Q: Why is my new PC computer so slow?

A: A lot of times the reason for a new computer being slow is Malware. These are programs that are designed to act like viruses and scare you into paying for fake anti-virus programs. The Service Desk has a bunch of tools to remove these, the best one that we have is a free program call MalwareBytes and can be downloaded here http://www.malwarebytes.org

Q: I have an older PC computer that I still use but has become too slow to be useful, can anything been done to fix it?

A: With older computers there are three things to do.

The first is to try defragmenting the hard drive. You can find this tool in start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. It may take a couple hours to run depending on how fast your computer is and how big your hard drive is. I suggest letting it run overnight.

The second thing is to have your computer completely reimaged by the Service Desk. This will completely wipe the hard drive and reinstall the operating system and all applications.

Finally, if the computer is more than 5 years old the reason it is slow may be that it has older hardware. Sometimes the hardware needs a simple memory upgrade that will cost between $20 and $40. This can be assessed over the phone by a Service Desk technician. Please give us a call to make sure that this is done correctly.