I've had my custom-built PC for about 10 years, and while it was upgraded about 4 years ago, it's been running really slowly for the past 6 months. My friend's similar PC has been running fine for 15 years, so I'm not sure what's going wrong. I mostly use it for light gaming (like Terraria and Stardew Valley) and work tasks, but it even struggles to open Word. Is there anything I can do to speed it up, or is it too far gone?
1 Answer
It's hard to give solid advice without details about your hardware, but here are a few things to check: you might not have enough RAM—consider whether you're running 16GB or less these days. Also, ensure you have enough free space on your main drive; using the disk cleanup tool ('cleanmgr') can help with that. If your CPU is throttling due to temperatures, check for dust buildup, and consider whether your thermal paste needs replacing. And remember, background programs can eat up your resources too, so review what’s running in your notification area and turn off what you don’t need.
Any recommended software for checking disk health?
What kind of details should I provide about my PC?