Computer is Really Slow – Troubleshooting Tips

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I'm not exactly sure when exactly it started happening, but my computer now is extremely slow.

Originally, I have been using this computer for all sorts of stuff: Photoshop, web design/development, movies and even some light (Warcraft 3) gaming. I have been running it with Windows XP

But now it is very, very slow, and I don't know how, why or when this happened. After I noticed the slowness, I removed Windows XP and installed Windows 7 on it, but it is still very slow. Now watching videos is unbearable at full screen (slow frame rates, audio out of sync) and painful when made smaller.

Why would this happen? What would cause this? I am starting to think it is a hardware problem (the CPU has died or something), but I don't even know if that is possible.

The PC is running with 1GB of RAM, three hard drives (all up, something like 400 GB) and I think a 1.6GHz processor

Best Answer

Checking the CPU temperatures is a good idea (RealTemp).
Don't forget the other common factor, harddisk state (HDTune).
And, yes (Ivo) graphics should also be checked (FurMark)

Alternatively, try running a USB Booting Ubuntu for a while...

PS: since you do not declare mysterious stalls and crashes,
I am ruling out memory problems for now.

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