Why is Everything So Slow?

There are many things which can slow down computers, servers, and networks. It is important to keep each of these items in good health and also to know which one is causing you problems.

This article describes some of the common problems and issues on computers which can result in slow performance. Computers, otherwise known as workstations, are often the first point of performance issues in an office. Some of the things that can cause issues here are viruses and spyware (collectively known as malware), disk fragmentation, too little RAM, too little CPU, and System/Application Errors.

Malware:

Malware is a very common problem. Although as people are becoming more educated on the issue, it is becoming less of a problem. Malware can become so deep rooted in a computer that it can actually require a reformat to eradicate it. Think of reformatting as tearing down a house and building a new one in it's place.

Avoiding Malware is a great discussion. So much so, that I am currently writing an article on that topic alone. But here are the core principals in avoiding malware.

Make sure your systems are kept up to date with security patches. You can do this by going to “Automatic Updates” in Windows XP or “Windows Updates” in Windows 7 and configuring it to download updates automatically. I specifically didn't mention Windows Vista here because if you have Windows Vista – That's your performance problem.

Make sure you have antivirus software installed, and that it is kept up to date. New malware, and variants of old malware, are always coming out. The antivirus software references what is called a definitions file, which contains information about all known malware and how do remove it. It is very important to make sure, within your antivirus software, that it is automatically updating it's definitions file. I make sure mine are updated daily.

“STOP, Read, Think”. Web browsers, other Internet applications and even operating systems are pretty good these days about warning you of threats. The bad guys are banking on the fact that you will ignore the warning, possibly not even read it, and click “YES!” to get to where you were trying to go. This is called Social Engineering.

Disk Fragmentation:

Hard drives are broken down into small units called blocks. By default these blocks are usually 4 kilobytes in size (or 1/256^th of a megabyte). Ideally when you write a file to the disk, it will be written to contiguous blocks. However as files get written, deleted, and added or changed, you can begin to lose this contiguous structure.

In the example below, I will demonstrate with the unrealistic assumption that we are writing files which are 4 kilobytes in size. It real life this is a bit unrealistic, but it helps to visualize what disk fragmentation is.

Lets say you write three files to an unfragmented disk, each of which are 4 kilobytes in size. Then you delete the second file. Then you write a new file, which needs 2 blocks, because it won't fit is just one. That file will now get block 2, skip block 3 because it's in use, and get block 4 for the rest of the file. That file is now “fragmented”.

As this continues to occur with normal usage of a computer this fragmentation accumulates from a small performance problem to a big performance problem.

That's the bad news. Here's the good news. This can easily be fixed, and doing so will often result in noticeable improvements in performance.

To defragment your disk, click on Start → All Programs → Accessories → System Tools → Disk Defragmenter. This program operates differently in different operating systems, so I will not detail it's usage here. But it is pretty intuitive. I highly encourage you to use it.

Memory (RAM):

RAM stands for Random Access Memory. RAM is significantly faster (and more expensive) then your hard drive. When you work on a file, the computer copies the file from you slower hard drive to the much faster RAM. This is the temporary location that it works with the file in. When you save the file, it gets copied from RAM back to the hard drive. The hard drive is permanent storage, while RAM is called volatile storage. If you are working on a document, and lose power to your computer, assuming no corruption has occurred from the abrupt loss of power, anything that is on your hard drive is still there when you power back up. However, anything that was in RAM (work done on a document, but not saved back to the disk by clicking File → Save, or CTRL → S) is lost. That is why it is called volatile memory. When the power goes, anything that was was in RAM is simply discarded.

Most people in offices have 32 bit Windows which support up to 4 GB of RAM (technically 3 and change). Some have 64 bit Windows which supports much more RAM. Not all computers will support that much RAM though. Your computer may only support 2 GB.

RAM is relatively inexpensive these days. I would advise anybody with a 32 bit operating system to get as close to 4 GB as their hardware will support.

