6 Reasons Your Computer Is Running Slow

At one time computers were mainly used at work. Then we had separate ones at home for entertainment. Now we’re using the same ones for both and when they are not running properly it is a huge source of stress and frustration.
Some of the fixes are quick while others require a little more work, but there’s a solution for each.

1. There Are Too Many Things Running

A lot of programs like to run in the background waiting to be called. It begins to cause a problem as more programs are installed and their ‘waiting’ task takes up the needed resources, memory and processor power, for routine activities and causes your entire computer to slow down. DeltaTech’s Tune Up and Continued Maintenance plans disable those from starting up when your computer turns on so it can keep running fast.

2. More Memory

This brings us to the second most common reason your computer is running slow and it ties directly into the first one. You need more memory. At one time, memory was an expensive component of a computer so programs were written to use as little as possible and then release it back for something else when it finished its task. Now, memory is abundant and even the hard drive is used for a temporary memory when it’s needed. DeltaTech monitors for high memory usage and can alert you before it gets out of hand.

3. It’s OLD

If it’s over 5 years old…It’s OLD. (think of dog years here) It’s not always that the parts are wearing out, although that certainly happens (see #6 below), but as technology advances to perform tasks faster and more efficient, the software running on it changes also to take advantage of that and doesn’t use the components the same. It will eventually just not work. A good rule is to anticipate upgrading your computer every 5 years. They will last longer but you should expect to experience performance issues and more maintenance costs.

4. Your Computer Is Sick…as in a virus.

Computer viruses and malware can be greedy resource hogs, running out of sight and eating up all of the available resources for their nefarious plans. There are many types of each (which I will cover in another post). The point here is they will make your computer and other devices on your network, even those not infected, slow. Because they are forever evolving, the cure for this after an infection can be intensive. However, once they have been removed, running a proactive antivirus program, like Webroot, that identifies threats through artificial intelligence, is recommended. One of the great features of Webroot is that it can run in the background scanning and preventing a reinfection without impacting your computer’s performance.

5. It’s A Little Dusty

You would be astonished to see how much dust the inside of a computer can attract over a year! The dust often the causes overheating by blocking airflow, putting stress on the fan and acting as a blanket to keep heat in other components. If left on the board, there is the possibility of corrosion, causing it to fail. Fortunately, the prevention is quick and easy. A few sprays from a can of compressed air will send the dust flying. Now, let’s say you are, less than diligent, on this maintenance task. (it happens) The DeltaTech agent watches for stress on your fan and computer temperature so you will be alerted if it begins to show signs of stress. It gives you a little time to address it, before it causes a full system failure. It’s like a “Check Engine” light for your computer.

6. Your Hard Drive Is Wearing Out

While this is rare, it does happen and when it does, a good backup is your best hope. Moving parts in the drive can wear out however this even happens in solid state drives (SSD). Your best defense against this one is regular testing and monitoring for failed sectors and errors. With something so critical, proper maintenance and monitoring is vital to prevent catastrophic failure. But even with something so critical, maintenance for this component if often overlooked. Why? Because it’s time consuming and requires regular routine actions. Not an ideal task for us but is perfect for DeltaTech’s Continued Maintenance plan. It never misses a routine scan, watches for errors and will send out alerts when it looks like an issue could be developing, giving you time to fix the problem before it causes irreversible damage.

I hope this provided you with a little more insight into why your computer could be slowing down. While it doesn’t cover everything, as Vilfredo Pareto said, 80% of your problems come from 20% of the issues. Fix that small amount and the rest of almost never cause a big problem (or something close to that).