I've been facing a serious problem with my parents' computer. Over the past couple of months, they've noticed that the RAM and CPU usage are really high, but they hardly use the computer. When they do, it's either for work or leaving it idle. The CPU usage constantly fluctuates between 0-100%, and the RAM is often maxed out at 70-90%. This makes the computer incredibly slow, taking up to 5 minutes just to load Google. I've tried checking the Task Manager for hours, but I can't seem to find the issue. Can anyone guide me on how to fix this?
5 Answers
Another option is downloading Malwarebytes for a quick scan—it's free and very effective for detecting unwanted programs that can hog resources. Give that a shot if you haven't already.
Lastly, if nothing else works, try backing up the important files and consider doing a factory reset. Sometimes that's the quickest way to start fresh, especially if the computer is still sluggish after all the maintenance.
What kind of hardware is in the computer? If it's older, that might explain the slow speeds. Also, checking how long the system has been running without a restart could give you clues about performance issues. Maybe it just needs a refresh!
After running the scan, don't forget to check the startup programs to see if there's anything that shouldn't be there and disable it. This can really help improve performance.
It sounds like there might be some malware causing these issues, especially if this slowdown happened suddenly. Since it's running Windows, the first thing I'd recommend is running a Windows Defender antivirus scan. This can help identify if any malicious software is using up your resources.
Thanks for the tip! I haven’t run the Windows Defender yet, but I’ll give it a try and see what comes up.