Why is my computer so slow?

Posted on August 19, 2008
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by Ethan Hunter

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”.

The computer uses the free space in your hard drive while executing instructions. If you do not have enough free space in your hard disk, your computer will tend to run slow. As an estimate, you should have at least 3 to 4 MB of free space available in your disk for the computer to run normally. If you have more than one drive, you must make sure that you have free space left on your “C” drive, or any other drive where you have Windows operating system installed. If you find you do not have enough free space, you should try and delete or remove some of the programs from that particular disk.

When you are connected to the internet, your windows and other software programs may start to get automatically updated at the background. Your computer will start to run slow untill the time the updating process is completed. Once completed, your computer should come back to its normal operation. If you want to stop this from happening, you need to disable all your automatic update sequences.

Your Windows operating system scans your hard drive to retrieve required data at the time it is executing assigned tasks. If data in your hard drive is fragmented, Windows takes longer to scan the hard disk in order to find that data. This makes your computer run slow. You need to regularly de-fragment your hard drive, so the data remains contiguous. By de-fragmenting the data in your hard drive, your Windows operating system takes less time to scan the hard drive to retrieve the required data.

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.

If you have two drivers of the same device installed in your computer your PC may become slow. For instance, if you have two video drivers in your PC it will be conflicting with your Windows operating system. The system will not be able to decide which driver to use in order to drive your video system, resulting in slowing down your computer. To put computer back in its normal operation, you need to remove one of the video drivers from your system. If you want to know which component in your hardware system is conflicting with Windows, open your control panel and then click on the “system”. Click on the “hardware” tab to view the device manager. There you will find all your conflicting hardware components marked in yellow, and you would either need to re-load the drivers for these devices or remove them if you find them of no use.

Virus infections and malicious software in your PC make your computer run slow. Your computer remains vulnerable when you are browsing the Internet. Even opening unknown attachments in your inbox may infect your system. You can protect your computer against viruses and malicious software by having the proper anti-virus and anti-spyware software running in your system when these vulnerabilities can be detected and removed. Malicious software creeps into your computer and installs itself without your knowledge and may start to gather personal information kept in your computer, sending it out to someone through the Internet.

The Windows registry is a database which holds important information for your Windows operating system to perform. As you use the computer and install and remove software from your system, the registry develops errors. These errors make your registry grow larger. Your windows operating system looks for data in the registry to execute any assigned task. If your registry has grown large, Windows takes time to sca, making your computer run slow. You need to remove the errors from your registry with a proper registry cleaning software which would also optimize the registry.

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