Poor performance
User complaints are few
when people get new computers.
They start up quick, and
programs seem to open
in a snap. But over time,
the systems can slow down
or hang up often. While
the possibilities for
system slowdowns are endless,
here are a few troubleshooting
areas you might want to
examine before you suggest
an upgrade.
Bad RAM:
Several situations can
lead to a bad RAM problems
on a certain machine:
RAM timing is slower
than optimal machine spec.
RAM has minor flaws that
only appear on detailed
testing.
RAM is overheating.
In the days of Fast Page
RAM, buying new RAM for
your computer was a pretty
simple affair. You just
needed to know what speed
your motherboard supported
and the maximum each slot
would take. Today, there
are many different speeds
of RAM, and the better
motherboards may be tolerant
of using RAM that does
not match the motherboard’s
maximum specs. For example,
your motherboard may support
PC133 RAM but will still
work with PC100 RAM. But
be aware that you may
see performance decreases
if you install RAM that
is slower than the maximum
spec.
Some motherboards will
even allow you to mix
speeds but will default
to the slowest RAM installed.
Minor flaws in RAM chips
can lead to system slowdowns
and instability. The least
expensive chips often
have minor flaws that
will cause your system
to slow down or Blue Screen
once in a while. Although
built-in mechanisms may
allow the system to keep
working, there is a performance
loss when it has to deal
with flawed RAM chips
In the past, no one worried
about RAM chips getting
hot, because they didn’t
seem to generate much
heat. But that’s
changed with newer RAM
types, especially SDRAM.
To check for overheating,
open your computer’s
case, power down, and
pull the plug out. Ground
yourself and touch the
plastic on one of your
RAM chips. They get quite
hot. If you find that
your RAM chips are overheating,
you should consider buying
a separate fan to cool
your memory. If your motherboard
doesn’t support a
RAM fan, you might be
able to get enough additional
cooling by installing
a fan card that plugs
in to a PCI slot.
Another RAM-related problem
may occur if you add more
than 64 MB of RAM to a
system that doesn’t
support caching of more
than 64 MB of system memory.
The system’s performance
will slow down when it
accesses the uncached
memory. For example, some
motherboards completely
disable the onboard L2
cache when more than 64
MB of RAM is installed,
causing major performance
loss.
FAILING HARD DISK:
There are many signs
of impending failure before
a hard disk finally crahes
on you. Some of these
signs may be:
Slow access times on
the affected drive.
An increasing number of
bad sectors when running
scandisk and chkdsk.
Unexplained Blue Screens.
Intermittent boot failures.
Detecting a failing hard
disk can be tricky because
the early signs are subtle.
Experienced computer professionals
can often hear a change
in the normal disk spin.
After the disk deteriorates
further, you’ll see
the system crawl to a
standstill. Write processes
will take a long time
as the system tries to
find good blocks to write
to. This performance slow
will occur when using
NTFS but FAT systems will
likely bring you that
lovely Blue Screen of
Death.
When you notice the system
slowdown, run scandisk
or chkdsk, depending on
your operating system.
If you notice a bad sector
where a good sector existed
, that’s a clue that
the disk is going bad.
Back up the data on the
disk and prepare for it
to fail soon. Make sure
you have a spare disk
ready so you can replace
it when it fails, or,
even better, replace the
disk as soon as you notice
the early signs of failure.
Disk noise and scandisk/chkdsk
are your best indicators
for identifying a failing
drive that’s leading
to a system slowdown.
BIOS SETTINGS:
BIOS settings are often
an ignored culprit of
system slowdown . Most
people accept the BIOS
settings as they were
configured in the factory
and leave them as is.
However, slowdowns may
occur if the BIOS settings
do not match the optimal
machine configuration.
Often you can improve
machine performance by
researching your motherboard’s
optimal BIOS settings—which
may not be the same as
the factory defaults.
There is no centralized
database of optimal BIOS
settings, but you can
employ a search engine
such as Google or AllTheWeb
and use your motherboard
name and BIOS as keywords
to find the correct settings.
DISK TYPE-CONTROLLER
COMPATIBILITY:
You’ve just added
a new UDMA-66 disk drive,
and it doesn’t seem
any faster than any of
the other drives in your
machine. So what’s
the problem?
It could be that your
motherboard doesn’t
support the UDMA 66 specification.
Check your manual to determine
what type of IDE interface
it supports. If the motherboard
only supports UDMA 33,
then your UDMA 66 throttles
down for backwards compatibility.
You can get around this
problem by installing
a PCI UDMA 66 add-on card
and plugging the new drive
in to that interface.
Another potential problem
may be the cable type
you are using. UDMA 66+
drives require a different
cable than older drive
types. The drive may not
work at all with the old
cable type. Aged cables
will break down over time,
especially if they are
tightly folded and the
temperature of the case
remains consistently high.
