The Official Computer Tech Support Thread

[Mojo]

Ok so my computer is running pretty slowly lately. For most things, its not a problem. I can browse the net and other every day things and notice an issue at all. I notice the issue when im using Skype. Calls cut off and drop, the application itself will crash and i have to open task manager to close it. Skype tells me the reason is my computer performance rather than my internet connection.

I thought it was the connection speed at first because it has dropped lately. At times im running at 500kbps or lower. However ive just had the same issue while my connection speed was around 1mbps, which is what were paying for and has proven to be a good enough speed to use Skype perfectly in the past. So as far as im concerned, this rules this possibility out.

Also i dont believe it is the program itself. When Skype crashes, i go to Ooovoo and this crashes when the call connects too. If i use Skype on my phone over the 3g network, this works fine with no problems. As seen as i have the same issue on both pieces of software, i think this rules out the reliablity of Skype.

I have my laptop on High Performance and running off AV power rather than battery.

Now i have a 1.6ghz processor and 2gb of RAM, so as far as im aware this should be more than enough to run Skype. Ive been uninstalling programs i dont use or need as i know that too many processes running in the background at the same time could easily account for this. Ill continue to do this but to be fair, im running out of expendable programs so im thinking that this isnt the cause of the issue either. Also when the problem presents itself, ill open task manager and start to end certain applications and processes that dont need to be running, start Skype again and have the same problem.

I guess my question is, could it be down to free hard drive space? I dont have much. I could get rid of about 50gb of data easily once i get my hands on my external hard drive which is currently at a friends house but could this really be whats causing it when 90% of my hard drive space that is used is mp3s and avi files and so effectively just data sitting on the hard drive rather than processes running in the background while Skype is in use?