they should catch it

anyways what you can do is use your mouse RIGHT click on the  icons on the bottom right hand corner of your screen.   tell as many programs down there as you can to disable exit, or close.  norton and spy sweeper espescially.   give them a couple seconds to unload and see if the system runs any better.  don't open any email attachments or any files from the web in the mean time.  just see if the sytem runs any better.   with this protection the more system resources are used......    if it runs better i suggest buying more memory.  its very inexpenisive buy as much as you can afford, or as much as your system will handle

i buy from newegg
and crucial

if you need help finding the right memory post your sytem model and we will get the the right type

if you havn't turned your cable and or router off lately you might power cycle the both of them

run "disk cleanup" and do a defrag.

I've tried that and killing either one does seem to help.

Here's a couple of screen shots of my task manager.  Please tell me my machine is acting as a host to some secret midget Pron ring so I can uninstall the offending program and get on with my life





Its model number is m377n.  I swear this thing runs no faster than my good Ol' pentium II 450mhz with the ram filled up.

good grief.   60 processes........

close music match AND spysweeper and see how it runs

mim.exe 60+mb is musicmatch.  spysweeper 130MB is obvious  you can also click END TASK and it will also close most programs unless its a critical task

can close aim its taking up almost 50mb  

EITHER way a media edition pc should have a minimum of at least 1gb of ram.  

My first impression was to see what Task Manager looked like to see if CPU usage was at/near 100%.  But didn't see that in your screenshot, but saw something interesting about memory usage.

According to the screenshots, at the time, you were using almost all of your 512MB.  As you get near that number, the computer automatically starts using a section of the hard drive as RAM.  A trip to the hard drive is a thousand times slower than a trip to RAM (in CPU years).  Also, it looks like you were probably well above the 512MB mark as some items were using 150MB by themselves.  

It's normal for the computer to lean on the hard drive when memory gets full, it keeps the computer from crashing (as often).  Some of the big offenders look like:
* Internet Explorer
* SpySweeper
* ehrec.exe...a Windows Media Center file
* mim.exe...MusicMatch

There's a few big hogs, and oddly, a high number of medium size hogs.  There's a few ways to go about it:
* Throw hardware at it..upgrade to 1GB of memory, if it turns out that it is a memory problem
* Search for the errant programs..takes a while to figure out what each one is doing...Googling each and every one on the list to see what it does.  Uninstalling/Reinstalling certain software.  Even then, this is just a guess as to what the problem is.
* Backup your personal data and reinstall Windows...the "nuke it from orbit" approach (just to be sure).

I did a disc cleanup and that helped a lot!

This is what it Crucial says about my RAM:

Start by determining how many megabytes (MB) your computer can hold.

The Crucial Memory Advisor tool has already done this step for you! The maximum memory your HP - Compaq Media Center m300 series can support is 4096MB.And I only have 512? I really need to throw some ram at this thing.  They say I have 4 slots.  What should I fill them with?

www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?model=Media+Center+m300+series&tabid=AM

ccleaner  would do a better job than disk cleaner. but thats ok


get as much as you want.  the more the merrier

For Ram I usually purchase Corsair or OCZ........you don't need anything with heatspreaders on it for your machine......Corsair value select would probably be a great fit.......

Nothing better for a Windows machine then a good old fashioned reinstall now and then.

You do back up don’t you? haveSpybot

After that you could use msconfig to hunt down unneeded startup programs, be careful and 'know your target.'

Start>>> Run 'msconfig' press ok    Then remove programs from the startup list that you know don’t need to be there, one at a time then restart. If all is well repeat until only the programs you need start.

As others have said get your self some more ram.

The OS is XP with media center

Thats your problem.  Media Center has like 3x more processes than regular XP or XP64.  Even if you do a reinstall your still going to have more processes running.  It's a Shitty operating system to begin with.  Just d/l a hack of XP Pro until you buy another computer since that is fairly outdated setup

Memory will help, throw another gig at it.

Here is a plan to take back your computer ...I just did this in Photoshop

That pic is great gaspian....must save for future lol

Quoted: That pic is great gaspian....must save for future lol

+1 that's hilarious.....

Do you have a higher res version of that? I want to make that my desktop at work and see what the other admin says :)

-d

Quoted: Do you have a higher res version of that? I want to make that my desktop at work and see what the other admin says :) -d

no, sorry. The war plan is only that big because thats the largest war plan I could find on google. Its actually a real plan from Vietnam

That is not a bad computer and should serve you well. It sounds like you have installed a lot of stuff on there. I find that Windows needs to be occasionally reinstalled to run smoothly. Limit the number of applications you install to only what you really need. You may also want to throw a bit more RAM into it. 512k is what I consider a minimum configuration. 1-2GB is going to show a marked improvement with all those apps you are running.

This is probably the most dramatic fix for your problem, but I assure you it will leave you with the snappiest resulting computer.


ETA:

I always install Windows and install all my crucial applications and then install a 2nd instance of Windows on another drive. Boot to that 2nd drive and do a WinZip backup of the "Windows" and Documents and Settings" folder of my main windows install. Then whenever I need a fresh start I can boot to the alternate drive and unzip these files to restore my system to a clean and fast running system.

Wow,

I love Gaspain's Map but he underestimated the vastness of my PrOn

I'm ready to order some RAM.

My machine is an HP media center pc m377n

Is this the correct RAM ?

www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820220079

I hope so it's made in the USA

hp



Memory
Comes with two 256 MB (512 MB total) PC2700 or better dual-inline memory modules.

   *
     Motherboard accepts DDR400/PC3200, DDR333/PC2700, or DDR266/PC2100 DIMMs. Dual channel supported only when identical pairs are used.
   *
     Motherboard contains four memory sockets in two pairs (sockets 1:3, and 2:4).
   *
     Upgradeable to a maximum of 4 GB (Maximum of 1 GB DIMM per slot).
   *
     Motherboard requires a minimum of one 64 MB module.


ALSO

from hp's website it says your original harddrive is only a 5400 rpm drive.  might buy a faster drive, then use the original as a storage drive

Cruze5 Thanks!

I'm in over my head now.  It looks like the Ram I selected meets the specs.  Does it matter what slots I put the new additional RAM in and will I have to remove what's inplace from the factory?

if the slots are color coded put them in so they are in the same color slot.   thats about it