Performance on Unused Systems

[Jarhead0331]

Is there any reason why a system that does not get a lot of use, or that is used infrequently,  would run poorly when in use? My older system that I just replaced is still a top-notch rig. I use it maybe a few times a month now, but I'm finding that it runs very poorly when I turn it on lately. The games still run well, but in terms of booting up and then a lot of waiting while on the desktop as programs are loading, etc.  The system just seems to be struggling.

Thoughts?

[bayonetbrant]

passive aggressive jealousy?

[MikeGER]

I guess some drivers, tools, and the OS itself are all looking for updates, download them, and install them in the background
also the anti virus software might uodate its database and does a system  scan without poping a window

[mirth]

My first guess is that you have a lot of processes starting on boot that don't necessarily need to. Everything these days wants to be on all the time in the background even if you don't need it to be. It's a constant struggle to find and disable all the things that want to run at startup.

Start by checking the Task Manager (assuming this is a Windows machine) and look all the processes. Chances are there are a bunch you don't really need to be running. For example, checking mine now shows GoogleUpdate.exe and iPodService.exe running despite my stopping and disabling both at start numerous times in the past. Neither is consuming much in the way of resources, but the frakkers shouldn't be running at all  >:(

Anyway, it's easy to have a lot of unnecessary processes running in the background because almost everything wants to be running "just in case".

[mirth]

passive aggressive jealousy?

Is this one of those lady computers like they have on Star Trek?

[Greybriar]

Is there any reason why a system that does not get a lot of use, or that is used infrequently,  would run poorly when in use?....

I still boot up my Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows XP desktop PCs from time to time (like maybe once or twice a year) and all of them run just fine. None of them is connected to the internet, so there is nothing being updated.