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Why Does My Computer Run Slow

Updated on July 9, 2012

Why Your Computer Is Slow and How To Speed It Up

Here are the main reasons why your computer is running slow and how to resolve each one of them.

Hardware issues that can slow your computer down.

  1. Your computer has a slow processor.
  2. Your computer does not have enough ram.
  3. Your Hard Drive is too slow or is dying.

Software Issues that can slow your computer down.

  1. Way to many items in your startup.
  2. Unnecessary services starting automatically.
  3. Viruses, Spyware, Adware, (malware).
  4. Security software that uses too much CPU and Memory
  5. Graphic intensive desktop environment.
  6. Invalid registry entries.
  7. Highly fragmented hard drive.
  8. Outdated Drivers and Software.

Slow Processor

Your computers processor (A.K.A the CPU or Central Processing Unit) is what actually performs all the work. It can calculatate billions of operations per second. The CPU executes program code and returns results to ram and/or hard disk.

So, the faster the processor and the more cores it has the faster your programs will execute and return results. If your processor is slow, or just not fast enough for you then it's time to upgrade.

There are hundreds of processors on the market and more being created every day. In order for you to upgrade your processor you must consult your computers motherboard documentation to see what type of processor your computer uses. Once you have acquired that information you can visit your local\online computer store and order a processor upgrade.

Upgrading the processor is delicate task and should only be performed by a competent professional. If you're feel'in brave and would like to upgrade your CPU without someones help check out the videos below.

Not Enough Memory - And How To Get More!

First, what is RAM anyway?

What RAM (Memory) Looks Like

RAM physically looks like a 4 inch circuit board with tightly packed microchips. These RAM "sticks" easily snap into your motherboard making upgrades really easy!

What RAM (Memory) Does

RAM (or Random Access Memory) is temporary storage for executable program code (your programs like Microsoft Word). When the processor becomes free and is ready to process more program code (MS Word for Example) it looks to RAM and basically says "give me something to process". The RAM then "feeds" the processor as much information as the processor can take.

When you have enough RAM...

  • The more RAM your computer has the more programs your computer can run at the same time without experiencing drastic slow downs
  • More RAM also means you'll be hearing a lot less of that annoying hard drive crunching noise!
  • Your computers startup time and post startup time is drastically reduced

Below are some symptoms of not having enough RAM:

  • slow program execution
  • almost non-stop hard drive activity
  • seeing lots of the hourglass
  • horrible startup times

How much RAM do you need for your PC? Well obviously more is better, but here are minimum requirements I give my clients:

  • Windows XP - 512 Megabytes minimum
  • Windows Vista - 2 Gigabytes minimum

Here's how to find out how much RAM your PC has:

  1. Right-Click "My Computer" in XP or "Computer" in Vista
  2. Click Properties
  3. You can see your RAM value in this windows either in GB or MB

Now, not to confuse you even more but there are many types of RAM and finding out which kind you need can be daunting.

I personally use Crucial.com because you can find out exactly which RAM is right for your PC in 3 simple steps and then buy it for a fraction of what you local computer store would charge you.

Slow Or Damaged Hard Drives

Meet the slowest part of your computer, the Hard Drive.

The Hard Drive is a rewritable disc that contains your computers operating system, program files and personal files (like documents, pictures, etc).

So, why is it the slowest part of your computer?

The answer, moving parts. Any device that functions via moving parts is much much slower than non-moving devices such as RAM, Processors and Data Buses.

How does the hard drive work?

Hard Drives consist of a magnetic disc (also called a platter) that is spun at a very high rate. During this spinning process an "arm" is moved up and down across the disk writing patterns of 0's and 1's which form your data. This arm also reads data in the same fasion.

SATA Interface
SATA Interface
EIDE Interface
EIDE Interface

Can I speed my hard drive up?

No. Your hard drive is as fast as it's going to get. Hard Drive performance is measured in RPM's (revolutions per minute). The more RPM's the disc (or platter) is spun at the faster data can be read and/or written.

You're not "stuck" with the hard drive you have now, it can be upgraded. Upgrading the hard drive can be tricky because you can make 1 mistake that can wipe out all your personal data.

So, what kind of hard drive should you get?

