My Colby-Sawyer Experience
"I really like being in front of the camera and getting right into what I want to do after I graduate."
- Kristin McDonald, Communication Studies major
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slow computer syndrome
by David Levine, Tech Specialist
Computers can seem to run slow for many reasons. There are no magic tricks to speed up a slow computer. One must try to determine the nature of the slowness and what factors are causing it. Is it always slow, or just sometimes? If sometimes, then when is the slowness noticed? Does it take forever for the computer to start up? Are there any error messages or other warnings?
Occasional slowness can be due to software errors. It may be noticed when running a particular task, but not at other times. The discussion here concerns that more constant and pervasive slowness that affects everything one tries to do on the computer. The following will give you a good start at diagnosing and correcting issues that slow your computer down.
Computers over five years old can be expected to seem slow next to today's faster systems. But an older system can be optimized too. Many brand new computers come loaded with too much "teaseware" (software tryouts or offers) that actually slows the system down, especially if the hardware configuration is inadequate. Computer vendors should not be selling computers with Celeron (the economy Pentium CPU chip) processors, 128M of RAM, Windows XP, and the typical load of "teaseware". But they do sell computers like that, and it's like having a car with a lawnmower engine. Simply put, don't buy a $500 laptop.
One more kind of slowness not discussed here is network or internet-related slowness. When your computer is handling data from external sources, such as when browsing the internet or collecting email, the possible causes of slowness increase dramatically. The flow of data from a web server in California has many twists and turns to negotiate before it gets to your computer screen in New Hampshire.
So, if your computer takes a really long time to start up, and another forever to obey your mouse clicks, then you've got a slow computer. Here are some of the most common causes, ranked roughly in order of frequency.
* Too many programs and processes runnning
* Malicious processes running
* Inadequate RAM
* Hard drive errors, capacity, or fragmentation issues
* Inadequate processor speed
* Other hardware issues
Keep in mind that as you use a computer over a period of years, adding and removing software and other files, random file corruption and disk fragmentation may slowly degrade system performance. This is often unnoticeable due to its gradual nature, but seems more apparent after one uses a faster, newer computer. A computer that suddenly becomes slow may have a virus or spyware program robbing its resources. You should run a virus scan and spyware sweep as a first step in diagnosing a suddenly slow computer.
How many programs are running?
Your computer can only do so many things at one time. The bottom right corner of your screen, where the clock shows, is called the "Notification Area". It's where Windows shows icons of the actively running programs. If you see a lot of icons there, it means that your computer may be working too hard. To confuse things a little, Windows XP typically hides these so-called "inactive" icons, see Figure 1. Right click the task bar, and click Properties. You can either clear the checkbox "Hide inactive icons", or else you can click the little double-arrowed button in the notfication area to un-hide these program icons.
Figure 1. Notification Area icon hiding- a Windows XP default setting. Clear the checkbox to turn it off.
Seeing a whole bunch of icons there? Lots of popular programs like AIM, for example, install themselves to start automatically when you start up the computer. Sometimes you can right-click on these notification area icons and get an idea what program they represent. Sometimes you can exit them this way, or change their settings. There are several ways to set things to NOT start up by themselves, thus freeing up your computer's power to do what you want to do. Spy Sweeper has an easy to use "Startup Shield" to help you control startup items. Click here for instructions. It is also a good idea to uninstall software that you never use with the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel. Just be careful not to uninstall something you need. Rule of thumb here is that if you don't know what it is, don't uninstall it.
Cyber-Instrusions: Sudden Slowness
If your computer has gotten a little slower over the years you've had it, you probably wouldn't notice. But a computer that suddenly becomes slow may have a virus or spyware program robbing its resources. Or perhaps some new program was installed? Download something not so good from the internet maybe? Run a virus scan and spyware sweep as a first step in diagnosing a slow computer. If a NOD32 virus scan and a Spy Sweeper sweep come up with nothing, then you might consider re-running these scans with Windows started in "Safe Mode". Click here for directions on starting in Safe Mode.
How much RAM is there?
The computer's live "working space" is called RAM memory. Not to be confused with the files stored on your hard drive, RAM memory empties out when the computer shuts down. Try this analogy- think of your computer as a desk with file drawers (the hard drive), then think of RAM as the amount of available space you have on the desktop to lay out your work items (files, folders, etc.). All the programs that are running actively, as mentioned above, are using RAM memory to run in. The more you have, the better. For a computer running Windows XP it's nice to have 1G (a gigabyte, which is 1,000 megabytes), but 512M is OK too- 256M is really not enough even though Microsoft says it is.
