Windows 7 Questions

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Jan 22, 2011
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I have an older Windows 7 64B PC. which I did a clean install of the O.S. and all updates are current. I did the OS install a few months ago. It has a Pentium D 3.00GHZ processor, 8 GB ram, 650MB WD hard drive, NVidia Geforce 8300 graphics. Nothing special but it is a slow performing dog. I have disabled so many services which has not helped. All I want to use this for is general web browsing and youtube videos which are practically useless. Processor load is always at 100% doing even the most basic things and is noticibly slower than a couple old XP pentium 4 pc's I have. For some reason when I check in system properties, 8 GB of memory is shown but only 3.5GB is usable memory. I would appreciate any hacks or changes in settings which might help this under performing PC.
 
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What is running that is dragging it down look at processes for all users. I am running win7 on an old gateway with msoft updating turned off. And Win 10 whackamole constantly in task Manager.
Also constantly tuning off the DVD undating. Make sure the ram is in the correct slot - may want to swap positions
Do you have an app install stuck?

I am getting by fine with 4 gig ram with about 1/2 cached. Also running Norton 360 which helps a lot.

Good luck
 
I hope you mean GB and not MB, so we'll assume you do.
It seems like you installed a 32bit version of Windows 7.
Likely the most lightweight way to get that information is to open a command prompt as administrator and run the following command: wmic os get osarchitecture
 
Defrag your hard drive at least twice. Have to do this every once in a while on an old XP Pro machine I keep, even though it hasn't been connected to the Internet for years.

Look carefully at folders to see just what the "missing" 4.5 GB is holding and delete it when you find it. A few years ago on that old PC I had a bunch of mystery files with a suffix I didn't recognize suddenly tie up most of the hard drive space. I deleted them all. In your case it could be malware of some sort.

If it's 32-bit, lots of stuff today requires 64-bit.
 
IIRC, (I can be wrong since it has been a while) Pentium D only allow 4 GB memory and some will be used by the OS.
That is why you only see 3.xx GB.
You can google and see if that is true.
It is also a relatively hot CPU and the stock heatsink is too small.
 
i have an old dell laptop with 7 + it works OK, not sure of specs without turning it on as i am on a newer HP with intel core I3 8th gen thats better! i only wish W's10 was as simple + newer opened stuff on its own!!! simple is better for ME!!
 
Why would a 64-bit CPU have a 4GB RAM limit?
Could be a MB limitation.
I.E. a MB that will take both 32 and 64 bit processors, but only support 4GB of RAM.
Seems it's reporting the 8GB of RAM, so it's hard to say with so many combinations out there.
Seems one could get a more modern system for not much money. It doesn't seem this hardware is worth the trouble.

(Yet we are all here commenting, LOL.)
 
Observations:

- Your specs are very low-end but should be OK for light use... very light use.
- You really ought to ditch Win7 for Win10 at this point. It's a free upgrade. May was well take advantage of it unless some of your hardware is not Win10 compatible but that's somewhat rare.
- Win10 manages memory better than Win7 and can actually run a little faster in some cases.
- The spinning platter hard drive is not doing you any favors but replacing it with an SSD would be silly for a few reasons. Still, it's an option. They are cheap now.
- Update the BIOS.
- Clean off and replace the thermal compound on the CPU heatsink if it's old and blow out the fan.

Dumb questions:

- You're sure it's a 64 bit CPU?
- You're sure you installed the 64 bit version of Win7?
- What model CPU is it exactly? It'll be shown in Device Manager.
- Is this a homebuilt or store bought PC?
- Does it have integrated video that's not been disabled?
 
A 64 bit W7 user here too. Using a 5-6 year old desktop mostly with Chrome. I don't worry too much with security as Microsoft Essentials still works fine.
This is bad advice. There are thousands of known and unpatched security vulnerabilities in widows 7 that an antivirus scanner does nothing too protect against.
 
This is bad advice. There are thousands of known and unpatched security vulnerabilities in widows 7 that an antivirus scanner does nothing too protect against.
I wasn't giving advice, just saying I don't worry about it. I believe the likelihood of a security breach, whatever that even means, for my specific computer targeted out of millions on the web is minimal. And if by chance it does occur, the effects would be minimal as well.
 
I have an older Windows 7 64B PC.
This has to be said over and over and over again: Windows 7 is end-of-life'd. It is extremely unwise to continue using it in an internet-facing capacity.


If you need to breathe new life into an older system and you need to do the basics (but would prefer to do the basics more privately, securely, stably and efficiently) use any one of the myriad Linux-based OS's out there.
 
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