What makes a computer "slow"?

[veedubfreak]

Most of the laptops we have at work have around 80 processes running due to all the crapware that comes with them. My guess is that there is either some malware or the hardware is actually having problems.

 

[farinha]

Formating the PC allways help, even if it is just to clean the "garbage" left by uninstalled programs.
How much free space do you have on the windows drive of computer A?

 

[immy3]

Hmmm I couldn't imagine 50+ processes, but I guess that's just me.

I only web surf and play games, and when I play games I make sure all processes that aren't critical to the system are terminated.

 

[macdawg]

My home & work PC have similiar specs (p4 3.0ghz, 1 gig ram) and at home my PC runs 19 processes & is drastically faster and more responsive than my work pc which I run about 55 processes at all times on. Both systems run xp.

I also shut down unnecessary processes before gaming so I'm down to 16 processes counting the game. This is what I accredit to playing COD4 at 1024x768 res on medium on a 4 year old pc without issues to.

 

[EricB]

use a hardware dvd decoder. if you have an ati card use Avivo. if you have nvidia use nvidia pure video decoder. they will use the card's power to playback the video and not the cpu and ram like the other dvd decoders (power dvd, wmp, etc.) do. the picture looks better this way anyway