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Good Morning Folks,

Ok so…Our company uses primarily Dell Optiplex workstations from 2010-current. All of them are running windows 7, some 64-bit i-core 3’s some core 2 duo’s some 32-bit pentiums etc etc… We all use office 2010 some use 2003, and internet browse. I am wanting to stay on top of maintaining these machines but am not sure what the best approach would be. Now at the corporate office I have one user that is complaining that her computer is a piece of ?!@# and that it is extremely slow. I am not sure what to do about it. I will say that her primary complain is that the INTERNET is moving slow… I told her that we have 13 computers that are pulling from a 6mb dsl service, so we are limited on bandwidth and so on. But she said that it WAS moving faster before and now it is not. I have looked at the machine, it seems to be running fine. To be honest I don’t think that our end users are completely reliable when it comes to feedback about what they are experiencing. Any thoughts guys?? It is ALWAYS appreciated :slight_smile: Thank You!!!

14 Spice ups
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Yeah, that’s a common complaint. Everybody thinks their computer is slow.

I usually run ccleaner and defraggler, check msconfig to see if there’s anything running that doesn’t need to be.

If it really is the Internet connection, do you have a way to see who’s using the bandwidth?

6 Spice ups
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Get SSDs drives—biggest & quickest gain.

For Win7, have 64bit and 8GB+ RAM. Even for slow ISPs, newer computers do give a snappier response. (Not clear which generation the i3s are.)

Optimizing Win7 can help, but not a panacea (disabling most visual effects, notably).

Of course, things have come a long way from years ago, yet still people want more & faster.

Edit: Oh, what does the user have at home? Have noticed quick home computers will lend to the notable speed disparity impression.

13 Spice ups
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Yeah that’s a rough one. I’ve always told my users if I cannot SEE the problem myself its going to be very hard for me to solve the problem.

You need to spend a few minutes observing the user. Is it taking longer to startup than it use to? First place to look then is to see what’s starting up at startup. Is it sluggish during use? Check the Task Manager to see what items are running that might be using a disproportionate amount of memory of CPU cycles…

My computer is slower than it use to problems can be frustrating.

If you don’t want to be bother and you’ve got an image you can always just reimage the machine…

3 Spice ups
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Check into leasing desktops. Our company never considered it until I brought it up to them and showed them the costs. It’s great to do a 3-year leasing cycle. That’s when they start to grind to a halt. Check into it IMO. Best of luck!

EDIT: And future proof them a little. SSDs and 16GB ram - IMO.

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Get more RAM… Typically even 1GB there will be a massive improvement.

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Document what slow is. How will you know if you have fixed the problem unless you can measure it? See what site is slow and then figure out where the bottle neck is and take it from there. If it faster on her coworkers computer than on hers, your slow internet connection argument doesn’t fit, so you’ll have to check in to other things.

5 Spice ups
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Try clearing the cache of whatever browser they are using…especially if it is Firefox…that gets HUGE!!! Also check for updated versions of Adobe Flash Player. For whatever reason, when I update them to the latest Flash Player, the browsing speeds up. Good luck because “slow” computers are sometimes hard to make fast short of doing a wipe/reload. That always helps.

3 Spice ups
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Users always complain - nothing new there. I have users complain when I upgrade them and they tell me that now they have start learning new things. For crying out loud, they cry first because they have old stuff and then because they need to learn the new one. Anywho, try to make sure that you run cleanup tools like ccleaner, defrag drives, more memory helps, make sure workstations are patched and there is no unwanted programs- just the basic stuff.

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Thanks for the great suggestions!!! I will see what I can do to monitor her machine. I am thinking that she might just be just wanting something to complain about. I am also thinking that ssd’s would be fantastic. If I did go out and get ssd drives what would be the best place to buy in bulk? And also DDR3 RAM what do you think about that as well?

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Do you monitor your network at all? It could be many things. There could be a rogue user downloading large files. Use Spiceworks to make sure there are no applications like bittorrent.

Also, how many users stream music? Most music services barely utilize any network at all (30-45kb) but spread that out across multiple users that keep it going all day long, and it may cause other users to notice a slow down.

If not network:

Personally, I always change the size of the Virtual memory. Rule of thumb is you can set it to 10% of your HDD size… normally, I just up it to 4096… that will give the system 4GB of extra “virtual RAM”.

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Will do guys I am going to check her machine out when i have some extra time. I have to redo a website, and put out this fire along with SO many others. Sigh…I can only put one foot in front of the other.

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Generally when users start complaining that their computers are slow I either find a lot of junk programs installed (10+ browser bars for example) or a failing hard drive. Spyware is a less common cause for us since we’ve had Vipre Antivirus.

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Try—

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I had to post this. Sorry.

how-to-speed-up-your-computer.jpg

12 Spice ups
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Samsung SSDs are taking over the scene. The new Samsung EVO’s allow you to use their new RAM caching feature they have dubbed “RAPID”. Basically your speeds bump from 550MB/s to a reported 1.5GB/s (depends on hardware). Check it out. GL!

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I would reload with an SSD, 64 bit OS, make sure you have at least 4GB of ram also, or more if needed depending on your users needs.

4GB should be a minimum these days.

for a SSD I would stick with a reliable manufacturer like Intel or Samsung, there are some off-brands that seem to get questionable reviews/higher rates of failure.

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I’m not sure what you were linking to here but I don’t get anything with that link…

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If I had a dime for every time that thought (or some less respectful paraphrase, thereof) has crossed my mind over the course of my career…

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Another question is what has the user installed? Scan for malware - I like to use Spybot, AdAware, and MalwareBytes as they provide a good combination and each will pick up on things the others missed. Just watch the start-at-login stuff with these programs - they all like to auto-start on login and run a couple programs in the background. It’s great that they’re scanning in real time but it also adds to CPU and Memory load. I usually turn off the auto-start features and just run scans when I need to. Of course, it should go without saying that you should at least have an anti-virus program running. MalwareBytes is good but there are other good, free options out there. Watch the licensing, though - many of them are only free for home use or have a limit on how many devices it can be installed on for free. My 2 cents…

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