What makes my netbook slow

What do you do? Wait it out, of course, which might not be so bad, unless every house in your subdivision suddenly decides to stream the latest stand-up comedy special on Netflix. Sign In. Become a Member. Remember Me. Forgot username or password? Not a member? Need further assistance? Please call Member Services at From insufficient memory to cryptojacking malware, here's how to diagnose the problem and fix it.

By Nicholas Deleon. The more memory you have, the more resources your system has at its disposal, meaning it can do things faster and handle more things at once. Adding more memory is a straightforward way to fix problems with slow performance when switching between apps and slow response times.

Upgrading your memory may sound intimidating, but it's actually quite easy. With a screwdriver, your owner's manual and a good how-to video, you can install new memory in just a few minutes. No computer tech required. Just a few small, manageable changes that deliver immediate and lasting results.

A slow computer is likely because you have too many programs running. This takes up a lot of processing power and impacts performance and speed. There are two ways to fix this: firstly, decreasing the number of programs running, and secondly, increasing your computers memory and processing power. All rights reserved. Neither Crucial nor Micron Technology, Inc.

Micron, the Micron logo, Crucial and the Crucial logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Micron Technology, Inc. Mac is either a registered trademark or trademark of Apple, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Find a product Part no. And, while Windows 10 automatically defragments files once a week, you can also do this manually any time you want to. The fix: To defrag a drive, click the magnifying glass icon in the bottom-left corner of your screen.

Then type Defrag in the search bar and click Open. In the pop-up window, click Analyze to check how much space is taken up by fragmented files on your hard drive.

If there are lots of fragmented files, click Optimize. However, you should only defrag your drive if it is labeled as a hard disk drive under Media type. If you see that your drive is labeled as a solid-state drive, defragging it can actually wear down your drive more. If you want to know more about how to defrag a hard drive on your Windows 10 computer , check out our step-by-step guide here.

An HDD typically lasts for three to five years because it uses magnetic disks or platters to store data. An arm sits on top of these platters and reads and writes data as the disks spin at speeds of thousands of RPM revolutions per minute.

On the other hand, an SSD is made up of flash memory chips, so it does not have any moving parts. Because of this, it can read and write data several times faster than an HDD. The fix: Many laptops these days come with empty M. All you need to install these tiny hard drives is a screwdriver. And, if your laptop has an open M.

Random-access memory RAM is temporary storage for your laptop. It keeps all the things your computer needs on stand-by. Then, when the time comes, it can quickly pull the information and hand it over to your processor. While adding more RAM will not always speed up your laptop, you do need to have more than the minimum amount of RAM for certain programs to run properly. The fix: To find out how much RAM you have, click the magnifying glass icon in the bottom-left corner of your screen. Finally, if your computer is still slow after trying the above recommendations, there's likely a more serious hardware related issue e.

This utility provides information on whether or not your computer has a bad piece of hardware. If your computer is more than five years old, it performs slower than a new one. As more advanced software programs are released, they are optimized to run more efficiently on newer computers.

Older computers are not able to run these new programs as well, which causes them to perform more slowly. Furthermore, new software tends to be more demanding in general, which is another problem for old hardware. We recommend you consider purchasing a new computer or upgrading your current one. My computer is running slow, what steps can I do to fix it? Note If you have a Mac computer, skip this section, as there is no registry in macOS. Additional information Other basic computer troubleshooting steps.

Why is my Internet connection so slow? What makes a computer fast and powerful? How to know which games my computer can run. How to increase processor speed. Should I change my Microsoft Windows page file size? See our slow definition for all links relating to slow computers.

Hard drive help and support. Microsoft Windows help and support. Was this page useful?