Why Is My Computer Slow

Why Is My Computer Slow? by

Technology advances at an ever increasing pace but quite often purchasing the latest and greatest or the biggest and fastest can be a total waste of money.



Technology geeks (I can say that because I am one myself) go out and buy the latest gadgets at the highest prices because they all have some new fangled function or a re sporting the latest colors or designs when they haven't really used all the functionality of the one they already own.



When it comes to the family Pc however I think the technology giants like Intel, Amd, Hp and Dell for example are all missing the point when it comes to your average consumer.



A majority of computer users do not play games on their computers (they probably have a play station or a Wii), nor do they use massively processor hungry applications like computer aided design packages or finite element (fea) calculation packages.



If we listen to all the advertising blurb that computer vendors and suppliers seem happy to ply us with, we would all believe we need multiple core machines , but reality couldn't be further from the truth.



And if the processor manufacturers were entirely, open they would also tell you that there are still today very few programs that can even take advantage of the multithreaded capability of today's breed of processors.



The truth of the matter is that Pc technology and power is far outreaching the users real needs, lets face it, you probably have more raw processing capability sat in the average home than they had to send man into space in the early days!



One fact that is undeniable though is that when you go and buy your next Pc with all its raw computing power you will probably still need to by something extra to make it work efficiently within a short space of time.



A well rounded and efficient computer or laptop isn't just about the processor speed, granted that does help but only up to a point. A good analogy would be why buy a sports car that is capable of over a hundred and fifty miles and hour when the most you will ever do is 90?



Equally , with your average car a good all round performer will be the sum of all its components , tires, suspension etc. not just the power of the engine. But what good is a 150 mph engine if the tires are only rated for 70mph.



The same applies to your average Pc or laptop but with different components and whilst automotive legislation will ensure that the automobile that you buy will be fit for purpose, computer vendors and system integrators are getting away with selling what many experts would believe is really "barely fit for purpose".



Of course, what we are referring to is the amount of computer memory in your laptop or Pc.



As Pc power increases programs get more complex, and as they get more complex they use more computer memory.



The more programs you install even if only working in the background i.e. anti virus programs, music programs and system utilities the more memory is used and so on.



Simply put the more memory the programs have to access, the faster and more efficiently the Pc will work.



This is all well and good but the problem occurs when your computer runs out of memory and has to start using the hard drive as extended memory instead.



This is magnitudes slower performance wise than the system memory and will not stop your Pc from working but will certainly slow it down, sometimes to the point of almost stopping.



It's a bit like putting a block of wood under your cars gas pedal, it will still accelerate but just not as quickly as it is really capable of.



Computer resellers really should be giving the best advice to there customers at point of sale rather than taking the quick buck on a quick sale especially at the budget end of the market.



After all lets face it, a little additional memory should not cost more than $50 - $100 extra and is a worthy investment if you plan to keep your hardware for more than a year, or have more than a handful of programs you want to load up.



Are computer resellers all to blame though? Expert opinion would say not , the computer manufactures should set a minimum level of memory in new systems given that they are well aware that budget machines memory levels are arguably barely adequate.



The positive side to all this is of course that there is a massive market in after sales computer memory which seems to grow ever stronger because of the need for more memory in a machine.



Computer memory upgrades are easily obtainable fortunately and something which you can do yourself. You can do an online memory scan to ensure and guarantee that the memory is indeed correct for your system and fit it yourself when it arrives a few days later if ordered on line.



Or you can contact you local computer repair professional who can also perform this inexpensive task if you have already purchased a new Pc or if your existing system is running slowly.



If you are thinking of purchasing new hardware then do yourself a favor and make sure you get a memory upgrade if you are purchasing a budget machine. If the salesperson does not give you the option ask for it. You will be the person that benefits in the long run.



Buying a new computer may not be necessary when all you need is a simple memory upgrade. Memory upgrades are quite often all that is needed to speed up a slow computer and you can even do a memory scan on-line to ensure you are buying the right memory.



