# My computer is running slow, how do I speed it up?



## RamistThomist (Oct 12, 2006)

Whenever my comptuer comes out of "sleep" mode, it takes about 5 minutes to get back to normal running speed. In fact, its so slow it makes the Federal Government look fast and efficient. How do I speed it up?

I have about 47% free space on my drive.


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## AdamM (Oct 12, 2006)

www.memorygiant.com


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## crhoades (Oct 12, 2006)

Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Defragmenter

Defrag your computer for an overall general speed improvement.

What do you mean by "sleep"mode? Hibernation? Complete Power Off? Standby? 

For quickest time back in the saddle, instead of powering down, go into standby.


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## rmwilliamsjr (Oct 12, 2006)

i'll bet that it is an interaction of your OS and hardware.
i'd google the name and model number of your machine + sleep + slow and see if the computer hardware discussion boards have a problem-solution thread to it.

there are a few HD's that you can internally change the sleep mode numbers, but most are under either bios or hardware automatic power control or OS control. I'd peruse the cmos setting menu for power supply settings, then study a bit on how your OS controls the sleep settings. it may be as simply as a wakeup HD setting or as complex as how the OS reestablishes itself.


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## RamistThomist (Oct 12, 2006)

i always have it on standbye when I amnot using it. 

I defraged it the other day. I empty my internet files cache several times a week.


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## ReformedWretch (Oct 12, 2006)

SPYWARE is my bet.

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/download_and_buy/product_comparison_chart.php


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## rjlynam (Nov 7, 2006)

How old is said computer? 
Computer type - Laptop? Desktop?
Operating System?


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## Semper Fidelis (Nov 7, 2006)

Draught Horse said:


> Whenever my comptuer comes out of "sleep" mode, it takes about 5 minutes to get back to normal running speed. In fact, its so slow it makes the Federal Government look fast and efficient. How do I speed it up?
> 
> I have about 47% free space on my drive.


Sorry, I would answer your question quickly but as an Officer in the employment of the Federal Government I lack the ability to answer it quickly and efficiently.

re: Disk defragging. Not an issue anymore for real performance. Used to be more of a problem with DOS-based Windows and FAT16. I wouldn't waste my time.

One thing will *dramatically* improve your performance usually: MORE RAM. Tell me how much you have. I recommend 1 GB of RAM. Tell me your computer model number and I can find the RAM from crucial.com to go in it. Frankly a trained monkey could add more RAM to a system.

For my notebook computers I have also added faster hard drives. Hitachi sells 7200RPM notebook hard drives. The typical hard drives are pretty slow.

The RAM/Hard Drive improvement yield such incredible performance boosts that it is like buying a new computer. My wife uses a Notebook Computer that I spent $450 new from Dell 3 years ago. It still runs very quickly. Honestly, for most apps the CPU or the I/O is not taxed. It's the Memory.

Improve your RAM only and you'll be happy.

...and I'm spent.


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## gwine (Nov 7, 2006)

I would recommend only using it while riding in a car (don't try this while driving). That should give it the boost you need.


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## Robert Truelove (Nov 7, 2006)

It sounds to me like a hardware/driver issue...

You might try updating the drivers for every component you can find updates for. Sometimes this fixes problems like this. It would be easier if there were some good way to identify the exact cause of the problem with Windows.




Draught Horse said:


> Whenever my comptuer comes out of "sleep" mode, it takes about 5 minutes to get back to normal running speed. In fact, its so slow it makes the Federal Government look fast and efficient. How do I speed it up?
> 
> I have about 47% free space on my drive.


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## rjlynam (Nov 8, 2006)

The reason I asked about the age of the computer is because my first inclination would be that the hard drive is starting to fail.

I've replaced over 20 hard drives this year for customers with laptops over 2 years old and desktops at 4-5 years.

Get your data backed up. That's my quick advice.


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