What Makes Your Computer Slow? When your computer starts to slow down it can be not only frustrating, it can be a sign of something going wrong on your system. There are many reasons why your computer may be slowing down and you should understand what those reasons are so you can get it fixed before any serious damage is done. Below are a few of the main reasons why your computer may be slowing down and tips on how to fix them. Registry Your registry is the main infrastructure in your computer and for everything you do on your system a line is created. This is designed to make your computer run faster but it can be the cause of a slow down if there are errors in your systems registry. Over time your registry may become bloated with so much information that it can slow down, or you may have a corrupt file or even malware that is causing the issue. Download a good registry cleaner and run a backup before repairing the errors that are found in the registry. Cleaning your registry manually can be tedious and risky, so save yourself some time and frustration and download a program to do it for you. Malware Malware can be adware, spyware, Trojans, viruses or other malicious software that can cause damage to your system. The effects of the malware can be minimal to dramatic, so you need to protect your computer and your information. Install anti-virus software on your computer and always run the updates to keep it current. Ensure that the settings protect your computer from network intrusions, e-mail attachments, and suspicious websites and is always turned on. Software There are times that software issues are the cause of your slow system and pin pointing them can be difficult. If you uninstalled a program using an improper method you may receive an error at startup or when you try to open the program or you may be experiencing issues after installing a program that is not compatible with your system. Keep a close watch on when your system locks up or becomes slow, try to narrow the software issue down and once found you can repair...
Read MoreIn this article we are going to talk a little about why my computer shut down time is so slow We have a lot of questions about computers that run good but the shutdown process takes way longer then it is supposed to. Once the shut down command is initiated, some systems will spin the hard drive seemingly forever until the shutdown finally occurs. Computer shut down issues can be caused by many reasons from software to hardware. By far one of the most common is a program that is using too many resources. In order to determine this, open up your Task Manager while the computer is running. Click on the Process tab. Take a close look at some of the programs that are running and how many CPU cycles they are using. If you spot a program that is using a high percentage, simply close the program. If you cannot close the program stop the process from running by highlighting the process and clicking on the end process tab of your Task Manager. You will get a complaint window but close it anyway. Now try to do your computer shut down. If the system shuts down normally you have found your problem. You will either have to shut the program down before shutting down or if it is something you can live without, just uninstall it. If you still have issues, repeat the process again. In addition, be sure to unplug all your USB devices as a test. Sometimes these devices will stop your computer from shutting down and in some cases from starting. If your system now shuts down normally, you are done. Some computers have their virtual memory set to delete when the computer shuts down. This will add up to a few minutes for the shut down process to occur. Unless you have a specific security need for this to happen, I recommend you turn this option off. In Windows XP, go to Start>Control Panel>Administrator Tools>Local Security Policy>Local Policies>Security Options. Look at the options and find the “Clear virtual memory page file when system shuts down “ entry. Be sure the setting is Disabled. If it is Enabled click on the line and change...
Read MoreHi everybody. When was the last time you checked your computer for hard drive errors and bad sectors? If it has been a while, now might be a good time to be sure your disk is in proper condition. The check could take a long time but it just like housework it needs to be done. In this column we are going to guide you through some of the steps that are needed to accomplish this task. The first place you need to go is to your start menu. From here you will want to go to My Computer. Find the drive you want to check and right click on the drive and select the properties button. Once the drive properties window is open you will want to go to the tab that says Tools. You will see at the top the verbiage “This option will check the drive for errors” Go ahead and click on the “Check Now” button you see. A new window will open with 2 check boxes. Be sure to check both the “Automatically fix file system errors” and “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors”. Click the “Start” button. You will now get a dialog box that says that Windows cannot check the drive because it is in use message. Click the ”Schedule disk check” button. The next time you start the computer the check disk utility will run. Be advised that it could take hours depending on how much is on the drive. The reason the utility cannot perform the operation without restarting the computer is because many of the Windows files are in use and when these files are being accessed by Windows, they cannot be checked or modified. When you start the computer, the utility begins before the operating system loads and this allows the check disk utility to do its job. Windows has another neat safety net for keeping your computer in shape. It is called System File Checker. To do this operation you will need your original Windows Disk. Simply place the disk in your drawer. If the disk tries to open or play simply cancel the operation. You will now need to open a command prompt. In...
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