Why is my PC running slow?

Question

My PC is about 18 months old and has started going slow, particularly when opening programmes and often when operating in the programmes. I have McAfee Virus Scan and also use Ad-Aware SE, Spybot and Registry Mechanic. When I have occasion to use Windows Task Manager to shut down, there appears to be scores of programmes running and I dont know what they are.

Answer 1

Well let me put it this way,you could have the latest and best computer there is,whithin time it will get slow little by little or have unusual performance.This happens,because computers need maintenance,is like a car if you used your car and dont give maintenance to it is going start breaking down.What causes a computer to slow down?Browsing the internet,downloading,installing,uninstalling programs,spyware,adware,virus,currupted files,deleting files and moving files.Solution to this.1.delete cookies2.Delete Temporary Files3.Clear History4.Make sure you have the latest Anti-Virus Software I recommend Norton Internet Security 2006 its pretty good it covers everything from firewall,spyware,adware,virus,anti-spam and pop-up blocker.5.Very important you have to defragment your hardrive or hardrives if you have more than one.this is very important,because when you download or move delete files or used th computer a lot or for months without cleaning it or defragmenting th hardrive tends to slow down,causing poor performance.what defragmenting does it organizes all the files or data in the hardrive,so when you want to access it it dont take too long to load up and keeps the hardrive running smooth.Use a program call Diskeeper 10,even thought you could use the one windows has,but this one is way better.If you need help or have any question feel free to write to me.

Answer 2

Your PC is probably full of temporary files, you appear to be connected to the internet, so probably lots of nasties which slow up your system.

If you have lots of ant-virus \ spyware running at once this will slow it down.

First thing to try is
delete internet history, internet cache, temporary files (you can download free tools to do this)

Scan the registry for errors (you can get free software to do this too)


My preffered method is:

I dont know how good your I.T. knowledge is, I will assume you can ask someone if you need help, but a really good method I have found is:.

IF YOU DONT UNDERSTAND THEN DON'T ATTEMPT IT

IF YOU DO MAKE SURE ALL IMPORTANT DATA IS BACKED UP ONTO ANOTHER PHYSICAL DRIVE \ PC

1. partition your hard disk

2. re-install the minimum software (only stuff you use)

3. Configure software as you require

4. use a ghosting package to backup the windows partition to another partition (or CD \ DVD prefferably)

4. When the PC gets slow format the system partition C: drive and restore the ghost file, good as new!

Answer 3

In task manager you could try selecting processes tab and then clicking on the "CPU" column. This sorts the list in order of the process taking up most of the CPU resources (as a %age). You will probably find one process taking up most of it. Write down the name of that process/programme and then use the search function to find that programme, You should then be able to tell the offending programme by which directory/folder it is in.

My anti-virus does the same thing. it is being deleted soon...

Answer 4

Try checking your available RAM in the Performance tab in Task Manager...if it is low, get some more. Make sure your McAfee Virus Scan is up to date and not expired...if it is, try using AVG...it's free and works great. Also try using Windows Defender.

Answer 5

Visit http://www.pcpitstop.com and run their online system optimisation tests, which may help point you in the right direction.

One of the tests includes showing what programmes are running, and shows you the results colour coded to help you determine what they are, e.g. "Essential", "Optional" + suspect/dangerous

Also, try running defragmenter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation

Make sure Spybot is up to date, and run a full scan.

Look at the Start-up files (Start > Run > MsConfig)...... disable things like RealPlayer + Microsoft OFFICE from loading at start up (if installed)............ look at some of the other things in there..... do a google search for names of anything suspect looking you come across if you aren't sure of it.

Check the size of the TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES folder, which sometimes becomes corrupted...... I've had mine get to well over 4GB in size 'cos of that, when only had it set to 2GB (even when you open the folder and there's nothing in there).
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/21398/21398.html

Answer 6

Have you ever used the defragment option? Over time some programs can get accessed and returned to different places on your hard drive, at least that's how it was explained to me. Or else when loading programs, the CPU just shuffles them all together. Hopefully your "many programs" are just harmless background programs that are monitoring your power supply and other relevant system operations.

Answer 7

first download & run zomealaem firewall - this will tell who & what is contecting to the internet.
secondley click sart - program - then startup - delete programs you dont to want to start at startup.
I'm not a great lover of Mcaffee virus program do away with it use AGV free program.
Ad-aware is a good program.

Delete all cookie's

then run counterspy free trial program

or trojanhunrt 4 free

then defrg.

Answer 8

If you want to find out what the programs are that are running, go to this link and type in the name of the file. It will tell you what the file is and what it does..

Answer 9

What is the OS ? If it is win 2K or xp, try one thing.

Create a brand new profile and user, then loggin as the new user and see if there is any differences.

Answer 10

try a disc clean up and a defrag to condense old unused files.I had the same problem and it worked for me