My computer randomly started being slow?

I wouldn't install any software to start off as another poster suggested, that's just going to throw more junk on the computer and slow it down even more. You should find the exact cause of the issue before blindly throwing programs at it hoping to fix the issue. I've worked on computers that were as slow as yours, and believe me, when the computer is already as slow as you described....installing more programs and waiting for the scans to finish and most of the time yield no results literally can take hours....I watched other PC Techs take that approach and it made me cringe, this way is more efficient as far as time and saving frustration goes. It may seem like a lot, but it's actually easy.

Usually when this happens it is a program that is not working correctly and using way too many resources or it may be a virus. These are the steps I take when working on any computer having this issue.

I would press Ctrl+shift+esc to open the task manager, go to the performance tab and check the CPU usage first, if it is at 100% (or going up to 100% a lot) then click on the processes tab, click show processes from all users at the bottom left hand side, check the activity in the CPU column to see which program is using up your CPU and uninstall it/reinstall it. If you don't know the program from the list you can simply type the process into a search engine like bing, google, or yahoo (ie. what is adm_tray.exe) and you will get results from websites that will tell you exactly what it is.

If you find out it is a virus the best bet will be to boot into safe mode with networking a perform a full scan with your current software, and possibly download some additional software (temporarily install it for this issue) and run scans as well. Booting into safe mode, in most cases, prevents the virus from starting up and allows you to work without all the lag. Also since the virus doesn't start in safe mode AV/AS software will have a much better success rate and removing it.

You can also check memory usage under the performance tab to see if all your ram is being used (which could cause this issue as well), if you don't know how much ram you have simply hit the windows key and pause/break at the same time. This will bring up a list showing computer specifications and there you can find the amount of ram you have. If something is using up too much memory you can also find exactly which program it is under the processes tab.

This is exactly how I would pinpoint the issue while working on computers that were doing this when I was a PC Tech.

*If the hard drive was full and CCleaner would be helpful, the computer would be popping notifications left and right telling him the hard drive was full, and offering to use the windows software included with windows that does almost the exact same thing as Ccleaner. And I've never seen a fragmented hard drive cause this kind of lag. And i've defragged hard drives on computers that were 10 years old and never defragged.

**Alright, give me thumbs down then. Cause I obviously have no clue what I'm talking about right?

Oh, that's right...even when I give an educated and helpful answer in computers I get thumbed down. Even though I've worked on them for years and replaced registry hives, never had to reinstall windows no matter how bad a virus infection was. I must be retarded.

Clean your computer CCleaner

and running Microsoft ScanDisk and Defrag

Note: When using “Disk Defragmenter”, make sure that you’ve disabled the screen saver! DISABLE THE SCREEN SAVER BEFORE RUNNING Disk Defragmenter

-If your computer does not have at least 250MB of free available hard drive space this can cause an overall slowdown with your computer as well as decrease the boot time. Make sure your computer hard drive has 250MB or more of available disk space.

CCleaner is a good program if you want to improve the performaces of your pc and get rid of virus, worms and trojans. Free download here http://bitly.com/UrALbd

It works like a charm.

What kind of anti-virus software do you have?

Download and install the free version of Malwarebytes and run a scan.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_...

Download and install the free version of Glarys utilities. click the the 1-click maintenance and scan for issues.

http://www.glarysoft.com/glary-utilities/download/

there just can be 2 cause of the same

1) over loaded memory

1) vrs