Regarding my slow Dell computer (Page 2): :sm24: :sm24: :sm24:...

tcthome Loc: NJ

letmedance wrote:

have you checked the CPU heat sink and fan. A dirty heat sink or slow fan can cause the CPU to step down to a slower speed in order to allow cooling of the CPU.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

AnotherBob wrote:

Thanks to all of you who have responded with obser... (show quote)

If you want to check the speeds of your drives, download the free Black Magic Design Disk Speed Test. It will give you the actual read and write speeds of your drives. See sample screenshot from my M1 MacBook Air. (As you can see, the SSD in this thing is quite speedy! 3GB/second is awesome.)

(Download)

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Every few weeks I run two programs (free versions) to clean the registry and also to get rid of unused, useless, and malware files. They are Wise Registry Cleaner and Wise Disk Cleaner. You can find them at:

https://www.wisecleaner.com/products.html

I also keep track of the status of my system to see what might be slowing mine down by running the Task Manager. --Richard

Harry02 Loc: Gardena, CA

alexol wrote:

You mentioned 24 GB of RAM.

This is an unusual number - I've never heard of anything other than 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and for very lucky people, 128.

Is it possible that you should have 32 and one bank of 4 has failed?

Such a failure would slow everything down in the manner of a flat tire on a car. The other three might be perfect but...

You can have 4 ram slots.
He may have had 2x 4gb sticks to start with, giving him 8gb ram.
Add 2x 8gb ram sticks, which is 16gb additional, would give him 24gb ram
.EZ-PZ

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

burkphoto wrote:

If you want to check the speeds of your drives, download the free Black Magic Design Disk Speed Test. It will give you the actual read and write speeds of your drives. See sample screenshot from my M1 MacBook Air. (As you can see, the SSD in this thing is quite speedy! 3GB/second is awesome.)

It’s surprising that the writes are slightly faster than the reads (since it takes both an erase and write cycle to write a block). My Samsung 980 Pro under Win 11 reads at ~7,000 MB/sec, but the writes are around 5,500 which is typical. I wonder if either your computer or the benchmarking SW is buffering up the writes.

AnotherBob

AnotherBob wrote:

Thanks to all of you who have responded with observations and suggestions.

I'm still working on it. My not responding to each suggestion does not mean I am not reading them. I appreciate your input. /Bob

UPDATE.....The sloth is waking! On a whim (and because it was the easiest to reach), I disconnected the only non-SSD drive, a relatively new 1 TB HD, my drive "E." On restarting, the diagnostics ran a few tests, and the computer started running at it's normal pre-sloth rate. I tried opening Lightroom, which is the most taxing software I run. For the first time in a week, it opened normally and quickly. When I closed Lightroom, it asked if I wanted to backup the catalog. When I responded "Yes," it said that it couldn't find the usual backup catalog (apparently on "E") and would make a new backup on the SSD "D." which it did.....quickly. I've subsequently shut down and restarted the computer, without incident. I still need to determine why the E drive became an issue; when plugged in, I can still access it, although slowly. But, the immediate crisis has been temporarily averted.

Thanks to all for your input. I will likely purchase a new Dell desktop more suitable to the challenges of Lightroom and Photoshop, and relegate the older machine to light duty.

Fingers crossed.

/Bob

delder Loc: Maryland

Maybe your Vintage Dell doesn't have USB 3. Transfer Rate on USB 2 is only a fraction of USB 3.
You might be able to add a USB 3 card to the Dell, but check with others first.
Tried this on a Dell XPS 8300 a few years ago, and provided some improvement.

stogieboy Loc: Marlboro, NY

joanloy wrote:

I would recommend against Kaspersky because it is a Russian company. I use
ESET which runs quietly in the background, and is not a space hog.

I am a huge fan of ESET. They really provide exceptional security.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

TriX wrote:

It’s surprising that the writes are slightly faster than the reads (since it takes both an erase and write cycle to write a block). My Samsung 980 Pro under Win 11 reads at ~7,000 MB/sec, but the writes are around 5,500 which is typical. I wonder if either your computer or the benchmarking SW is buffering up the writes.

