why is it that p.c.s get slower with age?

Question

my friend and i have exactly the same specifications and model although his is 2 months older. when we run the same program mine is quicker! why is this? is it to do with how much info u have on your hard drive?

Answer 1

Anything can affect performance.
1. How much software is loaded
2. How often the pc get's exposed to electrostatic discharge
3. Heat
4. Dust
5. Manufacturer
6. How often it's used
7. How often you drop, kick, punch your computer in frustration from misunderstanding your computer.
8. The weight of the cup if you use the cd tray as a cup holder

Answer 2

If you've cleaned off spyware, adware, viruses and made sure that there are at least two gigs of free drive space (needed for the swap file), and used msconfig to disable unncessary processes and programs, and it's still slow, I would think it could be the hard drive may be going bad. Often, inexplicably slow performance is the first warning sign of a failing hard drive.
Hard drive quality control is plummeting! I see them fail all of the time now, and it's not out of the question for even fairly new ones to go bad after a few months.
If you or a friend are comfortable doing so, pop a new drive into the system, then use the recovery CD or DVD that came with your PC.
Don't install anything else, or re-activate Windows.
Just click around and see if the system performance is any different.

PS - disclaimer: I cannot and will not be held liable for unintentional or intentional damage to a system after advice given here is followed by any user.

Answer 3

It is the same question no. If two fighters of Mordor have the same armor and weapons why is one fighter faster. Hmm, one has the ring of +2 quickness and the other the hangover. lol

Like the guys said above just a matter of things from defrag and then anti-virus programs running in background. As I like to teach and not give answers, Then go down to pcworld and cnet.com. There subscribe, FREE, and also they have info on everything you need to know. Example, what type of hard drive to buy or how to upgrade your computer. Stuff like this. The two sites will keep you posted on what is happening on the computer world.

Answer 4

This is not always true. Computers speed that they run at are based on processor, front speed bus, and the memory. Well if you have the same memory. But lets say he hes has spyware adaware or something running you don't it will show his down. Ok lets say you have all the same files running in your processes next step is virtual memory. Lets say he has 1gig left and you have 10gig your computer will be faster because of how it can save the memory. Next thing Disk defrag. Do it on both if your disk is in fragmented horrible it will slow you down because the harddrive heads have to move all over to get same information one could be reading in the same sector. To make it easy no two computers are ever ever exactly the same. Even if you buy two HP computers and hook them up at same time. 2 different users after time one will be faster than the other because one either A)Keeps their computer clean and up and running in tip top shape. Or B) has a bunch of crap file spyware adaware and other crap all over computer causing computer to slow down.

Answer 5

Obviously the more we know about the two units in question the easier it is to define. Most answers I see are correct. Multiple factors lead to different performance levels.
Big issue is the number of processes running when you start up. It's amazing how badly one download of freeware can mess up your computer. I run WinPatrol on my PC so calls to get memory or to add processes to my start up are put through me before they are initiated. This helps you control some of this. Maintenance of files and OS is huge as well. Take time to run scans and defrags regularly to eliminate some of these spyware and malware issues. Using a secondary HDD as your primary storage device and leaving the master drive simply for programs does wonders for performance as well.

Answer 6

There are two reasons they get slower.
1. Poor maintenance. For example,You need to run disk cleanup and disk defrag once a week. Plus, systems engineer school recommends reinstalling operating system every year or so.
2. Malware. This includes spyware, virii, adware, Trojans etc. Windows systems get hacked into constantly. To fix it permanently, get rid of Microsoft and install a good Linux or buy a Mac.

Answer 7

It could also be a driver issue with certain programs. If your computer is completely up to date with all the new patches and his is not, then this could be causing the pc to slow down. If he has images or plays games online the memory might be struggling with all the information in it! Its good to delete old items that are no longer needed then defrag the hard drive to free up space.

Read here too:
http://asknerd.net/slowcomputer.html?OVRAW=what%20causes%20a%20pc%20to%20slow%20down%3F&OVKEY=cause%20computer%20to%20slow%20down&OVMTC=advanced

Good Luck!

Answer 8

With time more background programs accumulate.

Answer 9

It could be that he has more programs that start when he starts his computer

Streamline your startups
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/index.php
http://www.3feetunder.com/krick/startup/list.html
http://www.greatis.com/appdata/


Basic Computer Maintenance
http://uk.geocities.com/personel44/maintenance.html

Answer 10

Less space, less memory, it doesn't work as well with newer software...etc etc...