| Q: Why is my computer running so slow and choppy? |
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| A computer can be slow for two main reasons: Hardware or Software. |
| Hardware |
Hardware: Hardware is often times more difficult to troubleshoot because the same symptoms a computer is exhibiting might be from one of three or four pieces of hardware and possibly a software issue. Often manufacturers have diagnostics tools to determine what the source of the problem may be. One can look in the Computer Management console by right-clicking My Computer > select Manage > and look in the System Tools>Event Viewer for errors. Biggest thing is to see if your computer or laptop is still under warranty. Call Technical Support from your respective brand and use the service you paid for. Below are a list of the major components of computer and some of the symptoms if these are failing or fail and causing the computer to perform poorly.
- Motherboard, Harddrive, Memory- computer restarting or not starting up or shutting down abruptly, Error messages at startup, computer run slow or choppy
- Power Supply - Computer not turning on at all. Constantly restarting and/ or shutting down abruptly. Computer running slow or choppy if failing.
These major components will have to be replaced by a competent Technician in order for the choppy and slow running computer to work properly again. Often times this can be a complex process not for the meek geek. |
| Software |
Software takes a different approach. Usually cleaning up caches either manually or with software cleaners works. Sometimes anti-virus and anti-spyware scans work good. In many cases simply reloading the computer gets it running faster.
- Clean up Caches - use ccleaner from ccleaner.com, it's free and fast. Caches are cookies and temp files built up over time.
- Scan with anti-virus or spyware - use your anti-virus program or download a free copy of avg for free from download.com
- Delete Profile - profile created when user logs in Win 2000 and XP it is in the Documents and Settings folder - log in as Admin and delete user profile.
- Reload computer - Best way to ensure that ANY software issue is addressed. Reload completely using manufacturer disks, reload partition on hd, or OEM Windows disk.
- Defragment computer - Found in Systems Tools in Windows
- Disk Clean - Found in Systems Tools in Windows
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| This is brief intentionally. This page is only meant to point you in the right general direction. Books have been written about all of the bulleted items above. Best advice: If you don't know what you're doing, have a professional do it. :) |
| If you really want to try it yourself and need more direction. Google is a nice tool as is answers.yahoo.com. |
