Daily Trudge With Computer Getting Worse And Worse - Help!!

[AndiFlatland]

I am the most technologically illiterate person on the planet, and I have a computer which is driving me mad every day. It's running Windows 7, and the browser is Mozilla Firefox.

Can anybody give me a solution which will be quick and easy to understand? Basically I need to speed the thing up dramatically - or I'm eventually going to rip it out and chuck it through the back window!

It's an ex-internet cafe machine, which was given to me in 2013 by the owners of the shop where I used to sit most days for up to 12 hours, as a gift for being such a good customer. I was given no user manual. They had refurbished it so that all I had to do was connect it up to a BT hub and use it. For the first few years it was fine - but over the last two years it has gradually got slower and slower, to the point where even switching it off and restarting it, running a scan (anti-Malwarebytes) or defragging it is having no effect. It is driving me absolutely MAD!! I am wasting entire days just trying to open and respond to a few e-mails, and searching for things on Amazon and e-Bay.

Often, when it just grinds to a halt - especially on e-Bay - I eventually get a box open up on the screen, saying 'A script has stopped working on this page' and offering me three alternative options - stop script, debug script, or continue. I have no idea what to do, but hitting 'continue' seems to be the most effective - although the bloody thing often comes back after a short while.

It won't scroll without a huge battle, every mouse click brings a 'not responding' message, it keeps suddenly flipping to another window for no obvious reason, and most of the videos on YouTube come up as 'your computer does not recognise any of the video formats currently available' (and the comment button has disappeared, so I can only leave comments as replies to other peoples' comments). Going through my e-mails is a massive trudge - especially after the new and unwanted format Yahoo imposed upon me recently - which is absolutely awful.

People I know keep recommending that I get a laptop - which I could afford, although I have no idea what to buy, and I would not know how to connect it up, or whether it would work via the same connecting cables, and would be able to recover all my information - tabs and windows, e-mail, pictures saved to desktop, address list, etc - or would I lose everything, and have to start all over again?

If I took the thing to a local repair shop, would they be able to restore it to its original condition - i.e. factory setting?

If anybody can offer a quick solution to speeding it up, I would be extremely grateful. Or, if you think the thing is beyond its useful life, and can give me advice on how to proceed to the next stage, where I have a computer which is not going to send me into a rage at almost every moment of every day, please let me know. In simple terms - I do not understand what a download is, or how to use a USB stick - and - this is going to astonish you - I don't even have a mobile phone!

Anybody? Or am I just beyond help? (I am an Asperger's sufferer, and do not pick up on new things easily).

Thanks so much for any help.

[Old_Geezer]

Awful lot there to read. Common issues is a lack of system disk space. Check how full your drives are. Updated software can assume higher PC specs. Ensure you have plenty of RAM. You could change from traditional disk drive to SSD. If fact check the existing drive for errors.

You could try clearing the cache. And stopping things auto-running if you don't need them. Must be other things.

[Old_Geezer]

May help to get a knowledgeable friend to look at it.

[hc4361]

I'd come round and give you a hand if you are local to me, Dudley

[davebro]

No idea where you are but if you have a local shop like this take it in and get their advice.

http://www.bordercomputers.co.uk/

[Samuraisan]

I think you need a new one.

[douglas9401]

Our previous machine benefitted greatly from a memory upgrade from Crucial.
A straight swap of components and away it went.

https://uk.crucial.com/

[jno]

sounds like mine, Windows 7 and all. It just gets slower and slower. The memory's only half full so that's not the problem. It's partly that web pages get more complicated every day and the PC just isn't big enough or new enough to cope. I think I'll have to replace it in the next month or two, as I am also being driven mad.

[ToraToraTora]

my advice is to backup your personal files and clean it out and re install windows 7. Probably full to the rafters with stuff you don't need running all the time.

[Buenchico]

Before doing anything else, check that Firefox is up to date:
Click the hamburger. (Three lines, top right corner).
Click 'Help'
Click 'About Firefox'.
You should see that you're using version 69.0. (If not, depending upon how Firefox is set up, it will either automatically update itself or you'll be offered the opportunity to do so, which you should accept).

Next, reset Firefox to its 'out of the box' state:
Click the hamburger and 'Help' again - but then select 'Troubleshooting Information'.
Then click on 'Refresh Firefox'. (It's up at the top right of the page).

That might be all that you need to do. If not, close Firefox and open Internet Explorer. (I've suggested that browser, rather than anything like Chrome, simply because it's guaranteed to already be on your computer). You should be able to get to it by clicking on the 'Start' button. Then try viewing a few websites (such as Youtube). If the problems disappear you'll know that the problem is with Firefox, rather than with your computer as a whole. If not, you'll know that we need to dig deeper into your computer's settings to look for a cure. (Post again to tell us how it goes).

(If you do end up buying a new computer, we can tell you how to use a USB memory stick to transfer data from your old one to your new one. It's actually very simple).

[teacake44]

Before you do all the above , sit down chill out, have a cup of tea, and think its not the end of the world. Lots of people have the same problems at times. :0)

[Togo]

Ohh dear keyboard issues on one thread, brand new mind, that is unusable but you manage to conjure up an array of symbols that require a certain amount of ability and now a computer that is "slow". Throw in a syndrome and a complete set of inabilities and what do now have? A "new" member. Haha fun while it lasted.

P.S. Throw the pc out of the window ........it will go fast. :))

[Atheist]

If your machine is up to it, you could download CCleaner (which is free) and run it to find and delete all rubbish and unnecessary files. I did this with an old machine once and it took an age to clean it up. After cleaning it up I did it again and again with the machine running faster each time. Made a world of difference.