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The slowdown

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1.3K views 10 replies 9 participants last post by  Lasnap  
#1 ·
Anyone else noticed that their machines are going slower and slower over the years?

My Vista installation now shows frustrating slowdowns on a regular basis. Now, it could be a whole bunch of stuff. Hard drive a mess, loads of stuff in memory, etc. But, I've also worked with a lot of computers. And I notice that the general performance of most of them isn't the same as they were when they got them, even after reinstalls.

With my computer for instance, XP flies! I mean, it's seriously fast. But I almost never use that partition. Vista (Ultimate 64) runs horribly. I've reinstalled that OS a few times and it seems every time I do it, it gets very slightly slower. Software will install and run slower. More pauses when things pop on the screen (sidebar for instance). Windows Explorer freezes from time to time. Etc. It's not the CPU, I know that. Every year I clean off the paste and put on new ArticSilver, temps are always low. Plus I always format the Windows disk.

I'm starting to think that the cause of it are updates and the updated software itself. If I do a clean install and don't connect to the internet, basically just use old software, I'm willing to bet it'd run like it used to.

Thoughts?
 
#2 ·
Pretty much correct.

I run a tight ship with my computers to avoid unnecessary software installs and defrag perhaps a little too often, but performance is still great on all of my machines. Though I'm also running Windows 7 on all of them and each has 2 HDDs installed, where I keep the page file, portable apps, backups, and media. Having a second drive seems to help out a lot if you plan out what should and shouldn't be stored there.
 
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#3 ·
SSD's help a lot in such a case too, the prices are going down lately and even a small one for just the operating system and the most used programs will make a huge difference. Personally after experiencing the difference first hand i would rather cut elsewhere than not use an ssd in a rig.
 
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#4 ·
My Previous Windows 7 install was like two years or so running and when I had to reinstall due to my new board and CPU, things didn't feel much, if any, faster, so no, I can't say it's slowed down any for me.

My Dimension 4100 with Windows XP, however (I have a few OSes on it on a few hard drives), starts that up faster than my primary PC does Windows 7.

I have noticed that Windows XP will tend to start up slower over time and with more updates and such installed (hasn't hit the Dimension 4100 yet, oddly...), but I never noticed Windows 7 do that.

Other than that, I never really could tell. I used to reinstall with Windows XP quite a lot though.
 
#5 ·
I would say it is the problem with the os itself.
When I installed Vista, my computer started to get real slow after 6 months or so. Then my computer were ****ed up. Everything just lagg like hell, slow like a snail and even the blue screen of death appear out of nowhere. Therefore, I make a clean installation of Windows 7. Windows 7 is better compare to Vista. It is more faster and responsive. But as usual, after like a year using Windows 7, my computer started to get slow like hell again. So, I decided to go back to basic. I use XP back! And there are no problems at all with XP. Everything just run smooth and perfectly fine. So yeh, I would say one of the problem is the os itself.
 
#7 ·
I have had OSes slow down over time, but the PCs always perked right up for me with a fresh install. What I always try to do with various Windows OSes is slipstream the latest service pack into a new disc, rather than install with an older copy then install the service pack(s). SSDs help a lot too :p.
 
#8 ·
Other than now and then running into a RAM limitation I wouldn't say Vista has gotten any slower for me, though currently my install is only about 2 months old but before that it was 3 years and beyond what I myself inflicted upon the system in additional processes and programs running in the background it really didn't feel much slower than at the start.
Then again I'm not shy of exchanging power for convenience so I most likely load a clean install once I set it up like I want just as much as a much older OS install (I'm using almost the exact same amount of RAM idle now as I was before the clean install on the 3 year install) so any difference is possibly negated by me loading up the system with what you guys would possibly either consider crap or at least unnecessary processes.

XP imho booted MUCH MUCH MUCH slower after a year or two. It's almost like the boot screen got an extra block in it's loading bar every other month.
 
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S
#9 ·
I think it's both the issue is caused of bloat (Stuff remaining being in your drive, even a lot of registry/services stuff can cause Windows to slow down) , fragmentation and probably even bitrot? (My friend suggested this, but my right side of the brain screams ok, while my left sides says "That doesn't make sense?" :p
 
#10 ·
StriderVM said:
I think it's both the issue is caused of bloat (Stuff remaining being in your drive, even a lot of registry/services stuff can cause Windows to slow down) , fragmentation and probably even bitrot? (My friend suggested this, but my right side of the brain screams ok, while my left sides says "That doesn't make sense?" :p
Click to expand...
I'm a believer in bit rot after dealing with this. I think it was an early stage of it, before any sizable amount of data loss.
 
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