Another Day With My PC

Do you really want to be the last one to take advantage of what technology has to offer?

Application crashes are facts of life that happen almost everyday whenever you’re spending a great deal of time in front of the computer. Fortunately, most of these program malfunctions can be remedied by just closing it down and running it anew. It’s quite annoying though, especially if the application that crashes is a word processor and you weren’t able to save what you’re doing. Argh!

Some crashes are even nastier. Not only does it require you to run the program all over again, but it sometimes calls for the complete shut down and rebooting of the whole system. This was the dilemma that many PC users encountered during the days of Windows 95 and 98. Microsoft incorporated a mild solution to the problem by giving the user an option to report the crash to them.

I’m quite shameful to admit that I haven’t tried clicking the “report” button whenever I’m prompted after a crash to send a report about the incident to the OS maker. It’s not that it would entail extra time to fill out some electronic forms for the report. In fact, you don’t need to do anything other than click the button. The reason why I haven’t tried clicking that button yet is because I’m quite skeptical if Microsoft would really work on the problem. Many consumers have already sent complaints to Bill Gate’s company about various problems, but only a few of them were entertained and resolved.

I guess my skepticism is misplaced. Who knows, application crashes might be on top of the OS maker’s “to-do” list. Give it a try. You might just get a solution to that frequent software malfunction that you’re having. But don’t just sit and wait for Microsoft to solve your problem for you. Try to find other solutions. System crashes are also frequently caused by problems in the registry. Run a registry cleaner and see if it fixes your problem. Based from experience, it usually does.

There are times when patching up problems may not be the best solution anymore. While it should be the first option that every person encountering a dilemma should resort to, there are situations where he should just call it quits and just start over again. So when can we really say that it’s time to move on?

Wait. Before I go any further, let me just clarify this – my blog site is still about broken-PCs and not about broken hearts. I just want to set things straight since my introductory paragraph sounds like I’m talking about a troubled couple instead of a troubled computer.

I’m sure you’ve already experienced a number of problems with your operating system. Maybe you’ve even encountered the dreaded “blue screen of death”. There are many reasons why your OS goes on strike every now and then. It’s not that they’re getting fed up of running the same old games or playing the same old songs that you usually click on whenever you turn on the PC. More often than not, such quirks are caused by file corruption or malware.

The usual fix for a corrupted file is simply to just replace it. You could either get it from your backup CD or drive, or you could go online and download one. If it’s a registry or viral problem, then all you need to do is run your registry cleaner or your anti-virus.

These problem-fixers are not cure-alls, though. There are times when cleaning your registry just won’t do anymore since the dilemma already lies beyond the registry. The same thing is true with your anti-virus. You may be able to remove the viruses, but the pernicious effects caused by them cannot be reversed anymore.

If your trouble-fixers can’t solve your PC problems anymore, then you should seriously consider taking the final solution – reformat!

I know it’s drastic, but it’s the only way by which you can have a fresh start. Before you do this though, make sure that you’ve backed up all the files that you need. Take note that no file would be spared in this solution. You may encounter headaches in trying to get things back the way they used to be, but hey, I assure you that the results will be well worth it.

How far will you go for your boss?

Is your computer suffering from memory loss?

If I’m not mistaken, the minimum memory requirement for Windows XP is 128MB. That was quite big during the time when Vista’s predecessor was first released. Those who upgraded from 64MB to 128MB even thought that any application would run seamlessly in their unit considering that the amount of their RAM could virtually hold almost any application regardless of their size.

Unfortunately for us, software developers created programs which are RAM-gluttons. 128MB of RAM now seems to be inadequate. Despite the limitation, Windows could still keep things going through its ability to create virtual memory by using available space in the hard drive. While this solution saves users from having to purchase additional memory modules, it creates another problem – laggardness.

Accessing information in the hard drive is not as fast as when it is done in your system’s RAM. As a result, pages freeze for a few seconds whenever it is being written and accessed in the virtual memory.

Thanks to the development of flash drives, the new Microsoft OS does not have to rely on the old technique of expanding limited RAM. Windows Vista can now use flash drives as alternative RAMs to boost system performance. All that has to be done is to activate the OS’ ReadyBoost feature to utilize the flash drive as an additional memory module.

While Vista is a performance-hogger, it does make up for its gluttonous tendencies by utilizing peripherals as means or tools by which it could optimize the performance of the PC. I’m glad the guys who made Vista came up with this idea. It’s quite hard and expensive to add a few memory modules. This goes double for those who use laptops like I do. With ReadyBoost, all I have to do to spare my hard drive from being overworked is to stick a flash drive in my USB port. It’s that simple.

Does your PC spend a lot of time loading software applications like Excel, Word or any commonly used application? This strange behavior is equally true for newly purchased as well as old PCs. Here are the Top 10 most probable reasons why your PC is slow.