Article Source: Sustainable Living Articles

Guide to Buying Hard Drives

Guide to Buying Hard Drives
By: Andrew Gates
Apart from being one of the most essential parts of your computer, hard drive storage is constantly updating, in terms of both capacity of disk space and in physical size. When it comes time to upgrade your disk storage, there are a number of factors for you to take into account. Once you've made basic decisions about size, connectivity, speed and data transfer rate, and whether you want an internal drive or external, you can search through Myshopping.com.au to find the most suitable brand, and model, and compare the prices of different vendors.

Hard Drives

How A Hard Drive Works

Your hard drive has a number of magnetized platters connected to a spindle. The spindle spins the platters at a very fast speed while a series of read/write heads scan over them both looking for and writing information. This information is transferred via a cable system, or through a wireless connection to a hard disk controller, which in most systems is built into the motherboard, or in some systems installed as an add-in card. The information that comes from your hard drive through its controller is then made available to the components of your computer. The effectiveness of your hard drive (its performance) depends on how much of its capacity remains unused, how well organised the data is (known as fragmentation) and its data transfer rate, which in turn is dependent on its connection type and the drive's spin rate.

Internal Hard Drives

Most computers from, the most basic home models up to the most powerful servers, have an internally installed hard drive. Technology today ensures that they are all generally fast, reliable, and offer dependable storage ability. Most modern computers have installation slots and cabling to enable you to install additional hard drive. This allows you to increase your storage capacity without giving up your existing hard drive.

Internal Hard Drives

External Hard Drives

These drives are essentially the same drives as ones installed inside computers, but cased inside a protective, portable case. This is a good solution for people who work remotely and need to transport large amounts of data. If an external hard drive is your choice, make sure your computer is compatible with the interface that the hard drive uses. An add-in card, such as a FireWire card can help to increase your computer's capabilities. You can compare different brands of external hard drives simply at Myshopping.com.au and search on the connection type, or other specifications.

External Hard drives

Laptop Hard Drives

There have been many advances in miniaturization of hardware components for laptop computing, and hard drive technology is not left out of this loop. Laptop hard drives function in exactly the same way as internal hard drives on other computers, only they are designed to provide maximum storage and efficiency in the smallest possible package. For added flexibility, some laptop computers come with removable hard drives that can be easily installed and removed. However, before you buy a hard drive for your portable computer, check that the hard drive's specifications will meet the standards of your computer, as many laptop hard drives are proprietary, and are not compatible with other brands and models.

Laptop Hard Drives

Size

Your hard drive stores your operating system, its programs (games and applications), your working data, and your digital music and movies. Most new computer purchases have a minimum of 80 GB of hard disk space; many have considerably more. Hard drive space is one of those things, once you have it, you'll find ways to fill it soon enough. There is no real rule of thumb, but consider the cost per gigabyte of storage as a way to guide your purchase. If you work with large files, such as music, video and graphics, it pays to have a big storage space for your work. It may pay you to have two hard drives, one that houses all your programs and applications, and another for storing your work and projects.

You may want to compare the price of say a 160GB drive against two separate 80 GB drives. If one drive fails all is not lost. Today's hard drives however, are fairly robust pieces of equipment and providing they are not abuse, will serve you well for a long period of time.

up to 32 GB Hard Drives

32-64 GB Hard Drives

64-100 GB Hard Drives

100 GB and more Hard Drives

Interface

One key distinguishing factor between hard drives is the way in which they connect to your computer. There are a number of basic types of connection schemes used with hard drives. Each connection type has a range of differences in performance.

IDE (INTEGRATED DRIVE ELECTRONICS)

This is by the most common connection methods. Because the hard drive controller is on the drive itself rather than on the motherboard, it helps to keep costs down. There different IDE standards available. Mostly, you will want to purchase the fastest possible standard that your computer can support. Most computers will support a standard that is faster than what the computer currently supports, so you can buy a faster drive, and update your computer at a later time. The different IDE standards, in order from most basic to fastest, are:

ATA (Basic). Supports up to two hard drives and features a 16-bit interface, handling transfer speeds up to 8.3 MB per second.

ATA-2 or EIDE (Enhanced IDE). Supports transfer speeds up to 13.3 MB per second.

ATA-3. A minor upgrade to ATA-2 and offers transfer speeds up to 16.6 MB per second.

Ultra-ATA (Ultra-DMA, ATA-33 or DMA-33). Dramatic speed improvements, with transfer rates up to 33 MB per second.

