Computer is Slow - What to Do

You are working on an important assignment that needs to be completed on the topmost priority, and your laptop computer is running extremely slow and is taking a while to open the document or save it. You will certainly get irritated with it.

The computer running slow is one of the most commonly encountered problems in PCs. Even though your computer might have the best RAM capacity and a fast processor, there are chances that the system might run slow. There are many different reasons why your laptop or desktop computer might be running slower than normal. Let us discuss the reasons of sluggish PC performance and the steps that you need to take to fix the problem.

Computer is Slow - Causes and Troubleshooting Steps

Computer Virus
One of the most common causes of the computer slowing down in its functional speed is a computer virus. A PC virus is an unidentified and unfamiliar program that gets into our computer and fiddles with the operating system and other software. It can leave computer applications dysfunctional or even shut down the PC. Computer viruses, malware, or spyware can do serious damage to the system, if they are not dealt with at priority.

If your computer is slow, you need to have an antivirus program installed on your system. Purchase a good antivirus software from your nearby computer repair shop and install it on your computer. It is recommended to periodically scan for viruses on your computer, to protect it from virus attacks. Along with scanning the hard drive for viruses, it is also suggested to run a default scan of the drives. In Windows operating system, you can do so by clicking on 'My Computer'; right-clicking on any drive you want to check for errors; and selecting 'Properties', 'Tools', and the 'Check Now' option. By doing so, the system will scan the selected drive for errors and fix the errors.

Computer Registry
The Windows Registry is one of the most important sections in the computer. It is responsible for storing all the related data of the operating system, as well as other crucial programs. Moreover, it also stores the changes made to the system. If the registry becomes overly full, it can substantially make the computer slow in operations. Cleaning the registry and sorting the data is the appropriate solution. Use a good registry cleaning software to sort out the data in order and remove the errors in the registry.

Full Hard Drive
The hard drive being full with data is another reason why the computer might be running slow. There is no need to immediately upgrade the hard drive to one with more memory. You first need to clear up space in the hard drive, and there will automatically be sufficient space. Uninstall all programs that you do not use very often or do not use at all. Make sure that you do not delete the folders of the programs from the 'C' drive. This will just delete the folder, but will not uninstall the complete package of the software. Therefore, it is always better to uninstall programs.

In Windows OS, you can run the 'disk cleanup' utility by clicking on 'Start', 'All Programs', 'Accessories', 'System Tools', and then 'Disk Cleanup'. For arranging the data in order on the hard drive, you would need to defragment the hard disk at periodic intervals. Both the 'disk cleanup' and the 'disk defragmenter' tools are very important for clearing unnecessary data and sorting out the data properly. Keeping a lot of short-cuts on your desktop will also make the computer operation slow.

Less RAM
If the hard disk is full with programs that require a considerable amount of memory, your RAM is what needs to be upgraded. Upgrading the RAM is probably the best step that can be taken in speeding up the computer performance. Adding RAM to the computer is a very simple process. You just have to remove the cover of the cabinet, remove the old RAMs from their slots, and put in the new higher-memory RAMs.

Other Causes and Troubleshooting Steps
If there are many programs that are set to run automatically when the computer boots up, your computer can be slow at startup. For faster booting of the operating system, you need to limit the startup applications. If you are using Windows Vista, you can do so by clicking on 'Start', typing in 'msconfig' in the 'Start Search' portion, selecting 'Startup', and unchecking the unnecessary files that run when the PC boots. Other alternative to make the computer run faster is to clear off the temporary files from the 'Temp' folder in the 'C' drive.

Read more on ways to speed up your computer.

If your computer is slower than normal, these are a few steps to be performed. In case the system is still performing sluggishly, the last resort is to reinstall the operating system.