It’s not good when a computer that has served faithfully before suddenly starts to glitch and perform even the simplest tasks for half an hour. Work or leisure turns into a real nightmare due to the fact that applications take a long time to open, and it takes half a minute to wait for a reaction to a simple cursor movement. Once this happened, you should immediately take some measures to reanimate the computer. The only question that remains is what actions to take and what to blame for all these problems.
Possible reasons
Any computer is a composite and complex device that can function normally only when all its elements are working normally, including not only the hardware, but also the operating system and applications. Here are some of the most likely reasons why your computer may slow down normally:
- disruption of the cooling system;
- failure of electrical components;
- the deplorable state of the hard disk;
- excess of background applications or conflicts of installed programs.
Overheat
If the heatsinks of the cooling system of the processor or microcircuits on the motherboard are clogged with dirt and dust, or the fans on them no longer spin as they should, then the temperature of the main components rises to extremely high temperatures of 70 ° C and higher. Overheating naturally affects PC performance in a bad way. It is necessary to regularly take the computer to a service center or independently clean all of its insides from dust and dirt. Self-cleaning should only be performed if you have the appropriate skills.
Swollen capacitors
A common occurrence on motherboards and computer power supplies is swelling of electrolytic capacitors. At the same time, the computer can continue to work, but this already suggests that it is far from working in a normal mode, which may affect its performance. This situation can be corrected only by a complete replacement of all capacitors in those circuits in which the damaged elements are found.
In modern PC components, solid-state capacitors are used, which can last much longer without breakdowns.
HDD (hard disk) status
Everything the computer works with (programs, data) is located on the hard disk drive (HDD). Physically, these are several pancakes, on which information is stored very compactly in the form of magnetized sections of an extremely small value. Over time or from frequent access to them, these areas can no longer quickly change their state, which affects the speed of reading and writing information. You can check the condition of the disk using special programs that scan the surface of the disk and give information about the read and write speed. If you suspect that the hard drive is no longer working as quickly as after purchase, you should contact the service center.
Self-directed attempts to correct the situation and restore the hard drive can lead to data corruption.
Background apps and conflicts
Often during the installation of applications, a bunch of background processes and widgets are also installed, which constantly take up PC resources. It is important to regularly clean the list of installed programs to remove unused ones.
The second common situation is a conflict between two or more programs, such as antivirus packages or firewalls used to protect the network. In no case should you use more than one antivirus at the same time. They will definitely consider another antivirus program and their virus databases a threat and will try to neutralize it, which will cause the PC to become severely buggy.