ATA-66. A version of ATA that doubles transfer rates up to 66 MB per second.

ATA-100. An upgrade to the ATA standard supporting transfer rates up to 100 MB per second.

ATA-133. Found mostly in AMD-based systems (not supported by Intel), with transfer rates up to 133 MB per second.

IDE / EIDE Hard Drives

Serial ATA Hard Drives

Ultra DMA 100 Hard Drives

SCSI (SMALL COMPUTER SYSTEM INTERFACE)

This is the hard drive interface standard used by many high-end PCs, networks and servers, and Apple Macintosh computers, except for the earliest Macs and the newer iMacs. While some systems support SCSI controllers on their motherboards, most feature a SCSI controller add-in card. SCSI drives are usually faster and more reliable, and the SCSI interface supports the connection of many more drives than IDE. While SCSI drives come in many different standards, many of them are not compatible with one another. So it's important be know that your computer supports the drive you plan to install. The different SCSI connections are:

SCSI-1. A basic connection using a 25-pin connector, supporting transfer rates up to 4 MB per second.

SCSI-2. Uses a 50-pin connector and supports multiple devices with a transfer rate of 4MB per second.

Wide SCSI. These drives have a wider cable and a 68-pin connection that supports 16-bit data transfers.

Fast SCSI. Uses an 8-bit bus but transfers data at 10 MB Per second.

Fast Wide SCSI. Doubles both the bus (16-bit) and the data transfer rate (20 MB per second).

Ultra SCSI or Ultra Wide SCSI. Uses an 8-bit bus and transfers data at 20 MB per second.

SCSI-3. Features a 16-bit bus and transfers data at 40 MB per second.

Ultra2 SCSI. Uses an 8-bit bus and transfer data at a rate of 40 MB per second.

Wide Ultra2 SCSI. Uses a 16-bit bus and supports data transfer rates of 80 MB per second.

SCSI Hard Drives

Ultra320 SCSI Hard Drives

FIREWIRE (IEEE 1394)

The FireWire standard is becoming popular in portable hard drives because it can be connected and removed without having to reboot the computer. It supports data transfer rates of 50 MB per second, which means it is ideal for video, audio and multimedia applications. FireWire requires a dedicated add-in card and the hard drives in use require an external power source, but the interface can support up to 63 devices simultaneously.

FireWire Hard Drives

USB 1.1 (UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS)

Pretty much all computers today include USB ports on their motherboards. (On older model, you can install an add-in card.) USB controllers can be used to connect external hard drives, and can support as many as 127 devices simultaneously either through USB port hubs or linked in a daisy chain fashion. USB controllers do delivery power to devices connected to them, but many hard drives still use an external power source. USB is limited by its data transfer speed, the maximum rate being about at 1.5 MB per second.

USB Hard Drives

USB 2.0 (HI-SPEED USB)

A more recently introduced and far better connection standard that offers backward compatibility and data transfer rates of up to 60 MB per second. USB 1.1 system can use a USB 2.0 device; it will need a USB 2.0 controller card to achieve the higher transfer rates.

USB 2.0 Hard Drives

FIBRE CHANNEL

Fibre Cabling is mainly used for high-bandwidth network servers and workstations, providing very fast data transfer rates (up to 106MB per second), and connection at long cabled distances, although it is expensive and you need to install a special interface card.

Spin rate

Data transfer rate is crucial to how well your computer performs for you. Apart from the connection types above, the performance of your hard drive depends on its spin rate, measured in RPM. Higher RPM generally means faster data transfer rate. The lowest spin speed that is acceptable in computing today is 5400 RPM. The common standard at present is 7200 RPM. But higher speeds are available in SCSI drives, and it is one area of computer system technology that is constantly being developed.

3600 RPM Hard Drives

4200 RPM Hard Drives

5400 RPM Hard Drives

7200 RPM Hard Drives

10000 RPM Hard Drives

15000 RPM Hard Drives

A larger capacity hard drive will not necessarily make your system function any faster unless you are low on available disk space with your existing drive. But a drive with Ultra ATA/100 or ATA/133 and a 7200 RPM spin rate will pretty much guarantee an improved hard drive performance.

