Desktops and laptops are used by for so many things. Many users multi-task by accessing the internet and using other programs like Microsoft Word or Excel while they are online. There are times, however, when a user can click on anything computer responds slow. This is no fun, and it can become very difficult to [...]
Slow Computer
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If you’re asking yourself “why is my PC running slow” the sad fact is that it could be any number of reasons. It could be a virus, it could be outdated software, it could be your anti-virus software itself tripping you up, it could be a hundred other things. Below we’ll discuss some common fixes to slow computers.
Slow Gaming
If you play a lot of PC games, slow games and low framerates might be occurring thanks to your antivirus software. Your game will create logs of what’s happening, often creating a new temporary log file every few seconds. Your antivirus will scan each one of these logs to see if it’s actually a virus. To combat this, just go into your antivirus program’s settings and add an exception by copying and pasting the name of the folder where you keep your games.
Slow Internet
If your question is “Why is my computer running slow when it’s online“, the answer may be any number of things. It could be a worm or spyware slowing you down, it could be neighbors stealing your bandwidth, it could be that you don’t have that great a connection in the first place, or you could just have too many online applications open. Make sure your connection is secured by a password, then shut down any torrents, p2p programs, online games, extraneous browser windows and so on. If you still have slow internet, run a scan for viruses.
General Sluggishness
If your computer is just plain running kinda slow, then you may need to free up your processor. Start task manager and shut down any programs you’re not using. If you know what you’re doing, you can shut down various applications and processes, but you may want to let a computer-optimization program do the work for you to make sure you don’t shut down anything you need.
Unusably Slow Computers
If your computer just doesn’t seem capable of running at a usable speed, you may need to reformat it. This will restore your computer to like-new conditions, as in, it will be exactly as it was when you took it out of the box. Make sure you’ve backed up anything that you need, because it will be lost when you reformat, and then insert the startup disc the next time you reboot. This is a last resort, so make sure that it’s necessary before you refresh your computer using this method. On the plus side, once you’ve reformatted and installed a good anti-virus program, you might never have to ask “why does my computer run so slow?” ever again.
If none of this seems to help, it may well be a hardware problem. Anything involving a virus or bad software will be rectified by a reformat, so if your computer is still running at a snail’s crawl, a new processor might just do the trick.
Check out more articles below for solutions on how to fix a slow computer.