Why do PC's slow down with age?

The Valentine Zombie

I'm not hooked up to the web on my "work" PC which is only 3 years old; it has two Hard drives, with Windows installed on the 40gb one...I recently installed PhotoshopCS2, which seems a bit more memory hungry than version 7, but it started slowing down before this...and I have no access to(and no knowledge of) I.T. I've started deleting all non-important programs, I scan it for viruses regularly and find nothing, it just gradually gets slower and slower as the months go by.

After that indepth analysis...any thoughts?

Malkor

Have you ever formated the drive? Also if you run new programs that are more resource intensive on old hardware, the old hardware will start to show it's age.

mastman

My in depth analysis is that every copy of windows I've ever ran since the dawn of Windows 95 needed a fresh reinstall after about 2-3 years despite my spectacular efforts.

I think, it just happens.

however, I will offer some ways to help:
- don't run on-demand virus scanner. or if you have to, exclude the directories you spend the most time in
- defrag weekly
- run "msconfig", go to startup, remove old, useless shit. DO NOT REMOVE USEFUL SHIT
- keep HD atleast 25% free
- remove programs you don't use
- get hijackthis, or adaware something and run it

Unicron

You could also try defragging, especially if you've installed/uninstalled lots of applications or made/deleted lots of files (I'm guessing this to be the case, especially with teh hueg photoshop files).

The defrag tool included with windows (in Applications -> System Tools I believe, but don't have a Windows installation to check it on right now) is probably good enough but if you're willing to spend a bit of cash, O&O defrag is pretty sweet.

The Valentine Zombie

Seeing as I know absolute hee-haw about hardware, and there's no way of hiding it, I'm going to go ahead and say this...do I not need to back-up everything on the hard-drive elsewhere before formatting it? There. I said it. Unleash the heckle-hounds!

Malkor

The Valentine Zombie wrote: »

Seeing as I know absolute hee-haw about hardware, and there's no way of hiding it, I'm going to go ahead and say this...do I not need to back-up everything on the hard-drive elsewhere before formatting it? There. I said it. Unleash the heckle-hounds!

Yeah, the re-format will be your last resort. It's always good to backup important stuff occasionally anyway though. Try defragging the drive, but it if won't let you then save what you need somewhere else then reformat it. You don't need everything just stuff that you've worked on youself.

The Valentine Zombie

Shit, two posts up while I was typing. I defrag it once a week, and perform a clean-up just as often, and it's just as slow.

Malkor

What are the specs?

Unicron

For backup, basically you want to backup your My Documents and stuff (obviously) but think like Windows, Program Files can safely be ignored.

The Valentine Zombie

I'll try backing everyting up, but it's mostly hooooooj photoshop files (one particular board-game design is a good couple of gig)...pain in the arse. I'll go for the "format the drive" option.

In advance of me not appearing on-line to report my progress tomorrow, cheers for the advice!

Unicron

Good luck and I advise finding a good book :P

The Valentine Zombie

PS I don't have the specs on me the now, I'm using a different PC. Soz.

Uncle Long

I know you said you'd try to back up everything. But, when you format, everything that you didn't backup is going to be lost, completely. So, if there is anything you'd rather not lose then make sure that you have a working copy ready to go (and test the copy to make soure all of the information is there).

Other than that, make sure that you have the discs for any programs that aren't OEM (like your Photoshop) because you're going to have to reinstall those. Also make sure that you have the product key to register the program again.

Other than that:

If your computer is still running slow after a reformat then you can always consider adding RAM; as the newer photoshops are becoming increasing RAM hogs, and considering that you are using this program extensively, the problem may have to do with the simple fact that you do not have enough RAM (the minimum for CS3 is 1 gig, by the way, and the minimum requirements usually =/= what you really need to run the program).

Marty81

Whoa whoa there. Before you reformat, try this.

mastman wrote: »

run "msconfig", go to startup, remove old, useless shit. DO NOT REMOVE USEFUL SHIT

This, in my experience in cleaning up computers, is the #1 cause of slowdown over time. Google everything in the "startup" tab, uncheck everything you don't need (which includes quickstarters for things like Office and Adobe Acrobat), and restart your computer. On your next restart, a warning will pop up asking you to revert your changes. Don't.

Also, open the task manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and tell us how many processes you have running. You shouldn't have more than 25 or so on a fresh boot. If you do, then you have way too much stuff running in the background, consuming resources for no good reason. I have 30 running right now, and I have a bunch of things open. I've seen computers boot up with over 60, and it's terrible for performance.