What else is causing my computer to be so slow?

Question

So, my laptop of 2 years is running horribly slow. I have done so much research on this, that I thought I could solve it on my own.

So far, I have: stripped my comp down to its bare constituents, downloaded Wise Registry Cleaner to clear my registry, uninstalled every other antivirus software and installed my college's antivirus software, downloaded Wise Care 365 to tune up my system, used Revo Uninstaller to remove any unwanted programs including browser hijackers and other useless stuff, put all of my big files on flash disks, and cleared my browser cache (I prefer Chrome).

The thing is, once I downloaded all these things, my laptop was working great until windows decided to do an update, and it crashed midway through. I ended up restoring it to its factory setting (as in, wiping it out completely) and starting over. Still, it's nowhere near where it used to be.

Any ideas?

Beelzebub · Answer

Sounds like you installed too many virus/malware programs. these all run in the background and will end up slowing your PC to a crawl.Remove all the virus and malware scanners then reinstall the two that you want. As a PC tech I would recommend the following.

Anti-Virus: EITHER AVG Free OR Microsoft Security Essentials. Both are free and do a pretty good job. Keep in mind if you install AVG Free, during the installation you will be asked to install the basic or full version. You must install the Basic version or you will be asked to pay for it after 30 days.

Anti-Malware: Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware. This will not run in the background unless you pay for it but you can run scans and remove infections as much as you want for free.

Links
AVG Free: http://download.cnet.com/AVG-AntiVirus-Free-2014/3000-2239_4-10320142.html
Microsoft Security Essentials: http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Security-Essentials/3000-2239_4-10969260.html
Malwarebytes Ant-Malware: http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

Alan · Answer

What's the spec of your computer? Here are a few things I suggest you do and stick with it:
- Scan the hard drive with SeaTools for DOS.
- Scan the ram with Memtest86+.
- Fresh install Windows (not repair or restore).
- Don't use any reg clean software, don't touch reg at all.
- Don't use any optimize sw
- Use MSE and that's it.
- Scan your computer with SuperAntiSpyware once a week to clean up any junk.
- Use security plugins for Chrome or FF, like WOT, Adblock Plus, Bluhell Firewall, Ghostery, NoScript.
- Use Sandboxie for any shady website or sw
- Disable C drive Indexing.
- Set a fixed size hard drive cache.
- 8GB ram 64 bit Windows.
- Uninstall any useless sw.
- Disable any useless startup sw by using CCleaner (but don't use their reg clean)
- Backup your entire C drive b4 you install any sw. If you screwed up, just restore it.
- Run "sfc /scannow" in "cmd" to make sure w/o any corrupted files. When everything are installed w/o error, make it a master backup so if your Windows is screwed down the road, you just restore this backup.
- Windows update should not screw up your computer, the problem is elsewhere.

Jordan · Answer

Two things come to mind..

Defrag if you haven't - just because you cleaned it up, doesn't mean it's organized.

Also - it could be a hardware issue. If there are "burns" on the connectors, it's not going to transmit data efficiently. Also a faulty CPU fan can cause some slowdown.

What else is causing my computer to be so slow?

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