First, you need to find out what type of hard drive you have: SATA or EIDE (PATA).  Next, look at the RPM's. The RPM's should be at least 7200 RPM.  Finally make sure the hard drive is the same size as your current drive or larger.

MSCONFIG: Image A
MSCONFIG: Image A
MSCONFIG: Image B
MSCONFIG: Image B

Optimize That Startup

If there is one thing you get from this Hub make sure this is it! Your Windows startup consists of programs that will automatically be loaded and started when your computer boots.

This loading and starting happens all at once!!! This is the #1 cause for people to say "!@#$ this slow computer!".

The following steps below will show you how to optimise your windows startup:

  1. Click start on XP or Click the globe on Vista.
  2. Click "run" in XP. Vista users will type the following command where it says "start search"
  3. Type: msconfig
  4. Click the "startup" tab
  5. Now, you'll see abunch of checkmarks and some text next to each one (see image A). These are items that are starting up each time your computer boots. Keep in mind that everyone of these items use RAM, Processor and Hard Drive resources all at the same time (at boot-time).

  6. Please uncheck any items that you don't want to start automatically. Hint: I personally only allow my antivirus to start, everything else I uncheck. If I need to use it then I'll start it manually.
  7. After you're finished unchecking items please click apply and then reboot your PC.
  8. Ahhhh...much better!! What a fast startup now.
  9. You will be presented with a window (see image B). Please click the checkmark and then click OK.

Windows Vista Desktop That Is Not Optimized
Windows Vista Desktop That Is Not Optimized

Optimise Your Desktop Environment

If you think your desktop looks pretty then you're probably using too much your RAM and Processor just to "draw" that shiny, transparent and generally sexy desktop.

If you're serious about running your computer at maximum speed then you need to choose a very plain, low resource intensive desktop environment. The following steps below will show you how to accomplish this in Windows XP and in Windows Vista.

On Windows XP:

  1. Right Click "My Computer"
  2. Click Properties
  3. Click the Advanced Tab
  4. Under Performance click Settings
  5. Click the radio button "Adjust For Best Performance"
  6. Click Apply
  7. Your screen will go gray for a few seconds while your desktop is being optimized for the best possible performance.
  8. When the optimization has been completed click Ok.

How to optimise the Windows Vista desktop environment:

  1. Right Click "Computer".
  2. Click Properties.
  3. On the top left of the screen click "Advanced System Settings".
  4. Under performance click settings.
  5. Click the radio button "Adjust For Best Performance"

  6. Click Apply
  7. Your screen will go gray for a few seconds while your desktop is being optimised for the best possible performance.
  8. When the optimization has been completed click Ok.
  9. You Desktop will now look like:

An Optimized Vista Desktop

Goodbye shiny, transparent windows...Hello Performance!!
Goodbye shiny, transparent windows...Hello Performance!!

Get The Best Antivirus!

Using a "top notch" antivirus solution is an absolute must. If your PC gets infected with just one trojan virus that single infection can explode into hundreds of other infections leaving your PC pretty much useless!

Personally, I highly recommend PC Tools Spyware Doctor With AntiVirus.

I have tested Spyware Doctor With Antivirus on a highly infected virtual machine with about 800+ pieces of malware. Spyware Doctor with Antivirus is one of only a few Anti-Malware applications that have the ability to completely clean a machine automatically and with very little fuss. 

You can watch my full review of Spyware Doctor With Antivirus on my YouTube channel @ youtube.com/mrizos or simply watch the conclusion below.

Spyware Doctor With AntiVirus Free Scan 

Also, please remember that your computer should only have 1 antivirus loaded at a time.  

Spyware Doctor With Antivirus Review Conclusion

Disable Services That Aren't Needed

On a Windows XP/Vista home pc there are quite a few services that really aren't needed for the average home user. Preventing these services from starting automatically can save you valueable processor and ram resources.

If you don't feel comfortable about disabling windows services you can set them to start manually.

