27 August, 2011
Carrying on from my last article I am still hearing “my PC has slowed down lately” from many customers. When we look at what is going wrong, we sometimes find a PC that is still actually performing at its best and still benchmarking at the same speeds as when it was new. Further examination then usually reveals a change in the patterns of use.
In a business sense – nearly everyone running an accounting package such as MYOB or QuickBooks will be installing an upgrade of the software each year. With each successive upgrade they are adding more features and complexity such that the software takes more power to run than the previous version – as well as creating far greater file sizes. I have never seen this trend reversed regardless of some software vendors claims of “greater efficiency” in the new version.
In a home situation a change in usage patterns most often has an even more pronounced effect on the perceived performance of a PC. Just look at the changes in TV and video resolution that has happened in the last few years. Movie watchers are not happy unless they are getting full 1080p high resolution playback & Blu-ray promises even more definition and quality. This extra content requires much larger file sizes and a much more powerful to play back the movie. In the case of an older PC it my simply result in a jittery picture or a system that is slow to respond. Even still photos are growing in size so that the editing of them requires more power.
On top of all of the above – every year virus scanners are also becoming more complex and therefore take more power to run. Even basic printers want to give you flashy screens that tell you how much ink is left and offer many other interactive features – all of which puts further strain on an old PC. This trend for needing more power won’t slow down and will only cause further frustration in anyone using an old PC.
For instance we get PC’s in that take 30 seconds just to open Internet Explorer – this should be a near instant operation (less than a second)! This results in 30 seconds of our life that you will never get back as mostly our PC has us as a captive audience and we are rarely able to do anything else worthwhile during this time – unlike, for example adding the coffee and sugar while a slow jug comes to boil. Kerr Solutions is at 128 Musgrave Street & is contactable on 49 222 400.
