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

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