my computer has suddenly gone really slow! Not just on the internet - but on everything.?

Question

how can i speed it up again?

Answer 1

According to your description,there may have some regsitry errors in your PC to cause "Computer slow".You need to clean you PC.
Every time you install and uninstall software on your computer and surfing online you create junk in the registry.You need to scan and clean your PC with registry cleaner.Good Regisry Cleaner will improve your PC and Internet performance dramatically.It even can speed up your PC by 300% or more!
There are some comparison and review of registry cleaners.
http://www.registry-cleaners.info

You can download and scan your PC for free.

Answer 2

First, run a virus scan. McAfee and Norton are the two most common paid services. Check with your ISP, I know Comcast gives you McAfee for free.

Next, install Microsoft Defender, Spybot Search and Destroy and AdAware (google for sites). All are free of charge. These programs remove malware (adware, spyware) which can slow your machine down a lot. Run full system scans with all of these products. Microsoft defender also has a section (system tools) where you can see files that are currently running and set to start when your machine starts up. Google (or Yahoo) the filenames and see what they are. Some things you can disable, and will help your computer load faster on startup. If you are in doubt, don't touch it!

After that, defragment your harddrive. You should be doing this on a regular basis. Go to start, and find a folder called System Tools, and you will find a disk defragmenter. Run this. Be prepared to wait a long time for it to go through all your files. What it does is it takes the files that are scattered all over your hard drive, and will move them so related files are closer together. This will greatly improve your speed, especially if it was very fragmented to begin with.

Answer 3

PC Running Slow, Hangs, Freezes:

- Many users are not aware of how much RAM is used by wallpaper and/or a screensaver full of graphics. They run in the background and consume memory. (I have only 512mb RAM, run multiple programs simultaneously, and have set my wallpaper and screensaver to blank.)

I don’t do games, but I do know they are primarily graphics which need and use a lot of memory.

- How many programs do you load at startup? Maybe you should check it out and ensure you are running just what you need.
To do this: cl Start, cl Settings, cl Taskbar and Start Menu.
-cl Start Menu, cl Customize, cl Remove.
-cl the icon for the program you wish to remove
-then cl Remove.
-This will prevent the program from loading at startup, but will not remove the program from the hard disk.

-When you are working in a large file, save frequently to restore full memory access. (Your work remains in memory until you “save” it to disk.)

1.Did you run an error check? Open My Computer,
Right-cl on C:, Select Properties, Tools – Run an Error Check ( checkmark “check all and fix); then run a Defrag

2.Are you using Yahoo Toolbar? Run a full Norton Antispy.

3.From IE, click Tools, Internet Options
delete cookies
delete files (offline files)
clear history (set days to save to 0 if you want)
click o.k., and Restart

3.click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools – run Disk Cleanup

4.click Start, Run ipconfig renew (type ipconfig space renew)

All these things should be done regularly. The more frequently they are run, the less time they take.
-Note: Games and videos are mostly graphics. Graphics create large files. If this doesn’t help, you should consider getting more memory.

Answer 4

PC Running Slow, Hangs, Freezes:

- Many users are not aware of how much RAM is used by wallpaper and/or a screensaver full of graphics. They run in the background and consume memory. (I have only 512mb RAM, run multiple programs simultaneously, and have set my wallpaper and screensaver to blank.)

I don’t do games, but I do know they are primarily graphics which need and use a lot of memory.

- How many programs do you load at startup? Maybe you should check it out and ensure you are running just what you need.
To do this: cl Start, cl Settings, cl Taskbar and Start Menu.
-cl Start Menu, cl Customize, cl Remove.
-cl the icon for the program you wish to remove
-then cl Remove.
-This will prevent the program from loading at startup, but will not remove the program from the hard disk.

-When you are working in a large file, save frequently to restore full memory access. (Your work remains in memory until you “save” it to disk.)

1.Did you run an error check? Open My Computer,
Right-cl on C:, Select Properties, Tools – Run an Error Check ( checkmark “check all and fix); then run a Defrag

2.Are you using Yahoo Toolbar? Run a full Norton Antispy.

