Slow Computer

I have 2 PCs, different brands, same basic innards. The PC I use most often runs much slower then the other one. Both have Norton Antivirus and Ad-Aware, I clean up/defrag/scan regularly.
The only difference is the slower PC has more programs loaded into it and more data stored. I use that one for my business, has Quicken, lots of other programs. The faster PC is sort of an orphan, daughter has a iBook, wife uses that mostly too.
Could having all the programs loading at start-up cause it to run slower? The faster PC used to be slow as mud when my daughter used to use it and it was full of adware.
I know this is a basic question, but there is quite a difference between the 2 PCs. I just wanted to ask before I start messing around with it.

norton is generally veeery slow.

To find out what is slowing you, hit CTRL-Alt-Del and "Task Manager" button to watch the CPU 'speedometer.'

Choose "Processes" tab at top.

Click "CPU" column 2x to get the ranking from top to bottom ("System Idle Process" should be the highest CPU number most of the time.)

Watch to see what process ("Image Name" is hogging your CPU). You can leave Task Manager open and check it when the system is going particularly slow to figure out the cause.

When you suspect a process as the hog and can't figure out it's origin, google it and you'll get an answer.

It's good for checking out what's running behind the scenes, particularly if you suspect adware or a virus.

If only your IE web browser is going slow, go to Tools/Manage Add-Ons/Enable or Disable Add-Ons and scroll down to see what Add-ons are listed. You should be able to recognize most of them. If not, google them to see if they're not unwanted...

Next, I'll give you instructions to edit the Registry.
Good luck,

- Charlie

The first question is was it always sluggish, slowly got sluggish or did it get sluggish all at once.

The second question is whats the specs? RAM, OS and CPU?

Unless they are identical or very similar you can't make a side by side comparison. Too many variables. you may for example have 512MB of Ram on both machines but just like you can have a faster processor you can also have faster RAM, faster HDD's etc. Are they both XP? Vista needs a LOT of ram. Especially if you're running the aero interface. XP should have a minimum of 512, a bare install needs 200MB+ on boot.

Loading a a bunch of stuff at start up will slow down anything, especially if you're hitting your ram limit when you load other things like a browser etc. Easy way to tell is if your HDD is running a lot when you're doing things, what happens is when the RAM fills to capacity it will offload it to the hard drive so you'll have your HDD reading/writing data back and forth between the physical RAM. Restart your computer and don't load anything. Go to start >> accessories >> system tools >> system information Down near the bottom see what it says for Total physical memory and available physical memory.

List some more specs and I can give some suggestions.

Thanks, I'll work on getting the specs. It was not always this slow. It happened slowly. Every so often it runs out of virtual memory, I get the increasing virtual memory window. I'll post the specs.

That indicates your RAM is at its capacity and offloading it to the virtual maerory which tself is getting full, and/or you have program eating a lot of memory.

Hit ctrl-alt-dlt , this will bring up the task manager. Hit the processes tab, click view >> select columns . Put a check next to Virtual memory, see what's using a lot of both the physical and virtual memory. You can sort them by clicking the header for that column.

Whole bunch of stuff in there. Ad-Watch is using 40K, biggest offender. I'll have to work on it more another time, to many things to do right now. I'll keep you posted. Thanks.

You don't need that running 24/7, use ad-aware or other spyware detectors every so often. Keep your nose out of bad neighborhoods, don't install junk software set up your computer right to begin with and you should not have problem with the types of things they block/detect. Spyware is not necessarily bad for your computer, its bad for your privacy. It doesn't do anything more than what it will state it does in the EULA when you install it hence the reason its not labeled a virus.

Just to add if you have a lot of security apps running that will slow your computer down to crawl and in some cases shut it down completely. Running tow virus scanners or firewalls for example will just about kill any system. They conflict and cause problems.

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This is what I use:

Anti-Virus: AVG, its free. Has small foot print.

Software Firewall: Windows firewall, I'm behind a router so no need for robust software firewall. If you're not behind a router Windows firewall is not good enough, Zonealarm and others offer free firewalls.

Spyware: I'll run the occasional scan with various products.


Viruses and other major problems in the last 5 years... 1 that was installed when I let a teenager use my computer for few hours...

The very best protection from viruses and other malicious content lies between the chair and the keyboard.

Wood'nCoal wrote:Whole bunch of stuff in there. Ad-Watch is using 40K, biggest offender. I'll have to work on it more another time, to many things to do right now. I'll keep you posted. Thanks.

BTW, See what it says when it starts getting really slow...

Understood. I'll look into it more after all the coal is picked up and shoveled.

Wood'nCoal wrote:Understood. I'll look into it more after all the coal is picked up and shoveled.

I haven't had time to look into this yet, but one other question-can I add my daughter's iBook to the LAN to share files? It's already connected to the router for the internet, but I don't know if file sharing between my 2 PCs (which I have networked) and the iBook is possible.

Thanks.

You asked if adding more programs to a computer can cause it to slow down. The answer is that a program that simply resides on the hard drive will have very little if any effect. However a program that installs an active component that starts up automatically, and which may put an icon in the tray on the right side, will consume computer resources. If you have several of these, or if one is a big consumer of resources, this will cause the computer to slow down.

So take a look at the icons in the lower right corner and make sure you really need each of them running all the time. If you don't change the settings so they don't start up automatically.

Thanks for your replies and info, Bob and CapeCoaler. I appreciate the help.

I reviewed the start-up menu and removed some of the programs that I rarely use or don't use at all. So far this PC seems to be running faster. I'll delve deeper into it later. Meanwhile the iBook is slowing down, I guess even Macs get clogged up with junk.