# Good GOD! Why's my computer so dang slow these days? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-whys-my-computer-so-dang-slow-these-days/223417 "2004-01-08T14:20:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-whys-my-computer-so-dang-slow-these-days/223417/1 "2004-01-08T14:20:14Z")
It’s gotten to the point where I can’t even play Half Life online anymore. My ping is just too ridiculous to even compete. That said, is there a good way to increase the speed of my computer without spending a lot of dough? My computer is an HP Pavilion, has a 1.8Ghz processor, and 512mb of RAM. My internet connection is through a cable line. You’d think it would move faster than this, for God’s sake. I just checked the hard drive, and I’ve got about 13 gigs of free memory as well. McAfee Virus just checked me out, and I’m clean as a whistle. What gives? ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-whys-my-computer-so-dang-slow-these-days/223417/2 "2004-01-08T14:26:25Z")
Windows XP (I am assuming you are running XP) can have issues with an application called svchost.exe. It actually runs several instances of this app. Check your task manager and see if the svchost.exe “network services” instance is using a good chunk of your cpu cycles. If so, you can kill that service without affecting your XP session in anyway. I have to do it everytime I reboot the machine. ---
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-whys-my-computer-so-dang-slow-these-days/223417/3 "2004-01-08T14:29:35Z")
I was under the impression that svchost.exe was a file necessary for the function of the computer. There are a couple instances on my Windows Task Manager. Why is that? What’s it do? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-whys-my-computer-so-dang-slow-these-days/223417/4 "2004-01-08T15:30:32Z")
Ping is not related to the speed of your computer, but the network connection to the server. Probably, the only solution is to find a different server where your ping is better. ---
**Author:** ![Grave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@Grave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grave)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-whys-my-computer-so-dang-slow-these-days/223417/5 "2004-01-08T15:44:36Z")
Sorry Ford, you are wrong. SVCHOST is a wrapper for programs that need a ‘service’ class hook but don’t need to run. It is far from useless, and you have been lucky in that you did not cause a program fault by terminating it. **Chastain86** , your system is so far beyond the requirements to run HL that it is almost laughable. What is the bottleneck? ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-whys-my-computer-so-dang-slow-these-days/223417/6 "2004-01-08T15:53:49Z")
It’s likely you’ve already done this, but run AdAware or SpyBot to eliminate any spyware you might have on your system. It can make your system slow to a crawl.