6 REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN AND HOW TO FIX IT

6 REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN AND HOW TO FIX IT


Computers slowing down with time has always been a great problem for pc enthusiasts and is still one. Computers do have a tendency to slow down with time and usage and this can be pretty annoying. In this article we’ve discussed the six main reasons why computers slow down over time and how can you fix such problems.

REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN

A PC that lags frequently can be a pain for everyone. Especially if you need to get things done on time or you work often on your pc. Probably if you are using the same computer for quite some time then you might not be able to tell the difference but if you use a new pc then you will surely know the difference in productivity you get when your pc is fast.  


All windows users might be able to relate to these problems. It’s very important to identify these problems as early as possible and solve them. Read below the list of 6 most common reasons causing slowing down of computers and how to solve them.







1)      OLD STORAGE DRIVE (HARD DISK)

A slow pc is one of the storytellers of it’s old age. A standard hard drive is marked for lasting for 4-5 years on an average, though there are cases of hard drives lasting for as long as a decade yet their average life is not much longer.

Usage of old hard drives which were already slow as per today’s hard drives and then their long usage makes the conditions worse.


REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN

The symptoms of lagging due to hard drives include buzzing sound from the hard drive and frequent operating system freezes. You can also consider checking the bad sectors on your drive using a third party app.


REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN

These can be easily fixed by just replacing the hard drive with a new drive or even a ssd if your system supports it. If the rest of the computer is also very old then you might just consider building a new pc or buying a prebuilt machine.

If you want to build a new pc you can always refer to this article

Whatever you do it would be best if you do it before the hard drive completely dies out costing you your valuable data. A hard drive also won’t consider you a lot of money as they are fairly priced as per their storage capacities.





2)      SHORTAGE OF RAM (MEMORY)

Well this is the one that almost everyone figures out as it is one of the most common reasons for a slower computer or the slowing down of a computer over time.


REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN


What is ram ? well it’s the volatile or temporary memory used for the current processes running in the system. For better understanding think of it as a rough notebook in which you are writing using a 
pencil, now if you need to perform a calculation you are going to use up some space on the notebook now you have less space left than before and after a few calculations you would have very less space left and you would gradually slow down in your tasks. This is the exact same thing that happens with the computer the ram gets stored up and the system becomes slow.

Identifying the shortage of ram is very easy as you can just check the amount of ram your computer is using in real time just by firing up the task manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+DELETE on your keyboard.


REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN



If you think you are running on some pretty big ram shortage issues you can always swap the ram for a new and bigger one as ram is the easiest part in a computer system one can change.

Usually 8 gigs of ram is enough for almost all games and apps still is you do heavy video editing and stuff you could always go for a 16 gigs setup.






3)      UNNECESSARY APPS IN THE BACKGROUND

Your pc might be running programs in the background without you even knowing which might be using up the RAM and the processing power of your system. Many programs such as antivirus programs are configured to run at startup by default. These use up the system resources leaving not enough for the foreground programs and tasks.

You can easily check out all the processes that you computer is currently running by using the task manager. But it is advised to be cautious in ending the running processes as you might accidentally end an important one which may lead to the whole system crashing.

To check what all processes you pc is running fire up the task manager by using CTRL+ALT+DELETE and then go to processes tab. It shall list you all the processes running in the background and foreground.


REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN

The performance tab shows how much percentage of the computer’s resources are being used such as processing power, memory etc.


REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN

You can also see all the processes and programs configured to run at startup by going to the startup
tab.


REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN







4)      NOT ENOUGH STORAGE SPACE

It may seem to many people that how does it even matter if my computer has the storage running out ? it has no connection with system speed. Well it does. 

The operating system requires you to have a minimum free space in order to work. When this storage starts running out then the  CPU cannot swap files properly or store temporary files causing the overall slowing down of memory. This can cause the operating system to slow down.




REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN
REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN



 In order to sort these issues out you can just consider cleaning up some of the storage space by just deleting old and unwanted files. Also you could consider buying a new internal or external drive for all your spare data

 Remember that your pc needs a minimum of 200 MB in order to work properly ideally you could keep a gigabyte of free space to keep your system free of lags.






5)      MALWARE OR VIRUSES

A great number of computers are infected by viruses. Viruses can cause a lot of problems and slowing down pc is the just one of them. They could also corrupt some important OS files and lead to a total wreckage.


REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN



It is highly recommended that you get your pc checked by a professional in case you suspect that your pc is infected as they can leak sensitive data.

The best way to get ensured about the complete removal of viruses and malware is formatting and reinstalling of the operating system.






6)      PROCESSOR BOTTLENECK

It is one of the hardest one to figure out if this is the main cause of your slow PC. Bottlenecking is a term usually associated with gaming but the general meaning of it is that the whole performance of the system is reduced due to one underperforming system.


REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN


CPU bottlenecking usually happens when a low powered CPU is paired with a comparatively higher end system. CPU dependent programs can also lead to reduced performance.

Fixing the cpu bottleneck is much easier than spotting one. Still if you’ve figured out that this is the problem with your pc then you could easily solve it by upgrading the CPU. Currently i7processor of intel is the best for gaming in the market.


REASONS WHY YOUR PC MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN


You could also consider just downgrading the software you use to an older version. Though it is not recommended as it is going to snatch away many useful features from you.




Being frank if you have a pretty old and rusty system probably the best bet would be to buy a new one. for that you could consider the articles below

LAPTOPS VS DESKTOPS AND WHAT IS THE IDEAL CHOICE FOR YOU

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT COMPONENTS FOR YOUR PC

GUIDE TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT LAPTOP






So here ends the article about 6 reasons that might be slowing down your pc and how to fix them. If you have any queries feel free to contact us on the mail in the about us page or just send a message regarding your query on our Facebook page.





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