Computer Running Slowly or Freezing?

There are motives for your reduced speed and any one of them could result in a crash and an up close and personal viewing of the BSOD, (Blue Screen of Death). A slowdown occurs over a period of time. Essentially, if you are on dial-up that is slow to begin with and if you have less than 512MB of RAM, that too can be a major cause. Here are 10 others:

1. Start up overload. As you add additional programs, they claim start-up status quickly and quietly. The more programs you have that are loading at start-up, the slower the start-up.

• Remove the programs you do not want, or are not necessary, to be starting at boot-up.

2. Spyware: Malicious programs that stealthily embed themselves into your software. They are installed in your software, without your knowledge, in many ways.
- Through e-mail especially, the ones that are multi-forwarded. You know who sent it to you, but what about all of those other names? Who are they?
- Through free scans or free downloads.
- Through Web sites you visit that specialize in this practice, and music downloads.

• Windows Firewall is only One Way. Because no individual spyware program can get all of the ITD's, two is better, three recommended.

3. The Registry. If your registry is corrupted or bloated, there could be a BSOD in your future. The Windows registry is the master control center for your operating system and the applications it runs. Corruption or overload can cause: performance problems, including applications at start-up, slow windows start-up, extremely slow shut-downs and a general disruption of system processing

• Only advanced users or a qualified technician should change your registry. Removing or changing something in the registry can cause the operating system and computer programs to cease to function, so it is not recommended that the average user try to fix registry problems.

4. Badly Fragmented Hard Drive. Over time, your computer's files can be scattered over your hard drive; this is called fragmentation and a cause for file searches to be slower than usual

• Defragment your Hard Drive.

5. Poor Security Software. A large number of security programs, and suites, are bloated with software and demand a great deal of system resources and memory. The constant surveillance of your system for malicious programs can cause your system to get sluggish. Yes, system security is essential, but some of the programs have gone overboard with coding and, some of the lesser known programs can be a source of system infestation themselves.

6. Remnants of Uninstalled Programs.

• Clean up previously left behind files and executables.

7. The Page File. The Windows Page File is a temporary source of memory used by the system in processing functions. It is actually a buffer that is used for "wiggling room." If your page file is too small, your operating system will not have enough room to move and the result will be poor performance and error messages.

• Increase the size of the page file

8. Too Many Windows and Temporary Files. Your hard drive could be crammed with many useless files left over from re-installs, and just general use.

• Remove the temp files and clean up hard drive.

9. Viruses. Software programs that are installed on your computer. Most viruses are just annoying and can cause your computer to function erratically. Some viruses will actually cause damage to your operating system and your data files. Others will take over your email program and may cause your ISP to suspend your email account.

• These must be removed from your computer before they cause damage to your operating system and applications and bring your system to a halt.

10 Hardware Problems. There are assortments of things that can happen to your hardware: wear and tear, over heating and dust. If you do experience a failure, crash or a shut down sometimes it can be traced to a problem with one of the hardware components in your computer.