Why is this computer so slow?

About a month ago, I started a new job. At my job, we have a Mac and I'm not familiar with them at all. Most of the problems are with navigation but the biggest problem is that it is so darned slow.

I searched for help a few weeks ago but I haven't noticed a significant change. Some of the slowness when on the internet could be chalked up to connection speed (don't know how to check it), but it's also slow when opening programs (especially Excel).

What, if anything, can I do to speed it up?


The only extra information I can give you at this time is that we leave it on all the time and put it to sleep at night. I don't know the login password for sure, so I'd rather not restart it if I don't have to.

If you want to know more information, you're going to have to tell me how to find it.

Thanks in advance.

Better to restart it. That way you refresh/reset the memory of the system.

If you put the computer to sleep for the night, it should be asking you for a password upon waking it back up. So there's probably no password unless I'm mistaken about Macs.

And how does it look? Is it an old computer? Maybe that's your answer. Maybe it just has very old, slow hardware that's been running on ancient software for years.

I'll restart it as a last resort. I thought I remembered seeing a 'password hint' on something, but I can't remember if it was email or the computer.

How does it look? It looks like a round lampshade with a monitor sticking out the top...

...like this:

What the hell is that? Where is all the hardware? In that round thing?

Anyways, I went on my sister's Mac to find out how to look up the system specs. When you're in front of the computer again, click on the little apple at the top left of the screen and click the first option that appears in the pop-up menu. It's supposed to say "About this Mac...." Then just tell us what the processor and memory are.

Umm...I guess that's where all the hardware is. There's nothing else.

"About this Mac":
Mac OS X Version 10.5.8
Processor 1.25 GHz
Memory 768 MB DDR SDRAM

Yeah, that's a REALLY old and slow computer. It's your hardware. There's no question about it. Your computer is just slow from the start.

Oh. Well crap. At least it's not terribly important for it to be fast. Thanks.