1. Spyware is a name given to a software program that has malicious intentions and downloads itself without the user’s consent or knowledge. They can do all sorts of nasty things and slow down the computer considerably.
2. Installation of many programs under the StartUp menu. As you install applications on your system, some of them take up start-up status discreetly. This results in slower start up times as all of them take up memory for initialization. As a result, booting up a system consumes a lot of time.
3. Corruption of the Windows registry. The Windows Registry is regarded as the master control center of the operating system and all the applications that it executes. If it is corrupted, it can lead to a variety of performance problems like slow Windows start ups and shut downs along with general disturbance in Windows processing activities.
4. Fragmented memory. When you use your PC on an every day basis files stored on the computer gets ‘scattered’ and thus consumes noticeable time for file searches.
5. Security software may aim to protect you but their constant surveillance against all kinds of malicious software can actually contribute to slow PC performance because they take up a lot of main memory. By all means install and use security software but ensure that settings are at its best for you (e.g., using the Ignore List, etc.) so that it does not meddle with your everyday PC tasks.
6. Improper removal of programs. When programs are not uninstalled properly, they leave certain things behind. This results in cluttering the Windows registry with invalid and obsolete data, occupying plenty of unwanted space.
7. Page file size. This is known as the temporary work area in the memory used by a system for efficient processing of various functions. Think of it as a buffer used by the operating system. If you allocate only a small portion of memory for this, the consequence may be poor performance and system instability.
8. Permanent Internet files. If your Temporary Internet folder is never emptied, all the used memory will make your PC slow.
9. Viruses are software programs with malicious intentions and cause irreparable damage to computers. It is also the most prevalent reason of reducing the speed of computers as they can sap down computer performance and cause frequent shut downs.
10. Hardware problems. Last but not the least, hardware problems as a result of dust, overheating and wear and tear of components can cause sluggish PC performance.

I hope the above helps you understand just how many factors can cause slow PC performance.

Hungry for more info? Here is an extra interesting read for you -> Slow Computer? Speed Up Your PC By Disabling Unnecessary Windows Services.

If you’ve been following the entries in my blog since its inception, you would notice that I couldn’t seem to emphasize enough the importance of defragging your hard drive. I guess any computer analyst or aficionado, both budding and established, shares the opinion that this method of optimization is sometimes the only option as far as improving the performance of your disks is concerned.

The hard disk is the most important storage device in your PC. It houses the most important application in your system (the OS), and the other programs that you frequently access. Windows also frequently resort to it in case your actual physical memory is too small. I have no reservations then in saying that the hard disk is an indispensable PC component.

You may contend though, that your DVD drive could easily take the cudgels for your hard drive in case the latter decides to take the day off and conks out on you. Indeed, the capacity of current optical drives could already rival the size of a standard fixed disk. However, it cannot match the role or functionality that hard disks offer. For one thing, the capacity of their latest models is exponentially larger than that of their optical counterparts’.

A disk cannot be considered as a primary storage device if it doesn’t have the size and speed to store and read all the applications that you’re using or may want to use. Sure, other disks could match the fixed ones in this category by adding numbers. The numbers here don’t refer to their capacity though, but to their quantity.

I was fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have been able to live during the time when it was a luxury to have a drive. Old PCs didn’t automatically come with hard drives. All they usually have is a floppy drive slot. The applications weren’t that large then, so shuffling floppies to load and run programs were not so frustrating or impractical. Everything changed when programs bloated. DOS was dethroned as the OS king, and Windows paved the way in making hard drives a staple in every PC package.

While a DVD disk is fairly large enough to house several software, it cannot conveniently serve as the primary storage device because it’s simply just not big enough. You may contend that you could always imitate the disk shuffling of old, but this is inconvenient and time-consuming. The fact that multi-tasking is the order of the era makes that old practice impossible. Doing several things at the same time would then require you to have several optical drives. People just don’t have the time or the patience for this.

I don’t see the hard drive being replaced by a new type of storage media anytime soon. I know it’s an old technology. But then again, so is the monitor. Of course, there will definitely be new innovations as far as its architecture is concerned. However, the concept would still be the same. The primary storage devices of the future would still be more or less permanent. It would still remain fixed no matter how big or efficient other portable media would become.

Are you ready for Windows Vista?

Don’t look at the post date. This IS a March 8 entry, not a February post. And it’s not a re-post. I know that this question has already lost much of its worth and hype. I should’ve asked this question last month when it was still the query of all queries.

But I think the question is still relevant. Not all PC users have taken the plunge yet. I still see many PCs running on XP. Most of my officemates haven’t shifted to the new OS either. They’re still on a wait-and-see mode.

So how would you know if you’re ready to ditch your old OS for the latest and most famous one?

First, you have to ascertain if your PC is fit enough to keep up with the demands of Vista. I think a Pentium IV is powerful enough to run the new OS. However, if you have a few hundred bucks to spare, then I suggest that you upgrade to a Core Duo processor or its non-Intel equivalent. Boost up your RAM to at least 1GB, too. You wouldn’t want to strain your hard drive by heavily relying on virtual memory, would you?

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, or if you don’t trust me that well, then you may want to try Microsoft’s Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. The question that I’ve proffered early on can indeed be answered best by the one that created the problem in the first place You’ll be given tips or instructions on how to fully optimize your system so that it won’t choke up when fed with the new OS.