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Why is my computer so slow? |
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Written by Ethan Hunter
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Sunday, 17 August 2008 |
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There are several reasons why a PC starts to run slow. Background programs that are still running in your computer could make the execution of other programs slow down. This is due to the background programs taking up quite a large amount of your RAM. The icons in your system tray are some of the background programs that are taking up the memory. To have your PC run optimally, you need to take care of the background programs and set the minimum which you need to run. As you boot your computer, some of these programs start by themselves. To configure the programs or to stop them from running at the time of booting, you should use the Start/Search function and either remove or delete them from "program start up".
by EthanHunter
There are several reasons why a PC starts to run slow. Background programs that are still running in your computer could make the execution of other programs slow down. This is due to the background programs taking up quite a large amount of your RAM. The icons in your system tray are some of the background programs that are taking up the memory. To have your PC run optimally, you need to take care of the background programs and set the minimum which you need to run. As you boot your computer, some of these programs start by themselves. To configure the programs or to stop them from running at the time of booting, you should use the Start/Search function and either remove or delete them from "program start up".
Your computer would run slow if you do not have much space left in your hard drive. You should have atleast 3 to 4 MB clear disk area in your hard disk so your computer runs at normal speed. If you have more than one drive, this applies to your "C" hard drive or the hard drive where your Windows operating system is installed. If you find the concerned drive is nearly full or does not have much space left, you should try and find out which are programs that could be deleted to make some free space available.
When you are connected to the Internet, automatic updates of your Windows and other software make your computer run slow. Updates are initiated automatically, and as your software systems get updated at the background, the assigned tasks in your computer take time to be executed. Your computer should come to its normal speed as the automatic updates are completed. You need to disable automatic updates to stop your computer running slow.
The data in your hard drive could be fragmented, and this fragmentation makes your computer run slow. You should regularly use Windows "Defrag" to defragment your hard drive so the data in your disk could be put in a contiguous manner. This makes your computer find the required data easily instead of scanning the whole disk.
Games software requires larger RAM to run smoothly. If you find your games in the PC are running slow, you should upgrade your RAM to the extent as required by your games software to run normally.
You must not have device drivers in your computer which are conflicting with each other. For example, if you have two different video drivers in your computer, your Windows operating system would not be able to decide which one to use. This would cause your computer to run slow. To run normally, you should remove one of the drivers from the system. When you open your "system" from the control panel, proceed to the "hardware" tab and then to "device manager", you may find some of the conflicting device components marked in yellow with an exclamation mark. Either re-load the drivers for those devices, or remove them from your system if you find them of no use.
One obvious reason for your computer to run slow is the accumulation of viruses and spyware which came in either while you were browsing the Internet, or through attachments in your emails. You should have proper ant-virus and anti-spyware software installed for scanning, detecting, and removal of any such threats. Spyware are programs that self-install in your computer and may run in the background transferring all your personal information to an outsider through your Internet connection.
Windows registry is a database where important data is stored by the Windows operating system. The registry in your computer starts to develop errors as you install and un-install programs from your computer. With these errors, the Windows registry grows larger occupying more and more space. Windows looks for essential data in the registry. This data is required by Windows to execute tasks. If your registry has grown large, Windows takes more time to scan the data than it requires and your computer slows down. To put your computer back in normal operating condition, you need registry cleaning software to remove the errors from your registry and optimize it as well.
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