Pc Slow or Bogging down?

[f.montoya]

Running OOTP requires a lot of your pc resources but there are things you can do to boost your pc's performance, and thus, handle OOTP much more efficiently.

1. Hit CTRL/ALT/DEL and write down the numbers. (i.e. 56380K / 479864K) The bigger the difference between these numbers, the better! To increase this difference follow the next steps:

2. Click START, RUN and then type "msconfig". Hit the STARTUP tab and see what they are. If there are programs you don't need, remove the check from the box and restart your pc. Remember, these are programs that are starting when you start your computer and chances are you don't need them all to start EVERY time you start up. This is NOT uninstalling! You have normal access to all of these programs via START, ALL PROGRAMS.

3. Go to http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html and download Spybot. Then run it and delete anything it finds(as long as it's not something you wanted). Chances are, everything on this list is unnecessary. Restart your pc.

4. Go to START, CONTROL PANEL, ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAMS. Take a look at all the programs that are on you pc. Do you need all of them? Probably not. Uninstall programs you don't need. The fewer programs you have installed, the better! Restart your pc.

5. Go to START, ALL PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, SYSTEM RESTORE. Click SYSTEM RESTORE SETTINGS and put a check mark in TURN OFF SYSTEM RESTORE ON ALL DRIVES. System Restore is a great idea in theory but the reality is that after returning your system to a previous state, it leaves loose ends in Dynamic Link Library, you won't have use of software installed after that date and it EATS major resources. Restart your pc after this.

6. Go to START, CONTROL PANEL, SYSTEM, ADVANCED. click SETTINGS under PERFORMANCE. click custom and remove the check marks from as many as possible. Click APPLY. Then click ADVANCED and under VIRTUAL MEMORY, click CHANGE. Click CUSTOM SIZE and type in the number that is 3X your actual memory on your system (i.e. 512 x 3 = 1536). Restart your pc after this.

7. Go to http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/winxp...es/index.shtml and follow the tweak guide for disabling unnecessary services. Then click START, RUN and type "services.msc" and proceed to disable all unecessary services. They are background processes that take up valuable resources that once shut down will add increased performance. Restart your computer after this step.

8. Go to http://www.raxco.co.uk/ and download Perfect Disk. Pay for it. it's worth every penny. Use it to defrag your hard drives in a more logical, ordering. Restart your computer after this step.

9. Do you have any Norton products? Shut them down or disable thier services before running OOTP. You can always enable them after playing your games. Norton products are MAJOR resource hogs. While they do a world of good for internet security, they just bog down things when gaming. If you are paranoid, disconnect from the internet while gaming.

10. Click CTRL/ALT/DEL, write down what you see under PROCESSES and then go to http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm and see what they are. Shut down any processes that you don't need running while gaming. After gaming and restarting your computer, the processes will return to thier normal running state. These are background processes that are either doing something or waiting to do something that is asked by various software, including your operating system.

11. Click CTRL/ALT/DEL. You should see a significant difference in "Commit Charge" from where you started.

Enjoy!

Fidel Montoya

[benchwarmer]

thx do0d

[remington]

4. Go to START, CONTROL PANEL, ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAMS. Take a look at all the programs that are on you pc. Do you need all of them? Probably not. Uninstall programs you don't need. The fewer programs you have installed, the better! Restart your pc.

Ummmm....errr..... If the program is installed but NOT in your task list, what would removing it from your computer have to do with this? Yeah, sure, it takes up hard drive space, but if your hard drive is big enough (ie. You have over 2GIG of free space), then OOTP (or most any other program) should be unaffected by the removal of programs not running while they are.

Oh, and for the kids, don't uninstall programs from your dad's computer. Just because you do not use them, does not mean they are unused. Someone else who uses the computer probably does use them.

[jmm8356]

Originally Posted by f.montoya

4. Go to START, CONTROL PANEL, ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAMS. Take a look at all the programs that are on you pc. Do you need all of them? Probably not. Uninstall programs you don't need. The fewer programs you have installed, the better! Restart your pc.

I have to agree with remington; uninstalling programs that you aren't running will have a negligible effect on system performance (a few less icons and DLLs hanging around might have a very small impact).

Originally Posted by f.montoya

5. Go to START, ALL PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, SYSTEM RESTORE. Click SYSTEM RESTORE SETTINGS and put a check mark in TURN OFF SYSTEM RESTORE ON ALL DRIVES. System Restore is a great idea in theory but the reality is that after returning your system to a previous state, it leaves loose ends in Dynamic Link Library, you won't have use of software installed after that date and it EATS major resources. Restart your pc after this.

Personally, I like System Restore... The one time I've used it, it's worked great. Of course you won't be able to use software you've installed after your restore point... You're putting the system back to before you installed it at all! However, I do recognize that it is a resource hog, sometimes...

What I would recommend doing is going to the System Restore setting as outlined above (or Start / Control Panel / System / System Restore) and lowering the amount of disk space System Restore can use. I found mine at 12% (2.2 GB) and lowered it to 3% (600 MB). It won't make things run faster, either... but freeing up a gig or two for "free" is nothing to sneeze at.

Originally Posted by f.montoya

8. Go to http://www.raxco.co.uk/ and download Perfect Disk. Pay for it. it's worth every penny. Use it to defrag your hard drives. Restart your computer after this step.

$50 for a disk defragger? Pfft! Shah! As if! Do you work for them or something?

Originally Posted by f.montoya

9. Do you have any Norton products? Shut them down or disable thier services before running OOTP. You can always enable them after playing your games. Norton products are MAJOR resource hogs. While they do a world of good for internet security, they just bog down things when gaming. If you are paranoid, disconnect from the internet while gaming.

