Why computers are so slow
We’ve heard over and over that the reason computers are slowing down, is that they’re full with spyware, adware, viruses and trojans. That is quite often true, but it’s not always the whole truth.
Cheaper computers are still sold with only 256 MB RAM. That’s the internal memory of the computer, and the requirements for running Windows XP is 256 MB. But wait, that’s a base install, with no extras!
The moment you start to load it up with more stuff, you’re screwed. Anti-virus, anti-this and that, printer drivers and lots of other stuff is memory resident, meaning they eat a chunk each of that internal memory, until there’s less available than the machine needs. When that happens, the computer starts doing what we call “swapping to disk”. It’s writing down part of what it needs to keep in the internal memory down to the hard drive, then reading it again later, while writing something else there instead.
The hard drive is way slower than the internal memory, so that means the computer gets slower and slower as you use it and install more and more programs (and pick up a few parasites along the way).
To run Windows XP today, you ACTUALLY need a minimum of 512 MB RAM. So if your computer has less, you need to think about getting more, today. And don’t buy a new computer with less, no matter how cheap it is. Unless you already have an upgrade lined up, and have verified for sure that you can upgrade it… Adding memory later is often more expensive than adding it up front, just keep that in mind.
Each time Microsoft comes out with a new version of Windows, the real memory requirements go up. And they’re always too optimistic with regards to how much is needed. The computer that seems snappy in the store may end up barely moving once you’ve used it for a while. Even if you’re well within the official hardware requirements for that version of Windows…
Over time I’ve seen many machines that barely move. Examples are:
16 MB - Windows 95
64 MB - Windows 2000
256 MB - Windows XP
Also keep an eye on your C disk, so it doesn’t fill up. You need at least 500 MB of free space on it, otherwise it may start slowing down. For really old windows versions, the free disk space requirement is lower, but you still need to keep an eye on it.
At a party, a friend was complaining about his machine. It had suddenly gotten so slow. Turns out his nephew had upgraded it from Windows 98 to Windows XP. Sure, he’d upgraded the hardware too, but even so, those machines were never meant to run Windows XP. I’ll help him if he asks. As long as I can get the modem to work, I’ll switch him to a lightweight Linux…
Just for a lark, boot these machines with Damn Small Linux, and see the difference. A lightweight operating system can make slow machines fly! And no, booting from CD won’t damage your windows machine. Check out the hardware requirements: 16 MB, and a 486DX! That was quite a few years ago!
If you need some heavy duty Windows rescue, you should check out the full Knoppix CD, and this article on various rescue tricks.
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Update: What are the odds? Yahoo had an article entitled What’s Slowing Down Your PC? on that same day. Found it through Katemonkey, who also linked to a few posts from my blog.
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2nd update: Some computers are slow because they are filled with adware and spyware. Some are also trojans - participating in sending out spam, attacking other machines and a host of other things. All without the knowledge of the user. If you even SUSPECT this is the case with your machine, start all over: A fresh windows install. Not a rescue install. Backup all your data, then remove the partition windows was on and make a new partition.
October 27th, 2005 at 5:06 pm
No matter how fast your computer is it can really slow it down with all the programs that think they need to be running in your tray all the time. AOL loads a lot of stuff like that and they don’t even all show in the tray. Lots of printer drivers like to do that too for a printer status monitor or something. Microsoft Office also likes to load parts of itself all the time too. And then you probably have your IM client.
Recently I have tried to improve a computer with all of those problems. It was horribly slow. All of these programs loading at startup made booting take forever. And all of these programs trying to speed things up for you by having parts of them in memory are only slowing everything down.
If the icons in your system tray are getting close to reaching the Start menu you have way too many unnecessary programs running.
October 27th, 2005 at 7:48 pm
Don’t fprget alll the security patches and updates, too.
I have a machine which, when new, ran Win98SE like lightning. But now, it crawls after just the security patches….
October 28th, 2005 at 6:40 am
Any modern OS needs lots of RAM. You can run Linux on trailing edge hardware fine but don’t even think about running a full-blown KDE or Gnome installation. It’s just as bad as with Windows.
The only thing that IS worse with Windows (any version) is the fact that Windows installations ‘deteriorate’. It’s like there’s ‘OS rot’ going on or something. After a fresh install things usually run very smooth but this doesn’t last for long. After using the system for several months it starts slowing down until you’ve reached the point where a reinstall is the only option left.
This doesn’t happen on Macs or PC’s with Linux or FreeBSD installed. I remember installing OS X on my G4 466Mhz and selling the machine 2 years later with the original install still running. All I ever did was running updates. The system was never reformatted and/or reinstalled from scratch and it left my house running at exactly the same speed as when I took it out of the box first.
Makes you wonder….
October 28th, 2005 at 7:18 am
And have you ever noticed that with an old Windows install, the icons start acting funny after the computer’s been on for a while? I take that as a sign a reinstall is way overdue…
October 28th, 2005 at 9:47 am
Oh, and I forgot: Disk fragmentation. It gets worse the older the computer gets. That can slow it down too.
October 28th, 2005 at 11:46 am
Icons start acting funny because Windows is set to only handle so many. After running for a while the icon cache gets full and odd things result. Using TweakUI (I think) you can raise that limit. But it takes more memory.
November 8th, 2005 at 11:23 am
Actually, I’ve gotten a Panasonic Toughbook with a Pentium II (300MHz, Deschutes core) and 192MB of RAM to run XP nicely - and all my network administration and spyware disassembly tools, too (i.e. PE Explorer, Trillian, Firefox, Outlook 2000, Winamp, NetStumbler, NetworkView, DreamWeaver/Fireworks, VNC, Sam Spade, et cetera) - and they all run at a pretty dang good clip.
The first thing to do is to turn off the Luna interface. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click the Advanced tab and the Settings button under the Performance section. Set it to “Adjust Windows for Best Performance,” but scroll down in the box under it and check the box marked “Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop.” Hit Apply, then OK, then close the System Control Panel. That’s a BIG tweak and you’ll notice a massive performance gain.
If you’re so lucky as to have access to the XP tweaks from a Best Buy Geek Squad geek, get and run them, or get the MRI CD of theirs off any popular BitTorrent tracker. The registry tweaks are godly, but the rest of their stuff is junk.
Really, though, that’s just the start of it. I’ve been meaning to write a guide about how to do this for months, but it’s slipped my mind.
June 11th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Hi tuxedo Jack,
I have a panasonic toughbook II 366 with WIN 95 and 198 MB RAM
Can you give me advice how to upgrade to WIN 98 or WP.
Thanx