Is Your Computer Running Slow?

Recently someone asked me why I don’t use that question to build my business.  It is true; many people have spyware or virus infections that slow down their computer.  If I was to make that point to potential customers I might pick up some extra business.  I just feel that the question is misleading.

The truth is everyone’s computer is running slower these days.

Windows XP has grown to be a huge program, and most Antispyware and Antivirus software programs have turned into massive memory pigs too.  If your computer is old enough to be running a factory installed copy of Windows XP, it certainly has slowed down over the last year or two.  My office copy of Windows XP is using 500MB of RAM just sitting here typing a Word document.

Windows Vista was designed to obsolete most of the hardware that was available when it was released, and it uses about 700MB of RAM just sitting idle.  The typical new PC from HP, Compaq and the others will come with 1GB of RAM, so your computer is all but out of memory by the time you get it booted up and your AntiVirus software has loaded up.

That is why I feel the question is misleading.  If you have been using a computer for the last two years, even if you bought a new one recently, you have probably noticed the machine slowing down.  It does not mean it is broken.  Certainly it does not mean you should pay for some online software that claims it can remotely fix your computer.  I’ve seen these offers made on TV by AOL and by independent websites.  Please, if you have ever valued anything I have ever written, do not trust some remote software package with your data!

There are a lot of things you can do to speed your system back up on your own, regardless of the operating system you are running.  

The first thing to do is to determine if indeed there is something wrong.  Just how much has it slowed down?  If the system is so slow it has become unusable or it takes an absurd amount of time just to open a program, you should probably bring it in and have us check it.  But if it just seems to drag, or you have times that it suddenly slows down to a stop you may be able to help yourself.  Have you checked your Antispyware/Antivirus software to see when it expires or when it was last updated?  If you find it is expired or out of date, bring it in for a scan.

If you can see the red light (hard drive indicator) flashing furiously on the front of the computer, or maybe you can hear the hard drive grinding away like an animal gnawing on something, you may just have a program that is taking up too many resources.  Or you may just need to upgrade your memory (RAM).  If the system is older, the hard drive might be getting full. 

So let’s take a look at what you can do:

  1. Open up the task manager (right click on your taskbar and choose ‘task manager’)
  2. Click on the Processes tab and check the box that says ‘Show processes from all users’
  3. Click on the word CPU to resort the processes by processor usage, you may need to click it twice to bring the highest number to the top.
  4. Now start reviewing the list, ideally you will see ‘System Idle Process’ at the top.  If not, or if System Idle Process is below 70% highlight the processes next to it one by one and right click on them.  Choose end process, and click “Yes” in the warning window that follows.  **Note that you should only do this when you have closed any important files and saved your work as this may close what ever programs you were working in**
  5. Continue closing processes down and watch the System Idle Process.  When it gets back to 80% or higher you have probably found the programs causing the issue.
  6. If nothing is obvious, click on ‘Mem Usage’ to sort the processes by memory usage.  Follow the same procedure to find your culprit.

Once you know what processes are causing the issue try to determine what each process is.  Some will be easy to tell by the name i.e. WINWORD.EXE is Microsoft Word, googledesktop.exe is obvious as well.  Others will be harder to figure out, like svchost.exe or egui.exe.  In fact you will find svchost.exe running in multiple instances, but it should not take up many resources if you aren’t running any applications.

You can search on the internet by Googling the process name, but be aware that many unscrupulous websites are designed to take what ever process you search for, and then insert it into a page that claims it may be spyware or a virus.  These sites are often spyware infectors themselves, support.microsoft.com, and Wikipedia, are both good places to search for processes.

Once you have determined what processes are haunting you, you can begin disabling them if they are not needed.  Here is an article that gives you a bunch of possibilities if you are running Windows Vista.

Processes can be disabled a number of ways, but the place to start is msconfig.  Run msconfig from the ‘RUN’ box at the start button, go to the ‘Startup’ tab, and run down the list of stuff that is starting up when Windows loads.  Find the processes that are causing issues and you can look to see where the start up command is located.  Uncheck the box next to the process, and restart your computer.  If you are able to resolve your issues, go to the startup location of each process and delete the command that starts the process.  If this last step is too technical for you, just leave them disabled in msconfig.

~Steve