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There
are a thousand things that could make your Computer go slow. When you first purchased your Computer (Notebook or Desktop), it would
have appeared to be lightning-fast. This
is natural - you are yet to load programs and your data onto it! As you begin to
load programs - Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, your favorite Browser (if it
isn't Internet Explorer), your AntiVirus and AntiSpyware programs, your favorite
Music program, etc., your Computer progressively loses speed. This is perfectly
natural, unavoidable and not a cause for worry!
However,
if you are losing hair because your Computer takes ages to open up an
application - or, having opened up an application, suddenly decides to quit or
reboot - and this happens fairly regularly - you do have cause for concern -
grave concern!
We classify all Slow Computer problems into the following
four broad
categories: if you are lucky, your problem will disappear without too much
effort, money or anxiety...
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Easily
preventable problems that have simple, trivial solutions
We
all have bad hair days - when you realize that your desktop wasn't quite
plugged into the power supply, after half an hour of 'coaxing' it to start up!
If your are not patient, your Computer had better be super-strong, to survive
your attempts at 'coaxing it to start' :) We will not be discussing such
problems here as we believe there are higher powers at work that periodically
cause human beings to
overlook the trivial solution to such vexing problems! :)
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Easily
preventable problems that do not have trivial solutions
While
no one is responsible for Category 1 kind of problems (barring the 'higher
powers at work' of course), you are the sole person responsible for this
category of problem. If you have not updated your OS or AntiVirus or AntiSpam
solution for a while, you are susceptible to problems that are very easy to
prevent - but a huge bother to solve! This category of problem does not
usually require hardware to be purchased. However it is devastating in that
you stand to lose all your data in one fell swoop...
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Running
Problems that are near-impossible to predict or prevent
A
thousand things that go wrong fall in this category... loose cables and/ or
cards inside the Computer cabinet (especially in the case of desktops that
have been recently moved), humidity/ dust accumulating in the CD/ DVD drive,
stiff Keyboard, unresponsive Mouse, Computer slowdown after uninstalling
programs, etc. For some of these problems, you may prefer to replace the
affected part(s), instead of merely replacing the faulty part. Check out our
section on Stopped
Computers to troubleshoot such problems!
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Break-down
problems that too are near-impossible to predict or prevent
This
is the category of problems that cost you money: a spoilt Hard Disk, SMPS, or
the Motherboard itself. Brand-new Computers aren't spared of Category 4
problems - which is why the warrantee period and terms are so important for
you, the purchaser of the Computer. If your Computer is dated (anything
over 3 years could be included under the 'dated' appellation, with respect to computers!)
it may be smarter to upgrade it or even dunk it for a new, faster, sleeker model!
For example if your 120 GB Hard Disk is now trash, it is wiser to go in for a
240 GB Hard Disk: its a cinch that 120 GB Hard Disks aren't available anyways
and that if they are, they do not cost any less than a 240 GB Hard Disk!
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