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Tue
10
Jun '08

Sluggish computer

I now own a 500GB external harddrive. Our other one was 50GB which we’d filled. I spent the evening dumping files and now have 20GB of free space on my computer.

It is still running sluggishly.

Before you suggest…. I’ve run anti-virus software, AdAware, defragged, restarted, checked on processes running, shut down all background programs and still, it is not happy.

26 Comments »

  • http://neutronjockey.livejournal.com Jeff

    … msconfig as well?

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      As much as I’m willing to muck about with it, yes. I totally screwed my computer up last summer and am gun-shy about that now.

      • http://neutronjockey.livejournal.com Jeff

        I use this to check the start-up registry against.

        It’s a pretty useful database to check your start-up programs against. It typically…most of the time, helps out on performance issues quite a bit.

        • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

          Wow. That is EXACTLY what I needed. Thank you.

        • http://neutronjockey.livejournal.com Jeff

          I highly recommend AVG Free antivirus and Spybot Search & Destroy. I’ve used both for many years now with no hiccups.

          You may also consider spyblaster. If you’d like linkies I can provide.

          AVG is a process hog when it runs, but if you’re like me and leave the ‘puter running 24/7 you can set the timer for hours that you shouldn’t be up.

        • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

          Got both of them already. Alas.

          I went through MSConfig last night and the computer is booting faster and seems less sluggish, but is still not truly happy.

          Rob suggested that maybe it’s too hot.

  • Willis Couvillier

    Cleaned out the temporary internet and cookies folder from IE? Or any other browser you use?

    Also, perhaps there’s some registry clutter. That is the trickiest to clean out, but there’s decent programs out there that are easy to use for it.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      Yep, cleaned out all the temp files, cookies and backups.

      Registry cleaner programs make me nervous, but if you’ve got a suggestion for a reliable one I’ll take a look at it.

  • Willis Couvillier

    I’ve had really good results with McAfee’s QuickClean program.

    Another suggestion would be to make sure that the drivers for the new drive are the most current for your OS. Sometimes installing a new thing affects the system.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      I’ll take a look at McAfee’s QuickClean.

      I got the new drive because the computer was sluggish and I was hoping that creating more space would help. Alas… But I will double check the driver. It never hurts.

  • -d-

    Oh for the good old days of DOS. You couldn’t do much, but you could do it quickly.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      Remember back when we had the two hard drives on our first computer and how long it took to boot?

    • http://neutronjockey.livejournal.com Jeff

      SHADOW RAM!

      It was just cool to say I was busy configuring the SHADOW RAM through the dosshell.
      *sniffle*

      I miss dos too.

  • Julia

    Back everything up, wipe the drive, reinstall Windows. Or so I’ve heard, anyway…

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      Augh. I just did that in November and it took two hours just to load all the Windows patches and upgrades. Maybe it’s time to go Linux.

      • Julia

        It might be. I’ve no experience with Linux since OSX has worked fine for me lo these last five years, but I DO hear good things about it from my friends who use it!

  • http://www.alexwilson.com Alex Wilson

    You’re on Windows, it sounds like? On Windows 95 through Me I found a complete backup, wipe, and reinstall every six months or so kept things running smoothly. Never had a computer with XP or Vista, but even on a Mac I try to do this once every year or two.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      Maybe I should… It just takes so long to load everything back on.

    • http://www.chrisbillett.net Chris Billett

      I used to do the same with older versions, but honestly haven’t had to with XP. Windows Defender will generally tell you what’s eating resources (as will right-clicking the taskbar and monitor processes in task manager or whatever it’s called?)

      Does sound like something fishy!

  • http://www.puppetkaos.com Kelvin Kao

    Um… increasing the memory might help?

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      If I had installed new programs, I’d think that might be the case, but this is all stuff that I’ve been using on this machine. And it happens even when I’ve only got one program running.

      Like, I’ll take the machine offline, turn off everything running in the background such as AVG and spybot, make sure no other programs or processes are running and STILL it’s sluggish.

      • http://www.chrisbillett.net Chris Billett

        You’ve done this, I’d expect, but if not then take a backup of anything on the internal hard disk as soon as possible. There’s an off chance (especially if it’s noisy) that the drive is struggling, and that’s causing slowness. Could fail. Is it a laptop or a desktop?

        • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

          I’ve been backing up nightly, since getting the new external hard drive.

          It’s a laptop and you’ve reminded me of a variable that I haven’t mentioned. I dropped it twice in the last two weeks. Not far,in either case, but the first time cracked the chassis.

  • http://charles-tan.blogspot.com Charles

    Theoretically what should be slowing you down (aside from any hidden worms or viruses) is the registry (Jeff’s post).

    If that doesn’t help, it’s down to increasing your RAM (if you’re using Windows XP, I have to warn you, 2 GB is the most RAM you can utilize).

    • http://www.chrisbillett.net Chris Billett

      2Gb per application. You can utilise 4Gb in a 32bit OS like XP or w2k, and Windows itself can grab 2Gb and leave another couple for office, Photoshop, whatever else. That said, 2Gb is about normal and anything more is excessive unless in extreme circumstances.

      The whole hard disk space/sluggish thing is a bit of an IT myth, and only relevant in the extreme cases (which Mary got to, obviously, but is passed now). If there’s not enough space to use virtual memory or write the necessary temp files, then lack of space can be an issue, but just using 85Gb of your 100Gb drive for example isn’t going to make your computer slower. That’s not the best explanation in the world, but I’m tired!

  • http://www.michelelee.net Michele Lee

    I recently had to upgrade my RAM. Of course it’s maxed out now, so anything else means working toward a new laptop.

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