Computer Question

[HLAuburn]

Can someone explain to me (in basic, non technical terms ) what causes a computer (mainly the internet) to be slow? Over the last month or so, my computer has become really slow. I run virus scans, and pretty much all I do is download pics from my camera and surf the web, so I'm just curious to know why it's slowing down. I have internet through Comcast, and I don't think there have been any changes to the service.

I'm pretty computer illiterate, but I use mine a lot, so I'm wondering if it might be time to get a new one!

Thanks!

 

[LadyZolt]

Do you regularly run maintenance programs, like defrag? Let me give an example: If you use your word processing program, or your photo program, when you edit or save data, the computer doesn't save it right in a row with other stuff (like, if you were writing in a notebook, you'd use the pages in order. Imagine just opening it up anywhere and jotting stuff down. After a while, you'd have a lot of stuff written but you'd be much slower trying to find one specific thing because you have to look on many pages to find it). Defrag makes the computer go through all of its "pages" and compile the data in a better way. If you do this, the computer will run more quickly again. It's best to run checkdisk (or error check, depending on what Windows you're running) and then defrag and you should see some improvement.

Also, check to see what is running in the background because sometimes programs will be running and you're not even aware that they're on. They'll be using up memory and making the computer run more slowly. Turning off programs that don't need to be on will also speed stuff up.

Those are two general things that will improve most computers' speeds pretty easily. Hope this helps!

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)

 

[marlynnp]

Do you shut down your computer or just go to stand-by?
Do you periodically clear your temporary internet files, history & cookies?

 

[HLAuburn]

Thanks Dorothy, I'll check out "defragging" - is it pretty easy to do?

Do you shut down your computer or just go to stand-by?
Do you periodically clear your temporary internet files, history & cookies?

During the day, when I'm off and on, I leave on. If I leave for a short time, I usually out it on standby, but usually shut it down when I leave and overnight. What should I be doing?

I probably need to clear internet files, history, and cookies...I can figure that out, so it might be a good place to start.

Thanks again!