What can slow down a computer,and how can I remedy it?

Question

How often should I defrag?What can I do to keep my computer from getting slow?

Answer 1

Things that slow your system down!
1. Computers basically have two types of memory. Ram and Rom. Lets start with Rom. Read Only Memory is a storage place where files, programs, music, pictures, etc are stored. An example of Rom is your hard drive. Your hard drive is a storage system not unlike your basic cassette player. The hard drive stores your files and programs on a disc platter. The platter is the same material as you would find on a cassette tape. People get easily confused thinking that a bigger hard drive will make their computer go faster. Next comes Ram or Random Access Memory. This area of memory is where your files and programs are moved to when you use them. You give the computer a command to play a game or maybe to listen to music or perhaps even do your math for you. You click an icon or program and the processor or brain finds that data on the hard drive or cd and loads it into ram. Ram is the place where most all of your programs and files run when you are using them. The processor then controls the ram and runs the software you have chosen. Now lets say you have 100 megabytes of ram in your system. You decide to edit some photos and you start your photo program which takes 40 megabytes of ram plus 5 megabytes to load the picture you edit. You now have 65 megabytes of unused ram. You decide to fire up your media player and play a selection of songs. The media player decides it needs 40 megabytes for the player operation itself plus another 20 megabytes for the stored album you want to play. We now have a total of 5 megabytes of unused ram. You decide to fire up Weather bug or google earth or some other software and its asking for another 20 megabytes of ram. You are now choking the death out of your rescources and what do you think the system will do? Any number of things can happen including simple system shutdown. Most users seem to think that they need everything but the kitchen sink running when they start their system and then scratch their bum and wonder why their system is running so slow. A few examples of software that loads on startup would be winzip, your audio mixer, music download programs, etc! You DO NOT need this crap running! Weatherbug for instance eats up about 20 megabytes of ram just sitting there not being used! Winzip takes another 5, Most everything you have running in the background is not needed!

2. Viruses, adware, trojans, malware, and hijackers! NOTHING ON THE NET IS FREE! It all comes at a cost to the user! PORN SITES, GAMBLING SITES, FREE MUSIC DOWNLOAD SITES, FREE GAMING SITES, etc are FILLED with this crap! Some of it simply redirects your search to a page they make money off of or hijacks your homepage, some of it constantly monitors what you are shopping for, have you ever wondered how uncanny it is that you browsed the net for a new digital camera and the next day you were spammed to death with camera ads in e mail or have started receiving digital cam popups? Some of it simply is full of malwar and viruses that will destroy data and in severe cases wipe out your hardrive!

3. I have heard everybody and their brother claim that their system is free and clean of adware. Adware removal tools are good to have but there isnt any one that will detect all adware! I dont care if its free or costed you a hundred dollars! Think about it. Adware is being produced daily. It takes the average adware removal company 2 months to even realize that there is a new piece of adware. Now they have to develop a tool to remove it! Theres another month! How much hidden crap is really in your sytem?

4. One of the biggest problems is anti virus software. It keeps your system safe alright but in the process it slows you down sometimes even worse than the original problem did! I use NO VIRUS PROTECTION! It sucks!

Bottom line....the best system protection comes from the users own brain! If you browse the net wisely and follow the simple ideas above you will find your system runs far better! Dont get me wrong....do use your adware removal tools.....keep them updated and when they tell you something is trying to enter your system DONT IGNORE IT! Dont waste money on adware removal tools either! The best is still free! Spybot, Spyware Blaster, Adaware, etc are all excellent choices!

One last thing I would like to ad, everyone thinks they need a new faster 3 bazillion gigahertz machine to browse the net! The average hi speed internet connection is around 1.5 megs a second. Some boast 4 meg but in any event consider the fact that your processor in that old clunker is a 266 megahertz processor, it is STILL far faster than what you need to browse the net! Dont let people tell you it is too slow!

I have been building, repairing, and using systems since 16 kilobytes of ram was big! Anyone who tells you the above info is a farce is nothing but an internet illiterate boob!

Answer 2

1) Check for spyware. Run both Ad-aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaw... and Skybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/)...... to remove any spyware. Run both as one may caught something the other missing. Then go to microsoft.com and download Defender to protect against future infections.

2) Check that you have a least 10% of your hard drive free. Go to My Computer and right click on the Local Drive (C:). Look at the properties. If it has less that 10% free space, you will need to delete some files, or move them off the hard drive and on to a CD or DVD. Start by running the disk cleanup, which will remove temporary and other unneeded files. Go to Start, then All Programs, then System Tools and click the Disk Cleanup icon.

3) Run the msconfig utility. Go to Start, then Run and type in: msconfig
Go to the startup tab
You will see a list of all the programs that are loaded when your computer starts up. Uncheck any that you do not have to have. (Usually you can uncheck them all). If you decide you to need one, you can go back and recheck it.

4) Defrag the hard drive. Go into My Computer and right click on the Local Drive (C:). Select Properties and go into the Tools tab. Click the Defragment Now button to start the defrag program. If you have not defrag recently (or never) it may take several hours for the program to complete.

Answer 3

u need to defrag at least twice a week and clean your files in order for your computer not do get slow..i do it twice a week and also u need to do a thourough virus and anti spyware scan afteru do the disc clean up and the defragment ..then i suggest to do a virus scan (quick scan)at the end of the day when u get done on your computer.and twice a week do a full virus scan..and at the end of your day do a spyware scan(standard one)at the end of the day..and a full spyware scan once a week ...and at the end of your chatten time before u log out of yahoo i mean your hompage go and delete your cookies and files and clear history that will help to keep pc runnin smoothly ok.

Answer 4

spyware, always the culprit. Use Yahoo Anti spy, delete all your cookies, and Temp internet files manually.

Go into safe mode, then run anti spy again. Go to Explorer in safe mode, and delete folders in the Program Files directory that say, WT, Wild Tangent, My bar, etc. Reboot computer and you should see a big difference.

Make sure you have plenty of Memory too. Right click on My computer, then properties. If you have less than 256 mg of Ram, get more.

Answer 5

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer Slow

Download and then run startup.exe (FREEWARE) at:

http://www.mlin.net/startupcpl.shtml......

Can't live without it and windows...

Then disable and/or uninstall whatever u don't need.

Other things to try:

1 - Disk Cleanup (removal of temp files, cookies, etc.)
2 - Defrag
3 - Registry Cleanup (CAN BE VERY RISKY!)

FROM A HARDWARE PERSPECTIVE THE BEST AND MOST COST EFFECTIVE POSSIBLE UPGRADE (IN GENERAL) IS THE ADDITION OF MORE MEMORY (RAM).

ALL ELSE FAILS - RELOAD YOUR O/S (WINDOWS) AND THEN REINSTALL ALL OTHER PROGRAMS YOU NEED/USE!

Joe...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer Virus/Spyware/Adware/Malware/etc

All FREE...

Download and then run Avira AntiVir Personal Edition Classic at:

http://www.free-av.com/

Download and then run Spybot - Search & Destroy at:

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

Download and then run Ad-Aware SE Personal at:

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Joe...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Answer 6

It could be because of Ram speed is not propotionate with your hard drive capacity.
Or because hard disk is filled up fully.