Why is my computer so slow? Help?

Question

the past few days it was at normal speed but now everything is slow my pc, my internet.
i fixed all the errors and i scanned my pc for viruses and i even cleared some of the files but it still remains slow.
Please can someone help me i cant even watch a video from youtube properly because its so slow

Answer 1

As you will appreciate there are many reasons why your computer is running slow:

I have listed the most obvious, some of which you may have already tried but for completeness they are mentioned here.

First of all make sure you do not have any malware in the form of viruses or spyware. Run your anti virus and anti spyware programs in order to clear out any beasts.
If you do not have any protection these are exceptional and available for free:
Anti virus I suggest:
http://www.avira.com
Anti spyware I suggest:
http://www.superantispyware.com/

Remove junk & temporary Internet files by running Ccleaner – free for download from:
http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Your hard disk(s) may be fragmented. Windows has a built in defragmentation program but you can download a third party program for free:
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software

Your registry may be cluttered or corrupt. Ccleaner mentioned above also has a registry cleaner but how about downloading another very good free registry cleaner:
http://www.eusing.com

You may have too many programs kicking off at start up. These free downloads allow you to control what applications run at start up:
http://www.glarysoft.com/quick-startup
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Your hard disk may be getting full. You need at least 15% of free space for it to operate efficiently. Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs & remove any applications you no longer use. How about removing all those pictures & music that is filling up your hard drive?

How about overheating? Clean all the vents on your computer with an air duster (can of compressed air). If a laptop, operate it on a hard surface so that air can flow freely around it. For a desktop, open it up and clean inside with the air duster.

Finally, after you have done all the above may need to upgrade your RAM. So that you get the right type of RAM for your system do a free scan at Crucial to determine your RAM.
http://www.crucial.com/ for USA
http://www.crucial.com/uk/ for UK

Good luck with your quest and I hope these suggestions improve your system.

wdw

Answer 2

If your virus/spyware free, there are a couple things you can do get your computer working faster. If you using your computer for normal stuff and not gaming. You don't always need more RAM you just need to perform a few maintenance task.

First, if you haven't cleaned your registry in a while. This is necessary. Your registry holds all the information regarding updates, installs, un-installs etc. Each one of those events produces a key. That key needs your PC's resources and free space. So, if you clean your registry, you make more resources available for speed. Do a registry scan if you got more than 20 errors you should clean it.
http://www.delete-computer-history.com/what-is-the-best-registry-cleaner.html

2. Clear your Windows cache files, this is your temporary file. It can grow up to a large volume and stop your computer from using RAM properly. In a sense slow it down by preventing it from using free space.Here is how:

1. Quit Internet Explorer, Firefox, or any other web browser
2. Click Start, click "Control Panel", and then double-click "Internet Options".
3. On the General tab, click "Delete Files" under Temporary Internet Files.
4. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the "Delete all offline content" check box , and then click OK.
5. Click OK.

3. Manage your startups. Your excess CPU usage is due to too many programs running in the background. You can cut these to barebones by alter your msconfig. Here is how:

1. Open your Start menu.
2. Click Run
3. In the command screen type "msconfig.exe"
4. In the "system configuration utility",click either "service" or "startup" tab
5. Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.
6. Click "OK"

Other great tip is increasing your virtual memory to simulate more RAM. This will give you a bit more resources for multiple program use or CPU heavy programs.
Hope this link helps. Shows you how to do everything step by step. You should get a least 60-120% more resources and speed
if you follow the tips.

Answer 3

Downlaod AVG. It detects every virus you have. It's really good.



THE BEST THING YOU CAN EVER DO IS

Reformat your computer. I've done it already and it makes your computer REALLY fast coz it gets rid of everything. All the viruses you have.

1. Have you a registered copy of xp

2. install xp on top of your current os

3. There should be a repair installation option select this option.

4. This should install a fresh installation of xp.

Good luck

Any trouble contact me.

The above answer doesn't wipe out your hard drive.

Also remember to back up any documents and pictures before reformatting and reinstalling the OS!

I think this question pertains to wiping out your current OS - and the drive it's on - and starting afresh, wherein the new system will have no memory of the old.


HOT TO REFORMAT YOUR COMPUTER:

1. Put the winXP cd into your cd/dvd drive
2. exit whatever autorun program starts up.
3. restart your computer.
4. now, while loading up, if a new message should appear: "press any key to boot from CD", Press any key & go to step 8
5. This small procedure is in case u don't see that 'boot from CD' message.
6. While comp is booting, pressing F5 or F8 will bring up the boot options where u can select from which drive you want to boot (start the comp). In my PC, at the start screen (where it checks the ram-kb's-ok) it says "press F5 for BBS POPUP menu" or something like that. Otherwise, just press Del to go into the PC's bios and change the boot sequence to CD first instead of hard disk, save changes & exit. Now u'll see that message of step 4 in a short while.

7. Choose your cd/dvd drive.
8. Ok, now winXP's base setup will start loading its different drivers from cd. may take some time.. Soon you'll be faced with some ominous-looking options!
9. Choose the one which sounds closest to "format" or "manage partitions"!
10. you'll have to choose which drive to format, or whether to delete any partitions and then create one or more new ones from the space freed up. I used this first time to split my 50-50 c & d drives into C,D,E,F drives which i kept for system, software, personal files & movies/games respectively. Since then i've regularly only had to format the C drive when things went wrong, and all the *important* stuff is kept safe in the D,E,F partitions! I recommend u reserve only 10 to 15GB for C drive and keep the rest of your hard drive for your remaining partitions. It'll speed up ur PC later on.

11. Now delete & recreate any partition, or format an existing one (choose quick format or come back the next day to still see it formatting each and every bloody byte) -your choice. Next, choose that drive/partition to install winXP in.
12. The rest of the process is mostly automatic, only a few formalities reqd like giving region, name etc. (note: name asked here is not username, it's the computer name, to be used over a network)
13. Voila! A brand new winXP, free of all the annoying errors of the old (and possibly equipped with completely new ones now!) Better get a net connection & do that verification thing in a month! Else one way to get around that issue is to hibernate it all the time.
Related Links

Answer 4

Using a registry cleaner can clean up your computer and then make your computer faster,Why?the reason is that there may be some regsitry errors and remnant,corrupt files and temp files in your computer to cause "computer slow".
Everytime you install and uninstall software on your computer and surfing online you create junk in the computer registry.over time, the registry can grow to enormous proportions, especially if the various programs you've installed do not do a good job of deleting and/or updating it's Registry entries.You need to scan and clean your computer with registry cleaner to make it fast.Good Regisry Cleaner will improve your computer and Internet performance dramatically!
There are some comparison and review of TOP 5 registry cleaners.
http://www.make-pc-fast.com/
You can download and scan your computer for free.

Answer 5

Even though you scanned you computer for viruses it can still have an undetected virus. Spy ware or viruses can slow you computer down a lot. You also could of installed a program that made you computer slow. I would suggest downloading Spybot Search and Destroy. That scans for spy ware.

Answer 6

Check out http://www.pcoptimizerprodownload.info
With pc optimizer pro you can safely clean, repair and optimize your computer.
It will help improve your system performance.
Good luck!

Answer 7

You didn't happen to upgrade to XP service pack III in those few days did you?