The Crucial Memory website has a very nice tool to search for the right memory for your system and it also tells you how much your particular system can hold. When deciding to upgrade memory on a system, this is usually where I start.

CPU:

CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. It is essentially the 'brains' of your computer. For a while CPU speeds were growing explosively until they hit about 3.2 Ghz. While they still continued to get faster up to about 4 Ghz. Those processors are a bit uncommon. Most modern CPUs, at the time of this writing, are around 2.8 to 3.2 Ghz. Where they have been improving recently is not in speed, but in cores and virtual cores.

In the old days a physical CPU was one core. If you wanted more processing power, that you had do add another physical CPU and special high end motherboards were made for this. Then Intel introduced Hyper-Threading where one CPU could have two virtual cores. Windows would think it had two CPUs. Hyper-Threading was okay, but it didn't really get good until the next generation where it was called cores. Generation one of this was called dual core (or two cores). Then we staretd seeing quad-core CPUs

Intel's most recent CPU, at the time of this writing, is the i7. The i7 is a quad-core Hyper-Threaded CPU. So each of the four cores can be seen as two cores. This means 8 virtual cores that Windows can use. This is really, really nice if you have the money and want the performance.

All modern CPUs are 64 bit these days, and have been for some time now. You need a 64 bit Operating System to take advantage of that. A 32 bit Operating System will just use the CPU at 32 but, even though the CPU itself supports 64 bit.

Without getting into too much detail about 64 bit CPU, think of bits as lanes in a highway. A 32 bit CPU has 32 lanes and a 64 bit CPU has 64 lanes. This enables more to go through the processor at once. More importantly, a 64 bit Operating System can take advantage of substantially more memory then the meager 4 GB that a 32 bit Operating System supports. For example 32 bit Windows 7 Pro supports 4 GB or RAM – The 64 bit version of Windows 7 Pro supports 192 GB of RAM. There is no ordinary hardware that supports that much RAM yet.

That was a lot of information about CPU's and hopefully, you are still with me.

All of that said about CPUs, this is what you need to think about. If you have anything less then a dual-core 2.8 Ghz CPU you should consider upgrading your machine. Notice I did not say upgrade your CPU. Motherboards only support upgrading CPUs within the same family of CPUs, which are quickly outdated. If you have less then a dual-core 2.8 Ghz CPU, nothing you can put in that slot is worthwhile. It is more cost effective to get a new machine (be it a laptop or computer).

If you are now looking at a new computer, you want a minimum of 4 GB RAM and I'd recommend no less then an Intel i5 CPU at 2.8 Ghz. The i5 has 4 cores, while the newer more expensive i7 has 4 cores which are hyper-threaded so you get 8 virtual cores. Unless you are doing seriously resource intensive work, like high end graphics, I think the i5 is plenty.

My new laptop is an i5 with 4 GB of RAM. I did get the 64 bit operating system.

System/Application Errors:

By design, when a system or application error occurs an entry is recorded in the Event Logs. The two that are usually of interest are the Application Event Log and the System Event Log. There are three types of information recorded here: Informational, Warnings, and Errors.

To view these errors, Right-Click on My Computer and select Manage. Then expand Event Viewer, then (ONLY if you are using Windows 7) expand Windows Logs.

When reviewing these logs, your goal, while not always achievable, is to have zero errors and zero warnings in both Application and System Event logs. A failure in either means either an application or the system itself is trying to do something and failing to achieve it. What it is trying to do may or may not be necessary. Part of troubleshooting is gaining an understanding of what is trying to be achieved and if it is even necessary. If it is necessary, or desired, then you need to figure out what is going wrong and fix it. If it is not necessary or desired, then you need to stop the computer from trying to do it.

Troubleshooting and analyzing event logs can be very time consuming sometimes. The payoff in doing so is that you are making sure the your computer is able to do what you want it to do, and that it is not wasting time and resources in attempting to do things unsuccessfully.

In the example below, you see that my System Events are mostly clean. I do have one error there related to Bluetooth which may have occurred because I put my laptop in standby.