Hard drives on desktops struggling to keep up

Jeff Golas · December 06, 2011, 12:10:15 PM

Maybe its just some of my desktops are getting on the old side, but lately I've been battling an uphill battle with some computers that are just SLOW. They dont have malware, they're not infected with anything, they just seem unbearingly slow. Looking at avg disk queue length while they're working shows 6+ in some cases.

These comps have sata drives, are fairly fast machines processor wise, and honestly in looking at perfmon, its the disk in all cases that can't keep up. I'm talking log in...open something. Nothing complex or taxing.

Anyone know why it seems this way, or maybe drives just physically slow down in age? I'm almost curious to throw a new drive in one just to see if it helps.

Mark · December 06, 2011, 12:55:46 PM

I've been experiencing the same thing -- though I haven't done the perfmon thing yet.

Optiplex 760 with 80 GB WD drives. I'm usually very happy with WD drives.... Well, dry ones that is

Bloody Jack Kidd · December 06, 2011, 01:08:55 PM

guess it might be worthwhile finding out if something is generating lots of I/O... if the disk queue is backing up on ya.

Jeff Zylstra · December 06, 2011, 02:15:58 PM

A fresh install of Windows seems to make a difference, but then I have no hard data to support that. I almost wonder if MS updates don't slow these things to a crawl. I haven't tried running the disk cleanup and choosing to get rid of MS updates, but it's an interesting concept.

Mark · December 06, 2011, 02:23:39 PM

Rebuilding profiles seems to make a difference as well. I haven't done that for a while though.

Jeff Golas · December 06, 2011, 04:41:34 PM

Thats my theory...that or additional paging due to increased ram useage due to more security checks and balances...I dunno.

Jeff

Quote from: Jeff Zylstra on December 06, 2011, 02:15:58 PM
A fresh install of Windows seems to make a difference, but then I have no hard data to support that. I almost wonder if MS updates don't slow these things to a crawl. I haven't tried running the disk cleanup and choosing to get rid of MS updates, but it's an interesting concept.

Jeff Zylstra · December 06, 2011, 04:46:17 PM

I'm convinced that M$ purposely designs their security software updates to bloat your computer so that you need to buy a new computer (with new OS) on a regular basis.

Mark · December 06, 2011, 04:50:05 PM

Quote from: Jeff Zylstra on December 06, 2011, 04:46:17 PM
I'm convinced that M$ purposely designs their security software updates to bloat your computer so that you need to buy a new computer (with new OS) on a regular basis.

lol, I'm not. They don't make as much on an OEM license as they do selling it to you in a store ($30/ea. probably or less even vs. what, $400-ish in the store?). They of course DO have an interest in you running MS OS so that's why OEMs get such a low price. Used to be a major factor anyway.

Billy Welsh · December 06, 2011, 06:31:39 PM

Quote from: Jeff Zylstra on December 06, 2011, 04:46:17 PM
I'm convinced that M$ purposely designs their security software updates to bloat your computer so that you need to buy a new computer (with new OS) on a regular basis.

Everybody trying to copy Apple's iPhone strategy!

Jeff Zylstra · December 07, 2011, 12:04:04 PM

Quote from: Mark on December 06, 2011, 04:50:05 PM
Quote from: Jeff Zylstra on December 06, 2011, 04:46:17 PM
I'm convinced that M$ purposely designs their security software updates to bloat your computer so that you need to buy a new computer (with new OS) on a regular basis.

lol, I'm not. They don't make as much on an OEM license as they do selling it to you in a store ($30/ea. probably or less even vs. what, $400-ish in the store?). They of course DO have an interest in you running MS OS so that's why OEMs get such a low price. Used to be a major factor anyway.

Is there really that kind of spread? I thought it was more like $150 compared to $400 for OEM vs retail. I'm shocked that they only make $30 on an OEM copy.

Mark · December 07, 2011, 02:02:51 PM

Quote from: Jeff Zylstra on December 07, 2011, 12:04:04 PM
Is there really that kind of spread? I thought it was more like $150 compared to $400 for OEM vs retail. I'm shocked that they only make $30 on an OEM copy.

I don't know what the actual is for sure. Thought I heard $30 somewhere. If you opt for a computer with no operating system versus one with Windows OEM license, you only save about $50 or less.

There was also stories not long ago about not accepting the EULA for Windows OEM and the ability to request a refund and I believe it was again around $50.

So, not sure where I pulled $30 from, but it sounds familiar. One might also take into account the volume an OEM might do with Microsoft. Say, Dell vs. Gateway or ASUS, or whatever.

I guess, can't take my statement as fact, but more of a "pretty darn sure" or a "I'd put money on it" kind of statement.

Yes, if you as an end user buy an OEM license from your local computer parts store, I believe it's going to be $150-ish. but, you're not buying ANY kind of volume and neither is that little old parts store when compared to an actual OEM manufacturer.

Windows dominates the pre-installed OS market for many, many reasons. One of those is the mere fact that dominating the pre-installed OS market is going to equal a considerable amount of overall market share.

Gene Foraker · December 21, 2011, 11:13:41 AM

My experience is that OEM Windows is usually around $99 on Newegg or Amazon and full license versions (if you can find them) are double that. All I ever use are OEM versions.

MS had an upgrade sale of 3 packs of Win 7 over a year ago for $150. You really didn't need to use them for upgrades only.

Oh, as far as excess HD activity that usually is a sign of too little ram in the machine as it uses the swap file on the disk for memory. RAM is now cheap.

Mark · December 21, 2011, 11:44:03 AM

Yep, I agree Gene. I was stating that Original Equipment Mfgs probably only pay around $30-$50 for the MS OEM license (some maybe even less). They definitely buy more bulk than any store (NewEgg included) that is selling OEM licenses for $99.

Jeff Zylstra · December 21, 2011, 01:56:41 PM

I just had a similar issue with my old XP machine at home. It ended up that the PageDefrag program that I thought was installed, was not installed. After installing that, it took about 20 minutes to run at boot up the first time but I noticed an immediate increase in speed and decrease in disk activity. I did double the paging file size as well, but I'm guessing that the defrag of paging file made a difference.

Unfortunately, the PageDefrag program does not work with operating systems later than XP. You can also defrag XP by setting the paging file size to "zero" and rebooting (do this in Computer-Properties-System Properties-Advanced-Performance- and hit the "change" button under "virtual memory". Those instruction are from a Windows 7 machine, but XP is fairly similar. You'll need to reboot to make the changes effective, and then just do a simple disk defrag. I recommend running this over night since it will take a while to run and you the system will be very slow without a paging file. Hopefully you should notice some improvement in performance.

Jim Jensen · December 21, 2011, 02:17:52 PM

Dell does have a solid state HD option now. When I ordered my last Precision, I had the option for a solid state HD for "only" $875 more.