Electronics

[Cats3000]

@Lindsays Grandma  I've had Macs for decades.  The only thing I've ever done is delete old stuff from my hard drive if I wanted to.  That's the only thing i've ever "cleaned".

[glb613]

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@Lindsays Grandma wrote:

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@LTT1 wrote:

@Lindsays Grandma

Did he say use ”CC Cleaner?”

I didn’t often run the CC Cleaner. (Should have)

If the CC Cleaner gives one the option of eliminating programs that have installed themselves, this would be a great time to get rid of those.

@Lindsays Grandma@Lindsays Grandma

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I'm sure it wasn't "CC Cleaner", CPU comes to mind.  With all the info here I think I can get an idea of what I need to do.  Since my daughter is a lot more computer savvy than I am I'll have her read all the posts.  Thanks again for your help.

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You CANNOT clean up the CPU.  It is the computer's processor and there is nothing to clean.  You need to clean out unecessary files, programs in the startup group and possibly defrag the hard drive.   You can do it manually or use a program which does it for you.  I prefered doing it myself when I ran Windows.

The BEST advice I have for people with a slow sluggish computer is to do a reset and start over.  I recently did this on my Macbook Pro and it improved it's performance significantly.  I also gained a lot of hard drive free space by getting rid of "other" files I wasn't able to delete.  It will breathe new life into an older computer and make it run like new. 

[gardenman]

Computers can slow down for all kinds of reasons, but typically it's because something is misbehaving. A few years back I had a plug-in (Yahoo I think?) on my browser that inexplicably kept grabbing 97% or more of the CPU capacity. I could have defragged the hard drive, removed everything from the startup menu, and none of it would have mattered. As soon as I'd open the web browser the computer would slow way down. The way I found out what was causing the trouble was by going into Task Manager and seeing what was using the resources. When I found the process using 97+% of the CPU capacity, I'd found the culprit. Who knew a simple plug-in could cause that much chaos? I sure didn't. By using Task Manager I could see exactly what's causing the trouble and fix it. 

Task Manager is any Windows computer user's best friend. It lets you see what's really going on inside your computer and gives you the power to fix whatever the problem is.

Now among the other reasons a computer can run slowly, are the lack of available hard drive space. If your hard drive is nearly full, then your computer will slow down. Too little memory can slow a computer down. Sometimes a memory stick will fail or come loose if the computer's been moved. Sometimes a lack fo cleaning will slow down a computer. Dust, cat hair, dog hair and just whatever junk is in your air ends up getting pulled into the computer.

Modern motherboards and CPU's monitor the temp and when it gets too high they throttle down the CPU to keep it from literally melting the CPU. By throttling down the power they slow down your computer. If you have a conventional CPU cooler atop your CPU, (a fan with metal fins under it) a blast of compressed air through the  radiator fins can clean it out and restore more speed to your computer. (Lots of stuff tends to pile up there blocking airflow.) If you have a water cooled system (not likely unless you're a gamer) then a failed or failing coolant pump could result in your computer's CPU having rising temps and throttling back its performance.

If the fan above the CPU isn't moving at all, then the fan has either burned out or come unplugged and that's why you have really slow performance. The CPU has to be kept cool to perform well. The cooler you keep it, the better it will perform. (Some on the loony fringe use liquid nitrogen to cool their CPU to get insanely high benchmark tests. Definitely not recommended for the average user.)

Higher end computer cases will often have five or more lage fans to move air through the case to keep the components cool. Most commercially available computer have just one or two fans. If that fan or those fans, fail the computer will heat up and will slow down. An inadequate power supply will slow down a computer. If your system needs 350 watts and you've got a 300 watt power supply the power management software built into the motherboard will not distribute the power evenly, but will portion it out sequentially, resulting in slower performance. 

In theory, most modern BIOS setups will alert you to a failed CPU fan or overheating, but some don't. If your computer slows way down and you can't find a reason, then it could be a CPU overheating issue. 