It’s always worthwhile
to change out the drive
cable to see if performance
improves.
RUNAWAY PROCESSES :
Runaway processes take
up all of the processors'
cycles. The usual suspects
are badly written device
drivers, and old software
installed on a newer operating
system. You can identify
a runaway process by looking
at the process list in
the Windows Task Manager
. Any process that takes
almost 100 percent of
the processing time is
likely a runaway process.
To bring up the Task
Manager to identify processes
that are slowing the system,
hit the keys: Ctrl + Alt
+ Delete. Tap these keys
until it appears on your
desktop.
On a smoothly running
system, the System Idle
Process should be consuming
the majority of the processor
cycles most of the time.
If any other process were
to take up 98 percent
of the processor cycles,
you might have a runaway
process.
If you do find a runaway
process, you can right-click
the process and click
the End Process command.
You may need to stop some
processes, such as runaway
system services, from
the Services console.
If you can’t stop
the service using the
console, you may need
to reboot the system.
Sometimes a hard reboot
is required (Turn your
computer off-->wait-->
and on).
DISK DEFRAGMENTATION:
As files are added, deleted,
and changed on a disk,
the contents of the file
can become spread across
sectors located in various
regions of the disk. This
is file fragmentation.
Disk fragmentation can
significantly slow down
your machine. The disk
heads must move back and
forth while seeking all
the fragments of a file.
A common cause of disk
fragmentation is a disk
that is too full. You
should keep 20% to 25
% of your hard disk space
free to minimize file
fragmentation and to improve
the defragmenter’s
ability to defrag the
disk. Thus, if a disk
is too full, move some
files off the drive and
restart the defragmenter.
APPLICATION RUNNING IN
THE BACKGROUND:
Have you ever visited
another user’s desktop
and noticed a dozen icons
in the system tray? Each
icon represents a process
running in either the
foreground or background.
Most of them are running
in the background, so
the users may not be aware
that they are running
20+ applications at the
same time.
This is due to applications
starting up automatically
in the background. Look
first for such programs
in the Startup folder
in the Start menu. Many
applications place components
in the Startup folder
to run in the background.
Some of these, such as
the Microsoft Office Findfast,
can really chew up processor
and disk time and noticeably
slow down a system. Review
each of the entries in
the Startup folder and
delete any that are unnecessary.
FILE SYSTEM DECISIONS:
Some file systems work
better than others for
large disk partitions.
If the machine runs Windows
2000, or Windows XP, you
should use the NTFS file
system for best performance.
File system performance
is closely related to
cluster size and the number
of clusters on the disk.
NTFS file systems will
bog down if you have a
60-GB hard disk configured
with a cluster size of
512 bytes. This creates
an enormous number of
clusters, which the file
system must track and
seek. This becomes especially
a problem when the drive
is highly fragmented.
One solution is to use
larger cluster sizes.
If you set the cluster
size to 4K or larger,
you will see noticeable
improvement in file load
times. Please note, however,
that large clusters can
significantly increase
the amount of cluster
slack space and lead to
a lot of wasted disk space.
If you are not using
the NTFS file system,
you may be able to improve
performance by moving
files and folders out
of the root directory.
With FAT partitions, you
may notice a big slowdown
in system performance
after running scandisk
because a large number
of .chk files are placed
in the root directory.
Users sometimes fill their
root directories by making
it the default file storage
location. Move as many
files and folders as possible
out of the root directory,
and performance should
improve significantly.
PROCESSOR OVERHEATING:
Modern processors generate
a lot of heat. That’s
why all processors require
some sort of cooling element,
typically a fan of some
type. When the processor
temperature goes over
spec, the system can slow
down or run erratically.
The processor fan may
fail for several reasons:
Dust is preventing the
fan from spinning smoothly.
The fan motor has failed.
The fan bearings are loose
and “jiggling.”
Often you can tell if
there is a fan problem
by listening and/or touching
the computer. A fan that
has loose bearings starts
jiggling and vibrates
the case, making an identifiable
noise. You may barely
notice the noise at first,
and it’s common for
even the experienced computer
professional to overlook
this change. But as time
goes by, the sounds and
vibrations will become
so prominent that you’ll
change the fan out just
to stop the racket.
You don’t always
need to replace the fan.
If it is covered with
dust, you can often spray
away the dust with compressed
air. Note that even though
you might get the fan
running again, its life
span has likely been reduced
because of the overwork.
You should keep an extra
fan in reserve in case
of failure, if possible.
HARDWARE FIRST: When
troubleshooting a system
slowdown, you should always
look for potential hardware
problems first. Then,
investigate the common
software problems. If
you use a systematic troubleshooting
plan, you should be able
to improve the performance
of most computers suffering
from system slowdown.
Norman, 2002
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