Speed Up Computer

One area in which you may notice slow performance from your computer is during the shutdown routine. Some users leave their computers on all the time. Personally, I don’t recommend this. I always shut down my computer at the end of the day. When you shut down and restart your computer, not only do you save electricity, you also give the operating system a fresh start.

Shutdown Problems Can Be Temporary

In theory, once a process is running, it should run normally. Sometimes, however, things go wrong. A process doesn’t shut down properly or gets hung up. Some programs that are not designed properly may have “memory leaks.” These “zombie” processes and memory leaks can take up valuable CPU cycles or consume a continuously growing amount of your computer’s available memory. Both of these things can slow system performance to a crawl or can hang your computer completely.

Even when you shut your computer down regularly, you may notice delays in the shutdown process. Some shutdown slowdowns are absolutely normal. Windows Vista and older versions of the Windows operating systems download and install updates at shutdown, and during this process, a slow shutdown is to be expected.

Slow shutdowns can also occur as the result of hung applications and other processes that cannot shut down normally. These problems are usually temporary and often resolve on their own. The computer may issue an error message asking for help when it gets stuck. If an application routinely crashes on shutdown, however, this could be a symptom of a larger problem.

Driver issues can also cause slow shutdown problems. Check often for driver updates and install updated drivers when you find them. Driver Detective can keep track of your drivers and download updates automatically.

If your shutdowns are chronically slow, check the Event Viewer to see what your computer is running. You may be surprised by what you find! To run the Event Viewer, choose the Run command and enter eventvwr.msc in the box.

When the Event Viewer is running, choose Applications and Services > Microsoft > Windows > Diagnostics – Performance > Operational. The Event Viewer will show a list of critical events and warnings that are issued at various points during the computer’s operation, and will specifically identify troublesome events that occur at shutdown. Take a close look at these Shutdown Performance Monitoring events. The warning information will often identify the processes that are causing shutdown delays. A little extra detective work on these slow spots will help you resolve these issues.

Photo Credit: Cindy Siegle