Expert: Brian Benosky - 1/2/2009

Question
I have windows 2000 XP home edition. I keep getting messages that my virtual memory is too minimum. I check the task menu and Iexplore is eating up most of my memory on the cpu. I know very little about computers. Dont even know if I am making sense to you. Is there anything that I can do to stop this? My computer is slow to click onto and open up websites. Is firefox a good option for browsing? If so, what happens to the space that iexplore has used, can space be restored somehow? Also, dont know if this is up your alley, but suddenly one day, I lost all audio on my computer. What happened?  Signed, CLUELESS

Answer
Hi Rosemary

I need a bit more information to give you a proper response to your questions.  Please Download Belarc Advisor from here:

http://www.belarc.com/Programs/advisor.exe

Install and run the program.  It will open up a web page with a detailed analysis of your computer.  Please note that there is no personal information included in the scan.  I will need you to save that page as an .html document to your desktop, then email that to me in an attachment to numbersix6@yahoo.com.  If you are unsure how to do this, please let me know.  I will look over the analysis and advise you of what needs to be fixed.
I will venture a guess that your RAM memory is too small and/or your hard drive may be becoming filled up.  More RAM usually helps a great deal, but I can tell exactly what you will need from your Belarc scan.
Firefox is the best browser available, period.  It uses less system resources, and is much more configurable than Explorer.  Before you download and install it though, let's make sure another program won't add to your computer slowdown.
The audio problem is a bit harder to diagnose, but it is often a driver problem.  Updating your audio drivers may help.  Again, Belarc will tell me the information I need to advise you where to go to download the proper drivers.

Brian