What you should know about your hard drive:

• How much total space does it have?
• How much free space is available?
• How many RPMs does it run at?

To find out the total space on your hard drive, left-click the “Start” Button, then right-click on “My Computer”.  A menu will appear at the point of your click, so now select “Explore” from the menu.  This view of Windows Explorer has two window panes.  The left pane is for the folders and the right pane is for your drives, shared folders and your documents folder.  In the left pane, look for Local Disk C: and you will notice that the total disk space and the total free space are listed there for you.

If the free space on your disk is less than 10% of your total drive space, then you really may want to think about replace the drive with a larger drive or you should do some serious cleaning to free up some space.  When you have multiple programs open and your computer’s memory is maxed, it looks to use more of the hard drive’s paging file to help with memory operations.  When your hard drive is just about full, it makes it hard to find files over the span of the whole drive and this can slow down disk access.

Hard drives usually come in 3 speeds: 5400, 7200 and 10000 rpm.  The 10000 rpm drive are more expensive but well worth it if you hope to increase pc speed.

Hard Drive Maintenance

What can you do to make sure your hard drive continues to hum along without delay?  I have listed below what you can do to maintain your hard drive while helping in the process of increasing computer speed.

1. First Disk Clean up (See more on this here: Slow Computer Fix
2. We want to remove unwanted files, so run CCleaner next
3. Look through the documents and download folders for files you don’t need and delete them (use caution)
4. Scan Disk is good at fixing hard drive errors
5. Download and install Defraggler, start pc in safe mode, then run Defraggler. Disk Defragment software.

After completing these steps, you should notice a pc speed boost and your hard drive will thank you because it doesn’t have to work as hard.  If you are want to learn more about how to increase your computer speed, check back soon as I hope to post a few more articles on the subject.

Cheers,

Steve

Today, we are going to talk about your computer components and how they can affect the speed of your pc.  Here is a list of some of the components that may be the cause of a pc running slow:

• Memory
• Processor
• Motherboard
• Power Supply
• Hard Drive
• Network Card/Wireless
• Video

Memory

The quickest, easiest and sometimes the least expensive way to help when your pc runs slow is to max out the memory.  Finding out what memory to use in your computer is the tricky part.  You can usually go to the pc manufacturer’s website and look up your model to find out the max amount of memory for your computer.

Processor

You could also go to the manufacturer’s website to find out what type of processor is in your pc.  I normally pop open the pc and find the name on the motherboard and then look the board up to find out the max processor it can hold.  If your computer came with a Celeron, for instance, you may be able to upgrade it to a better chip and really help out your slow pc issues.

Motherboard

Replacing the motherboard is a more advanced task but installing a new motherboard means it will normally be running on a faster bus speed (how fast data move across the board) and that can really help if you have a pc running very slow.  The problem with replacing motherboards is that it can get expensive because most times will also have to replace the memory and possibly the video card as well.

Power Supply

Now, changing out your power supply for one with more wattage may not fix your slow running pc, but it will provide more power to the pc to operate a number of extra USB Devices.

Hard Drive

If your computer came with a cheap, slow hard drive, then you could give it a boost by installing a larger, faster (rpm) hard drive.  Hard drives come in 5400, 7200 & 10000 rpm speeds.  More info on hard drive can be found in our Increase Computer Speed post which explains the correlation between hard drive maintenance and computer speed.

Network Card / Wireless

If you notice your internet access is moving awfully slow, you could check the speed of your network cards, hubs, routers and firewalls.  With our increased use of the internet, you would want a 100 Mbps card or you could get a 1000 Mbps card but make sure your other equipment matches the speed in order to get the best results.

Video

Gamers and those that watch online videos will want to have better video cards (graphics cards).  Most newer games require 256 mb of memory on a video card but its best to go with at least 512 mb and 1024 mb is better.

Well, that is a quick review of which components are the most important parts of a pc if you are hoping to relieve a pc running slow.  This post has been all about hardware, if you want to read more about start up programs that could be slowing down your pc, check out How to Fix a Slow Computer.

Cheers,

Steve

Throughout this website, you will find detailed articles answering questions about why my computer is running very slow.  I like to focus on free methods of fixing a slow running computer so there is no need to buy expensive software.  Just follow along as I go over these methods.  In previous posts, I have talked about Startup Programs and Hard Drive Maintenance.  In those posts, we basically removed unwanted startup programs and really gave our computer’s hard drive a good cleaning.

