A slow computer can take a toll on your work productivity. Even if you have a system with having powerful CPU, high RAM, and a high-speed SSD, some causes make them slow down over time. If you too have reached that point, keep on reading as we have plenty of ways you can make your device work as well as new!
Turn Off Power Mode
Sometimes we do turn on the power mode to make the battery last longer, especially when watching media or taking notes. What this mode does is, switches the system to low-performing modes, which affects the overall speed. When you are doing more demanding work such as content creation, graphic designing, or gaming, you need to turn off the power mode and select a Balanced or High-Performance mode to quickly speed up your PC.
You can turn it off by directly clicking on the battery logo on the taskbar. Then click on Battery Settings and switch the toggle off for the Battery Saver mode. Also, you can go to system settings, then click on Power & Sleep, then go to Additional Power Settings and select Balanced or High-Performance mode.
Close Programs Running in the Background
Another common thing that slows down the system is unnecessary programs and applications running in the background. You do this quickly by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete together for Task Manager to appear. Then close down all the unnecessary programs running by selecting and pressing the End Task button.
Disable Startup Programs
Several programs automatically start up when you turn on the laptop. Starting all these applications takes time and thus you must have experienced a delay in your OS loading to the home screen. You can disable all such start-up programs to start running automatically by going to the Task Manager again, then clicking on the Start Up tab and selecting the program or programs to disable by clicking the Disable button at the bottom-right corner.
Update your Operating System
Do not expect your system to run to its full potential if you have not installed the latest updates. Sometimes, new driver updates or software patches are missing slowing down the device. This also makes your system vulnerable to malware viruses and hackers.
Go to system settings and select Update & Security, then Click on Check for Updates if there are any available, download them.
Install Virus & Threat Protection
If your computer is infected with malware, then chances are your programs will crash randomly and random ads would pop up on your screen. It could spread to other programs and files on your device and can help hackers steal your personal information. This could be a result of opening an infected email or downloading something from a suspicious website.
You can protect your laptop from different kinds of malware by removing it from your system. On the search bar on your home screen, type Security and open it. Then go to Select Virus & Threat protection and run a Quick Scan. Alternatively, you can also install a paid antivirus program that will automatically protect you from any suspicious malware.
Run Disk Clean Up
Ever noticed files that have names ending with “.tmp” or start with a dollar sign or tilde? These are temporary files that are created when you modify and make a new file. They do get deleted automatically when you close the application. However, sometimes, they are left undeleted, resulting in taking up space on your HDD or SSD.
To remove them, you can either delete them manually or open the Disk Clean up from the search bar and select the drive that you want to clean, and press OK.
Defragmented Your Laptop
Some data from the new files you create, edit, or delete becomes fragmented and gets stored in various parts of your hard drive. This too causes your device to slow down as fetching data becomes time-consuming as the drive has to go over each fragment to find the data.
Though Windows automatically defragments files every week you can also do it yourself. Go to Defrag through the search bar and click Analyze and press Optimize. Once the drive reaches 0% fragmented, you start using programs again. Please note, this issue only occurs when you have an HDD. Defragmentation is not needed on an SSD.
Switch to Solid State Drive
As mentioned right above, upgrading your storage to a Solid State Drive will solve a lot of speed performance itself. It can read and write data way faster than a traditional HDD. Moreover, they weigh less, are less noisy, and consume less power than an HDD.
You can install an SSD on the M.2 slots on your laptop. Your device can have HDD as backup storage along with an SSD.
Increase RAM
Depending on what you use your laptop for, you would need to upgrade your RAM size. For instance, if you just use it for taking notes or surfing the web then 4 GB RAM is more than enough. However, for content creation, graphic designing, etc you need a machine with 8, 16, or 32 GB of RAM or more. This would increase the speed of your laptop by quickly pulling the information and sending it to the CPU.
You can find out how much RAM your system has by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del keys to open Task Manager. Then go to the Performance tab, click Memory and you will see how much memory you have.
If your laptop has memory soldered onto the motherboard, you cannot upgrade it. However, if it is not, you can easily swap it with a higher RAM.
Slow Internet
Sometimes users confuse the slow speed of the internet with a slower-performing laptop. There are also times when a heavy file is being uploaded or downloaded which causes the internet speed to run slower on the device. In such times, just wait for the program to finish uploading/downloading and the laptop would work just fine for web browsing.
If you have tried all these and still the issue persists then the only option left is to upgrade your laptop. Paklap offers the lowest best prices of Brand New Laptops in Pakistan 2023.
