Why is my computer so slow?

There are many answers to this question. The first depends on how old your computer is?
If it is more than 4 or 5 years old, some of the components in it may be aging or wearing out.
Here are some solutions you can use to decipher any "quick fixes".

#1 problem : Spyware / Adware / Malware / Viruses
One of our most common banes of internet computer existence is spyware and adware,
which can commonly drop trojan viruses on our computers or infect our systems with all kinds of unwanted garbage.
I use the following programs in my computer systems. ALSO, a new occuring trend: FAKE antivirus progams

(Number 2: problem is down below the box...)

#2 problem: Malfunctioning Anti-virus Programs

I don't hesitate to bring this up anymore because it's such a common, dire topic. Many times, a computer's slowdown problem is solved
by removing Norton and McAfee products.

Frequently I find that these programs are installed on machines that cannot handle the burden that these programs demand. If you are running either of these programs, you should have a MINIMUM of 1 GIG of memory. (And don't try to run both at the same time, it negates your antivirus programs altogether!) It is because they are so memory intensive in keeping intruders out, (I call it "the great big octopus with detachable tentacles") that they actually fail because they are taking up too many resources to do the job right. Besides my personals experiences, I have a collection of newsstories from Yahoo where
Symantec has been revealed not to notify their customers of dire critical updates to their flawed software, leaving their customers vulnerable.
I have personally witnessed them let viruses in on mine, friend's and family's computers. For this reason I won't touch or support either
program except to uninstall them =)

Ok, I've done all that, now what?
1: After scanning your computer with one or more of the above programs, you may still find that your computer is acting slow. Have you
"defragged" (defragment.. can be found in Windows Help) your hard drive lately? Another reason your computer may be slow is you may be
trying to do too much with too little. In other words, you may need something as simple as a bit more system memory (ram). DDR2 Ram these
days is extremely cheap right now (April 2008) ($50 to $100 or less for 1 or 2 gigs)
If you have 192 megs of ram currently, or 256, I would HIGHLY recommend that you spend the money and buy an additional 1 gig or 2 to bring
the system total up to 1 or 2 gigs of ram. If you're a gamer, I would make it a total of 3 gigs for Windows Xp, and if you are using Vista,
go to 4 or 6 gigs if your system can handle that much.

2: Or you may be in need of a more dire solution : an upgrade! It's not so scary, computers and their parts have really come down in
prices in the last few years. You might be pleasantly surprised what your money will buy you these days! Unfortunately the laws of supply
and demand also state that if something is in low demand, the prices go back up.. meaning in this case that if your computer system is
one that has SDram or DDR(1) memory, the prices are not going to be quite as cheap, and in fact, SDram memory is very expensive right now
because it is in low demand (having been replaced by DDR1) and as of September 2008 is almost impossible to find.

3: "I bought a computer that came with Vista, and boy!! Is it SLOW!!" ... a classic failure of major computer companies is not putting enough memory in the systems they sell, no matter if it's Dell, HP/Compaq, Sony, Acer, Etc etc... If you want the best Vista experience, maximize your memory up to 4 gigs minimum. It is still possible to purchase Windows XP if you're really set for the "downgrade" or want to wait for Windows 7.

My own experience with Vista : I purchased two copies of Windows Vista Home Premium when it debuted last January, 2007, one for my personal machine, and one for my testing machine. On my personal machine I ran it for 9 months with 2 gigs of DDR 2 memory. It seemed to run ok at first, though I had some difficulties with older programs and games that I liked to play. I had to find an emulator for one, some Quake 3 engine games wouldn't run at all, and worse, while playing Elite Force II one day, Vista suddenly decided it was going to crash it halfway through the game and refuse to let it play anymore. While that was the final straw for me on that computer, other factors, such as not being able to run my accounting software, Quickbooks 2006 on it, were extremely negative factors. It was very slow to play media. It was incompatible with many older programs. When I purchased a brand new HP F4100 series Printer/Scanner, it wouldn't work at all in Vista, through HP Director.. it would crash instead but remain in memory so you couldn't do anything at all with it. (printing worked ok)
I actually STUMPED HP tech support with their supposed "Vista compatible printer/scanner" when after 4 hours of tech support, they gave up..
I however, found the problem was in HP Director trying to load an outdated loader program which was crashing in Vista (something they've since fixed due to mine and other's lengthy efforts...)

The absolute final blow came however, when I purchased my new laptop, a HP/Compaq Presario Dv5000 last September 2007... it came preloaded with Vista Home Premium, I purchased extra memory to bring it to a total of 1.5 gig of DDR 2. I was thrilled that this particular laptop has an Nvidia graphics chipset (I can't stand ATI chipsets or cards!!) I installed Star Trek Voyager Elite Force (a game from 1999, that at the time, a 32 meg video card was the MAXIMUM available) and there was a ONE SECOND DELAY from the time I moved my mouse to the time that it actually responded! I got Vista off my laptop the next day!

I now have Vista with Service Pack 1 loaded as a dual boot system on my main computer. I don't normally use it. But if I need to reference something it's right there. Truthfully, other than graphical eye candy and rearranging and renaming some features, it's a bloated bad piece of Windows XP. If you can avoid it, I'd recommend doing so, but if you have to have it, or are forced in your hardware selection to use it, get as much memory put onto your machine as you can afford. You'll need it.

--Eric

Eric-Tech - serving your Salem area computer needs!
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