New computer turning old

[darkdiablo]

When I bought my PC a year ago, it was blazing fast, best I can ask for, these days I noticed my PC isn't nearly as fast as before. I know what you're thinking, I've installed too many programs, and need defragmentation and all that stuff. I've been very careful with stuff I install, making sure my harddrives are defragmented regularly, and did everything possible to keep my PC clean and running fast. So my question is, is my PC slowing down because the hardware is getting old, or is defragmentation, carefully cleaning my program files isn't enough?

I have 250 gigs of space on my harddrive, only used 120 gigs so far....

 

[mpilchfamily]

Sounds like you may have some parts wearing out. Chances are its the HDD. But even well defragged a large drive thats about half full will need to jump all over the place across the platters to get the information needed. So that will add a small bit of time to things. Besides the Windows default Defrag isn't all that intelegent. Often a fresh install will help to speed things up but you would be better of using a defrag program that boots from a disk so it isn't ran inside windows. This way your able to get a better organized drive.

 

[law9933]

You might should post a Overdrive link for more thoughts. The yellow TechExpess at the top of the form. OOps wrong website for the test (pcpitstop). One year is not that old.

Too many auto start programs, a bloated AV, malware?

 

[darkdiablo]

Originally posted by: law9933
You might should post a Overdrive link for more thoughts. The yellow TechExpess at the top of the form. OOps wrong website for the test (pcpitstop). One year is not that old.

Too many auto start programs, a bloated AV, malware?

I made sure most of the program that I don't need autostart never auto start, and I have no malware on my computer as I regularly scan it. The system boots time isnt bad, its just i noticed a decrease in speed in overall usage as oppose to when i first bought my pc.

 

[law9933]

What is your AV & what do you scan with?

I suggest trying MalwareBytes & SUPERAntispyware free manual scanners.

 

[darkdiablo]

Originally posted by: law9933
What is your AV & what do you scan with?

I suggest trying MalwareBytes & SUPERAntispyware free manual scanners.

I use avast anti-virus, its free, but its really good, and doesnt use much resource.

 

[law9933]

Yes Avast is good, but nothing can find all malware. Try the mentioned scanners & ATF cleaner or CCleaner.

 

[vanvock]

Have you tried a registry cleaner? A lot of folks say they are snake oil but I've had good luck with them on this 4-5 yr. old install of XP with no such slowdowns. I think they can be a good tool as long as you watch what you are doing.

 

[Peter Trend]

And try defragmenting with Power Defragmenter (its free)
mpilchfamily is right you would be better running this from a seperate disk/drive/usb stick (its a standalone .exe so you can run it from anywhere). Works a trick
I think CCleaner has a registry checker built in somewhere? It at least finds and removes entries that relate to non-existent .dlls

 

[Denithor]

CCleaner
Spybot
SUPERantispyware

Download/install/update/full scan with each of those. If they find anything get rid of it.

Anti-virus gets rid of viruses but not spyware/crapware/bloat/etc, which are more commonly what slow down systems rather than viruses (which are usually very obvious in their effects).

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: vanvock
Have you tried a registry cleaner? A lot of folks say they are snake oil but I've had good luck with them on this 4-5 yr. old install of XP with no such slowdowns. I think they can be a good tool as long as you watch what you are doing.

Yep, registry cleaners are snake oil and can easily destroy a system.

If for some crazy reason you feel you must run one, make a full, good backup first.