What are the first steps for diagnosing a slow machine?

Question

A machine is described as being "really slow." What are the first couple of things to check?

Answer 1

If this is an NTFS filesystem then don't bother defragging. It will make NO difference. Assuming you are using a Windows OS..

Things to check:

1. PC has 10% at least of free disk space
2. PC has at least 1gb of RAM for XP and 2gb for VIsta
3. If there are any hanging programs or drivers.
4. Corrupt system files. If that is so, run sfc /scannow in cmd and let it replace any corrupt system files. May ask for your Windows CD. Or, if it is seriously damaged then perform an XP repair install or Vista repair install
5. A badly corrupted file system. This is from experience rather than knowledge. Run chkdsk /r in command prompt.
6. Due to the way Windows handles files, it will in inevitably get slow over time. Your MFT structure gets bigger and bigger over time. Only cure is a fresh install
7. Malware. Download and run HijackThis then post the log here. It'll give us a decent idea of whats running and what could be hogging all your memory/cpu.

Answer 2

First off, I check what is automatically started when the machine boots up.

• Autoruns
• Registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
• msconfig
• Run -> services.msc This will list all the services that are started up when your machine turns on. You can manage all of them here from this MMC snap-in.
• Scheduled Tasks

I will then run process explorer and see what is running after it is booted and see what hogs up a lot of memory and CPU.

• Process Explorer
• Task Manager

I will then make sure all the drivers are up to date, same with anti-virus, windows update and other critical applications such as web browsers, java, flash, etc.

• Java Runtime
• Flash Player

Then I will defrag their hard drive if it needs to be done.

• Disk Defrag

Sometimes I will clear out their web browser history and cookies and also clean out their temp folders.

• CCleaner
• Disk Cleanup

I will also look through the event viewer to see if there are any errors being reported and check into them if they do.

• Event Viewer

If all else fails and the system will support it, a RAM upgrade may be in order.

Answer 3

(assuming for a moment, we are talking about Windows)

If your computer is suddenly running slow (i.e. you don't just have a slow computer), I would check the Windows Task Manager.

• Type Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up the Task Manager.
• Select the 'Processes' tab at the top to bring up the list of all processes running on the computer.
• Click on the 'CPU' column at the top of the process window... twice (to sort processes with max CPU usage first).
• See if anything (other than "System Idle Process") is taking more than a few percent CPU consistently.

Virus scanners or other background services can sometimes become overzealous in using system resources. Sometimes an application can enter a race condition where it gets "stuck" in some loop of code it just runs continuously. Then, sometimes, you just have some application you forgot about taking up all your CPU time.

The Task Manager should tell you if anything like this is going on.

Answer 4

In this order usually...

• Hardware - Hardware is the fastest and easiest thing to check that is usually the culprit. Memory is cheap these days, seeing people that still have 128mb and 256mb installed makes me want to cry. With Moore's law being so apparent in the hardware world, CPUs that are still blazing fast can be bought very cheap as well.
• Software clutter - amount of software installed & running upon system startup impacts performance big time. There may also be malicious software slowing you down.
• Updated drivers - these can give your machine big performance boosts.

A good pass of a Defrag program, CCleaner, and a Virus Scan & Malware Scan is beneficial as well.

Answer 5

A good tool is Spotlight on Windows to see where your computer is busy.

Answer 6

To see if your machine is going to be slow, check

• Amount of memory
• speed of cpu
• disk space available

There are many 3rd party tools available that give you information on your computer, but to do this quite easily without those you can use the Windows Task Manager.

To open "Task Manager"

• In the task bar, right click the mouse then select "Task Manager"

On the performance tab you will see how 'busy' your CPU is also how much physical memory is available.

If CPU is consistently above 10% and there is less than 500000 K of memory available your machine is probably going to be running slowly.

Also if your hard drive is full, this could lead to poor performance. You should aim to have at least 15% of free space.

To check this, open Windows Explorer, you can do this by

• At the same time, press the windows Key followed by the letter e

Select the C: drive with a mouse click. Then right click and select properties - this will tell you how much free/used space you have on your hard drive.

