Sunday, 17 February 2013

PC running slow, apps failing to respond?

We all know how frustrating it is to be sitting at a pc waiting for it to spring into life and complete an action. Or, you click on an app and it takes ages for something to happen. Its no fun, it makes any job seem like a painful task and you end up tearing your hair out with frustration. 


I guess for readers of this blog it may have been a bit like that recently. After a short burst when I started off I haven't been doing much posting recently. I've even started a few posts on Windows 8 which have been languishing as a draft for months. Sorry folks but normal service will be resumed shortly. I've been a bit like one of those slow machines, chugging along not getting anywhere fast, not running at my full potential. 

With slow PC's there's plenty you can do. My first bit of advice would be to check to see if your system can take more RAM. Use something like the Crucial System Scanner to see what is in your system and how much RAM is needed to max it out if possible. Bear in mind if its a 32 bit OS it will only support about 3.5GB so anything more than 4GB would be wasting your money. OK so its not free but RAM is fairly cheap at the moment and will generally make a big performance difference  Don't be afraid of fitting it either, its not hard job and there are plenty of videos on-line which show you how to do it.

Its no fun running low on resources. I haven't done any exercise since October, what with colds, a broken toe, dodgy coughs lasting for months with achy ribs. I'm starting to realise its had an impact on me and I'm not getting things done like I should have. Still I'm starting to feel a bit more normal now, so back to the gym soon and hopefully doing the Couch to 5K plan too. That should get me back to optimum working condition.

Other options which don't involve spending money include things like checking what programs are actually running on your PC, all those pointless things that load at startup for example. Have a check in your system tray to see what is running and what you actually need. Use MSCONFIG to disable things you don't need to speed up boot time and free up resources. 

Check your hard drive too, make sure its not running near capacity. Use disk clean-up or a program like Treesize or SpaceSniffer to check what's hogging your disk space and remove anything you don't need, just be careful what you delete. Once you have enough free space run a disk defrag to help improve file access. 



Guess that's what holds me and a lot of other people back too, half the time when I'm trying to get things done I end up doing the wrong tasks which ends up getting nothing much done at all. Once you take away the needless tasks you can actually focus on what needs to be actioned. 

Hopefully like giving your PC a spring clean this will give me a boost to get things done and be a bit more positive and pro-active in general. I've got plenty of good things to get busy for and make the best they can be, myself, my wife and family, my work. The move towards spring with the lighter mornings and nights also gives a boost with the temptation of sun looming on the horizon, its a bit like replacing the battery in a laptop you've had for a years now. 

Look forward to some more post soon dear reader, probably a bit more Tech focused but maybe the occasional fit-bit thrown in. Let me know if you notice any improvements after getting your kit in order if you've never tried it before. 

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