Computer Slowing Down

I have Norton and it has REALLY slowed my laptop down, so it might be that. How long has it been slow?

 

Well you could try the 'disk clean-up' on your computer.
I had that problem and i did that and it went back to its orginal speed.
also music and photo/vids take up a lot of space on a hard drive which can cause a computer to slow down.
and emptying your recycle bin can help also.

 

Norton does slow PCs quite a lot, but if it was working fine with Norton before and is slow now then Norton isn't to blame as that hasn't changed.

Are the virus definitions for Norton up to date? It should tell you if they aren't but it's worth checking. Doing a scan with definitions that are out of date is unlikely to find more recent viruses etc.

Have you installed anything recently, that ties in with when it started going slow? If so then that's probably your problem. Either the program itself or something it leaves running is causing the slowness, or if it's a "dodgy" version it could have come with some unwanted extras...

Right-click on the task bar and choose Task Manager. Go to the Processes tab and click the button or tick the box at the bottom left for showing processes for all users. Look at the CPU column and find which programs are using high percentages. If the PC is doing nothing very much you'll probably find that System Idle Process is using 95% or more, which is good (System Idle Process just accounts for the unused CPU time). If something else is using a significant percentage continuously, note what it is and post the "Image Name" here or try googling it.

If svchost.exe is using a lot of CPU, try leaving the PC on and connected to the internet but doing nothing for an hour or so. svchost.exe can use a lot of CPU when Windows is downloading big updates, so let it finish and see if it clears up.

While in the Task Manager, look at the Memory column for things that are being greedy. On my PC right now the highest is Firefox at 232,000K which is not unusual. If anything is using loads of memory, again tell us what or google it.

At the bottom of Task Manager it should say something like "Physical Memory: 45%". That shows how much of the memory in your PC is being used by Windows and the programs. 50% or so is fine, if it's up in the 80% or more area then things will get slow. It will probably be doing lots of hard disk activity when it's this high as it uses the hard disk as additional memory when it runs low on real memory.

I won't get into a discussion about how much memory XP and Vista need etc because I'm assuming the PC was OK and now isn't, and that hasn't changed. So we are looking for what has changed or going wrong, not at things that haven't changed since when it was working OK.

You didn't say whether it's a laptop or a desktop...

Laptops slow down when the CPU gets too warm. Normally the fan will speed up when this happens, assuming it's working. So make sure the vent slots etc are clear and not clogged with dust. You can use a vacuum cleaner with the crevice tool on the end of the hose to clear them (switch the PC off first).

If there are ventilation holes or slots in the bottom, don't put it on something soft as that will block them causing it to overheat. Sometimes raising the back up a bit can improve the ventilation and help it run cooler (stick-on feet about 6mm high from the hardware or DIY store are good for this).

Desktop PCs can also slow down if overheating. The most common causes are again blocked vents, the CPU heatsink clogged with dust or the CPU fan not working. The solutions are obvious.

 

Mine slowed down too.. and i rebooted it its still .. s. l o.. w

 

I would uninstall Norton no matter what...
How many running processes do you have? 40 or less is decent for a desktop, 60 or less for an OEM laptop.
Download CCleaner and run its clean stuff, remember to make a backup of the reg database. (It will ask you to do that)
Can you tell us the specs of your PC?

 

Well i forgot to say that you should install AVG free instead, no performance impact and it works quite well.

 

A program I use with great results is Malwarebytes. It sped my computer up alot, and found Virus' that AVG and other programs couldn't even find.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

 

IMHO Norton is pure shit. I fully and unconditionally unrecommended all Norton software. They are the bane of any computer repairs I do. I've seen it miss lots on things and really slow computers down. In once case it slowed a computer so much that it took half an hour to boot. and half an hour to open any programs. After uninstalling it (which took 2 hours) the machine booted in 2 minutes.

In another case it was an OEM preinstall but it was never activated and never gave any indication it was running. It still had a dozen background processes and after removal the machine's boot time was cut in half.

If you bought your Norton product within the past 60 days there's instructions online about getting a refund.

For home users I recommend Avast! It comes with a boottime scan that's able to remove even the worst nasties as it runs before anything else even has a chance to start.

If you want to Pay, Eset's NOD32 can't be beat.

I also recommend Spybot Search and Destroy for anti-spyware.

