IT Knowledge Articles
How to Speed Up a Slow Computer
Do you have a desktop that’s struggling to keep up with modern applications? There are many reasons why a PC might be running slowly; older or lower end components, system settings, and hardware errors or failures can all impact your computer’s performance. Luckily, there are a number of steps you can take to determine what factor(s) are causing you grief, as well as simple fixes that can improve your user experience.
Table of Contents
Step 0
Restart Your PC *Sigh*
Ah, the IT classic. “Just restart your PC, it’ll fix everything”
As much as it can be annoying, restarting your PC resets all the running processes, making it easier to troubleshoot and clearing up runtime issues. While there have been big improvements over the last few years, Windows can also start to act up after being left running for days on end. Giving your PC regular restarts can make a big difference in performance and speed up struggling computers.
Also remember, your IT support can see how long your system has been running. If you’re working with support and they ask if you’ve tried restarting, please don’t lie – we can tell.
Step 1
Check Your Hardware Utilization
The first step is to figure out what might be causing the issue. The most common approach is to check “Task Manager” in Windows. You can access this a few different ways – we recommend:
a) pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL at the same time, then click “Task Manager” (Figure A)
b) press the Windows Logo Key + R at the same time to open the “Run” menu (Figure B), then paste the following command and press Enter
You should now see a similar window to the image (Figure C). If it’s not already selected, click “Performance”.
Note: Different versions of Windows and different themes may change the appearance of Task Manager slightly.
Now that Task Manager is up, we’re looking for high utilization on any of the major categories: CPU, Memory, SSD/HDD, and GPU. It’s normal to have higher utilization in any of these categories when your computer is doing larger processes, but if you have little else running in the background then that indicates an issue. We’ll be addressing CPU, Memory (RAM), and Storage (HDD/SSD) in this guide.
If you’re seeing consistently high utilization for these categories, click below. If your usage is fine, continue to Step 2.
Step 1-a: High CPU Usage
High Processor Utilization
High CPU usage can be a concern. If your utilization is high, inside of task manager click on the “Processes” tab. If you click on the column that says “X% CPU”, the menu will sort itself with high-CPU processes at the top (Figure D). Look for any unusual processes; some critical processes have strange or unfamiliar names, so copy the names into Google if you’re unsure.
If you confirmed that the processes taking up your CPU are non-critical, you can try right-clicking the process and selecting “End Task”. Use this with caution; ending critical tasks may cause your computer to malfunction. If you run into any issues here, try restarting your PC to reset your processes.
If no processes seem particularly out of place, you may just have old or insufficient hardware for your tasks. Continue to Step 2 for more information.
Step 1-b: High RAM Usage
High Memory Utilization
High memory utilization is an extremely common cause of slower computers. First, under the “Performance” tab of Task Manager, select “Memory”. In the top right, you should see the amount of RAM your system currently has (Figure E). If your system has 8GB or less, that’s likely the issue. While lower workloads can get away with 8 or 4GB, as modern applications grow this is less and less accommodating to lower amounts of RAM. We’ll be posting a guide later about how to upgrade your RAM, but if you have any questions in the meantime feel free to contact us.
If the amount of RAM you have should be enough for your tasks, you can check the “Processes” tab of Task Manager and click on the “Memory” column (Figure F). This will sort high-memory tasks and services to the top; check and see if anything stands out – if you’re confused about a particular app or service, copy the name into Google to check if it’s a critical service, malware, or has other issues. Once you’ve confirmed that a service isn’t critical to your system, you can right click on it and select “End Task”. Again, if you run into issues here, restart your PC.
If you’re still having issues, your system may just have old or malfunctioning RAM. As this is a basic guide, we won’t be going in-depth into analyzing your system memory, but you can continue to step 2 for more basic troubleshooting regarding the age of your system/components.
Step 1-c: High HDD Usage
High Storage Utilization
And finally, the single most common cause of slow computers – storage. If you see “HDD” listed as Disk 0 in Task Manager (Disk 1, 2, etc. is usually fine as seen in Figure G), there’s a high probability this is the cause. There are 2 major classes of storage for your computer: Hard Drive Disks, and Solid State Drives. HDDs have a spinning magnetic disc that store the information your PC needs, and take a much longer time to retrieve that information than SSDs – as the name implies, these are “solid” drives with no moving parts. This speeds up data transfer times considerably, especially when your OS/Windows core files are stored on the SSD. Having an HDD as a backup is fine, as they’re usually more affordable for backup or extra storage solutions, but it’s highly recommended to use an SSD as your “boot drive”.
If you have an HDD, the best thing you can do is replace it with an SSD. These can be found on Amazon for as low as $25, and often make a huge difference in performance on older computers. You can either clone your drive to a large enough SSD, or install Windows only on a new SSD and keep the old HDD for file storage. We’ll be adding a guide for this process as well, but in the meantime feel free to contact us for more information.
