How to Fix a Slow PC
Published 2006-04-23
Symptoms: your computer freezes randomly or is very slow to work or has poor performance.
Troubleshooting steps to take on Windows 2000 and XP.
Run Check Disk [CHKDSK] from a DOS window.
To open a DOS window: click Start, Run, in the Open box type "cmd /k chkdsk %homedrive% /f /r", click OK.
You will receive the following message:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.
Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process.
Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N) _
Type "y" and hit enter, then reboot your computer.
If the hard disk is healthy, CHKDSK results will report this entry: 0 KB in bad sectors.
The results of a CHKDSK conducted on restart using Windows 2000 or later operating systems are written to the "Application Log", with a "Source" name of "Winlogon" and a "Type" name of "Information", and can be viewed with the "Event Viewer".
To open Event Viewer: click Start, Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer, Application Log.
If CHKDSK gives "0 KB in bad sectors", then proceed with below troubleshooting, otherwise you need to replace the hard disk.
Run Disk Cleanup.
Run Disk Defragmenter.
Check if your hard disk is not full. Minimum free space required to allow a computer to work properly is 15%.
Check your RAM size: it should be minimum 512 MB, if less you also need a RAM expansion.
To check your RAM size, click Start, Run, in the Open box type "dxdiag", click OK.
Click YES if prompted to accept data collection on the computer.
How to automatically run disk cleanup and disk defragmenter
This file "disk-cleanup-defrag.bat" is a batch file that recall the "Disk Cleanup" (cleanmgr.exe) and "Disk Defragmenter" (dfrg.msc) utilities.
To know more on how to use Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter, please read this Microsoft document: [Ways to Speed Up Your Computer's Performance].
- Download the text file [disk-cleanup-defrag_bat.txt] to your C: drive.
- Rename the file as "
disk-cleanup-defrag.bat". - Double click the file "
disk-cleanup-defrag.bat" to run it.
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