Other considerations

CACHE

Cache (pronounces 'cash') is additional temporary memory that acts as a buffer between the system and the drive. Frequently accessed data is stored in the cache for quick access. Cache sizes vary from 512 KB up to 16 MB on some SCSI drives. The larger cache you have on your drive, the faster your drive will transfer data. If you are working with large files, such as video, images and audio files, it pays to have the largest cache you can get (8MB or more).

SEEK TIME

The data on your disk is stored in tracks and sectors and when you instruct your hard drive controller to retrieve some data, it goes looking. The seek time is a measure of how long it takes the hard drive to find a specific track on a disk. Seek times can vary slightly from disk to disk and a drive with a faster seek time will always perform better.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL TRANSFER RATES

These two rates tell how fast a drive actually reads the data and passes it along to the system. Internal Transfer Rate refers to the time it takes for a drives heads to read data from the platter and pass it to the drive's cache. The External Transfer Rate (sometimes called the Transfer Rate or the Burst Transfer Rate) is a measure of the time it takes to send the data from the cache all the way to the computer's memory. Naturally faster transfer rates provide better performance.

S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology)

This is a nice built-in feature in some hard drives that can help alert you to a potential hardware problem. Your computer's BIOS must support this in order for the SMART function it to work, however the drive itself will still work in a system without it.

Buying and installing a hard drive has some technical aspects that you need to take into account. Use Myshopping.com.au to compare different hard drive makes and specifications to find the drive that will work best for your needs and computer. You can compare prices and service offers from different vendors.

Author Bio
MyShopping.com.au helps you compare hard drives and buy online from top-rated online stores.

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Website Security Rules of the Road

In 2004, online consumer spending was at a record $65.1 billion. More and more people are attracted to the ease of online shopping and are spending higher amounts. Unfortunately, the chances of becoming a victim of Internet fraud are also increasing. The Internet National Fraud Center Watch reported that the average loss to fraud victims for just the first six months of 2005 was $2,579. This is compared to the $895 average for all of 2004. Complaints relating to general merchandise purchases (goods never received or misrepresented) accounted for 30% of Internet fraud complaints, and auction purchases (goods never received or misrepresented) topped the list at 44%.

While many e-commerce Websites are reputable and have taken the necessary safety precautions to protect you, it never hurts to always proceed cautiously. If you are making an online purchase consider these easy steps:

1. Use only one credit card, preferably with a low credit limit, when making online purchases. Avoid using an ATM or debit card.
2. Be wary of unsolicited offers by sellers. The Internet National Fraud Information Center Watch reported that email, as a method of contact by Internet scammers was up 22% in 2004.While the offer may be legitimate, spammers like to use this tactic to side-step reputable sites that provide consumer protection for online purchases.
3. Use only reputable e-commerce websites that list a street address and telephone number in case you need to contact them directly.
4. Read the website’s privacy policy. Some websites may reserve the right to sell/give your information to a third party. Check the document to see if they allow an opportunity to “opt-out” of receiving special offers from third-party vendors or for permission to share your personal information.
5. Check for a lock symbol in the status bar at the bottom of your Web browser window. Also, do not provide your personal information if the website address doesn’t start with “https” (a sign that the site is using a secure server).
6. Choose only verified sellers. Check to see if the vendor is a verified member of a reputable third party such as the Better Business Bureau, VeriSign, or Guardian eCommerce. These third-party sites help to ensure online consumers will be protected when shopping or conducting e-commerce transactions.
7. Check that the delivery date posted is reasonable. If you have not dealt with the vendor on a regular basis, be wary of any Website that states the shipment will be delayed 20 or more days. Delivery dates of 7-10 days are more common.
8. Keep a paper trail of all online transactions. Print out a hard copy of the transaction and keep it in a file for future reference.
9. Be wary of website offers that just sound too good to be true. The Internet is littered with get rich quick scams and false advertising claims. Investigate all claims thoroughly before proceeding.
10. If you do not receive what you paid for, and the vendor will not return your emails or calls, contact your state’s Department of Consumer Affairs for further assistance.

Surfing the Web Anonymously – Questions to Ask

When you surf the web it is possible to learn information about you even when you don't want to advertise who you are. This is true even if your system contains no virus or malware software. Specifically information that is easily available online includes your IP address, your country (and often more location information based on IP address), what computer system you are on, what browser you use, your browser history, and other information. It gets worse. People can get your computer's name and even find out your name if your machine supports programs like finger or identd. Also, cookies can track your habits as you move from machine to machine.

