Is Your Computer Running Slow?

This request comes from a long-time friend that I haven't seen in years. He asks;

Hey Andy...

(I just had to say that.)

...I'm using a Compaq Presario desktop box with Windows XP Pro. It's a few years old now and wasn't a hot-rocks system when we bought it. It's got an AMD Athlon XP2000+ processor good for 1.67 GHz and 512 meg of RAM. It uses an NVidia GeForce 6200 graphics card, my one splurge when we were computer shopping. It has a 30-Gig C: drive, an extra 12-Gig hard drive I salvaged from an older machine, and is otherwise a very normal office-type desktop machine.

Given my system's limited resources I have tried to be vigilant about malware. I use ZoneAlarm and Free AVG, both current installs, and I periodically run CCleaner (to avoid having Explorer temp files take over my hard drive). I also use Glary Utilities, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Ad-Aware SE to keep the system as clean as I can. I limit the startup menu to only those things that are necessary for our daily operations. We keep up with the Windows updates to the XP Pro system software. We defrag the hard drives from time to time, and about once a year I open the case and clear out dust from the hardware components with a damp cloth.

Yet I find that, after all that we've done, the system still is slower than it used to be. It's slow to boot, slow to respond to keyboard and mouse inputs, and especially slow to start new programs.

I am wondering if my system might still have malware on it that has got through our defenses. Task Manager processes show nothing abnormal. Do you have any advice for me?

-Aaron

Hey Aaron,

Thanks for the question. I can only make a pseudo-educated guess on this one, without being there to try different options. But, I think that you need to pick a program to provide anti-virus, and the same or another one to provide your firewall protection. You are doing just about everything that you would ever need to do. I suggest turning off the "Zone Alarm" and see if that increases your speed. Zone Alarm is probably checking every program request and connection you make. This will significantly slow even a powerhouse computer to it's knees.

Another thing that you could do is use a registry cleaner. Sometimes the registry does not fully reflect the software that is currently on your computer. Sometimes the slowness can be too many programs or processes running at the same time.

It could be that your computer is well over due for a ram upgrade. Aren't we all? Having insufficient random access memory (RAM) will definitely slow a computer down. Take into account that the hardware was developed well before most of the software you are running came into being. Newer software requires more memory, as it isn't written as streamlined as earlier revisions. This is because the minimum base of RAM sold on computers today is more than 1GB, and earlier versions had to run on much less memory.

Those are my suggestions.