Answer 7

Use PROCMON (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx) to see what is really going on in the background.

Answer 8

Defragment your hard drive. For Windows XP Disk Defragmenter is located at
Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System tools.

For Windows 7 or Vista see this question.

Answer 9

For another speed boost, disable unnecessary windows services. There are a few well-trusted databases on what's safe to disable and what's not, e.g. The Elder Geek's : http://www.theeldergeek.com/services%5Fguide.htm

Answer 10

Personally, I go with the following:

1. Open Task-manager and sift through all running processes jotting down those that are unncessary and taking special care to check for any suspicious proceses. 99.9% of the time, if you don't recognize a process, just type the name into google and you will get ample information about the nature of the process and wether it's necessary or not.

2. With the list of procceses in mind, I open up msconfig (type msconfig in the run dialog) and in the start-up tab start unchecking those proccesses that are not neeed in the background. Take care disabling different startup items as sometimes these rely on each other.

3. Go to Control Panel and once again sift through installed software and uninstall those which the user doesn't need.

4. I then go through the Services that are running (type services.msc in the run dialog) and either set them to disable or manual depending on the service.

5. I run a full antivirus and spyware scan on the system and restart.

Now, if the computer hasn't speeded up somewhat, I recommend them to simply let me format the system and start over clean. Because of the nature of windows and all the junk that inevitably forms over years of use, this is usually the only viable solution.

Good luck!

Answer 11

I always check the following...

RAM. Modern OSes are RAM-hungry and the more you have the better off they are.

Hard drive space. Modern OSes are hard drive hungry and the more you have the better off are.

Background processes (e.g. open applications, disk scanning software, virus software, viruses themselves). The more gadgets, widgets, applications, etc., the slower things will be overall. Only keep open what really needs to be open.

Time between reboots. Every OS needs to be rebooted every once in a while.

Answer 12

Assuming a machine used to be running fast, and is now running slow (and it isn't Linux based)....

1. Restart the machine
2. Check for viruses and other malware first.
3. Open Task Manager (or the equivalent) and see what application is monopolizing the CPU or doing a lot of harddrive writes/reads. I may close/kill the app or I would google it and see what the other complaints/solutions are for it.

Answer 13

MooO SystemMonitor is another free utility to trace bottlenecks (available as Installer or Portable).

Answer 14

In addition to the other suggestions here, I have found that simply emptying the Recycle Bin can make a difference to performance, if I have been filling it with large collections of files.

Answer 15

Assuming the PC was faster when it was new, the 2 most common causes for sluggish performance are:

1) Background apps/tasks - Lots of running processes such as: HP Digital Imaging Monitor (ugh), anti-virus, auto-updaters (Adobe, Quickbooks, etc), media monitors (Kodak Picasa, etc), AOL, IM apps, virus activity, etc etc.

2) Failing hardware - when disks get old, they get slow.

To remedy, you'll want to disable and/or remove unnecessary "startup" apps. Use Autoruns to disable safely before removing.

Then run disk and registry cleanup tools like Glary Utilities and CCleaner.

Check the hard disk benchmarks with HDTune to see if still up to snuff. Replace it if not. Use Acronis True Image to simply clone the old disk to the new.

Also, don't forget virus scans.

Answer 16

Other options to consider are:

1. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

2. Raising the amount of virtual memory used by the system

3. This how to geek guide shows that disk cleanup doesn't really clean-up everything unless you perform a registry tweak. The guide shows how to fix that.

4. Finally a reinstall of the OS is my final option. Windows likes to keep a lot of crap

Answer 17

In case of Windows, install only those software which you need. Don't mess up your PC with all useless stuff. Check for registry errors and fix them using a good software like regcure or registry booster. Don't forget to check whether your antivirus is updated or not. Outdated antivirus often tends to slow down the system. Use CCleaner to remove the crap. Don't exhaust your RAM by using too many programs in background. Turnoff Windows sidebar or desktop enhancement software if you don't need them. Scan all system by updated virus to make sure it is not infected. Also disk defrag etc. small utilities can be helpful for your PC.