As far as defragmenting, it doesn't hurt. Assuming you have Winxp: My computer->right click a drive->properties->tools->defragment now

It helps to have as few programs running as possible when defragging.

This is particularly true if your computer has a Spaceheater 4 Pentium 4. It also becomes more of a problem if the computer is older and has never been cleaned(2/3+ years) and if you have a pets. You can use the tool SpeedFan to check the CPU temperatures, and if you have a Pentium 4, the tool ThrottleWatch will tell you whether it is actually throttling the CPU back due to overheat.

If you do open up your computer to clean the dust be extremely careful not to damage anything. Some say to never use a vacuum, I say use it only on CPU fins, and other vent holes, steering clear of the board itself.

Edit: Throttlewatch claims to work on other processors as well including Intel Core and AMD Athalon64

 

It definitely won't hurt anything. If you delete and load items on your computer a lot, defragmentation is a high recommendation.

When you delete something it leaves a gap of area to save on your hard in the middle of other files. When you rewrite to it, it can take up some of that space then some of another space and another and so on. So the end result is that it takes the hard drive long to find what it is looking for.

So once again this "could" help but it doesn't sound like the issue to me but yeah; it won't hurt / it can only help at least some.

 

UNINSTALL NORTON! Go get another viris thing like F-Secure(which i use) or McAfee...

Are you using the free or full version?

 

Oh boy... Do this: Uninstall Norton (that's what everyone has been saying, so it MUST be a good idea!) and get avast! antivirus. I use it on all PCs I repair, and it works wonders, every PC in my house (all 9 of them) run avast! and there has never been an issue. I seriously wish you were geeky enough to ditch Vista, because that is HUGE performance hit, especially if you are using Aero. If possible, lose Aero, and switch to either Basic, or preferably, Windows Classic (it will resemble Win 9x/NT). Do a disc defrag, preferably out of Windows, use software such as BartPE and defrag your NTFS partition from there. Also, a HUGE performance hitter, remove all non-essential startup items, such as AIM, MSN, Desktop Weather, whatever. Just remove most everything but drivers, like for your mouse pad, and your antivirus (which by this point should be avast or at least AVG). Also, get rid of Ad-Aware, it's pretty junky. Use Spybot Search and Destroy. That is my educated opinion on the matter, as that helps me every time! I manage a small network of 9 Windows systems and one *nix terminal, and I've kept the network in tip-top shape!

Edit: I just noticed the latter half of pancake's post. McAfee? Are you daft, my friend???

 

McAfee is almost as bad. At work (which is also school) if I'm copying files or doing anything file intensive the app I'm actually using has to fight with McAfee for CPU time. And when McAfee updates, or even just when McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator does its hourly thing, McAfee processes slam the CPU to 100% one after another for, then when they're done, the shitty Outlook plugin slams Outlook to 100%. So 5 minutes every hour my computer is unusable. I don't even want to know how much lost productivity there is on campus due to McAfee updating.

McAfee also makes all the lab machines run like crap, amongst other things.

 

My campus uses AVG, which works nicely. My high school used Symantec, which wasn't as annoying as it's Norton counterpart, except on occasion when it wanted to update on a machine without the definitions in the "ThawSpace(D".

 

Although Norton is bloated and does slow down the PC (and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone for that reason either), in this case I don't think it is the cause of the problem. The PC was working fine before with Norton and now isn't but you still have Norton loaded, so simple logic says that Norton is not the cause of the problem. Removing Norton would speed it up, but it wouldn't fix the cause of this slow-down as we know that Norton is not the cause. Basic "cause and effect" logic!

For finding and removing viruses etc, Norton is very good. It scores consistently very well in independent tests for detecting and dealing with viruses. It's probably the main contender against Eset NOD32 (which I use) for the most VirusBulletin VB100 awards in recent years. So if your Norton is up to date and says your PC is not infected then I would believe it. The big problem with Norton though is that it is horribly bloated and does slow PCs, especially if they don't have enough memory.

If the hard disk is nearly full (say less than 10GB free) then try to remove some stuff to free up some space. A lack of space to move won't help with performance, and it won't defrag properly unless there is at least 10% free space. If you have lots of big files (over 1GB, stuff like movies) then you'll need even more space for effective defraging.

Have a look through the stuff you have installed and see if you can get rid of some of it. Games you've finished, software you've never used etc.