You might have asked, “why is my computer so slow?” at least once while using a computer. Computers can slow down for many reasons. As you install extensions, surf the internet, download programs, create new files, and fill the hard drive with music and movies, virtual debris are formed inside the computer, which will all affect its performance. Below are some of the most common causes of computer running slow.

Hard Drive Issues

Computer hard drives have moving parts. Therefore, they can fail eventually and you can do nothing to guard against this. However, the solid-state drives (SSDs) do not have moving parts, and are not much likely to breakdown. Yet your computer may become slow if there are mechanical issues with the hard drive.

It is always a good idea to backup the important files stored in the computer to the cloud. This will help you recover the data at times of hard drive failure.

Running Too Many Programs

Using too many programs at the same time can make the computer slow. The ability of the computer to run many programs depends much on its random access memory (RAM). The RAM allows the computer to switch from one program to the other with fluidity. However, if the demands of the programs are exceeding the RAM and processing capacity of your computer, you will experience computer slowdown.

Make sure to close windows rather than minimizing them, as minimized windows can run in the background and suck up the processing power of the computer.

Overactive Antivirus Program

It is important to have a good antivirus program on your computer. However, running background scans will slow down the computer and can lead to performance issues. This does not mean that you need to turn off background scans. You can set the program to scan the computer at night when you are not using it.

You can do the same for the full system scan feature of the program, as a full system scan will take a few hours to finish and can negatively affect the processing power when you are working on it.

Virus Infection

Virus infection is one of the most popular causes of computer running slow issue. Spyware, viruses, and other malicious programs can slow down the computer drastically because they can mess around with everything. These programs can hijack your web browser to display phishing websites, eat up the resources to make your computer crawl, and many more.

Using an efficient antivirus program can help you prevent virus infection largely. If you do not know how to select one for your PC, get in touch with a computer repair service for help.