If you take a look below, you'll see the list of services that can be set to manual or disabled:

  • Alerter - Disabled
  • COM+ Event System - Disabled
  • COM+ System Application - Disabled
  • Computer Browser - Manual or Disabled
  • Distributed Link Tracking Client - Disabled
  • Distributed Transaction Coordinator - Disabled
  • Error Reporting Service - Disabled
  • Help and Support - Disabled
  • Indexing Service - Disabled
  • IPSEC Services - Disabled
  • Messenger - Disabled
  • NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing - Disabled
  • Network DDE - Disabled
  • Network DDE DSDM - Disabled
  • NT LM Security Support Provider - Disabled
  • Performance Logs and Alerts - Disabled
  • Portable Media Serial Number - Disabled
  • QoS RSVP - Disabled
  • Remote Desktop Help Session Manager - Disabled
  • Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator - Disabled
  • Remote Registry Service - Disabled
  • Routing and Remote Access - Disabled
  • Secondary Logon - Disabled
  • Security Accounts Manager - Disabled
  • Smart Card - Disabled
  • Smart Card Helper - Disabled
  • SSDP Discovery Service - Disabled
  • System Event Notification - Disabled
  • Task Scheduler - Disabled
  • TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service - Disabled
  • Telnet - Disabled
  • Uninterruptible Power Supply - Disabled
  • Universal Plug and Play Device Host - Disabled
  • Volume Shadow Copy - Disabled
  • WebClient - Disabled
  • Windows Time - Disabled
  • WMI Performance Adapter - Disabled

Red = Fragmented Files (bad) Blue = Non-Fragmented Files (good)
Red = Fragmented Files (bad) Blue = Non-Fragmented Files (good)
Windows Vista Defragmenter
Windows Vista Defragmenter

Hard Drive Fragmentation

Hard Drive fragmentation occurs when you save a file on your hard drive. During this process the hard drive may be performing many actions and can't always save the file in one continuous "chunk of data.

In an effort to provide you as much speed as possible when you save a file the hard drive will "fragment" the file all over the hard drive disc. Sounds confusing huh? Like your file is broken? It's not.

When you want to open and read that file (it could be a large word document for example) your computer will find all the fragments of data on the hard drive and then reasemble the file...here is where things get slow.

Imagine that you have hundreds or thousands of fragmented files! Your computer has to process the reassembly of each file from thousands of fragments! Ouch. That could take awhile.

Fortunatley for us fragmented people, there is a very simple solution! Windows XP and Windows Vista both ship with free hard drive defragmenting software that is super easy to use.

Hard drive defraggers simply scan the hard drive for file fragments and put them back together. Once those fragments are reassembled via the defragger your files will open faster and your computer (in general) will run so much better.

You should defragment your hard drive once a week. If you're not sure how to launch the windows disk defragger here are some instructions for Windows XP and Vista

To start the Windows XP Disk Defragmenter:

  1. Click Start
  2. All Programs
  3. Accessories
  4. System Tools
  5. Disk Defragmenter

To use the Windows XP Disk Defragmenter:

  1. Select your C: drive (or any other hard drive)
  2. Click Defragment
  3. Wait for it to finish

Here's how to load the Windows Vista Disk Defragmenter.

  1. Click The Windows Globe to the left (a.k.a - start)
  2. All Programs
  3. Accessories
  4. System Tools
  5. Disk Defragmenter

To use the Windows Vista Disk Defragmenter

  1. Choose a schedule for disk defragmentation to occur. Make sure that your computer will be on during that time.
  2. Or, choose defragment now.

Now, a lot of people were really disappointed in the new Windows Vista defragmenter for1 reason...no progress bar of any sort. While this is disappointing, in my opinion it's no big deal.

Why?

Since you can schedule a defrag at any time (like in the middle of the night) who really cares!!!

Outdated Software - Do those windows updates!

Believe it or not, the Microsoft software development teams are always working hard to keep your pc running safe, inutituve and as fast as possible.  Microsoft makes it really easy to update your Windows PC.

To Check for and install Windows XP Critical Updates:

Go to http://update.microsoft.com and click the express scan button.  After the express scan finishes install any updates that are available for installation.

To Check for and install Windows Vista Critical Updates: 

  1. Click the Windows Globe at the bottom left.
  2. Click Control Panel
  3. Click Windows Update
  4. Click Check For Updates
  5. Install Any Updates Found 

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