So it’s been a few weeks since I’ve written anything while I come up with a good topic. Now I have one. My friend’s computer has slowed down and he has asked me to fix his computer. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to diagnose the issue without looking at the computer in person since there are a number of possible reasons. Here are a few things you can check to determine why your Windows computer has slowed down.

Depending on how slow your computer is actually running my first suggestion would be to defrag your computer. The easiest way to do this is on a computer running Windows 7 is to go under the Start Menu, go under the Accessories folder and then under System Tools and you will find Disk Defragmenter. Though this won’t have too much effect it will have some effect on how long it takes programs and other items on your computer to open.

Another thing you can check is which unnecessary programs are running on your computer. If you look in the lower right-hand corner of your computer screen you will see a number of small icons. These icons show some of the programs running on your computer. Programs such as Weatherbug run on startup. Even though you may not start these programs each time they start when the computer starts. These programs use up memory, the less memory available the longer it will take for other programs to start. For the more advanced computer user you can also click CTRL-ALT-DEL and choose Task Manager from the options. After the task manager opens choose the Processes tab and sort by the memory heading. You can determine which programs are using the most memory terminate programs which don’t need to run.

This brings me to checking computer memory. Yes computer memory can and will fail. Unfortunately you won’t always know until the computer has slowed down. Certain computers such as Dell systems will have built in diagnostics which you can run at boot-up which will check the memory and other system issues for you. If you don’t have a computer with these built-in diagnostics then my suggestion would be to use the built in memory diagnostics from Windows. In the search area under the start menu type in memory and you will see Windows Diagnostic Memory appear. Run this program and tell the program to restart your computer and check for problems. If you do find you have memory issues then you will need to replace the faulty memory best left for someone comfortable with opening up a computer.

If none of the options discussed so far have worked then other causes of a slow computer could be a virus or spyware. This can be diagnosed using software such as McAfee or Norton but if you don’t have the money for those pieces of software then there are a number of free reliable options available for download. The other cause of a slow computer could be a faulty CPU. If this is the case depending on the age of your computer I would suggest checking the warranty and getting it fixed under warranty or considering a new computer. Prior to spending the money on a new computer though I would suggest backing up your computer and trying reloading the operating system to rule out any software based issues.

Hopefully some of these suggestions worked for you. If you have any tech questions or comments please send me your questions at outloudtech@gmail.com.

E-mail your tech questions to outloudtech@gmail.com