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Why do some obsolete PCs work better than current computers?

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ursebastian7

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I have seen PC's working for example with Windows 7, 2GB of RAM, an Intel Celeron of 1.49GHz, without locking or hanging, working without problems while one of my laptops, with 2GB of RAM and an Intel T5250 (Dual-Core 1.50GHz) that it came from the factory with Windows Vista is super slow, the videos hang every moment, etc ... Isn't it supposed that if Vista is the factory system it shouldn't work "moderately" well? Try doing a low-level formatting and reinstalling your original Vista and the performance is exactly the same, with up-to-date drivers. The other day I reformatted it and installed Windows XP, and now it works much better, the videos don't hang at all, but nevertheless I don't notice any fluency in the system, for example if I click on Start it takes a little bit to open, when I open the browser (whatever it is) the computer freezes first, and then manages to move it. I ask this because I am a bit of a novice on the subject and it strikes me to see computers with the same or even scarcer resources than mine working much better. What is the cause? Thanks!
 
It must be a very old machine if the factory operating system is Vista. Support for Vista ended around 2012.

Mike.
 
The commonest causes of slowdown are:

Added software that means more startup tasks, so things running in the background taking memory and CPU time.
Disk filling - the more data added after a format and install, the more the head has to travel to cover the used area.
Disk fragmentation - files having data scattered around the drive rather than in consecutive sectors.
Registry bloat - many programs use the registry for random data storage & the bigger it is, the slower it is to access.

Running ccleaner to delete leftover temporary files, then in its tools - startup section, disabling all non essential stuff, then finally running its registry cleaner, can restore some performance.

Then get "mydefrag" and run that, using the system-monthly option on the C drive.

It will take a long time, but it is exceptionally good at optimising the drive for fast access.

The two together can often get a machine back to near-new performance.
(You can use the ccleaner part on any machine, but do not run a defragger on a solid-state drive, it will do no good and can shorten the drive life).

There are quite a few possible reasons for apparently similar systems running at different speeds. The most obvious are memory speed, memory access mode (single/dual channel), CPU bus clock, CPU cache size and hard drive speed / cache size.
 
Junk, garbage, fragmentation plus an antivirus. All that makes of most machines, a mess.
 
Windows computers does slow down over time. There are many reason for this, among those are file system got messed up over time, etc.

BUT : Do not attempt a low-level hdd formatting. That was a process for hdd in the 80's and early 90's - todays hdd drives are not meant for being low level formatted (you probably meant "formatting" in the regular meaning, i.e. formatting as ntfs or so ?).

WHen having that old machine, if your'e not completely dependent on a spechial software (i.e. for communicating with older equipment), then you're probably better off by installing Linux instead. Forget about W7, XP, etc...
 
most of the slowness is probably caused by virus scanners, specifically the behavior of antivirus software to examine every file opened, which in many cases can be turned off in the antivirus settings. you can use the processes tab in task manager to figure out what's hammering on the CPU. Vista didn't last long on the market because it wasn't as good as XP. XP was the most stable OS microsoft had made, although 10 seems pretty stable (i use it at work, because i have to). at home i use linux, and i've had machines at home running linux with a year or more uptime. one of the advantages of linux is that user permissions can be very strict, and given a good strong password for the root (admin) account, viruses and malware have such a hard time getting themselves any privileges on the system, that running full time antivirus software isn't required.
 
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