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Other than viruses and malicious software, what makes a computer run slow?

i have a slow computer which i usually virus scan a lot. this isn’t a question about recommending virus scanning, I’m just wondering what makes a computer slow other than viruses

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9 Responses to “Other than viruses and malicious software, what makes a computer run slow?”

  1. Fraggle said :

    Any number of things. It could be due to an older/under powered CPU, lack of RAM, bad hard drive, registry corruption, hard drive fragmentation or many other factors. I find that in general, Windows needs to be reinstalled every 2 years or so to fix these issues.

  2. Mike said :

    Very little RAM or slow CPU speed are always viable options to look at when a PC is slow.

    Also, if your Hard drive is almost full, it can slow your computer down.

  3. TheKidGuru said :

    Well to make your PC faster you might want to install an update program, though almost computer comes with you. I recomend cleaning your cookies and temporary files every week or so.
    1.Go to your browers
    2.Go to tools
    3.Go to Delete browsing history
    4.Check what you want cleaned
    You can also defragment your computer. To find that, search “disk defragmenter” in your in search. It’ll take a few hours so make sure you have your laptop plugged it (if you use a laptop). It basic goes over your hard-disk and deletes any unwanted stuff.
    If you want you can watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyKUySrLHDk or you can type in %temp% and delete most of the stuff. Some things you shouldn’t do is mess with the registry, an unexperienced person and mess up their computer forever. Hope this helped you.

    Cheers mate!

  4. AHelper said :

    Even better than reinstalling Windows (in which you will lose any software that you register, such as virus software and MS Office), you can try adding a new user and use that. I will, for a while, be faster. I have been doing this. The slowness is caused by software that you put on that starts up when you log in. New users don’t have this problem.

    =====
    Defragmenting doesn’t delete stuff, I just re-arranges things to optimize the hard-drive. This can help, because after a while, a file can be spread out all over the entire hard-drive (me, I had about 20,000 fragments per file).

    ===== Edited again…
    My PC is able to run extremely fast because I don’t install updates, except for service packs. I don’t go online, so I have never installed an update for 7 years. This is the key for me to have a very fast PC. I have no software on it other than games, office, and other stuff. Yes, virus software greatly slows down a computer because every program that opens, every file opened, every file saves, everything you open in a web browser, and everything that changes in your ram is constantly being checked to prevent damage. The more software, the more CPU time for checking, the slower it gets.

    =====Edited yet again?
    My PC starts-up and logs in very quickly and can run games faster and better than my other PC with virus software and updates. List of stuff that works:

    Dell Dimension 8250
    512 ram
    75 GB HDD
    SP3
    2.8GHZ Pentium 4
    No updates to date.

  5. ELfaGeek said :

    1) Windows Updates. XP with SP 3, for example, runs best with a minimum of 1 GB of RAM. M$’s 256 MB spec is “bull cookies”.

    2) Tons of unnecessary Temporary files. Use the free and amazing CCleaner to remove them.

    3) Adding and Removing Programs over years mucks up the Registry. Again, use CCleaner to clear the Registry.

    4) Run Defrag and if “Analyze” recommends it, Defrag your hard drive.

    5) Reboot.

    If all of the above (except # 1, it’s mandatory) don’t help much, here’s how to make it scream: Re-install Windows XP. This is 100% guaranteed to speed XP up.

    Vista? Same as above, except 2 GB of RAM is bare minimum.

  6. bobby said :

    The computer clock

  7. gader said :

    A fragmented or cluttered drive. I prefer to use CCleaner once a week and clean out the trash.Its important to prevent fragmentation from affecting HDD performance. Defrag regularly. The best defragger IMO is Diskeeper09 which can be installed to run automatically. Try the demo version and you wont have to bother abt defrag ever.
    http://www.diskeeper.com/defrag.aspx

  8. Peacemaker said :

    Many reasons why your computer can be slow. If you want to speed it up, do the following.

    First, backup all your data to an external medium.

    Then, if you have no hardware problems, do this:

    (1) Run a FULL anti-virus scan with a good virus scanner. Get free editions of Avast or Antivir. Use the latest virus definitions file. But don’t install or run more than one anti-virus at the same time.
    http://www.avast.com
    http://www.avira.com

    (2) Run anti-spyware scans with Super Anti-spyware and malwarebytes free editions.
    http://malwarebytes.org/
    http://www.superantispyware.com/

    (3) Ensure all Microsoft security updates are applied.

    (4) Run disk cleanup to delete old temp files and other junk

    (5a) Run chkdsk once to scan for file system errors. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

    (5b) Run a thorough disk defrag. Use a good defragmenter for this, and also run a boot-time defrag to fix the MFT and page file if they are fragmented. Check out Diskeeper 2009, which is widely acknowledged to be the best defragger around. Their website has free 30-day trial versions. http://www.diskeeper.com

    (6) Disable unnecessary background processes and services that take up memory.

    (7) Make sure all the hardware components have the latest and most stable drivers. Video card performance in particular is strongly dependent on drivers.

    You do not need to clean out the registry or mess with the registry in ANY way whatsoever. Deleting a wrong key from the registry can damage your operating system.

    Good Luck!

  9. abelthomas said :

    . From operating systems to multimedia, PC & mobile games to anti-virus, from drivers to registry cleaners and internet tools our website features all the latest soft wares for safe and free downloading enjoy.




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