How to speed up older Win7 work PC?

[Rafii2198]

My mom's friend wanted to me to check out her PC from work, it's an old Dell PC that uses window 7 and doesn't have an option to update to 10 and most definitely 11. The PC is really slow it boots up in like 5 minutes then takes time for startup apps to launch and all that before she can begin to work.

 

I took it as I thought it would be fairly easy, but I need some tips of what can be done. I don't want to format or do some drastic actions as she needs the data that's is there for her work so I can't delete it. I am currently trying to update windows to newer version and then update drivers and it might take a few hours. I also noticed there are a few different anti virus software installed like Avast and McAfee, it definitely doesn't help.

 

What I am asking mainly for, as I know you can't see it for yourself and I don't want to share too much for obvious reasons, what would be general steps in revitalizing such PC, and what shouldn't I do to damage it. I was thinking about buying an SSD but well again I can't format so everything would still be on that old drive.

[strange13930]

4 minutes ago, Rafii2198 said:

My mom's friend wanted to me to check out her PC from work, it's an old Dell PC that uses window 7 and doesn't have an option to update to 10 and most definitely 11. The PC is really slow it boots up in like 5 minutes then takes time for startup apps to launch and all that before she can begin to work.

 

I took it as I thought it would be fairly easy, but I need some tips of what can be done. I don't want to format or do some drastic actions as she needs the data that's is there for her work so I can't delete it. I am currently trying to update windows to newer version and then update drivers and it might take a few hours. I also noticed there are a few different anti virus software installed like Avast and McAfee, it definitely doesn't help.

 

What I am asking mainly for, as I know you can't see it for yourself and I don't want to share too much for obvious reasons, what would be general steps in revitalizing such PC, and what shouldn't I do to damage it. I was thinking about buying an SSD but well again I can't format so everything would still be on that old drive.

get a ssd, back up her data to a different hard drive then move windows to the ssd.

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, Rafii2198 said:

it's an old Dell PC that uses window 7 and doesn't have an option to update to 10

Most windows 7 systems should run 10, but without specs its hard to say. I think there are a few really old systems that won't run 10, but most stuff from the mid 00's and new run win 10 in my use.

 

6 minutes ago, Rafii2198 said:

 

What I am asking mainly for, as I know you can't see it for yourself and I don't want to share too much for obvious reasons, what would be general steps in revitalizing such PC, and what shouldn't I do to damage it. I was thinking about buying an SSD but well again I can't format so everything would still be on that old drive.

CLone the OS to the SSD?

 

But if this is a work system feels like a ask IT type of thing here. And system specs shoudln't really be bad to reveal on line(and if they aren't get someone to do this for you)

[PDifolco]

+1 to @strange13930 suggestion, you NEED to replace the HDD by a SSD

And maybe add RAM if the PC has 8GB or less

I did that to the old, quite shitty laptop of a friend (but her drive was kaputt too), and it's a day and night difference !

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

21 minutes ago, Rafii2198 said:

My mom's friend wanted to me to check out her PC from work, it's an old Dell PC that uses window 7 and doesn't have an option to update to 10 and most definitely 11. The PC is really slow it boots up in like 5 minutes then takes time for startup apps to launch and all that before she can begin to work.

 

I took it as I thought it would be fairly easy, but I need some tips of what can be done. I don't want to format or do some drastic actions as she needs the data that's is there for her work so I can't delete it. I am currently trying to update windows to newer version and then update drivers and it might take a few hours. I also noticed there are a few different anti virus software installed like Avast and McAfee, it definitely doesn't help.

 

What I am asking mainly for, as I know you can't see it for yourself and I don't want to share too much for obvious reasons, what would be general steps in revitalizing such PC, and what shouldn't I do to damage it. I was thinking about buying an SSD but well again I can't format so everything would still be on that old drive.

At this point, a clean install is necessary. I take that it's still running the OEM install from the factory, which is a feat that it's still running at all. But that OS at this point would be filled with so many registry errors and bloated with useless crap like all those anti-virus applications, it's far from rescuing. And there's likely some virus infection anyways as those anti-virus applications tend to be even worse than Windows Defender. 

 

Even if you clone the drive to a SSD, making a 1 for 1 image, the OS is so bogged down that fast storage won't completely overcome it. 

[Rafii2198]

Windows says it is Dell Vostro 3900, i3-4170, DDR3 4G and the drve is WDC WD5000AAKX. 3 gigs of ram are basically always used.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Rafii2198 said:

Windows says it is Dell Vostro 3900, i3-4170, DDR3 4G and the drve is WDC WD5000AAKX. 3 gigs of ram are basically always used.

Get more RAM and clone the OS to a SSD and that should speed it up a lot.

[Rafii2198]

Alright, I'll get them after the weekend. How about cleaning it from redundant programs? For example I see TuneupUI, a lot of Avast and more in process manager, is there like an app or something that would help me identify these programs and remove them? Btw these antivirus programs are not even active, they are past free trials. As for Win10, how do I update it? There is nothing in Windows Update about 10 and I am not sure if it's going to run good.

