Make a computer go slower

[button_ripple]

Hello

 

I know this is a weird request, but has anyone got any software/ideas of how i can make one of our computers run slower. It is a very good spec, but at the moment it is being treated like a server - we would like this to change but the person in charge of this has said that they would leave it.

 

We do not want to remove any hardware just set the computer to constantly do something to decrease it's performance noticably!!

[SteveT]

...... install Vista?????:rolleyes:;-);-);-)

[button_ripple]

...... install Vista?????:rolleyes:;-);-);-)

 

not very helpful!;-)

[DevilsAdvocate]

If its running Anti-virus, set the real time scanning to its highest setting. That'll slow it alittle.

 

Rob.

[CyberNerd]

The sig says it all.

My school doesn't care about ICT

how appropriate

[Ryan]

There's a program for running DOS games on fast computers that sits and chews up clock cycles - probably what you're after. Lemme go dig for it...

 

Edit: Ah, here we are: Moslo

Dunno how much use it'll be. Could have a looky though.

Edited February 21, 2008 by Ryan

[button_ripple]

The sig says it all.

 

how appropriate

 

Very true, our policy here is if it's broke - tuff. and to hell with learning as long as all the areas where families go look nice everything will be ok.

 

All our admin machines are top of the range computers with brand new flat screens, digital phones, the works. Our family room has everything there heart's desire. We are now going to pay for a brand new flat screen touchable display in reception, when 2 classrooms have been without projectors for almost 7 months now!!!!

 

If you haven't guessed our school is very showy!

[Dos_Box]

Install Windows Search? Or maybe have SETI@HOME running as a service in the background?

Throttling the CPU in the BIOS perhaps?

[strawberry]

stick a huge file in the profiles to slow down the logon, change the dns address to a far away server or even better use the first dns address to use a fake dns server.

[mattx]

CPU stress test ?

 

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,7146-order,1-page,1-c,systemresourcestuneup/description.html

[Grommit]

Hello

 

I know this is a weird request, but has anyone got any software/ideas of how i can make one of our computers run slower. It is a very good spec, but at the moment it is being treated like a server - we would like this to change but the person in charge of this has said that they would leave it.

 

We do not want to remove any hardware just set the computer to constantly do something to decrease it's performance noticably!!

 

Install Sophos... they kill Processor Speeds

[mattx]

Install Sophos... they kill Processor Speeds

 

And everything else.......

[Lee_K_81]

And everything else.......

 

Except viruses. They only tell you you have one. You then have to run a full scan to delete it.

[Sirbendy]

BIOS - drop the CPU speed to manual and turn it down, go into drive controls and knock them down to the lowest PIO mode they can do, turn off any ROM shadowing, knock the video memory share allocation up...that should make a dent.

 

If it's a P4, disconnect the CPU fan and let the thing thermal throttle to the nth degree..also good fun.

 

http://www.geocities.com/kulhain/

 

any good?

[joe90bass]

BIOS - drop the CPU speed to manual and turn it down, go into drive controls and knock them down to the lowest PIO mode they can do, turn off any ROM shadowing, knock the video memory share allocation up...that should make a dent.

 

If it's a P4, disconnect the CPU fan and let the thing thermal throttle to the nth degree..also good fun.

 

http://www.geocities.com/kulhain/

 

any good?

 

Just what I was going to suggest! I had a bizarre request a few years back to do the same. Our Head of science wanted to run a Solar System demo program that I think was made for a 486 or even earlier, it ran so fast on a modern PC that it was unusable. I found an old Pentium II (or even 1) and turned off every thing I could find in the BIOS that normally you would enable to improve performance. It takes forever to boot, but now the prog is watchable!

[tech_guy]

And everything else.......

 

Is that Mattx the Terminator now? Or should you be an eduTerminator?

[mattx]

Is that Mattx the Terminator now? Or should you be an eduTerminator?

 

Call me what you like - everyone else does......

 

I'll change it again soon - once I've increased my medication...

[SYNACK]

Ah I have one. Add a couple of VBS scripts to the login/startup scripts that are used on that pc. The trick is to set up the VBS scripts to create shortcuts on the desktop to locations on servers that don't actually exist.

 

Good for about a 5 minute shell lockup per shortcut.

 

AddLink "killer link", "description", "\\someserverthatdoesnotexist\links\not", 1, "\\someserverthatdoesnotexist\links\not", "", "%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll,170"

Sub AddLink(LinkName, Description, Path, WindowStyle, WorkingDir, Arguments, IconPath)
on error resume next
Dim link
Set link = WshShell.CreateShortcut(DesktopPath & "\" & LinkName & ".lnk")
link.Description = Description
link.TargetPath = Path
link.WindowStyle = WindowStyle
link.WorkingDirectory = WorkingDir
if (Arguments <> "") then link.Arguments = Arguments
if (IconPath <> "") then link.IconLocation = IconPath
link.Save
link = empty
on error goto 0
End Sub

[Michael]

If you really, really want to slow things down, install Boinc and when installed/configured, set the process to high priority. I can guarantee it'll be slower than a 386 33MHz

[Domino]

folding@home, set to run regardless of computer load

[bizzel]

To slow down internet acess as well you could use Sloppy. 28.8k would be quite a shock for students who have only ever had broadband!

[K.C.Leblanc]

Remove some of the memory.

 

Wait for cover of darkness, and swap all it's parts with a P3

[m1ddy]

Run Prime95........permantly.

 

It will also tell you if your CPU is stable

[Guest itnewbie]

I've got a free utility that does this. I used to use it for playing old qbasic games that were designed for slow 386 PCs. If you let me know your email address by PM I'll email you a copy to try.