What To Do When Your PC Slows Down And Encounters Errors..

Every computer tends to slow down with age. The factors contributing to this slowdown can be many and the speed of deterioration in performance may vary from one PC to another. The end result is usually the same - sluggish performance and an increase in the number of computer errors. At this stage, a computer user has to make a decision and consider options like calling an expert, upgrading the computer, or changing the PC.

However, before making any of these big decisions, it is recommended that you try to investigate the reasons behind the slow computer and make a genuine attempt to resolve the problem.

In this article, we will discuss steps that allow you to improve your computer’s performance and troubleshoot common PC errors.

Run a Virus Scan

Has your computer recently started performing sluggishly? Is there a spike in occurrence of errors, such as stop error c000021a? If yes, it will be prudent to run a virus scan.

Viruses are malware programs, which if present on a PC, not only deteriorate your PCs performance, but also cause various errors when you attempt to run applications and perform any other task on your system. To get rid of these infections and restore your PC to a normal working state, you need to run a virus scan on your entire computer using reliable and advanced antivirus software.

Run a Spyware Scan

Another cause of slow performance of your computer could be due to presence of another category of malicious programs known as spyware and adware. These harmful programs initiate hordes of processes on an infected PC, which consume substantial computer resources, leaving little resources for legitimate and necessary processes. To get rid of these malware programs, run a spyware scan on your entire computer using advanced antispyware software.

Perform a Registry Scan

Not many users are aware of the fact that issues in the Windows registry can seriously cripple your computer’s performance. In addition to sluggish performance, a corrupt or unhealthy registry also causes various errors, such as C++ runtime error on your computer. To fix this, you can run a registry scan using an efficient registry cleaner tool to get rid of unwanted registry entries and to improve your system’s performance.

Remove Unwanted Programs and Files

To maintain optimal performance and error-free functioning of your computer, ensure that you only store the required data and programs on it. Do away with unused programs and files to free up hard disk space. Use the built-in Add or Remove programs utility to remove unwanted and unused programs and applications. You may also use an efficient third-party uninstaller tool to remove programs from your computer.

To remove unwanted files, run the Disk Cleanup Utility that helps you identify and remove unneeded data from your hard drives.

Defrag your Hard Drive

If the data stored on your hard drives is not arranged contiguously, your PC’s performance may drop. Removing the unused data alone does not ensure better performance of your computer. You also need to ensure that data stored on your hard drives is not fragmented. To defrag your hard drives, run the Disk Defragmenter utility to analyze fragmented data and rearrange it to make it contiguous.