If you have an SSD and are seeing high utilization, that may indicate something is wrong with the drive. You can use Windows built-in disk checker by doing the following:
a) press the Windows Logo Key + R at the same time to open the “Run” menu, then paste the following command and press Enter (Figure H)
b) In the Disk Management window, locate the disk you want to check. You can identify the disk by its size and drive letter. If you’re looking at multiple drives, the important one for this guide is typically C:
c) Right-click on the disk and select “Properties”.
d) In the Properties window, go to the “Tools” tab.
e) Under the “Error checking” section, click on the “Check” button. (Figure I)
f) Windows will now check the disk for errors and report any issues it finds.
You can also use a third-party drive health checker like CrystalDisk to see if there is an issue on your drive. These tools are often more robust than Window’s built-in utility, and can give you more insight. It might also be worth searching on Google to see if your drive has any firmware updates to resolve know issues – in Task Manager, select “Performance” and then click on the Disk you’d like to check. Copy the model name (For example, WDC WD10EZEX-75WN4A0 in Figure G) into Google and search for more information.
If you’re still unable to identify the issue, the drive may be too old or have other issues undetectable by these tools. Continue to Step 2 to identify more information regarding your system components, or check out Step 3 to investigate your OS health.
Step 2
Check Your System Information
If the previous steps weren’t enough to narrow down the cause of your slow hardware, you can try checking your System Information to see if you’re rocking some outdated components. Older components may not be well suited for today’s requirements, and unfortunately this step will require some manual labour. To check your system:
b) This menu shows you a breakdown of your PC components. Make sure “System Summary” is selected, then copy your “Processor” and “BaseBoard Product” into Google searches to check for firmware and BIOS updates. You can also use this information to find out the age of your motherboard and processor; simply search for the component part (ie. AMD Ryzen 5 3600x) + “release date”. (Figure J)
If your processor/motherboard are more than 5 years old, it may be time for an upgrade. Older hardware can definitely still be used though: check out Step 3 to tune your performance settings for older hardware.
Checking your RAM information involves more complicated methods. We’ll update this article with a link to a more appropriate guide later; in the meantime, please contact us for more information.
If you’ve confirmed your hardware is older, you can try step 3 to tune your performance settings. If you’re experiencing slow performance on newer hardware, skip to step 4 and 5 to check your Operating System or scan for malware.
Step 3
Tune Your Performance Settings
While Windows is the world’s most common Operating System (OS), it can sometimes struggle to run on older hardware. Tuning your performance settings can make a difference when trying to squeeze more life out of an older laptop or desktop.
a) Press the Windows Logo Key and type “Power and Sleep Settings” to bring up Windows Power Profile options. You should see an option for “Power Mode” or “Power Profile”; try changing this to “Best Performance”. This will change your settings to use more power, but can improve your performance especially on older hardware. (Figure K)
b) Press the Windows Logo Key and type “Performance”, then select “Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows” in the results. This brings up Windows Performance Options; try selecting “Adjust for best performance” then click Apply. This will remove extra animations and display options, so while it may look less attractive it can enable older hardware to keep performing at an acceptable level. (Figure L)
If these steps didn’t make a difference, there may be something wrong with your Windows installation. Proceed to step 4 for more information, or check out Step 5 to scan for malware.
Step 4
Check your Operating System
Occasionally, Windows System files can get corrupted or go missing (often due to a failed update or power outage) and can cause poor performance. To resolve this, try:
a) Press the Windows Logo Key and type “CMD”, then select “Run as Administrator” from the menu. Once Command Prompt is open, try entering the following command then press Enter (Figure M):
Note: This command can take a long time to run. Please be patient and allow the program to finish.
Once the program finishes, it will tell you if any corrupt system files were detected and repaired. There is some debate whether both this and the next command are needed or are redundant; I feel it’s safest to run both.
b) If you don’t already have Command prompt open, follow the above steps to open it again. Then enter the following command and press Enter (Figure N):
Once both programs have finished, it’s generally a good idea to restart your PC. If you where previously unable to update Windows, this may have fixed that issue as well – now’s a good time to install any lingering Windows updates.
If no issues were detected or you received an error message, try Step 5: Scan for Malware.
Step 5
Scan for Malware
Malware and Virus can be scary words; luckily, most malware is relatively easy to remove. If you’re one of our clients, you likely have BitDefender provided by us – contact us if you’re having concerns about malware.
If not, we reccomend MalwareBytes as a fantastic free anti-malware. MalwareBytes + Windows Defender built-in firewall provides a well-rounded cybersecurity approach acceptable for a majority of regular users. To scan for malware:
a) Download and install MalwareBytes free version here
b) After the install completes, open the software and click “Scan”. You may also be asked to update the virus/malware database for the most up-to-date information.
MalwareBytes will automatically scan and quarantine any malware that it finds. If it doesn’t find anything, you can also run a scan with Windows Defender:
a) Press the Windows Logo Key and type “Security”, then select Windows Security from the results.
b) Click “Virus and Threat Protection”
c) Select “Scan Options”, then select “Full Scan” and “Scan Now” (Figure O)
Between Windows Defender and MalwareBytes, you should be able to remove most common malware and viruses.
Conclusion
Basic Troubleshooting for Slow or Old PCs
These basic troubleshooting tests cover the most common issues impacting PC performance. If these steps didn’t resolve your problems or you would like more in-depth information, please contact us – we’re always happy to help! We’ll also be adding more guides and documentation, so check back in at a later date.
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