What components are in this pc, and should i try and upgrade it, or salvage parts?

My mother has a HP-Pavillion a6150.uk
it is currently runnign very slowly, and even after defragmenting, clearign up hard drive space, restoring to factory settings even, it is running alot slower than it used to.

The computer is almost 5 years old now, and so i would like to know whether i should try and salvage parts of it, or am i able to upgrade it by buying a new processor and ram to make it faster.

I dont know how to get specs of the components without openign the case and even then it might be hard for me to tell component models, so here are so screenshots from cpu-z:


http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7431/cpu1of.jpg
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/1315/cpu2a.jpg
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/9803/cpu3.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I assumed that if i was to salvage parts from the computer, they would be:
Harddrive
memory card reader
dvd/cd writer
PSU(maybe)
GPU(maybe)(not actually sure it has one)

Its a Q6600 with an 8400GS and 2GB DDR2, it should be fine for everyday uage like I imagine your mother needs, hell I'd use that for everything but gaming however stick another few gigs of RAM in (check how many slots you have in CPUZ) or just open her up to check, 2gig is a bit pants, Crucial seems to suggest its got two slot for a max of 4gig

I'm assuming the low clocks in CPUZ are because the CPU is idling rather than having some issue where it's stuck at 1.6Ghz. Fire up something demanind then check CPUZ again just to make sure of that.

A good reformat & some more RAM should do the trick, if its still slow then tricky, dying HDD? Personally i'd not scrap it, it's still a reasonable machine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rob_B

Its a Q6600 with an 8400GS and 2GB DDR2, it should be fine for everyday uage like I imagine your mother needs, hell I'd use that for everything but gaming however stick another few gigs of RAM in (check how many slots you have in CPUZ) or just open her up.

I'm assuming the low clocks in CPUZ are becuase the CPU is idling rather than having some issue where it's stuck at 1.6Ghz. Fire up something demanind then check CPUZ again just to make sure of that. A good reformat & some more RAM should do the trick, if its still slow then tricky, dying HDD?

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Thanks, i realised that i forgot to mention that my mother does quite a lot of video editing and my younger brother also uses the pc for alot of gaming.
I belive that there are 4 ramn slots currently occupied with 2 1GBram cards.

when running more programs and a game the Core speed goes upto 2396.2

Are you running Windows XP 32 bit??

If so you if you use 4GB of DDR2 you will probably only be able to use 3.25GB to 3.5GB of RAM.

The 8400GS is not a fast graphics card and hence many newer games won't run that great.

A few things to try before you upgrade the RAM:
1.)Make sure your system is free of spyware and viruses
2.)Use CCleaner to remove any old files,programmes not in use and any startup entries not needed
3.)If possible I would re-install the OS
4.)Give the system a good clean when unplugged. Dust build up might be causing the CPU,GPU or PSU to overheat.

Of course there is the possibility you are having hardware issues:
1.)The hard disk might be going kaput
2.)The PSU might also being having issues

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

Are you running Windows XP 32 bit??

If so you if you use 4GB of DDR2 you will probably only be able to use 3.25GB to 3.5GB of RAM.

The 8400GS is not a fast graphics card and hence many newer games won't run that great.

A few things to try before you upgrade the RAM:
1.)Make sure your system is free of spyware and viruses
2.)Use CCleaner to remove any old files,programmes not in use and any startup entries not needed
3.)If possible I would re-install the OS
4.)Give the system a good clean when unplugged. Dust build up might be causing the CPU,GPU or PSU to overheat.

Of course there is the possibility you are having hardware issues:
1.)The hard disk might be going kaput
2.)The PSU might also being having issues

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currently running win vista 32-bit
i have also carried out the first 4 steps you have mentioned.
i shouldn't think there is a problem with the hard drive as i had replaced it less that a year ago

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stylis10

currently running win vista 32-bit
i have also carried out the first 4 steps you have mentioned.
i shouldn't think there is a problem with the hard drive as i had replaced it less that a year ago

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I would install another 1GB of RAM. Out if interest how much free RAM do you usually have??

I have a Q6600,4GB of DDR2 and an HD5850 1GB running under Vista 32 bit(I know) and the system is fine. The 8400GS should be fine for accelerating the Vista GUI but for many modern games it is not that great.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

I would install another 1GB of RAM. Out if interest how much free RAM do you usually have??

I have a Q6600,4GB of DDR2 and an HD5850 1GB running under Vista 32 bit(I know) and the system is fine. The 8400GS should be fine for accelerating the Vista GUI but for many modern games it is not that great.

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i have 2 slots of ram free, in terms for how much when in use, i havent quite checked yet.
the problem with the the computer is that anything takes a long time to load up, even on a factory restore and with everythign cleaned up, just opeining up my documents took around 20 seconds, and thats with no fiels or anything loaded.

RAM, another 2GB although you wont see it all due to 32bit is dirt cheap & will probably make the biggest overall difference.