How do people get this basic information about you?

When you visit another web site, information about you can be retrieved. Basically, information is intercepted and used by others to track your Internet activities.

How do you stop this from happening?

First of all, it is possible to serf the web anonymously and thereby stop leaving a trail for others to find. Note that this is not fool-proof, but it makes it much harder for people to know who you are. There are products called anonymous proxy servers that help protect you. The anonymous proxy server replaces your Internet address for its own. This has the effect of hiding your IP address and making it much harder for people to track you.


How do I get an anonymous proxy server?

There are many vendors who sell anonymous proxy servers. There are also free proxy servers available to you. Two such products are ShadowSurf and Guardster. Guardster (http://www.guardster.com/) offers various services for anonymous and secure access to the web, some paid as well as a free service. ShadowSurf (http://www.shadowsurf.com/) ShadowSurf provides anonymous surfing at their site for free. Go to it and you will find a box to enter a URL that you want no one to track. There are many others, but here are two that are frequently used.

Another interesting product, given the recent news about the Google search engine filtering its findings for the Chinese government, is Anonymizer (http://www.anonymizer.com). This company, among others, recently (Feb 1st, 2006) pressed that it "is developing a new anti-censorship solution that will enable Chinese citizens to safely access the entire Internet filter-free" (http://www.anonymizer.com/consumer/media/press_releases/02012006.html).

Does an anonymous proxy server make you 100% safe?

No. Still, you are much better off if you use such technology.

What other things should I be concerned about when trying to keep my private information private?

Three other items come to mind when trying to keep your information private. First, you can use an encrypted connection to hide your surfing. This article does not go into detail on this, but search the web and you will find a lot of information on this. Secondly, delete cookies after each session. Third, you can configure your browser to remove JavaScript, Java, and active content. This actually leads to limitations, so you need to think about the cost/benefit of this course of action.


Anything else?

Wishing you happy and safe surfing

Protection You Can Afford

There are numerous ways you can lose the information on your computer. Your child decides to play Chopin on your keyboard, a power surge, lightening, a virus, or even simple equipment failure. Therefore, backing up the contents of your hard drive is an absolute MUST. By regularly making backup copies of your files and storing them in a separate location, you can typically get some, if not all, of your information back in the event your computer crashes.

While a regular backup to floppy, CD, or zip drive will save your files, wouldn’t it be great if you could create an exact copy (a drive image) of your hard disk? That means backups of all your files, programs, and user settings. This would definitely save you time when it came to reloading. Acronis may be able to help.

Acronis True Image 9.0 is a robust disk-imaging utility software that copies the entire contents of your hard drive including data and operating system files, personalized settings, and more, onto another disk or disk partition. Its layout is easy to use and navigate. It also includes wizards which can walk you through both backing up and restoring your computer. Highlighted features include:

• Secure Zone — allows you to save data to a special hidden partition located on your hard drive which would eliminate the need to purchase an extra hard drive.
• PC Cloning — you can upgrade to a new system disk without needing to reinstall the operating system and applications, or configure user settings.
• Acronis Snap Restore - lightening-speed restore of your PC from an image. You can start working in seconds while your system is still being restored.

Acronis provides a free test-drive of its product and a 30-day money back guarantee. When you are ready to purchase, you can either download for $49.99, or if you so desire, order a boxed version for $59.99. With Acronis True Image Home 9.0, you can rest easy that your family pictures, personal documents, tax returns, resumes, and other important information will not be lost forever.

Spyware Beware

Spyware and Adware are not only an ever increasing nuisance for computer users everywhere, but also a booming industry. According to Webroot Software, Inc., the distribution of online advertisements through spyware and adware has become a $2 billion industry.

The aggressive advertising and spying tactics demonstrated by some of these programs, require an equally aggressive response from a seasoned eradicator. Sunbelt Software is such a company. A leader in Anti-Spyware, Anti-Spam, Network Security and System Management tools, they gave consistently remained on the cutting-edge of anti-spyware programming since 1994.

