How to Speed up a Slow Computer (Part 1)
Having worked with computers for several years there’s one complaint I hear more than any other. The complaint is normally given to me as a question basically asking how someone can speed up their slow computer. Fortunately there are some things that anyone can easily do to speed up their computer.
For the next few articles I’m going to discuss why computers run slow and how you can speed them up.
One of the main reasons computers run slow is they don’t have enough memory (RAM). RAM is the memory that’s used every time you run a program on your computer. Some programs use very little RAM while others can use a lot of RAM. If your computer is short on RAM your computer will use virtual memory, which is very slow.
If your computer is more than 4 years old you may need more RAM unless you’ve already upgraded it. Also, companies often sell new computers with too little RAM so they can charge you to buy more later. I know, that’s not very nice of them!
If you’re running an Operating System prior to Windows 2000, seriously consider buying a new computer since Microsoft is no longer supporting it with essential security patches. This includes Windows 95, 98 and ME (Millenium).
If you’re running Windows 2000 or Windows XP you should have, at a minimum, 512MB of RAM. I recommend 1GB.
If you’re running Windows Vista you need at least 1GB and I recommend 2GB. Vista is a very memory hungry Operating System that still has a lot of bugs. As of this writing I’m still not recommending it to people buying new computers (but it’s getting harder to find new computers that come with Windows XP).
How can you tell how much RAM you have in your PC? Right click on your Task Bar and left click Task Manager. Next click on the Performance tab.
In this picture of my Task Manger’s Performance tab you can see the red arrow is pointing towards the Physical Memory of this computer. Total is the amount of RAM in this computer. 523,632 is basically 512MB of RAM. You also want to look at Available. This computer has 105,552 or 100MB of avaliable RAM.
Do you need more RAM? You can buy some at newegg.com. Not sure what type you need? Find out at kingston.com. There are many types of RAM and they’re not interchangeable. Don’t go out and buy the first RAM you find on sale and expect it to work in your computer. Chances are it won’t.
If you don’t want to take the time to find out what type of RAM you need and how to install it you can take your computer to a computer repair shop or find a friend or relative who’s done it before. A RAM upgrade should be around $100 installed and is well worth it if your computer is slow.
If you’d like to see a 25 minute video where I walk you step-by-step through what I do to speed up and optimize a computer click here .
Regards,
-Bert
