New PC starting to slow down

[Grayfly]

I bought a new PC a few months back, all great for a while but now in the last couple of weeks it has started to slow down, web pages taking longer to load etc.

I have very fast broadband according to the checker, my ISP provider ran some checks and all appeared OK. I run AVG for anti virus (the paid for version) and also AVG Tune Up which tells me I am running at over 90% performance. I have tried running CCleaner but is just freezes, so no results.

My hard disk is only around 25% capacity and WinDirStat doesn't show anything unusual.

Any suggestions to speed the thing up? I only bought a new one because my previous 10 year old PC was slowing down.

Is there any software which can help?

[ShyTorque]

I use Glary Utilities.

[Grayfly]

Originally Posted by ShyTorque

I use Glary Utilities.

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

[netstruggler]

Originally Posted by Grayfly

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

It can be interesting to create yourself a new user account on the computer and see if it runs more quickly when you log in under that username rather than the one you've been using up till now. Just make sure that you log off all users except the new one. Remember that, by default, shutting down or restarting Windows does not log current users out, even though it warns you that it's going to. You have to turn off 'Fast Start' if you want it to force users off when you shut down.

I found out by accident that a new user I created had a much better performance that I did on our family computer.

I've a theory that one of the things that causes Windows to slow down is the interminable time it spends sorting through your files and folders, scanning them for viruses and creating indexes and databases so that it can categorise your data for you; and every time you change something it starts doing it all again.

[olderairhead]

Have you tried cleaning the temp folder?

1. Open the Start menu or and press the Windows key, then type %temp% in the Search field.
2. Press Enter and a Temp folder should open.
3. You can delete all files found in this folder and, if any files are in use and cannot be deleted, they can be skipped.

[FlightDetent]

Let me get this right.

You damaged the OS with CCleaner, overburden the service layer with AVG, try another 'free' tool to fix that by deleting some more stuff and hope to improve by erasing the Temp folder manually.

This may have worked in 2002 but even then actually didn't.

Most likely, apart from some crippling activity above, the system is trying to download and install the latest OS edition well above the pre-loaded one, and yes - even in 2022 this can get stuck.

Get help, not on pilot forums.

Key pointers
- clean install
- Defender antivirus
- Integrated Disk cleaner
- bloatware
- Windows Update Troubleshooter
- www.tenforums


​​​​​​If your box don't have an SSD go buy one first, 128 will suffice, just about any.


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[Specaircrew]

Disable all the AVG software and any other bloatware utilities that may have come pre installed on your new PC. These sort of problems are usually caused by software running in the background. What does Task Manager tell you is running and what programs are ticked in the Startup menu?

[treadigraph]

Friend's elderly laptop was running extremely slowly and he asked me to take a look - first thing I checked was whether he had both AVG and Windows Defender running; he did. Deleted AVG, it was like undamming a stream...

[FlightlessParrot]

Have you looked at Task Manager?
If not, here's how (I am talking about Windows 10--don't know if this will work in 11):
1. Press, simultaneously, Control, Alt, Delete;
2. A menu will appear: select Task Manager
3. The first screen is Processes: it will have a number of columns, the first of which is labelled CPU.
4. Look down this column to see if any App or Background Process is taking a lot of CPU.
5. If you see something you don't recognise that's using more than about 10%, Right Click and select End Task.
6. See if things improve. Or alternatively, your computer may stop working, in which case turn off the power and then turn it on again.

Often the cause of these things is Windows downloading huge amounts of updates, which it hasn't told you about; this can kipper performance for a couple of days, in the worst case.

[FullOppositeRudder]

I think you'll find that AVG is the prime offender. It was on one of my machines with similar symptoms.

[Ancient Observer]

My desktop is getting a little old,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

AVG had to go. It slowed it down.

[Ancient Observer]

I also find Edge Chromium to be a resource hog. I try not to use it, but it self-starts when I start the pc. I sometimes have to use it for websites that don't respond to firefox,

[Grayfly]

Thanks for all the feedback, got a bit of work to do

[jimjim1]

1. Check that your PC has been recently reset. Find the uptime. Windows NO LONGER (8 on) adequately resets the PC on a "shutdown". You need to "Restart". Just disable Fast Startup forever.
2. Running magic "fix it" software downloaded for FREE is in my view asking for trouble.
3. Check system file integrity by running in an administrator cmd window
chkdsk /f
then sfc /scannow

If either of these show errors that are not automatically fixed come back for more advice with DETAILS (screenshots).

4. Make sure you are only running ONE anti-virus program. If on Win 10 or later use windows defender ONLY.

5. Try a different user. Make a new one.

For anything more you are going to have to come up with a LOT of detailed info. You may well get better help elsewhere.

Windows version, memory size, hdd or ssd... ... ...
Is CPU high, is disk utilisation high? Is there any free memory?

[Grayfly]

Update.

Cleaned up the system and removed AVG.....big difference!

I'm not familiar with Defender, is it up to the job on its own? Obviously 3rd party sellers run it down.

[Uplinker]

Defender is written and constantly updated by Microsoft themselves.

They know their own Windows source code intimately and it is in their interests to keep their operating systems viable and virus free - to maintain their market share, so they keep a close eye on malware and nip new viruses etc in the bud

I was told that owing to competition rules, Microsoft are not allowed to advertise Defender. Third parties will try to demean it because they want to get money out of you, but Defender is free and perfectly integrated with the Windows operating system. It also automatically updates your machine as new threats come along, and does not chew up memory or CPU time or cost any money, so is a good thing to have.

[Contact Approach]

Can you provide the specs of the system, notably the storage solution used (HDD/SSD/M.2), CPU and RAM? I'd have thought this was a hardware issue and not a software one.

[ShyTorque]

Originally Posted by olderairhead

Have you tried cleaning the temp folder?

1. Open the Start menu or and press the Windows key, then type %temp% in the Search field.
2. Press Enter and a Temp folder should open.
3. You can delete all files found in this folder and, if any files are in use and cannot be deleted, they can be skipped.

Glary Utilities does do that, plus a lot more. I used the free version for a couple of years, which never caused any problems that I know of, but later upgraded to the more comprehensive paid version. It’s regularly updated and also advises when later versions of other programs are available.