Very Slow Windows 7 Intel i5 computer

[brasimericano]

Hi, I have never posted here so thanks for your help in advance. I bought a Samsung QX410-J01 in November. When I first bought it is was great. It ran really fast and smooth and had no problems at all. But during the past few months I have downloaded a bunch of crap wear such as different toolbars, firefox add-ons, miscellaneous programs etc and my system speed is VERY slow now. Programs open slowly, I get errors that I did not used to get etc.

What should I do? Someone suggested "Wiping" my system, but I have no idea how to do that and/or if it is necessary. I have run a couple of registry cleaners and also uninstalled several of the programs I downloaded. Any suggestions??

Thanks so much!

 

[Fumz]

Hi, I have never posted here so thanks for your help in advance. I bought a Samsung QX410-J01 in November. When I first bought it is was great. It ran really fast and smooth and had no problems at all. But during the past few months I have downloaded a bunch of crap wear such as different toolbars, firefox add-ons, miscellaneous programs etc and my system speed is VERY slow now. Programs open slowly, I get errors that I did not used to get etc.

What should I do? Someone suggested "Wiping" my system, but I have no idea how to do that and/or if it is necessary. I have run a couple of registry cleaners and also uninstalled several of the programs I downloaded. Any suggestions??

Thanks so much!

Registry cleaners are one of the worst things you can do to 7. If you can't or don't know how to clean the registry manually, then CCleaner is about as intrusive as you'd like a program to get. Otherwise, leave 7 alone... it does not need tweaking.

Whether or not you should re-install depends on how messed up the system is? First, uninstall all the "crap" you installed. Second, list what you have loaded at startup. Go to start and type msconfig, hit enter, click the startup tab, list everything that's checked.

 

[brasimericano]

Thanks for the help. I used CCleaner last week. I hope I did not screw anything up. I am not as smart about computers as I would like to be or as I think I am! I ran msconfig and found that a lot of programs I have no use for were starting so I disabled them. We shall see if that helped! Thanks! If I did want to "wipe" my computer, is this a difficult thing to do? And are there some good programs I can download to facilitate "wiping" the computer?

 

[cmd187]

Why did you install all that crap in the first place? You don't need 45 programs installed taking up RAM and HDD space. Of course, Windows is a naturally bloated OS.

 

[Fumz]

Thanks for the help. I used CCleaner last week. I hope I did not screw anything up. I am not as smart about computers as I would like to be or as I think I am! I ran msconfig and found that a lot of programs I have no use for were starting so I disabled them. We shall see if that helped! Thanks! If I did want to "wipe" my computer, is this a difficult thing to do? And are there some good programs I can download to facilitate "wiping" the computer?

That's exactly what got you into trouble in the first place. :sarc: Everything you need to perform a clean install is on the Windows 7 DVD. Installing and reinstalling Windows 7

 

[Sardonicus]

Run the Windows Disk Defragmenter.
Run Malware Bytes.
Do a virus scan.

 

[cptscruffy]

a simple thing that has not been mentioned - have you removed the programs that are bloating the system?

 

[Vertex]

Do not use 2 antivirus programs because the two of them might conflict with each other which causes the computer to be very slow in a number of ocassions. So if you have two antivirus programs, remove one of them.

 

[jaydeee]

guess my virus defense and cleaning combo would help.
1. Avast as antivirus, we know how virus can to our computers
2. Malwarebytes as antimalware. malwares are common causes of computer slow down
3. Ccleaner as temporary and unnecessary file cleaner.
Use above tool to check your system and see what happens. You may also try scan/fix your HDD with chkdsk /r and use memtest to test your RAM.

hope it helps.

 

[gregrocker]

Here are tips to clean up a bloated Win7 install: Clean up factory bloatware

Most important is to get a clean boot by unchecking everything in msconfig>Startup except AV and gadgets, then checking back after several restarts that nothing has written itself back in - if so turn it off in Program preferences or uninstall it.

Next on msconfig>Services tab choose "Hide all MS Services" to see what is running without your knowledge. Turn off everything and again check back after several restarts to turn off anything that is stubborn in it's Program preferences or uninstall it with great vengeance for it's impertinent freeloading.

 

[Golden]

Hi,

Welcome. There are lots of suggestions to help you, some of them aren't relevent at all until you start at the top, and for that I highly recommend Greg's suggestions above - this should be your first port of call. Check his post #18 in the link he posted.

For now, I recommend ignoring subjective comments about whether 2 anti-virus products are good or bad, checking RAM etc. etc. These are peripheral to your main problem : the bloated nature of your system. Get that sorted first, and the rest can be dealt with as needed.

Regards,
Golden