Common Symptoms and Their Culprits

When PC performance begins to sag, you can usually feel it, even instinctively. A few of the most frequently noted symptoms are

• Prolonged time between the moment you press the power button and the time Windows loads (or reloads)

• Sluggish shutdowns

• Slowdown in disk operations, including the opening of file screens through Windows Explorer or the Search feature

• Programs taking longer than usual to load

• Difficulty in changing your focus among different windows open on your desktop

There are so many potentially contributing factors to ailing PC performance that they merit a book of their own. Some of the most common issues responsible for slowdowns include

• Poor disk maintenance practices

• Poor system organization (You don’t watch what is installed or you don’t remove from your hard drive programs you no longer use or data you no longer need to keep.)

• Underpowered or overworked PC (not enough disk space, too little memory, and so on)

• Viruses (Remember, many viruses annoy more than destroy.)

• Poorly configured or missing Windows page file for virtual memory (explained later in this chapter)

• Hardware issues, including bad drivers, device conflicts, or failing (but not quite failed) devices

• An imbalance in resources (For example, you’re running many background programs by choice, and the balance of processing power is going to the foreground programs such that you have an imbalanced load. Just like your washing machine, Windows works best and makes less noise when you watch what you load and how you load it.)