How to make your computer run faster

Slow computer has happened at least once in your lifetime. If you use Windows - may be much more than once. What you would usually do? Cleanup, uninstall unneeded programs, remove old data, defragment and finally full reinstall. So what new I can tell you here?

First thing first. The blog title is designed to be liked by search engines. It does not mean I will not tell you anything useful. It just means that I lured you here so you could click on my blog and maybe you will find an answer to your question. (BTW, the exact answer 'Can I make my computer run faster' is 'it depends', but not necessarily on things you usually hear from IT professionals.

I hope you are still interested. If so, let's begin.

On destiny and chaos

There is a popular belief that all computers of same kind (CPU, RAM, motherboard, etc) are created equal. But the experience shows that two identical computers, freshly imaged and plugged in, can display different performance from the very start of their useful lives. You can change cables, change peripherals, swap places - still one computer will give you trouble. Like a bad omen is hanging over it. Sometimes full reinstall helps. But often you just cannot fix it. Finding the root cause will waste your time and money, and there is no guaranty you will actually discover it at all. Sometimes this is a very hard to detect RAM malfunction or faulty PSU, or dodgy BIOS. To check all nodes of a complex system is just not worth it. The multitude of possible scenarios reduces your chance of success down to zero. And in that case there is no other option but to get a new computer. Right?

Not all operating systems are created equal

When I just started my job as IT support technician I had to make a network cable, because there was no available ones in stock. It was during the time when 100 base T was the top speed and Windows NT 4 was the most popular system at the enterprise level. Being completely ignorant of wiring standards I crimped the cable and connected it to the computer running Windows NT. To my amusement it started to complain about 'no carrier' being detected. Strange, I thought, my tester did not show any miswiring. I started Linux from a live CD on the same computer and the cable got detected, although only at 10 base T. This led to the series of discoveries. First of all, network cable is not just a bunch of wires, but also each pair of wires has it's own electrical properties which affect the way the signal propagates. Thus the network interface card can distinguish between correct and incorrect wiring by sensing the resistance of each pair. The second thing I noticed that different operating systems interpret the wiring properties in a different manner. Linux was more flexible and forgiving to my poor wiring skills.

Should you buy a new computer?

If defragmentation, re-installation and memory tests did not fix the problem, what else left to be done? If you are on a tight budget and it is hard to get a new computer, then you might want to either live with it (suffering from slow and unreliable service) or try installing a different OS.

The real question is: do you want to drastically change your computer experience? Because you will get other problems. But maybe you can tolerate those better then unproductive and erratic current system.