How do people make their computers so slow?

[RemyCanad]

I just don't understand it. How can people get there computers to run so slow?

We have a old compaq pentium 200Mhz. Back when we got it me and my older brother used it for ever. The machine never got slow and was never a problem. (Its running windows 95) Well my younger brother started using it once we both got our own computers. After about a month it had became dog slow. He used it for a bit and then my brothers computers HD died so he sent it back to the manufacturer. In that time he took over the old computer. After complaining I reformated and install everything back. He used it for 6 months and the thing ran just like it did when we I reformated it. (Same as when I use it)
My brother got his computer back and my younger brother started using it again and now its dog slow. I can't understand what he does. All he uses is MSN and Yahoo instant messanger. But my older brother used them too!

After realizing that my younger brother was killing computer about a year or more ago I started noticing that other people have the same problem. People always tell me that there computer is running slow and the computer shop told them they need more memory. But I ask them if they are doing anything different than what there were doing the day they got the computer and they say no. So I reformat and its back up to speed.

Does anyone have any clue as to what causes this?

 

[spanky]

by loading a lot of "crapware"

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: spankyOO7
by loading a lot of "crapware"

precisely. crapware is why people (not techies - normal people) "upgrade" as much as they do. faster hardware for more crap.

and they lie. the upraded their version of AIM. they got a new version of winamp. a new version of internet explorer. pretty mouse cursors. dancing coke can screensavers and so on.

edit: and tehy want to be able to install this crap too, so putting them on NT with limited privileges (or *nix, where a lot of this junk doesn't exist) won't make them happy.

 

[Utterman]

Originally posted by: spankyOO7
by loading a lot of "crapware"

Yeah, people will download realplayer, download accerlator, ect.

Programs like those run in the backround even when you don't need them.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Yeah, I ran MSconfig on my brothers win98 box to see exactly what was loading itself. He'd somehow got about thirty things hogging memory like getright, realplayer, gator, winamp, download accelerator, quicktime...
Those programs really annoy me. There's no real justification for loading themselves into memory on startup.

The worst thing for me is my audigy drivers. It somehow manages to show the creative logo and an annoying chime every time I log on. I can't see how it's loading

 

[WarCon]

I just worked on a HP 1gig or 1.1gig (don't really remember what speed it was) that ran like a 133. The first major problem I had to fight was 52% resources available at boot. The second was 3 major viruses that had infected 1200+ files. The third was 20+ spyware programs (Ad-aware found over 100 files and registry entries). The fourth problem was that it was an HP..........

All done by 3 kids.

 

[sciencewhiz]

its much simpler then that. They run operating systems from microsoft.

 

[RemyCanad]

Thats the problem. My brother has only downloaded yahoo instant messanger and MSN messanger. Nothing else. Distributed.net was on there for a bit but I took it off.

 

[spanky]

how long has the OS been installed? the OS might just be cluttered beyond simple fixes (ie - msconfig)... in which case, a format would be nice.

 

[wfbberzerker]

aaargh! fix your title already! it should be "How do people make their computers so slow?"


btw, if your brother complains its running slow, have him try rebooting. if its been running 24/7 for awhile, the memory might be all filled up.

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: Utterman

Originally posted by: spankyOO7
by loading a lot of "crapware"

Yeah, people will download realplayer, download accerlator, ect.

Programs like those run in the backround even when you don't need them.

Man, I so freakin' hate the new RealPlayer Plus, if I had known how crappy it was I would have never "upgraded" from RealPlayer 8. Btw, anybody know where I can download RP8 and get rid of this crappy RP+?

 

[NuLLxXx]

Was that like the upgrade to Zonelabs pro demo version?

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: NuLLxXx
Was that like the upgrade to Zonelabs pro demo version?

LOL Sup null! What brings you to these parts? Haven't seen you on the zone lately. No, its not quite as bad as the ZoneAlarm Pro Demo (Thank God!). Actually, I think I've finally got it mostly neutered so its not nearly as annoying as it used to be, but it was a bit of a hassle.

 

[NuLLxXx]

Im bored got an email last week from Westwood about E&B.
Downloading Americas Army as of 1am est 157mb of 223mb
Looking up stuff about stuff found your tag posting in forums.

all in all bored

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: NuLLxXx
Im bored got an email last week from Westwood about E&B.
Downloading Americas Army as of 1am est 157mb of 223mb
Looking up stuff about stuff found your tag posting in forums.

all in all bored

Yeah, same. I got the E&B e-mail, too. I don't think this computer can handle America's Army, so it'll probably have to wait until I finish upgrading. I take it NWN isn't going so well? Slammer downloaded some cool coop maps for RS and has been hosting coop the last several nights. Kind of a nice change from the standard RS fare.

 

[ceZium]

I cannot stand all that crapware that gets installed by people like this. So much bloat for nothing.