[NOD0ZE]

Aside from standard OS cleanup (DISM / SFC / CHKDSK / ETC) Obvious callout is grab a SATA III SSD at same or larger size; would recommend Samsung because they have a free cloning tool and they last seemingly longer than most. Also, a good dusting goes a long way. CPUs will clock themselves back if they if they start getting too hot. Finally, re-seating the CPU with some new thermal paste is always a good idea. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

12 minutes ago, Rafii2198 said:

Alright, I'll get them after the weekend. How about cleaning it from redundant programs? For example I see TuneupUI, a lot of Avast and more in process manager, is there like an app or something that would help me identify these programs and remove them? Btw these antivirus programs are not even active, they are past free trials. As for Win10, how do I update it? There is nothing in Windows Update about 10 and I am not sure if it's going to run good.

I'd make a backup or image of the system first. I've seen some weird issues when touching stuff on these systems.

 

But if you download a windows 10 iso it should let you upgrade with it.

[Tetras]

17 minutes ago, Rafii2198 said:

How about cleaning it from redundant programs? For example I see TuneupUI, a lot of Avast and more in process manager, is there like an app or something that would help me identify these programs and remove them? Btw these antivirus programs are not even active, they are past free trials.

If they're not running and not using any system resources then I'd just leave them be, unless something is potentially malicious. I wouldn't want to install yet another app just to tell you what apps to remove.

[Rafii2198]

27 minutes ago, Tetras said:

I wouldn't want to install yet another app just to tell you what apps to remove.

I mean I could just use a portable version and put it on my thumb drive, I have there some of these apps just in case like HWiNFO for example. I most likely don't want to install unnecessary apps on the PC, I want to do as little as possible in regards of changing the apps or files.

[Rafii2198]

Also a question in terms of ram and the SSD. Should I find this exact same RAM stick or could I insert a different one? I can't find this exact stick but I found many better ones for extremely cheap as it's DDR3, would it be better to replace that 4gb stick with a better 8gb or could I insert that 8gb in addition to that 4gb stick?

 

As for SSD, do I need to find one that is exactly the same in size as the current one or could it be bigger? Windows says that not even 20% is occupied but I never done this and as I said I can't delete the files as it is the computer from her job and important stuff is on there, so I don't want to mess this up.

[NOD0ZE]

1 hour ago, Rafii2198 said:

Also a question in terms of ram and the SSD. Should I find this exact same RAM stick or could I insert a different one? I can't find this exact stick but I found many better ones for extremely cheap as it's DDR3, would it be better to replace that 4gb stick with a better 8gb or could I insert that 8gb in addition to that 4gb stick?

 

As for SSD, do I need to find one that is exactly the same in size as the current one or could it be bigger? Windows says that not even 20% is occupied but I never done this and as I said I can't delete the files as it is the computer from her job and important stuff is on there, so I don't want to mess this up.

Look up the motherboard model and specs. The model number should be somewhere on the front face of the PCB. That should tell you what DDR clocks and size limits it supports.

 

You probably don't want to go over 2TB for the SATA III SSD as I remember a limitation with non GPT (MBR) partition limits.

[Tetras]

13 hours ago, Rafii2198 said:

Also a question in terms of ram and the SSD. Should I find this exact same RAM stick or could I insert a different one? I can't find this exact stick but I found many better ones for extremely cheap as it's DDR3, would it be better to replace that 4gb stick with a better 8gb or could I insert that 8gb in addition to that 4gb stick?

A 4th gen PC should be able to support pretty much any DDR3 stick and at this point, the amount of RAM is far more important for their usage than the speed.

 

How many slots does it have? What is available?

 

If the only option is a 8GB stick, I'd try it with the existing one and if it doesn't work, pull it.

[Rafii2198]

10 minutes ago, Tetras said:

A 4th gen PC should be able to support pretty much any DDR3 stick and at this point, the amount of RAM is far more important for their usage than the speed.

 

How many slots does it have? What is available?

 

If the only option is a 8GB stick, I'd try it with the existing one and if it doesn't work, pull it.

I was mainly wondering about mixing different sizes as it is not something I ever done, even in school. It has 2 slots with first one occupied with that 4gb stick. I can find pretty much everything with same speed and lower cl and the difference between 4GB and 8GB stick is like 2$ so like I think it's worth it if it works together to add up to 12gb. I am not sure what she exactly does on the PC but it seems it's mainly stuff in Chrome and some documents so more RAM definitely would help.

[Tetras]

4 minutes ago, Rafii2198 said:

I was mainly wondering about mixing different sizes as it is not something I ever done, even in school. It has 2 slots with first one occupied with that 4gb stick. I can find pretty much everything with same speed and lower cl and the difference between 4GB and 8GB stick is like 2$ so like I think it's worth it if it works together to add up to 12gb. I am not sure what she exactly does on the PC but it seems it's mainly stuff in Chrome and some documents so more RAM definitely would help.

In an ideal world, you would buy 2x matched sticks for dual channel mode across the max capacity, but I think anything is better than running just 4GB in 2025.

[Rafii2198]

Alright now for the disk cloning, how do I do that the safest way? Again, no important file to her work can be deleted, that probably includes stuff in Chrome, documents etc., I found many tutorials but I still want to ask as this is the part I am mostly stressing about.

Any software recommendations or tips?