Today, we are going to look at software tweaks to increase the speed of a slow Windows XP computer.  If you have done what was suggested in the previous posts, then you should be ready to make these XP tweaks.

I personally like performance over pretty graphics.  Here are a few things you can do to help your system performance without suffering too much from the loss of some pretty graphics:

1. Right-Click on “My Computer”
2. Select Properties
3. Click on the “Advanced” tab
4. Under Performance, Click on the “Settings” button

You should now be looking at the Visual Effects Tab.  Click on the “Adjust for best performance” radio button, like the image below and click “Apply”:

This will remove all of the checks which will allow your computer to run faster because it disables all the nice windows graphics that you can really do without.  I would suggest keeping two from the list checked.  The bottom two:

• Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop
• Use visual styles on windows and buttons

I want my computer to run fast but without those two selections my computer desktop would be down right UGLY.

If you have a XP computer running very slow, then you should also make sure your computer has all the latest security patches and service packs provided free from Microsoft.  I would suggest getting Windows Service Pack 3 and all the security patches.  You can also update your Internet Explorer to version 8 but that program is SLOW!!  It’s good to update, so your computer isn’t as susceptible to security risks, but I would be using Google Chrome or Firefox as they are streamlined and built to work faster.

• Window Updates Service
• Google Chrome
• FireFox

Well, those tips are just a couple of things you can do with a computer running really slow.  Other questions I get from clients are why is my computer running so slow, and what to do if my computer is running slow?  These are great questions and I try to answer them for my clients and I can help you out as well.  For more help check out my article Slow Computer Fix and part II of Slow Computer Fix.

Thank you for stopping by the site.  If your computer is running slow, try out some of these methods from this post and my other posts How to Fix a Slow Computer plus part II of How to Fix a Slow Computer and your computer should be running faster in no time.  As always, leave your questions in the comments section and I will help you with your computer issues.

Take it easy,

Steve

When you start CCleaner, you will see a screen like the one below:

CCleaner - Cleans out PC and Registry

For the typical computer user, leaving the setting to default does a great job of cleaning your computer but you could scroll down and select even more areas to clean up.  Once you have decided on what you would like to clean, click the “Analyze” button and watch CCleaner go to work compiling how much room it can save you on your hard drive after cleaning.  If you have a pc running slow, this program will really help by cleaning out all the junk files that your computer really doesn’t need.  I personally like to run this program before I do virus scans so my computer doesn’t take a year and a half because of all the junk files.

Now that CCleaner is through analyzing your computer, go ahead and click the “Run Cleaner” button and the program will do the job for you and free up some disk space.  A slow computer problem can be a thing of the past if we just remember to do a little maintenance from time to time.

Well, that was easy.  Now our computer is rid of a bunch of useless files.  We next want to run the Registry Cleaner part of the program.  A lot of times when I hear “computer working slow”, “computer so slow” or “Why is my computer so slow?”, I think of all the things that can be done to fix these problems and a registry cleaner (free one – I might add) is a step in the right direction.  Installing and uninstalling programs often makes the Windows registry a little chunky and sometimes entries are left behind when programs are uninstalled.  You need a registry cleaner to go in, analyze the situation and clean it all up.  CCleaner’s Registry Cleaner does just that.

While you still have CCleaner open, click on the “Registry” button and then click “scan for issues”.  Before any changes are made, CCleaner will ask you if you want to back up your registry – DO IT.  Just in case.  I have never had a problem, but it only takes a second to back up the registry.  Once it’s finished scanning, leave all the items checked and click “Fix selected issues” and then click “Fix all Selected Issues”.  When it finishes fixing those issues, you need to have it scan again because cleaning those registry settings may have created more registry problems.  So, scan again and clean.  It may take a couple times to clean it completely.  When there are no more issues, close the program and you are done.

Now that we have removed programs, cleaned out the computer, fixed hard drive errors and cleaned the registry, it is time to defragment the hard drive.  We need to defragment our hard drives because as we install/uninstall programs and create/delete files our computers continually moves files around on the hard drive to make room but there are always gaps in the files.  We use the defragment tool to organize the files back in order which allows the computer to access the files quicker and in turn becomes an answer to the fix my slow computer problem.

