Saturday, May 27, 2017

Avoiding Slow Performance - Part 2



Part one of this article can be found at the blog links at the bottom of this page.

Laptop/Desktops  Performance Issues
#2 Full or nearly full hard disk drive (not as common as you might imagine)

One of the common myths floating about computers is the “full” hard drive problem.
I rarely see this problem apart from those customers who are movie download junkies and insist on keeping all 6 series of “The Walking Dead” on their hard drive. (not sure if there were more but anyway). Modern computers, excluding brand new models, were equipped with large hard drives and if you are getting messages about your hard drive been full it should be investigated but it is rarely a case of the drive being full. More common for me to find is that the customer has downloaded one of the total rubbish “speedup” apps that are epidemic on the internet. If I had a euro for every time I came across one of those apps I’d not be writing this article from Bettystown.

I love good apps that help keep your system in tune and organized but I can assure you it is unlikely you know the names of them as they are not bandied about on every site you browse. If you suspect you actually have this hard drive full issue seek professional assistance from a real flesh and blood qualified technician and avoid so called “free” system cleanup apps. You might also want to avoid wannabe experts although I am shooting myself in the foot telling you that as the aforementioned “experts” generate a good deal of work for me fixing their repairs.

#3 Overloading the device with too many memory resident apps.
This particular problem is very, very common and is usually not the fault of computer users. In case you are in any doubt the aim of some many apps is to always be active on your computer and where possible to drive or direct you to specific web pages when you do some browsing. Commonly called junkware or spyware they are not produced by some random teenage computer whiz but by corporations in the business of generating advertising revenue from their sponsors. They are paid on the number of visitors visiting their clients websites and you may be a victim of this apps.

Other offenders in this category include Microsoft and Google both of home produce apps that stay resident for somewhat legitimate reasons but in reality could be a lot less memory hungry. Promising benefits to you in return for eating your precious memory resources I personally find the trade off not worth it. Amongst the specific apps are Google desktop and Microsoft Skype. How often do you actually get an unscheduled call on Skype? For me it’s rare so I shut it down most of the time. Whatsapp and other voice apps on smartphones have mostly superseded Skype in most cases so consider getting rid of it if you don’t use it.

Next Month, God willing, I will continue on this and the other topics listed.