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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
September 3, 2006
Q.
My computer seems to be slowing down. What
could be causing this?
A.
I get asked this a lot and until now have
hesitated to answer it here, but decided to
give it a go.
There are many, many reasons why computers
slow down, and without analyzing the
computer, here are a few of the more common
reasons.
1.Spyware and Viruses.
There is
better than a 98% probability that you
computer contains malware in the form of
spyware, adware, or viruses. This is by far,
the number one reason computers slow down.
Even if you use a good security suite, this
malware seems to get through.
The
solution is to keep your operating system up
to date. The same goes for your
anti-spyware, and anti-virus software. Use
care when downloading and installing
anything. Apply common sense. Even the best
security or protection can be circumvented
by a foolish operator. Run scans often to
assure that the malware gets discovered and
removed.
2. The
addition of programs. Many, if not most
programs you install, seem to assert the
notion that they are so important that they
need to constantly check for updates. This
means there is a little program running in
the background, taking up memory, CPU clock
cycles, and Internet bandwidth, that is
constantly checking for an update.
Now, each of these update checking programs
actually uses very little of these
resources, but if you have 10 or 20 programs
doing the same thing, it can become quite a
burden on your computer.
Along
this same line, there are little snippets of
programs that run in the background that
facilitate their related programs to open
faster. I can think of no application that
is so important that one cannot start it
from scratch from the start menu, desktop
icon, or quick launch too bar.
Solution:
Check the system tray located in the lower
right corner of the screen. Any icon
there represents a program running in the
background and using computer resources. It
could be a update checking utility, or quick
start program as described above. The fewer
icons there, the better. The security
programs should be there, but very few
others are required. On my computers, there
are two displayed, My OneCare, and the
volume control, and the volume control is
really unnecessary.
3. Low
memory. (RAM) Everything that happens on
your PC has to go through the computer's
memory at some point. So if you don't have a
lot of RAM, it may cause bottleneck when
your computer needs to move a lot of
information at once.
Typically, newer software programs require
more RAM than older programs, since they
often have more features and better graphics
capabilities. If your computer could run old
programs well, but is having trouble running
new programs, upgrading your memory is the
first thing you should do. It's relatively
inexpensive and can breath new life into
your machine.
Solution: Add more RAM to your computer.
Make sure you get the correct type of memory
for your machine. There are many types
available, and using the wrong one could
cause you problems. Check the manual for the
size, type, number of pins, and speed of the
RAM. If you cannot find the manual, or never
got one, there is a web site that is very
good about defining the correct memory for
just about any computer.
www.crucial.com lists most computers,
makes recommendations, and sells RAM. Their
quality is very high, and their prices are
very reasonable.
4.
You could have a nearly full hard drive.
This is less frequent recently than
previously simply because newer computers
have much larger hard drives. However, with
the likelihood that your computer contains
pictures, music, and other large files, even
the largest hard drives can become full.
One of
the problems that can contribute to this is
disk fragmentation. This is because as the
hard drive fills up, there are fewer open
blocks of space to write additional files
to. The result is that new files get written
on different sections of the drive (file
fragmentation). Your computer takes longer
to read fragmented files, since it has to
scan more of the hard drive. This can cause
your computer to slow down significantly if
disk access is frequent.
The solution
to this problem could be to delete
all unused files, and then defrag the drive.
But, unless the files you no longer want and
can delete are quite large, possibly the
best way is to add another hard drive to
your computer.
Last
Resort. If none of these solutions help
boost your computer's performance, you may
have to start over with a clean slate. This
is done by wiping the hard drive clean, then
re-partitioning and re-formatting it,
re-installing the operating system, the
hardware drivers, all applications and
programs from their original source.
The time
required to do this, plus downloading and
installing all the updates, made available
since the original CDs were released, and
restoring all the user created files can be
more than eight hours. This is probably not
something the average, or even advanced
computer user should attempt unless all the
required software is known, readily
available, and the entire process is
completely understood.
Then, at least to me, it will become fun.
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