To use defragment, click Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter.  When the program starts, select the drive you want to defragment (which is normally the C: Drive) and click the “Analyze” button to get a graphical look at your fragmentation status.  A lot of red like the one in the image below means you need to Defragment your hard drive.

Defragment your hard drive

Press the “Defragment” button and away it goes.  It could take some time to do this, so take a break for now.  When complete, you may want to run it again to make sure it completed the job.

Well, that raps this post up.  I hope it was helpful (fixing slow computer).  Leave question/comments in the comment box.

Take it easy,

Steve

I will go over the following Free Tools which will help in the process of fixing a slow computer:

• Disk Cleanup
• Scan Disk
• Defrag
• CCleaner

When your hard drive begins to run out of disk space, you will notice your computer slowing down and it’s probably time to do a little maintenance.  First, you really need to go through your computer and remove files and programs that you no longer use.  To remove programs you no longer use, click on the Start Button -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs and remove any programs you no longer use.  These programs may be old games you don’t play any more or maybe you have trial versions of programs you no longer need.  Don’t remove programs you are unsure of.  You can always do a Google search to find out what a program is and whether you need it on your computer.

Now that the old programs are removed, lets run Disk Cleanup.  Click on the Start Button -> All Programs – > Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup.  When you click on Disk Cleanup, it will start to scan your computer files that are no longer need and when done it will show you a report of how much space it can free up.

Disk Cleanup

As you can see in the image above, this computer has 9 gigs (WOW!!) of disk space that can be freed up by using this tool.  You can scroll through the list and place a check mark next to the items you would like removed from your computer.  These files are mainly going to be files in the Temp directories or old compressed files.  These file are ok to remove.  The next step would be to press the “OK” button and let your computer clean up the hard drive for you.  It’s a good idea to set a maintenance schedule and run this program about once a month.

Now that the computer has been cleaned up a bit, lets scan the hard drive for errors.  As a hard drive ages, it can develop bad sectors which could cripple your computer if the bad sector is where windows system files are stored, so it’s a good idea to scan your hard drive for errors every couple of months.  To start the scan disk program, double-click you “My Computer” icon.  Then, right-click on the C: Drive (local disk C) and from the menu that pops up pick “Properties”.  Now, click on the Tools tab and then click the “Check Now” button in the “Error Checking” section.  This will start the program and bring you to the disk options menu.  Check both boxes like the image below:

Scan Disk - Check both boxes to fix errors and sectors

This Scan Disk program needs to run in Dos mode to completely check your hard drive without interfering with Windows so the program will tell you that it will start the next time the computer is rebooted.  Close all of your programs and go ahead and reboot now to run the hard drive scan.  When your computer reboots, it will come to a blue screen that goes through a number of steps for scanning your hard drive for errors which could help in the process to fix slow pc.  Once it is complete, the computer will boot into Windows like normal.

In my next post, “Slow Computer Fix: Part II“, I will discuss the other two Tools: Defrag and CCleaner.  Fixing a slow computer can be a tedious process and can require many steps, so be sure to check out How to Fix a Slow Computer – Part I and How to Fix a Slow Computer – Part II.

Take it easy,

Steve

The next, more advanced tool we are now going to use is called Autoruns.  This program can be found on Microsoft’s website at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx.

The file is a zip file, so you will need to download it and extract the files to a folder on your desktop or put the files in a folder of your choosing.  Once they are extracted, double-click the file “autoruns.exe” which will start the program.  When the program first starts, it will scan your computer which normally takes a few seconds.

Autoruns

As you can see, the program pulls an enormous amount of information from your computer but we are only interested in the “Logon” tab so click that tab.  In this tab, you will see all of the programs your computer is loading when it starts up.  Sometimes when you install a program like Quicktime or iTunes, the program will add a helper file to your logon list which runs when the computer boots up.  This files “helps” the main program start faster.  Well, what if we don’t even use that program while we are on our computer?  In that case, it just takes up memory and slows down the boot process, so I say un-check files like this for an easy slow computer fix.  Once the logon file is un-checked, it will still be there if you want to check it back later, but next time you reboot the computer it will no longer load during the startup process.

