Measuring PC Performance

One of the toughest things about measuring performance of any kind is that it can turn into an exercise in subjectivity. How slow is slow, anyway?

I might say my system is slow if I sit staring at the Windows hourglass for an operation to complete, even after I restart my system. You might say your system is slow when you sit at the Windows logo screen for an extra ten seconds. We’re both right because it’s based on our own knowledge about how our individual PCs respond.

Whether you realize it or not, you are a critical part of evaluating how well or how badly your system responds to your demands. No one knows your PC or your needs better than you do. You have a sense of how long for example, it should take your printer to start printing once you click the Print button or how quickly Windows normally loads (or shuts down).

This chapter discusses the common causes of performance problems and the measures you can take to restore your system to better overall operation. But I urge you to bring what you’ve learned in this book so far, together with your common sense and personal experience, into your troubleshooting and maintenance procedures for improving performance. An experienced technician may know all your components’ capabilities and limitations better than you do, but you know your normal PC operation in a way that no one else does.

Warning 

Beware of messages that pop up on your screen while browsing the Web that suggest some site has performed a free check of your system and now recommends you boost your PC performance (or Internet connection speed or the amount of RAM you have installed) by buying their product or service. First, no legitimate site should be performing such an evaluation without your authorization, and second, it’s almost always a lie to promote their services. While many of these services do almost nothing to help, others can actively damage an otherwise healthy PC by either recommending or implementing a tweak or program that may damage your Registry or worse. Don’t bite.

Have a Stopwatch? Time it!

This may sound strange, but one thing I do when I buy a new system is literally pull out a stopwatch. I measure how long it takes the system to get to the initial bootup screen, how long it takes to get into Windows, and later, how long it takes to shut down. I then jot these times down in my PC journal.

After I begin adding applications and hardware, I measure these times again to see how they may have changed (and hopefully, to figure out what, if anything, seems to be adding serious time to the process). These new times are recorded, too.

Then, when I have a serious performance problem with my system and I want more information than a subjective, “I think it’s starting a lot slower,” I can refer back to the times in my PC journal.

This isn’t science, but it provides one more system marker, for troubleshooting and for tracking the evolution and the slow decline of the PCs I use at home and work.