2007-01-12 04:59:31 · 7 answers · asked by Waldo Y 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
What can I add? The answer above mine seems to be given by a very informed person. It is probably one of the most informed answers you will ever receive on here.
2007-01-12 05:30:47 · answer #1 · answered by The Eight Ball 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Think of driving your car on a long trip. The more weight you are carrying from passengers and cargo, the slower it accelerates and the less gas mileage you get. Throw a sofa on the roof and aerodynamic drag slows you ever further. Let's not talk about pulling a trailer! Also, the longer you drive your car without a tuneup, the worse it performs.
You computer works much the same way. Anything loaded into memory is "weight" that slows it down. The more windows you have open, or unnecessary background programs you have going, the slower your system will be.
It seems like every software vendor believes that their glorious product it the only one you'll ever use. So why not add a tray icon to make their software easier to work with? But when you have 15 different icons in the tray, your computer goes from Ferrari to Fiat.
Much of this "bloat" comes from sloppy software design. Think of the first two names that come to mind when you think of anti-virus software. Yep... Those two. Absolute garbage. Sure... They might stop a virus, but they are so bloated they slow your system for no actual reason.
More drag comes from adware and spyware you pick up while surfing the web. Some is innocent, while much of it is a serious security risk. And weight your system has to carry.
Here are a few of the most common offenders:
Screen savers
Adware
Spyware
Toolbars
Security suites
Tray Icons (QuickTime, Real Player, etc.)
Instant messaging clients
The trick is to stop unneeded programs from running on startup. Windows has a tool for this called msconfig. There are good utilities around that allow you to stop these from loading as well.
Next, clear your system of Adware and Spyware. AdAware and SpyBot are two excellent free tools. Clear your temporary internet files. Defragment your hard drive.
Finally, make sure that your anti-virus software is not only effective, but efficient as well. Don't load options you don't need. Unless you post your e-mail address in public, you probably don't need anti-spam software loaded. This is one of the worst offenders when it comes to slowing your system.
There are many informative sites out there you can find with a simple search, including the Microsoft web site. Just be wary when a site offering tuning advice is trying to sell you something.
Do a search for Microsoft Security Center. Do some reading, and familiarize yourself with Adware and Spyware.
A little housecleaning and your system will run better than new.
2007-01-12 13:25:27 · answer #2 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Many things can slow down a computer:
Not enough RAM: 256MB is pretty much the minimum for XP
Not enough free hard disk space: things run more smoothly with 15% free space for temp files
Slow internet connection: no matter how fast your computer is, if you're surfing or watching streaming video, your performance is constrained by the speed of your connection.
Too many background programs: many programs, both benign and malignant, configure themselves to startup when windows starts. These take up some of your memory, and too many of them can slow things down.
2007-01-12 13:11:16 · answer #3 · answered by Fix My PC Mike 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's probably problems in windows.
Step 1: Get ad-aware from lavasoft.com, it is free - make sure it is updated and run a full scan.
Step 2: Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and bring up the task manager. Switch to processes. Make a list of the processes that are running, and search for each one online. Find out whether each file is
a) a virus, in which case you can find tools or step-by-step instructions for removing them
b) non-malicious files that are taking up resources unnecessarily, same solution as 'a'
c) necessary files for windows to run - leave these alone
be careful because virus writers love to name their files the same as things that are supposed to be running, they will use capital i's in place of lower case l's etc.
once you clean up that, then run defrag on the hard drive
if it still seems slow, get a utility for cleaning out your registry
2007-01-12 13:07:18 · answer #4 · answered by superfunkmasta 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
How much memory do you consider a lot? How much space left on your hard drive? How many applications start when you turn on your computer? Have you swept your PC for viruses and bugs recently? Get rid of unused programs.
2007-01-12 13:08:05 · answer #5 · answered by David L 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A "con"puter will probably not perform. Whatever you do, don't fill up your harddisk. Leave plenty of MB's free :) Just kidding.
Clean up your HDD? Or add some more RAM?
Get some Diagnostics Software.
2007-01-12 18:42:10 · answer #6 · answered by ♫ayayay♫ 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When you say 'memory' what are you refferring to? The way you used the term makes me think that you are refferring to hard drive space. If so, then you may need more RAM. If you were refferring to ram, then you might have all of your hard drive filled and are choking on yo9ur ram.
2007-01-12 13:02:27 · answer #7 · answered by vanman8u 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