dispute on RAM or CPU

zergpc209

I got into a dispute with my friend that is saying if a computer is
running slow or freezes there may be a problem with the RAM or CPU is
that true?

I thought if the RAM or CPU is not working the computer will turn off
or if the RAM or CPU has a problem it will turn off ?

Your-Amish-Daddy

If the processor's getting too hot, it may cause the bios to shut the system down and provide some form of alert to the cause. Memory will most often NOT cause the system to shut down, but give you a BSOD (Or Kernel Panic depending on your flavor of OS) and alert you to the cause, unless you're like every other freshmeat windows user that doesn't uncheck "Automatically restart after system crash". Then you have to go to the Administrative tools in XP, and check the system log. But I'm rambling...

Slow performance can be a slew of many problems, such as aging technology. Old tech, or Brontobones as I call them, are nothing more than laziness away from becoming recycled goods that may one day turn into greater technology in the future. If you're friend is still running a Thunderbird Athalon, Yes it's time for a new system. Also, if the machine is older than four years, and has not been formatted atleast 30 times, then yes. Data could also be causing the system to bog down, such as spyware, adware, malware, and a variable ton of tracking bits of data that could be eating up one or two cycles. Just like pennies, they add up.

The best thing to do, is what I do, the super-duper "How old is this bunch of age?" test. It's real simple.

1: Find out the bus speed. That can be done easily with CPU-Z, which can be obtained at CPUID.com
2: Find out the Processor ID, Name, Model number, and other variable goodies with the same tool. That'll be real handy for determining if it's time to install a brick in the motherboard!
3: See if there are driver updates. Usually, if the device drivers are maintained, it'll be a good idea to stay on top of them.


After following these steps, You'll know all about the oldness of the computer. If it's new, it may just need a good formatting, or some driver updates.

And, Welcome to the forums.

kryyst

Yeah pretty much what YAD said. It could be a failing CPU or RAM there is often a point before they totally fail that they'll slow down the system. Then there will be a point when they are failing faster that you'll notice frequent BSOD's and general lock up's then they just die. This is attributed to a bleeding effect where the circuits are burning out and electrical pulses on one are crossing over to another.

However as YAD mentioned software bloat is a more common reason that will cause a system to slow down. Sometimes you just need to do a clean install to get things back up to speed.

There is one more extremely common thing that will cause a system to slow down. Harddrive issues. There are two. The first is to turn off Indexing in windows both the service and on the drive property. As a system gets more and more stuff on it the indexing service can drastically slow down the entire system as it wastes more time indexing things then it does loading them. Then it's probably also time to see if your harddrive needs to be defragmented. Which is something that should be done several times a year under normal use.

zergpc209

"Automatically restart after system crash". Then you have to go to the Administrative tools in XP, and check the system log. But I'm rambling...

How does the uutomatically restart work and why have it?

The first is to turn off Indexing in windows both the service and on the drive property

I thought the winsows index.dat files cannot be erased ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index.dat

emory will most often NOT cause the system to shut down, but give you a BSOD

So if there is problem with the RAM you may get the BSOD but a computer running slow or freezing is not the cause of bad RAM or bad CPU

kryyst

zergpc209 wrote: »

I thought the winsows index.dat files cannot be erased ?

Totally different thing from what I'm talking about.

So if there is problem with the RAM you may get the BSOD but a computer running slow or freezing is not the cause of bad RAM or bad CPU

That's pretty much it. Dying ram, cpu and/or hdd will cause more and more frequent BSOD's and general lock-ups. However just because your computer is running slow, BSOD'ing and locking up it doesn't mean that your ram, cpu, and/or hdd are dying. It's often just a case that your OS has become bloated and it's time to do a reformat and clean install.

Your-Amish-Daddy

Look. Turn off the Automatic Restart. Then, when it does it again, you'll know what the cause is. I've gone through my notes and I do recall a symptom that involved the memory that would cause a shutdown. A faulty memory slot. This is the only thing I've seen cause the system to power down. But it doesn't just DO that. Usually starts with BSOD's.

zergpc209

That's pretty much it. Dying ram, cpu and/or hdd will cause more and more frequent BSOD's and general lock-ups.

So more BSOD or lock-ups but not a computer running slow or freezing

However just because your computer is running slow, BSOD'ing and locking up it doesn't mean that your ram, cpu, and/or hdd are dying. It's often just a case that your OS has become bloated and it's time to do a reformat and clean install.

You mean a bad or corrupt OS can do this or malware?


What about too many programs running or memory leak?

kryyst

zergpc209 wrote: »

So more BSOD or lock-ups but not a computer running slow or freezing

In 95% of the cases that's correct. Failing hardware usually isn't going to cause slow downs it'll cause errors. Bloated and/or failing software will do both.

You mean a bad or corrupt OS can do this or malware?


What about too many programs running or memory leak?

Any software errors as well as to many programs running can cause Slow down, BSOD's and random crashes.

zergpc209

So just to summarize this.

BSOD =Dying ram, cpu and/or hdd ,bad or corrupt OS
lock-ups =Dying ram, cpu and/or hdd
computer running slow or freezing =bad or corrupt OS,malware
bad or corrupt OS =BSOD's ,computer running slow or freezing
malware=computer running slow or freezing
too many programs running or memory leaks=computer running slow or freezing

Okay did I get every thing ?

kryyst

BSOD =Dying ram, cpu and/or hdd ,bad or corrupt Software/OS
lock-ups =Dying ram, cpu and/or hdd, or Bad Software/OS
computer running slow or freezing =bad or corrupt OS,malware
bad or corrupt OS =BSOD's ,computer running slow or freezing
malware=computer running slow or freezing
too many programs running or memory leaks=computer running slow or freezing, Lock-ups, and BSOD's

Your-Amish-Daddy

I've never had a memory leak cause a fault...What are the circumstances of that, just one of those "You unlucky sod" moments?

zergpc209

If a program using bad programming code keeps taking more and more memory and when it is done does not release it your computer will lock up or crash.

I believe Windows 3.1 had memory leaks and memory management problems and computer freezing and lock ups was big.

Your-Amish-Daddy

You're talking about almost 20 years ago. I'm talking about now.

kryyst

Windows XP still can suffer from run away leaks because the apps don't run in issolation. I've had my system die from Firefox getting out of hand or outlook many a time.

Your-Amish-Daddy

Never had that happen before. Wanna tell me the circumstances?

kryyst

Surfing computer bogs open up task manager and see that Firefox is using 100% clock time and memory is maxed out. Not much of a story, just that it happens. Prior to Firefox 2 the memory leak was fairly common knowledge.

Your-Amish-Daddy

I never had that problem. Hmm. I'm gonna have to look into that. Thanks for the dump brother.

kryyst

Just google firefox memory leak. The primary cause of it was the way Firefox handles caching pages.