Hello,

i have a little dilema and im hoping posting here will help.My current computer is going to die very soon(i think) and as far as i can see its the motherboard unless you can tell me any different.My pc is starting to get slow and my first thought was the hard drive but after doing some tests thats fine, so i thought it could do with a new install.When starting to back some data up too a seconds hard drive i find that my PC has locked up.Now i thought WTF so to make sure the drive i was backing up too wasnt the problem, i grabbed another and started again, and yet the same thing happened.So as far as i can see its my Motherboard.is any of my current spec worth keeping or should i sell the lot and get something a lot better?


Specs;

Pentium 4 3GHz 533FSB
512MB PC3200 RAM
Crappy On-Board GPX (128MB)


i dunno you tell me

You really need more than 512 Mb or memory these days. You should always have at LEAST 1 Gb (preferably 2). I'm pretty sure the reason that you can't back up your data is because there's probably waaaay too much &$%# built up on your hard drive from years of use. What I'd do, is go into Windows Explorer, and literally just copy essential files you want directly to another hard drive. Don't even bother backing up your whole computer. That way, when you 'start over' you just drag back say your documents. If you do a system restore it still will run just as badly as it did.

I'd start fresh though. You really need more memory to do ANYTHING nowadays. On board graphics is not necessarily terrible (for LFS) on modern motherboards, but I'm sure yours is probably too old. Your processor isn't "slow" but it's waay behind anything out on the marked today. I'd suggest you "sell the lot and get something better" ... definitely

i would start completely fresh...need more memory, decent graphics card if you wannaa play LFS, i suppose that processor is, alright.....yep, definately a new built needed there

a 128mb gfx card is enough to play LFS at a nice rate, but once you want to start add AA/AF and make it look pretty, you need something better. As the others had said, it would be better if you start from scratch and just flog the PC you have now.

Usualy with older pc's it will be your HD clogging up with adware, malware, data harvesters etc. A format & reinstall of your O/S should do it.

Or try PC tools Spyware doc & Reg fix they should clear it up reasonably well although you have to pay for full versions of these programs.

No real need to upgrade if you only intend to play LFS just get a cheepo graphics card & it will fly along.
nice car btw I used to have a 1.9gti

My guess is that your system is old, it's full of useless ancient crap. A format will solve all your problems, but yes, everything will be gone. Seems like it's not a hardware issue, but rather just an old PC getting tired.

As for hardware upgrades, ditching the whole system and starting fresh seems to be what everbody here says (rich bastards, not everyone can just do that) But I must say, grab another stick of RAM for a total of 1 gig and you will notice a major performance increase. Getting a relatively cheap stand-alone graphics card would be ideal aswell, if you want to increase gaming performance. I think a 6600GT, 7600GS, x1600, or even a x1950 Pro would do the trick.

Also a tip for older machines, managing your computers page file and cache really can help speed things up. If you only have one harddrive, try to limit how much page file is actually used (you can take more of a risk if you have boat-loads of RAM)
~Bryan~

yup i thought you was gonna say its old LOL its ok ill look for a new 1 thanks for the help guys