System slowdowns
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In the past, no one worried about RAM chips getting hot, because they didn’t seem to generate much heat. But that’s changed with newer RAM types, especially SDRAM. To check for overheating, open your computer’s case, power down, and pull the plug out. Ground yourself and touch the plastic on one of your RAM chips. Ouch! They get pretty hot. If you find that your RAM chips are overheating, you should consider buying a separate fan to cool your memory. If your motherboard doesn’t support a RAM fan, you might be able to get enough additional cooling by installing a fan card that plugs in to a PCI slot.
Tip
Another RAM-related problem may occur if you add more than 64 MB of RAM to a system that doesn’t support caching of more than 64 MB of system memory. The system’s performance will degrade when it accesses the uncached memory. For example, the Intel Triton i430FX/VX/TX-based motherboards completely disable the onboard L2 cache when more than 64 MB of RAM is installed, causing major performance degradation.
3. Failing hard disk
There are many signs of imminent failure before a hard disk finally gives up. Some of these signs include:
- Slow access times on the affected drive.
- An increasing number of bad sectors when running scandisk and chkdsk.
- Unexplained Blue Screens.
- Intermittent boot failures.
Detecting a failing hard disk can be tricky because the early signs are subtle. Experienced computer professionals can often hear a change in the normal disk spin. After the disk deteriorates further, you’ll see the system crawl to a standstill. Write processes will take a long time as the system tries to find good blocks to write to. (This will occur if you’re using a robust file system such as NTFS; other file systems will likely Blue Screen the computer.)
When you notice the system slow down, run scandisk or chkdsk, depending on your operating system. If you notice a bad sector where a good sector existed earlier, that’s a clue that the disk is going bad. Back up the data on the disk and prepare for it to fail soon. Make sure you have a spare disk ready so you can replace it when it fails, or replace the disk as soon as you notice the early signs of failure.
Disk noise and scandisk/chkdsk are your best indicators for identifying a failing drive that’s leading to a system slowdown. However, if you are managing a system remotely, or you can’t take the system down for a full chkdsk/R, you can use tools that monitor disk health, such as Executive Software’s DiskAlert.
4. BIOS settings
One often-ignored culprit of system slowdown is the machine’s BIOS settings. Most people accept the BIOS settings as they were configured in the factory and leave them as is. However, slowdowns may occur if the BIOS settings do not match the optimal machine configuration. Often you can improve machine performance by researching your motherboard’s optimal BIOS settings—which may not be the same as the factory defaults.
There is no centralized database of optimal BIOS settings, but you can employ a search engine such as Google or AllTheWeb and use your motherboard name and BIOS as keywords to find the correct settings.
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