My first step in troubleshoooting a slow computer is to open task manager and see what's going on. That'll show me how the CPU and memory are being used and how much memory there is. If you've got software to monitor CPU temp, take a look at that and see what's going on. If that's fine, then move on. Is the hard drive full or nearly so? If not, move on. Are the case fans working? Is the power supply adequate? Eventually you'll find the culprit and have your computer back to full speed. Typically, you'll find the problem in Task Manager though. Learning to use Task Manager is a great investment in your time. That's probably more than you ever wanted to know about fixing a slow computer, but it gives you a good idea of what to look for and how to fix it.

[glb613]

Gardenman, I agree with your post but, I don't know of anyone, besides the two of us, who would venture into the task manager and change things.  I have friends who barely know how to perform the tasks they do everyday.  I've been posting for decades about the need to perform maintenance and it fell on deaf ears.  Most would rather just junk the computer and buy new than to try what we've posted.  Are you getting the bad winter storm?  It's a mess in Illinois. 

[Nuttmeg]

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@glb613 wrote:

Gardenman, I agree with your post but, I don't know of anyone, besides the two of us, who would venture into the task manager and change things.  I have friends who barely know how to perform the tasks they do everyday.  I've been posting for decades about the need to perform maintenance and it fell on deaf ears.  Most would rather just junk the computer and buy new than to try what we've posted.  Are you getting the bad winter storm?  It's a mess in Illinois. 

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I have used the task manager a long time. I have been  playing  with computers and tech products for 31 yrs. I have stop talking to family and friends about tech. They don't hear me anyway.

[SilleeMee]

Another little thing that helps me monitor my pc performance is keeping an eye on the cpu temperature. If that's running hot then it might be a sign of a lot of traffic crossing it...possibly stuff you don't want or need running in the background.  I installed a little app that floats in one of the corners of my screen and it shows me the temp of the actual hardware either the cpu, the hard drive or the graphic card...I can pick one or another.

[gardenman]

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@glb613 wrote:

Gardenman, I agree with your post but, I don't know of anyone, besides the two of us, who would venture into the task manager and change things.  I have friends who barely know how to perform the tasks they do everyday.  I've been posting for decades about the need to perform maintenance and it fell on deaf ears.  Most would rather just junk the computer and buy new than to try what we've posted.  Are you getting the bad winter storm?  It's a mess in Illinois. 

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It's supposed to be mostly rain here. It shouldn't be too bad. The brutal cold behind it is annoying though.

[Caffeina]

I use Storage Sense, which is part of Windows 10.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/filecab/2018/08/30/9205/

[SilleeMee]

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@Caffeina wrote:

I use Storage Sense, which is part of Windows 10.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/filecab/2018/08/30/9205/

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I never knew about Storage Sense before now! Thanks for the tip. Much appreciated. @Caffeina

[Lindsays Grandma]

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@glb613 wrote:

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@Lindsays Grandma wrote:

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@LTT1 wrote:

@Lindsays Grandma

Did he say use ”CC Cleaner?”

I didn’t often run the CC Cleaner. (Should have)

If the CC Cleaner gives one the option of eliminating programs that have installed themselves, this would be a great time to get rid of those.

@Lindsays Grandma@Lindsays Grandma

---

I'm sure it wasn't "CC Cleaner", CPU comes to mind.  With all the info here I think I can get an idea of what I need to do.  Since my daughter is a lot more computer savvy than I am I'll have her read all the posts.  Thanks again for your help.

---

You CANNOT clean up the CPU.  It is the computer's processor and there is nothing to clean.  You need to clean out unecessary files, programs in the startup group and possibly defrag the hard drive.   You can do it manually or use a program which does it for you.  I prefered doing it myself when I ran Windows.

The BEST advice I have for people with a slow sluggish computer is to do a reset and start over.  I recently did this on my Macbook Pro and it improved it's performance significantly.  I also gained a lot of hard drive free space by getting rid of "other" files I wasn't able to delete.  It will breathe new life into an older computer and make it run like new. 

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I have a desktop HP and it is slow with a few other minor quirks so what I am looking for is something to speed it up.  I finally was able to contact my friend via e-mail today so hopefully I will hear back in a few days.