After several months (or even years) of faithful service, you start to notice a change. The pauses are longer, responsiveness decreases, startups and shutdowns take extra time. In other words, your computer has become a snail, and you don't know exactly why. Maybe a restart is enough to restore its performance, but that is only a temporary solution. The reasons why your PC runs slow are numerous, and in some cases very complex, however, today we will review the most important ones.
The loss of performance in computers is an enemy with many faces. For years we have tried to "reduce" its number, but sooner or later we must intervene more deeply. The relationship between hardware, software, and user is very delicate, and once the balance is lost, the results are inevitably negative.
The main reasons why your PC runs slow
Sometimes there are very clear signs. Over time, we have all met people who are chaotic and rough when using a computer, a very unfavorable combination for preserving its performance in the long run. And other times, we have to play detective. That's what brings us here today. If you want to know the reasons why your PC runs slow, maybe some of this will help you.
Software "new" on hardware "old"
One of the first recommendations we find across the web is to update all software to its latest version for security and performance reasons. This also extends to the operating system, which we experienced firsthand with Microsoft's insistence that we abandon Windows XP back then, and now Windows 7. What have we learned? The fact that you "can" doesn't mean you "should".
For example, the 32-bit edition of Windows 7 requires a 1 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM as minimum, but if you decide to install it under that configuration, you will most likely suffer with the operating system instead of using it. With each major software edition you need "a little" more hardware.
Small jumps, like a couple of extra gigabytes, or an SSD to speed things up. If the budget doesn't help, choosing the right operating system and programs can be the difference between a good experience and a turtle on your desktop. The latter is not always the best. Select your software carefully, and the computer will respond.
Malware
A chilling number of infections are lurking on the web, waiting to enter your computer and carry out the wishes of their creators. From information extraction to unauthorized cryptomining, through spam, turning your PC into a zombie within a botnet, and the popular ransomware attacks, these digital bugs do not hesitate to steal processing power.
If you suspect that some malware has brought your computer to its knees, a check of active processes with Process Explorer from Sysinternals and a Malwarebytes Antimalware scan should be able to detect and suppress any abnormal behavior.
Lack of maintenance
A true classic. The average user seems convinced that Windows will preserve its day-one performance forever, but nothing is further from reality. Accumulation of temporary files, programs that come and go, patches upon patches upon patches... and the operating system ends up stuck in the mud.
Preventive maintenance is essential for optimal computer speed, and a good part is handled by Windows in the background, but the rest is our responsibility. The problem is that (in general) users don't know or don't want to do such maintenance. The process is simple: delete programs you don't use, look for lighter alternatives (direct reference to the first point), free up space on the hard drive and defragment its content (remember that SSDs don't need defragmentation).
These are four basic steps that will take you far, but if the situation is extreme or at the end of the day there are no significant changes, the most common thing is to back up personal files, apply the "Lieutenant Ripley diplomacy", bomb from orbit the Windows installation and start from scratch with a clean disk. Tedious, but effective.
Hardware failure
That's right: the fault is not always in the software. A couple of weeks ago we explored the effects of heat on a computer and how throttling is activated, a resource that protects the processor from high internal temperatures by reducing its speed. If your Windows installation is new and you have an efficient software selection but your PC's performance is still on the floor, maybe what it needs is a good cleaning inside it and a thermal paste replacement on the CPU (and sometimes the graphics card) to restore ventilation, improve heat dissipation and avoid throttling.
At the same time, a hard drive can be "tired" even when its SMART status is good, becoming a relentless bottleneck. Personally, I have seen hard drives with all their SMART in green not exceeding 30 megabytes per second of sequential read, a speed that takes us back to the era of old PIO transfer modes. This is when I proceed to preach the virtues of solid-state drives. On their worst day, an SSD is two or three times faster than a hard drive, and today it costs less than 30 euros.
In summary, if your PC runs slow, these are the essential pillars you need to check. Of course, we must also consider the possibility that the computer doesn't have a problem, and that it is naturally slow. 5,400 RPM hard drives and the old series of Atom chips are not known for speed, and require a bit more patience. Remember: preventive maintenance, efficient software, and the occasional hardware upgrade will save you many headaches. Good luck!