This is the best recommendation here... Disabling anti-virus software while running OOTP will improve speed across the board (simming, generating reports, etc.), probably more than the rest of these steps combined.

[f.montoya]

***Ummmm....errr..... If the program is installed but NOT in your task list, what would removing it from your computer have to do with this?

The Startup list and task list are two very different things. In my hasty typing I mixed advice about one with the other. I've amended it above (step 2 & 10). Startup is just that, programs that launch at startup. Tasks are what's running in the background waiting or doing what an application asks it to do. A lot of them are just waiting but taking up RAM. Removing unwanted programs will remove the background tasks and services that came with them. Thus freeing up some RAM. Removing programs you are not using will also free up hard drive space and if (and there are some people out there who need this) your virtual memory setting exceeds your available hard drive space you will be slowed down.

***Oh, and for the kids, don't uninstall programs from your dad's computer

Excellent point!!

***$50 for a disk defragger? Pfft! Shah! As if! Do you work for them or something?

it's actually $40(http://www.perfectdisk.com/products/...ItemTitleID=59) and only for those with jobs and who value pc performance. Actually the Windows disk defragger, while adequate, does not have the ability to organize according to usage while Perfect disk will do this and will move file types that the Windows defragger can't. I do not work for them but I am a performance freak who does a lot of product testing for the purpose of gaming and this is one of the better products out there.

***Personally, I like System Restore... The one time I've used it, it's worked great.

Yes. Everything about your computer depends on your personal preference. I DO hope that I dropped enough options in my post above that might be something some of you haven't tried yet. System Restore is a feature that can be used effectively, mostly by people who keep a log of what they do to thier computer because sometimes the restore point will remove with it settings that you forgot you had made and when and how you made them. It can be a mess for people who don't write down things. I think System Restore is one way to troubleshoot pc problems but it can bring with it new problems. I'm not a computer expert but I've found that keeping a well oiled machine has kept all of my computers 100% problem free. Thus, my preference against keeping System Restore running in the background taking up RAM while I have no intention of using it. There are others out there who don't even know what it is! For now, just shut it down. Use it if and when you learn how to prepare to run it, otherwise there is no need.

Fidel

[f.montoya]

Writing things down and keeping a log of everything you do to your computer is the BEST way to avoid and solve problems. By doing so, you'll eventually find that you have no need for System Restore.

Fidel

[remington]

Originally Posted by remington

Ummmm....errr..... If the program is installed but NOT in your task list, what would removing it from your computer have to do with this? Yeah, sure, it takes up hard drive space, but if your hard drive is big enough (ie. You have over 2GIG of free space), then OOTP (or most any other program) should be unaffected by the removal of programs not running while they are.

Oh, and for the kids, don't uninstall programs from your dad's computer. Just because you do not use them, does not mean they are unused. Someone else who uses the computer probably does use them.

I am revisiting my post. To check your available hard drive space, double click on "My computer" find your C: drive and right click on it. Go to properties. It will draw a nice, pretty piechart of your computer. The blue section is the used part, pink is unused. Above the pie chart are three set of numbers. The first set is "Used space" in bytes and converted to Gigabytes (GBs). The second set is "Free space" while the third set is "Total space". If your "Free Space" has a number greater than 2 GB, removing unused programs isn't going to help your performance, UNLESS these programs are running in the background all the time, which you can check out by using your task manager.

[jmm8356]

Originally Posted by f.montoya

***$50 for a disk defragger? Pfft! Shah! As if! Do you work for them or something?

it's actually $40(http://www.perfectdisk.com/products/...ItemTitleID=59) and only for those with jobs and who value pc performance. Actually the Windows disk defragger, while adequate, does not have the ability to organize according to usage while Perfect disk will do this and will move file types that the Windows defragger can't. I do not work for them but I am a performance freak who does a lot of product testing for the purpose of gaming and this is one of the better products out there.

I stand corrected... Somehow, I ended up on this page where it was listed at $50...

However, IMHO if someone wants to spend $40 to increase their system's performance, I think they'd do better to get an extra 40 GB hard drive or 256 MB of RAM.

[f.montoya]

Originally Posted by jmm8356

However, IMHO if someone wants to spend $40 to increase their system's performance, I think they'd do better to get an extra 40 GB hard drive or 256 MB of RAM.

I'd disagree. I have three computers, the oldest of which is 4 years running with 128MB RAM and 800 Ghz. It starts up like lightening and shuts down with the wind. It runs OOTP6 without any problems. People always think they need an upgrade when some simple research and a few bucks here and there will save countless hours of headaches and stress and enable you to get the most out of what you have. Granted, having a proper disk defragger is only one part of that.

By the way, I also have a Sony RZ beast that I bought this year (used for video editing mostly) but even with it's mountains of resources and 3 Ghz processor I still give it the same attention to maintenence and care as I do with my older, more limited pc's. No matter how much you have in the resource department, internet, applications, spyware and daily use will fill it up if you don't keep an eye on it.

One more note on uninstalling programs: The more free space you have on your hard drive and the better it's defragged the faster it will be to load programs/games/data due to minimizing the amount of time your pc uses looking for all the necessary files & following DLL's paths all will be quicker because they'll lead to files and components that are closer together on the hard drive. This is especially true with larger hard drives with processors under 1Ghz. Also, less programs means less in the prefetch meaning a faster starting computer.

[Vris]

Nice topic.

I know it will help me, as well as some of the other computer illiterate things. I am keeping System Restore as is, because they needed to use it on my home computer and in case anything happens on this one, I like the option. Though I will try your other suggestions.