I have no idea. I do know that Apple is using two SSD modules in a RAID configuration. The new M2 base (256GB SSD) MacBooks use only one, and it is much slower since it isn't in a RAID config. Apple has some higher end machines running around that 7000 MB/sec mark, but they're a lot more expensive than the Air.

I've run the Black Magic Disk Speed Test many times. The read and write speeds vary a little, and neither is consistently slower or faster than the other. It's a different story on external drives. The connection type, cable, and speed matter a LOT. For example:

Samsung T7 directly connected via USB-C cable to MacBook Air: Write 640.1 MB/s, Read 690.1 MB/s

Samsung T7 connected via USB-C to USB-A cable through my CharJen Pro Ultimate Dock 2 and USB-C: Write 580.9 MB/s, Read 574.9 MB/s

Samsung T7 connected via USB-C to USB-A cable through the USB-A hub on my LG Monitor, connected via USB-C to the Air: Write 36.9 MB/s, Read 33.5 MB/s.

Effective drive speeds vary drastically depending on protocol, cable type, cable quality, and traffic through a hub or dock. I've seen a huge difference between a Thunderbolt 4 drive connected directly via Thunderbolt 4 cable (which can carry almost any data up to 40 Gbps) and a USB-3 cable (5 Gbps) running through a USB 2 hub. It's really easy to cripple a drive with the wrong cable, hub, dock, or dongle combination. The standards are easy to mismatch. My keyboard is fine, connected through the monitor, but I don't run SSDs through the monitor hub!

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

AnotherBob wrote:

UPDATE.....The sloth is waking! On a whim (and b... (show quote)

Excellent news! Now toss that “spinner” and go all SSD.

AnotherBob

burkphoto wrote:

br br Effective drive speeds vary drastically de... (show quote)

Thanks so much for your observations about varying speeds when using the same SSD with different connections. It's a good reminder to review my tangle of wires connecting multiple T7 SSDs to my M1 Macbook and aging Dell.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

AnotherBob wrote:

Thanks so much for your observations about varying speeds when using the same SSD with different connections. It's a good reminder to review my tangle of wires connecting multiple T7 SSDs to my M1 Macbook and aging Dell.

Thunderbolt 4 cables are expensive, but they work with every USB-C device.

USB-C is a connector standard. It is supposed to replace all other miniature USB connections (B, mini, micro…) except USB-A. USB 1.1, 2, 3, 3.1, 3.2, and 4 are signal transfer protocol standards. USB-C supports all of them.

Thunderbolt 1, 2, 3, and 4 are also signal transfer protocol standards. Thunderbolt 1 and 2 use the Mini DisplayPort connector, while Thunderbolt 3 and 4 use the USB-C connector. Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 are paired together in the latest Macs. Thunderbolt 3 and USB4 are paired in the first M1 Macs. The practical difference is that Thunderbolt 4 supports multiple external monitors, while Thunderbolt 3 supports just one external monitor.

AnotherBob

burkphoto wrote:

Thunderbolt 4 cables are expensive, but they work ... (show quote)

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

profbowman wrote:

Every few weeks I run two programs (free versions) to clean the registry and also to get rid of unused, useless, and malware files. They are Wise Registry Cleaner and Wise Disk Cleaner. You can find them at:

https://www.wisecleaner.com/products.html

I also keep track of the status of my system to see what might be slowing mine down by running the Task Manager. --Richard

I ran Wise Registry Cleaner and it found like THOUSANDS of problems in my WIN10 system.. We'll see if it speeds things up. Windows historically gets slower and slower after a new release (11 is out.) Win Registry is a convoluted nightmare and imo contributes greatly to the worlds worst OS being the wwos.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

BigDaddy wrote:

I ran Wise Registry Cleaner and it found like THOUSANDS of problems in my WIN10 system.. We'll see if it speeds things up. Windows historically gets slower and slower after a new release (11 is out.) Win Registry is a convoluted nightmare and imo contributes greatly to the worlds worst OS being the wwos.

I haven’t found that windows gets slower with each release. Win 10 was actually faster than 7 and 11 is at least as fast or maybe a little faster than 10. If your “registry cleaner” is finding thousands of problems, something is seriously wrong with the applications you’re using or your compute practice or you have a case of malware/virus. I’d suggest instead a clean installation of Windows and installing only the applications you need. The registry shouldn’t need to be touched except in special circumstances.