Why is my computer so slow?

In this article we discuss the reasons for your computer running slowly and the reasons for this.

Your PC is slow. Everything takes an eternity to load and you are left scratching your head thinking, ‘It never used to be this slow’ and ‘why is it suddenly so slow?’

First of all think about the amount of programs and software you have downloaded and installed recently. Are there any pieces of software on your computer which are no longer needed? If so, try removing these and see if that makes a great deal of improvement.

Computers can slow down due to viruses, spyware, malware, Trojans and worms which have found a way onto the PC via the internet. Run a scan for these using Anti-Virus software such AVG, McAfee or Norton and remove these.

How full is your Hard Drive? If you find that more than 80 or 90 percent has been filled up, this can cause slowness. Your hard drive needs a certain amount of space available to run efficiently so it may be worth deleting software or investing in a new hard drive with a larger capacity, or obtaining an external hard drive to take some of the burden.

Another thing to do is to defragment your computers hard drive. After time with various programs being added or deleted your hard drive can be sluggish. This is because files are stored in sectors on your hard drive and as a program is deleted it creates an empty space which is not filled by the installation of a new program. Instead of filling the space your next program will be installed in a different sector. This mean the hard drive has a greater area to search, hence making it slower.

The defragmentation process will group all your files together in adjoining sectors to alleviate the distance the arm on the hard drive has to travel.

An easy but more expensive way to speed up your computer is to install extra RAM (Random Access Memory). This memory allows stored data to be accessed in any order and the more you have of this, the greater the speed of your PC. This RAM is simply plugged into one of the PCI slots on your computers motherboard.

By far one of the most effective ways to alleviate slowness problems is to backup all the data you require and then completely format your hard drive. Once this has been done you can then re-install your operating system and re-install the software you require. Some people complete this process as a rule every 6 months or so to remove unwanted programs and data which has collected onto the PC.

Now your computer should run as fast as it ever did and be back to its usual self. At least until next time. If you have any IT related problem then click here and send your query.