3.From IE, click Tools, Internet Options
delete cookies
delete files (offline files)
clear history (set days to save to 0 if you want)
click o.k., and Restart

3.click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools – run Disk Cleanup

4.click Start, Run ipconfig renew (type ipconfig space renew)

All these things should be done regularly. The more frequently they are run, the less time they take.
-Note: Games and videos are mostly graphics. Graphics create large files. If this doesn’t help, you should consider getting more memory.

Answer 5

There are several causes of slow computers: low memory is the #1 culprit. Check to see if you don't have a bunch of programs in the background. Often, spyware will embed itself and hog lots of resources too. Make sure to clean any spyware out of your system.

In addition, you might have a device driver that is taking lots of CPU time. Check to make sure your drivers are all up to date.

If none of these work, consider backing up all your data and re-installing the OS. Windows has a tendency to get bogged down with miscellaneous garbage after you use it for a couple of years.

Answer 6

Close the icons you dontt need in the system tray, press control alt + delete end any uneccesary processes, be craeful not to end any you dont know what they are or any system ones, if it still goes slow try a reset then failing that download a program caled ram medic which will free up ram for you

Answer 7

A clean computer is key to a faster computer. Run the 3 scans below.

Update and run your Anti-Virus program. Don't have one? You can run a free online scan from CA.
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx


Download, update and run Spybot---http://www.safer-networking.org/ . Don't forget to use the Immunize feature.

Download, update and run Adaware---http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/products/select_your_product.php




Now lets clean up your registry.


Download RegScrubXP--http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?d...

Safely cleans junk out of the Windows 2000/XP system registry. All changes made to the registry are fully restorable to it's original condition. You can make an exclusion list of registry entries that RegScrubXP will not display as problems. You can sift through a list of file extensions, company names, run upon startup programs, Internet Explorer history, and uninstall programs to delete what you think is junk.

Download CleanUp---http://www.stevengould.org/software/clea...

Free disk space, make your computer run better/faster and protect your privacy - all in one easy solution. All for free!





Now lets clean up your disk.


Do a Disk Cleanup and Disk Defrag. You can find both of them by following the path below.
Start>all programs>accessories>system tools>Disk Cleanup. Let it do its thing. You can check every box that has something to delete.
Now follow the same path and do a Disk Defrag. Again just let it do its thing.




Now lets tweak your connection.


There are many programs out there to do this. I will give you 2 of them.
The first one is TCP Optimizer.

Description: The TCP Optimizer is a free, easy Windows program that provides an intuitive interface for tuning and optimizing your Internet connection. There is no installation required, just download and run.

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php...

You can get support for the best way to set it up right from their forum http://forums.speedguide.net/

The second one is Cablenut.

Windows XP tested and approved

CableNut is a tool for optimizing your Internet Connection. We have provided a way to tweak any option you may want to in the adjuster. You can load "CableNut Custom Setting" files that are included with the program to tweak your Internet connection.

http://www.cablenut.com/

Again support is available right from their forum.http://www.broadbandnuts.com/index.php?p...




All programs are FREE!




After applying the suggestions above you will have a clean and faster computer. Enjoy.

Answer 8

Time for a little computer maintenance! Go into your control panel and select "security settings" and then "interent options". Clear your "Cache" meaning temporary files and junk that could be slowing the computer down. Also go into "preformance and maintenance" to run a de-frag and disc clean up. Restart it afterwards. This should help.

Answer 9

Whatever you do, DON'T get a "PC Accelerator", they are spyware. Now to speed it up, the best suggestion is to get some new RAM. This is also called memory, it will basically speed up the process of how quickly your computer can access data. You can find some good ones at www.tigerdirect.com or www.newegg.com. Make sure they will fit on your motherboard first though!

Answer 10

You have not described that what operating system you are using. If you are using windows XP. Run diskcleanup to clean unneccessary file in your computer. after that run disk defragment. to run the diskcleanup click on start, Run type cleanmgr.exe and click on OK. to run defragment click on start, Run, type dfrg.msc and click on ok, select the drive to defragment. uninstall all unnessary software also from add/remove program. Hope your computer will be as before.