Speed Up Computer Header

Posts Tagged ‘faster pc’

Quick ways to boost PC speed and performance

Posted by paul on February 3rd, 2009

Has your PC lost some of the pep that was once in its step? PC slowdown is a normal thing that happens as your PC matures and becomes laden with too many programs and erroneous file paths. However, you do not have to live with it. Here are some ways you can quickly boost your PC speed without having to go out and purchase a newer computer…

Slow Start up

rush hour
If your PC takes to long to start up, you might have too many programs trying to turn on, when you do. Turning on your PC can become akin to dealing rush hour traffic as all you messenger services, your virus protection, your picture downloading software and who knows what else rushes to start firing up their programming. The best way to deal with this is to limit the number of programs you have wanting to run on start up. Just click on the RUN tab and type in MSNCONFIG to get to your start up options. Now you can tick off whatever programs you think you might no need at start up. There is also an option to delay some programs so that they start a minute or two after start up. Also, if you happen to have the full version of Regcure, you can pick and choose which program you want to keep at Start Up and which ones you would like to save for later.

Defragging taking forever

While it is good that you are trying to Defrag your hard drive, lets face it, Window’s Defragging program is as slow a your Grandma on Sunday. There are a number of other alternative defragmentor programs out there including Defraggler and Auslogics. Give one these puppies a try to see if perhaps you can optimize you hard drive before its time for bed.

grandma

Adding and Removing

If you have ever tried to add and remove some programs with the add and remove program applet that can be found in your control panel, you know that this beast is a slow one indeed that is prone to freezing and ending abruptly. My suggestion is to us an alternative uninstalling program such as CCleaner or Myunistaller.

Programs that just won’t end

Ever notice that after you choose to end an unresponsive program, that does not seem to want to go away right away. Well, you can change this by going to your Regedit program and looking up HKEY_local_machine\system\currentcontrolset\control and change the setting for “the wait to kill” to 1000. This should help zap out those unresponsive programs

RAMping up

Posted by paul on January 29th, 2009

ram
When it comes to speed and performance, the amount of RAM your computer has is absolutely essential. In today’s fast paced world 256 MB ( that’s megabytes) is pretty much the bare minimum amount of RAM that you can get away with, and a new computer today will boast much more than this ( 4 gigabytes is now considered almost standard). To check out how much RAM your PC has, just click on the System Information tab in your Control Panel. If you run a lot of graphics or are a gamer and you have less than 1 GB of RAM, my suggestion to you is to get yourself some more.

What RAM does

RAM or Random Access Memory is a stick of solid state circuits with no moving parts that is able to perform task at lightening quick speeds.  If your PC does not have enough of this memory available then it needs to use its virtual memory cache that is kept  on your PC’s hard drive. While virtual memory is helpful, the problem is that your PC needs to poke around in a movable drive in order to access it and this ends up taking time and consequently leading to “page file” errors which will make you computer seem slow and unstable.

How to RAMp it up

Adding more RAM to your computer may be one of the simplest operations that you can perform on your computer. It only takes a few minutes and it will make you feel like a genuine professional computer geek type. RAM can be found in most electronic goods stores and comes in 128, 256, 512, and 1024 MB sizes. There are  different types of RAM ranging from RD RAM (a pair with metal casings), SD RAM ( has two notches and is being phased out, DDR SDRAM (the most popular type of RAM with two notches).  The RAM modules are green with black tubing and are located on the Mother Board. RAM also comes in two speeds (233 or 266) and this is usually written on the side of the RAM chips.

Once you purchase your new RAM (most likey the DDR SDRAM) you sill need to unplug your PC and take off the removable panel. After making sure you touch the metal casing to discharge any static electricity, locate the RAM Modules and remove the RAM your are going to replace. Line the new RAM with the slots and press down firmly.

Once the RAM is snug, the clips that hold it should snap into place.  Now plug your PC back in and check your system information. If everything was done correctly, your PC should show an increase in RAM (this might require some addition and subtraction capabilities on your part in order to determine this). If your PC does not show a bigger amount of RAM, make sure that the chips were properly set in place and that you bought some that was compatible with your PC. Once you get everything in good working order, you should experience a much faster PC.

boost speed by increasing virtual memory

Posted by paul on December 29th, 2008

When your RAM is not enough, your PC resorts to using the free space found on your hard drive in order to deal with data overflow. This free space that is used is called virtual memory, and it is pretty much RAM, that has been simulated on your hard drive.  Having enough of this Faux RAM available is extremely important when it comes to keeping your PC running at its peak performance.

How Virtual Memory works…

Virtual Memory on your PC is akin to having a reserve fuel tank on your truck. When you are running at full throttle and your computer’s RAM is used all up, your PC starts dumping inactive parts of program applications into the empty space of your hard drive, restoring them to the RAM when they are needed. Virtual memory is pretty much a way to trick programs into thinking that there is still enough memory space to go around and keeps them running, while in reality your computer is merely doing a complicated juggling act, shifting used and unused data between its actual RAM and its Paging File.

How to increase virtual memory

Increasing the size of your virtual memory is relatively easy and requires no special downloads. First click on your Control Panel then go to  the Performance and Maintenance Tab, now click on the System Icon. When the System Properties window pops up, go to the the Advanced Tab, then click on Settings tab in the Performance box  which will open a Performance Options window. Move down to the “virtual memory” section and click on the Change.

How much Virtual Memory?

The general rule is to make the amount of virtual memory available about one and a half times bigger than the amount of  RAM you are using. So, for instance, if you have 1000 MBs of RAM, make your Virtual Memory size 1500 MBs. Another good trick to know is to make minimum and maximum paging file size the same value. This will keep your PC from constantly changing your Page file Size and keep its performance more stable.

Thrashing

Sometimes having too much data flowing in and out of your virtual memory space can end up slowing down your computer even more.  Thrashing happens when a chunk of data happens to be too large to be efficiently handled by your computer’s paging system and swapping it in and out of virtual memory causes frequent faults. The best way to prevent thrashing is to increase the size of your Ram.

Making more room

Another way to make more room within your virtual memory without increasing the size of it is to get rid of unneeded processes and freeing up resources in your computer’s registry. This can be done with any good registry cleaner.

Related Blogs