My Computer Is Running Slow, Why?
There are many reasons for your computer to slow down, failing hard drive, virus, too many programs on startup, and antivirus software to name just a few. Lets check a some of the obvious things out.
RAM – does your system have enough? It did when you bought it, but as programs get updated and installed they use more and more RAM each time. It is quite possible you have reached your limit on ram, this is how to find out.
Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to bring up the task manager. Click on the Performace tab at the top of the window.
How much free RAM do you have?
The area in the red box is what we are interested in. If you are running Windows Vista or 7 please skip to the next section as the steps are a little different.
The Total and Available memory is what we need to look at. Drop the last three digits and that is how much ram you have installed (total) and free (available.) So in my example we have 523mb or RAM installed and 386mb ram available. You should always have well over 100mb RAM available, if you don’t it’s time to install more.
For Vista/7 users it’s one more click but the information is laid out much better. Press Crtl + Alt + Delete and choose Task Manager. Click on the performance tab at the top then Next click on Resource Monitor.
Vista / 7
Performance Monitor Vista / 7
Look in the red box area for all vital information. You still want to have a few hundred MB available/free. If you don’t, time to upgrade!
Assuming you have lots of RAM free let move on to virus checking.
Continued on next page…