Other programs you may want to un-check are programs like instant messengers and email programs.  When your computer boots up, you can start these as you need them, otherwise, they just cause slow computer speed which increases the chance of having a slow booting computer.  Once you are done deciding which items to un-check, close Autoruns and reboot your computer for the changes to be made.  Not only will Autoruns increase your boot up speed, but you will also notice a difference in the shutdown process if your computer suffers from slow computer shutdown (how to fix slow computer).  Below is a basic video on how Autoruns works.

The above video pretty clearly demonstrates how to use the Autoruns program, so by now I hope you have a good understanding of the program and what it can do to help you speed up your computer.

Take it easy,

Steve

Startup Programs Running

The startup programs listed here are just a small example of what could be running on your computer.  There could also be a number of background programs running that are not displayed by the clock.  In order to really learn a slow computer fix, you need to open up one of two programs.  The beginner/intermediate level program is MSConfig and the advanced level program is Autoruns.

Let’s first take a look at MSConfig.  To open MSConfig, click the Start button, then click run (xp) or type run (vista) to bring up the run (open) box.  In that box, type msconfig, press enter and you will see a box that looks like the one below.  Next, click on the Startup tab.

MSConfig Startup

There are three columns in the startup tab and check boxes.  If a box has a check in it, that means the file is set to run when the computer starts up.  The first column is “Startup Item” which basically tells you the name of the program.  The second is “command” which tells your computer the command for starting the program.  The third column shows you where the program is set to start.

What we are going to do now is un-check (disable) the items that we do not need when the computer starts up.  Some of you may be a little timid to do this but it’s really not a big deal.  Un-checking a box doesn’t delete the program, it just disables it.  If your computer doesn’t act normal after these changes, you can always go back into MSconfig and check some of the items back to turn them back on.  Disabling these programs is a good example of how to fix a slow computer for free.  There is no need to buy some expensive program that promises to fix everything.  You can do this!

In deciding which programs to disable, I would suggest expanding the Commands column so you will have a better idea of what the program actually is based on the directory it is stored in.  To expand the Commands column, put your cursor/mouse just to the left of the word Location (on the line to the left of Location), your mouse will then change into a plus sign.  At this point, left click on the line and drag the line to the right expanding the Commands column as much as you need and let the mouse button go when done.  I would say it is safe to un-check everything but your firewall and anti-virus.  You really don’t need an instant messenger or Quicktime, or realplayer, or yahoo starting up when your computer boots, so disable those and others that don’t look like they are critical for startup.

I know this may be hard to comprehend so please take a look at this video demonstration of MSConfig:

I hope this has helped you understand more about your computer and how to speed it up.  In my next post (How to Fix a Slow Computer – Part II, I will discuss the more advanced tool: Autoruns.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments sections and if you missed one of my earlier articles like “Why is my computer so slow?”, then feel free to explore the site for more answers to help you fix a slow running computer.

Take it easy,

Steve

The post title is in the form of a question because I am constantly asked the question, “Why is my Computer so Slow?“.  This question isn’t easy to answer because the answer could be a mixture of a number of reasons.  When someone tells me that they have a very slow computer, I usually take a step back and drill them with questions to try and figure it out without even looking at the computer.  By the time you finish reading my articles, you should also be able to fix a slow computer based on a set of questions and answers.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself when you have a computer running slowly:

• Do you have enough memory in the computer to handle the programs you are running?
• Do you have a really slow computer because it is held captive by a virus?
• Have you checked how many startup programs your computer is running?
• When was the last time you checked your hard drive space?

Those are a few of the basic questions I will be getting in to as I build a reference site for speeding up slow computers.  For now, I will say that you would want to max out your memory if it’s affordable.  Windows 32-bit computers can hold 4 gigs and 64-bit computers can hold 8 gigs.  The old computers are really hopeless if they can’t max out at more the 512 mb of memory.  If memory isn’t the problem, don’t worry, there are many other options to help a computer running slow.

Well, this first post was more or less a quick review on “Why is my Computer so Slow?” and what causes a computer slow down.  I have a number of articles to post that will go into greater detail on each of the questions presented here and many more questions dealing with slow computer issues.  If you have any questions about what I have talked about so far, please leave a comment or go to the contacts page and fill the form out to send me an email.  I will do my best to help you learn how to fix a slow computer.

Take it easy and come back soon to check out the next post.

Steve