One of their more notable software applications is CounterSpy 1.5. CounterSpy is designed to detect and remove spyware that is already in your computer system. Additionally, it provides real-time protection while preventing browser hijacking and changes to your computer’s Registry.

Other notable features include:
• Detection and Removal of Tracking Cookies – while it is true that applications like Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta are free, they do not include the ability to detect and remove tracking cookies like CounterSpy does.
• History Cleaner - erases any traceable trails left on your computer as you surf the Internet.
• Secure File Eraser - a powerful deletion tool that can completely eliminate all files you want removed from your computer including images, music, movies and applications.
• PC Explorer - allows you a look into files and areas that are normally inconvenient to access, such as your startup programs, browser helper objects, and ActiveX programs that are being downloaded or used.
• Support for Older Operating Systems – includes Windows 98SE, Windows ME, and Windows NT.

Recommended by PC World, ConsumerSearch, and Dell, CounterSpy holds one of the highest effective ratings for spyware removal. It also received high marks from TopTenReviews (2006) for ease of use, customization/installation, and help/support. For only $19.95 per machine, users can receive a one year subscription with updates, upgrades, and technical support from real live humans. CounterSpy definitely provides ease of use and affordability for just about any computer user from the novice to the expert.

Computer Viruses that Come a Callin

Every day new computer viruses are created to annoy us and to wreck havoc on our computer systems. Below are ten viruses currently cited as being the most prevalent in terms of being seen the most or in their ability to potentially cause damage. New viruses are created daily. This is by no means an all inclusive list. The best thing you can do is to remain vigilant, keep your anti-virus software updated, and stay aware of the current computer virus threats.

Virus: Trojan.Lodear
A Trojan horse that attempts to download remote files. It will inject a .dll file into the EXPLORER.EXE process causing system instability.

Virus: W32.Beagle.CO@mm
A mass-mailing worm that lowers security settings. It can delete security-related registry sub keys and may block access to security-related websites.

Virus: Backdoor.Zagaban
A Trojan horse that allows the compromised computer to be used as a covert proxy and which may degrade network performance.

Virus: W32/Netsky-P
A mass-mailing worm which spreads by emailing itself to addresses produced from files on the local drives.

Virus: W32/Mytob-GH
A mass-mailing worm and IRC backdoor Trojan for the Windows platform. Messages sent by this worm will have the subject chosen randomly from a list including titles such as: Notice of account limitation, Email Account Suspension, Security measures, Members Support, Important Notification.

Virus: W32/Mytob-EX
A mass-mailing worm and IRC backdoor Trojan similar in nature to W32-Mytob-GH. W32/Mytob-EX runs continuously in the background, providing a backdoor server which allows a remote intruder to gain access and control over the computer via IRC channels. This virus spreads by sending itself to email attachments harvested from your email addresses.

Virus: W32/Mytob-AS, Mytob-BE, Mytob-C, and Mytob-ER
This family of worm variations possesses similar characteristics in terms of what they can do. They are mass-mailing worms with backdoor functionality that can be controlled through the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network. Additionally, they can spread through email and through various operating system vulnerabilities such as the LSASS (MS04-011).

Virus: Zafi-D
A mass mailing worm and a peer-to-peer worm which copies itself to the Windows system folder with the filename Norton Update.exe. It can then create a number of files in the Windows system folder with filenames consisting of 8 random characters and a DLL extension. W32/Zafi-D copies itself to folders with names containing share, upload, or music as ICQ 2005a new!.exe or winamp 5.7 new!.exe. W32/Zafi-D will also display a fake error message box with the caption "CRC: 04F6Bh" and the text "Error in packed file!".

Virus: W32/Netsky-D
A mass-mailing worm with IRC backdoor functionality which can also infect computers vulnerable to the LSASS (MS04-011) exploit.

Virus: W32/Zafi-B
A peer-to-peer (P2P) and email worm that will copy itself to the Windows system folder as a randomly named EXE file. This worm will test for the presence of an internet connection by attempting to connect to www.google.com or www.microsoft.com. A bilingual, worm with an attached Hungarian political text message box which translates to “We demand that the government accommodates the homeless, tightens up the penal code and VOTES FOR THE DEATH PENALTY to cut down the increasing crime. Jun. 2004, Pécs (SNAF Team)”