I have a desktop that is so slow that once it opens I cant do anything.
I clciked control panel about 10 mins ago and its not opening.
I suspect a bunch of ancient viruses. My only goal is to change the them to classic to use less ram so i might have a chance to fix it.
Any suggestions on what to do?
Or a way to open the computer in like a text only mode?
Isnt it called like safe mode? WHat is it?
Please help!

Depending on what operating system do you have, opening the computer in Safe mode is different. If you have XP, here you have the instructions;

• Turn the computer on.
• Start tapping the F8 key. The Windows Advanced Options Menu appears. If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard error" message. To resolve this, restart the computer and try again.
• Ensure that the Safe mode option is selected.
• Press Enter. The computer then begins to start in Safe mode.
• When you are finished with all troubleshooting, close all programs and restart the computer as you normally would.

You could use the System Configuration Utility method too

• Close all open programs.
• Click Start, Run and type MSCONFIG in the box and click OK
• The System Configuration Utility appears, On the BOOT.INI tab, Check the "/SAFEBOOT" option, and then click OK and Restart your computer when prompted.
• The computer restarts in Safe mode

After you open the computer in safe mode, you should try to fix it. Let me know if it worked.

Once you are done cleaning out the viruses and spyware ( I would recommend AVG and Spybot for this), it will be a good idea to check your HDD free space and fragmentation levels. Run a diskcleanup, chkdsk and defrag. This will help improve file access and programs and files will open much faster. If you cant free up 15% free space, check out the trial versions of one of the third party programs like Diskeeper which can be set to run automatically and defrags efficiently even with as less as 5% free space.

what you really need to do is to state what you have
age of computer
cpu
ram
hardrive
OS
what you have running in your system tray

depending on what you answer you *may* be better buying a new machine.

You did not mentioned your Computer model or processor speed etc... anyway... There is a virus on your computer and you can remove this by installing avg... If the problem remains... copy your important data into another HDD and format your HDD and install a fresh copy of OS and a good anti virus.. then first update that anti virus and connect your data HDD and copy data to your newly installed computer..

It worked! Heres what I did. I opened it in safe mode. The I ran a disk cleanup which took many hours. Then I defraged it and ran a disk check. I then organized all trhe files and deleted many programs. I also gave it the classic theme to give it the best performance. and now it works! And Im about to install linux on it to make it faster!

The specs are
80gb harddrive
512mb ram
2.2 ghz proccesor
Im suprised by how big the proccesor is since there is almost no ram.
it origonally had only 128mb.
I got it about ten 5yrs ago.

O and its running xp.
I couldnt believe it but when I opened it to clean it dust literally fell out.

Im about to go get compressed air to clean it.
And then install linux!

The computer has no internet so ill put avg on a disk and install it.
But I heard linux cant get viruses so then it wont matter.

you definitely need more ram - another 1meg would be about right

Originally Posted by davemies

you definitely need more ram - another 1meg would be about right

Another 1mb?

Honestly 512mb isn't that bad considering it's age... If you feel the need to get more though, I'd say one more 512mb stick will work fine.

512mb is pretty much the bare minimum for running XP, note that they had to switch to classic view too! so it has nothing to do with the age of the machine.

Originally Posted by Madman340

Another 1mb?

Honestly 512mb isn't that bad considering it's age... If you feel the need to get more though, I'd say one more 512mb stick will work fine.

Well it only has 2 spaces and it currently has 2 128mb sticks.

if linux doesn't run quick enough for you then you might be looking at getting another computer.
i'm sure there are lots of suggestions for linux but i found ubuntu pretty good! or as a good second choice http://www.pclinuxos.com/

Originally Posted by josephcohen

I have a desktop that is so slow that once it opens I cant do anything.
I clciked control panel about 10 mins ago and its not opening.
I suspect a bunch of ancient viruses. My only goal is to change the them to classic to use less ram so i might have a chance to fix it.
Any suggestions on what to do?
Or a way to open the computer in like a text only mode?
Isnt it called like safe mode? WHat is it?
Please help!

I know throwing money at an issue is never a good idea. But, I think in your case it will solve alot of headache and swear words. By reading the post it sounds like you are operating a fairly older computer. I'm not pressuring you into purchasing a new computer but if you want something that's fast and runs when you want it to I know Dell offer everyday offers at http://www.dell.com/everyday that might be something worth looking into. Best of luck to you and your computer.

When my computer is running slow i usually just wipe it an reload windows and i do that about once every six months, that way it does not get cluttered with a bunch of junk and start running super slow, but i really do not have a lot of special programs that i need to reinstall, every time i reload windows.

Originally Posted by Knight13

When my computer is running slow i usually just wipe it an reload windows and i do that about once every six months, that way it does not get cluttered with a bunch of junk and start running super slow, but i really do not have a lot of special programs that i need to reinstall, every time i reload windows.

that doesn't help much though when your machine is 5 years old and with little ram

Just to clarify, I recently got a new laptop. I only got out the old computer to see if I could get it running and have some fun, and install linux on it.

But know I have some linux problems which im about to post a thread on.

Take the back up and format the machine.

Every Saturday ... make the routine to do these three tasks -

1) Disk Cleanup
2) Scan Disk
3) Defragment

You should do a Disk Defragmentation which makes your computer alot faster.

Run MSconfig. To do this, select Start>Run and type msconfig into the space. Select the Startup tab and get rid of all unnecessary programs. The way to determine this is to go to ProcessLibrary.com and check it against their database.

More tips here.

...Or try using a new OS

I agree with several of these posts. But why not pool resources and resell the old device and get some decent hardware? Will the slots only take two 128 MB? I had an old Toshiba laptop that we had to stuff with 32 MB slot to make Simcity 200 work. haha these old devices are good for something!

Is the Linux you are running efficient on that machine at that speed? And what viral protection are you using?

I usually back up my important files.. then reformat my computer...