Right-click the My Computer icon in the Start Menu or on the desktop. Click Properties. You should see something like Figure 2. Note the area in the red rectangle. Plenty of new computers come supplied with only 128M or 256 MB of RAM. It's fairly easy and not too expensive to upgrade RAM. RAM chips are about the size of a stick of gum and get installed inside the computer. Laptops usually have a removable panel on the bottom, while desktop computers will need to be opened to expose the main board. Typically this upgrade involves finding out what your computer has already, and in what configuration, what is the maximum RAM for the computer model, and how many available slots there are to add new RAM chips. There are plenty of websites to purchase RAM from, many of which help you to find what you need for your particular system. Office and electronics stores sell RAM too. Best to bring your computer with you if you go to a store looking for RAM.
Figure 2. This computer has 504 MB of RAM. That's adequate for Windows XP, though 1G would be better.
How about the hard drive?
The hard drive is the storage place for all the files and software on your computer. Everything, including Windows itself, is stored on the hard drive. It is a mechanical device with rapidly spinning metal disks and read/write heads that move very quickly over the disks to read and write data- sometimes you can hear the read/write heads' movement as a rapid and irregular clicking sound. If the hard drive gets to be over 90% filled with files, it can slow down. There needs to be at least 10% free space on the hard drive for Windows to use for its "paging operations". Think of it as "scratch space".
To see how full the hard drive is, find and double-click the My Computer icon. Find the icon that represents your hard drive. Usually it's called "Local Disk C:". Right-click on that icon and click Properties. See Figure 3. After clicking on Properties something like Figure 4 appears.
Figure 3. Right-click Local Drive C: and click Properties.
Figure 4. This hard drive is about 25% full. That's good- lot's of free space.
The pie chart gives a nice visual of how full the hard drive is. If the pie chart is mostly blue that is a problem. The only way to increase the free space is to delete files. Be careful what you delete. If you have a lot of documents, pictures, music, etc. you could (and you know that you should anyway!) burn them to CDs for backup so that you can then delete them from your hard drive to free up space. You also could, as mentioned above, use the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel to uninstall any software that you don't use- that will free up some space. Windows also has a disk cleanup utility which is usually found in Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. CCleaner, a freeware download which is installed during the college network certification process, is another good tool for cleaning up temporary files.
WARNING: BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA and run Disk Cleanup BEFORE running the the following hard disk procedures.
Check Disk for Errors and Fragmentation of the Hard Drive
You may have heard of "fragmentation" of a hard drive. Generally speaking, defragmentation is overrated as a way to speed up a slow computer, but severe fragmentation really can slow things down. Fragmentation refers to the way files are physically located on the hard disk's rapidly spinning surfaces. For some crazy reason, in normal use, files get fragmented. That means that fragments of what you see as a single file, mypaper.doc for example, are actually scattered around in different places on the drive. When you defragment a hard drive, the fragments are relocated in a more efficient way. Windows XP and 2000 both have defragmenting utilities. Click the Tools tab for the disk utilities. Run the error-checking tool first (Figure 5- a restart will be required). Do not try to defragment a hard drive with less than 15% free space.
REPEAT WARNING: BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA and run Disk Cleanup BEFORE running the the following hard disk procedures.
Figure 5. Check hard drive and fix errors upon restart.
Figure 6. Use the error-checking tool before defragmenting.
Figure 7. Click Analyze first. The analysis will be followed by a dialog box with a recommendation (Figure 8).
Figure 8. Click the "Defragment" button to proceed with defragmentation.
If the analysis says that you don't need to defragment, then don't bother. Close any open documents or programs and DO NOT try to use the computer while defragmenting. The defragmentation process can take quite a long time, depending on how much stuff there is on the drive. When it's complete, you will see a dialog box like Figure 9. Don't worry if there are some files that cannot be defragmented.
Figure 9. Defragmentation is complete.
How fast is the processor?
The speediness of a computer depends heavily on the power and speed of the processor chip, or CPU (Central Processing Unit). This is a choice that is made when buying the computer. The processor is not usually or easily upgraded. So whatever the computer has for a processor, you are pretty much stuck with it. However, even an economy priced CPU is not usually to blame for slowness, but rather the overloading of it with too many demands. Most processors of recent vintage run over 1 or 2 GHz (GHz = gigaherz - the measurement unit of processor speed). The advice is not to try to save money on a low-end CPU, but to buy the fastest and most robust processor you can afford at the time.
Other Possible Hardware Issues
It is fairly unusual, but bad RAM can cause lots of trouble. But bad RAM usually causes problems other than slowness. Typically there are "random" error messages in many applications, as well as freezes, shutdowns, or unexpected restarts. There is a freeware program available to create a bootable CD to test RAM with, but it is a fairly advanced procedure and will not be covered here. Please see this website for more information: http://www.memtest86.com
