Computer active

June 14, 2007

by Rob Jones

Decision Time

When your PC is so slow that you can make a cup of tea while waiting for it to perform a simple operation, then it may be time to upgrade

Like an aging footballer, PCs will eventually start to slow down. But while footballers can't reverse their drop in performance, computers can get a boost that will extend their life.

A computer spring clean can take many forms — from opening the case and hoovering the dust clogging the fans and components (which will aid cooling and reduce noise), to cleaning the hard disk of unwanted files and looking at whether any minor hardware upgrades will help speed things along.

Whether it is worth your time and effort is down to the PC's age. If your computer is running Windows 95 or 98 and creaking under the weight of the tasks it is being set, try some of the software fixes below to see if they help.

If they don't provide a speed boost, then a more cost-effective route might be to buy a new computer instead of spending almost the same amount of money on new components. It's possible to buy a low-end budget PC for as little as £250. If you are scrapping the PC, please dispose of it correctly.

The council dump will usually take it, along with other electrical waste. Alternatively, try a few charities. Digital Links (www.digital-links.org) collects and reconditions old PCs before shipping them to poorer countries where they can be used.

Even though Microsoft is pushing Vista, there are still plenty of new Windows XP machines for sale, and these won't suffer the teething problems currently blighting Microsoft's latest operating system. Buying one of these budget PCs should be just a case of plugging in your existing printer or scanner, and any other peripherals you want to keep.

While anyone happily running Windows 98 might disagree, we'd recommend XP as the minimum Microsoft operating system; it already has drivers for products, has been through six years of fine tuning, upgrading and bug fixing, and is still being supported.

Changes

If an XP PC is running slower than it used to, there are a few simple changes or upgrades that can give it new life.

As software programs and files are added, they start to slow it down. Some, such as Quicktime, install themselves in such a way that they launch automatically when the PC starts, slowing down the start up and stealing memory. A quick fix is to stop them loading.

The msconfig utility, which we discussed recently in issue 236, lists all programs that load on start up, and deselecting unnecessary ones will speed up the start up time. It's also worth deleting unwanted programs that have been installed and defragmenting the hard disk. This utility can be found in Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools in XP, but it's slow, so run it when the PC isn't in use.

Software programs and files are broken up across free space on a hard disk, and the defragmenting tool will pull them together so that the computer doesn't work as hard to gather information. A registry clean will also speeds things up. These utilities can be found via an online search, and it should only take a few minutes to clean out obsolete data from the registry. Try Desktop Mechanic 2.0, which can be downloaded from Computeractive's website at www.computeractive.co.uk/2190282, or download System Mechanic 6 for free — see page 66 for details.

Memory matters

The best, easiest and usually cheapest hardware upgrade for any struggling computer is to add memory. An additional 512MB of Ram costs around $25 and will make an amazing difference to the speed of the PC.

For anyone unsure of what type of memory their PC is running, this can usually be found on the manufacturer's website; otherwise the main memory makers, such as Crucial (www.crucial.com/uk) and Corsair (www.corsairmemory.com) offer advice on buying the correct memory. We'd recommend installing 1GB.

Other options

Other upgrades depend on how the computer is used. If continual problems occur when copying to a CD, add a new optical drive. Again, a CD or DVD writer can be bought very cheaply and is a simple upgrade.

If games or photo and video editing have become a struggle, a newer graphics card can help. A budget card costs from as little as £20 and can make an enormous difference. Consumer graphics cards are powered by Nvidia or ATI graphics processors; there's no reason not to swap from one manufacturer to the other. Both will require the software drivers to be updated, but cards are usually supplied with these updates on a CD.

Hard disks

Hard disks sometimes fail with age, although this is unusual. More likely, the capacity is too small for your current needs. A 250GB disk, which is enough for most users to store a mix of photos and music, should only cost about £40. It's a slightly more difficult upgrade and will require additional software, such as Acronis Migrate Easy (www.acronis.com), to move the operating system, software programs and files.

The hard disk comes with instructions on how to transfer data; alternatively, contact a local computer shop and ask how much they charge — it's a fairly quick process so shouldn't be too much.

As cars age, there's a point where it's more economical to scrap it and buy a newer one. It's the same with PCs and this will most likely be for anyone running a PC with an old, slow processor and operating system. But if the PC was built within the past four or five years, with a few simple, inexpensive upgrades it's possible to give it a new lease of life.