Reasons for a windows device to operate very slow

How do we diagnose the root cause of the slowdown

01. Low Hard Disk Drive Health

Low health of your HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or SSD (Solid State Drive) causes Windows to operate at a very slower speed and sometimes might even give BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) errors.

You can check your HDD/SSD health using Hard Disk Sentinel Software. It is a paid software but there is a free trial period, which is plenty to check your HDD/SSD health status.

02. Your Windows Version

Newer versions of Windows 10 and 11 (Windows 10 Ver. 20H1 and above) are only optimized to run on SSDs and due to that mechanical HDDs struggle to operate due to their slower data read and write speeds. Sometimes even go to 100% usage if you check it in Task Manager.

To better understand this, Watch this video below to get an idea of the speed differences of various storage technologies.

03. Check all HDD/SSDs connected

If you are running multiple storage devices, you have to check health of all drives. Sometimes Windows struggle to work or not even boot if any of the connected HDD/SSD health is low.

04. Check Windows Task Manager for other hardware and software issues.

Use Windows Task Manager for any suspicious behavior in CPU,RAM,HDD/SSD,GPU and Network usage. If CPU usage is high. You can sort the processes according to the highest CPU usage and check if you can find the parent software of that culprit process.

05. Check for Windows Installation errors.

In rare occasions corrupted Windows OS files might slow down the PC. Try running Command Prompt (CMD) as an administrator and run the following command.

SFC /scannow

  This will check the Windows system file integrity and repair if any error found.

Tip: Do not use free third party anti-virus software ever in your system. Windows defender gives a solid protection and it does not slows down your system. But if it is absolutely necessary, use a paid well reputed Internet Security. 

06. Check for keyboard and trackpad errors.

Faulty keyboards and stall your computer from time to time or sometime stuck at boot. You can try rapidly pressing random keys to when your computer halts at some points to check whether it is a keyboard issue. The same will occur with the trackpad also. These errors mostly common in laptops.

How to solve the slowness and get your system up to speed

01.First check your Windows version and upgrade to an SSD if necessary.

If your Windows version is below than Windows 10 Version 1909, most probably the culprit is your HDD. Try checking your HDD health and replace it with a new HDD. You can also try an SSD if you are not tight on budget. SSDs are at least 4x faster than normal HDDs. Upgrading to an SSD gives your pc a huge speed boost.

If you are on a newer Windows version (Windows 10 Ver. 20H1 and above), and your system slow, most probably you are using a mechanical HDD in that system. Then, upgrading to an SSD is your only option. Note that SSDs are expensive than HDDs. For an example, you can only buy a 256GB SSD for the price of 1TB HDD.

Tip: Going dual drive can save some money. You can buy a lower capacity SSD for Windows installation and softwares (128GB or 256GB). These SSDs are the cheapest. Then you can use your existing HDD (only if it's health is okay) as the secondary drive. Most newer laptops support dual drive system. Also for older laptops you can now replace your DVD drive for a secondary HDD slot. Search in internet for an HDD Caddy Case. They comes in 2 sizes so make sure to get right one for your laptop. 

02. If HDD isn't your issue check further for other software issues.

Open CMD and type SFC /scannow and press Enter. This will check for Windows Installation errors and repairs automatically. This command takes a lot of time depends on your HDD speed.

Try disabling startup items from Task Manager. This will reduce your boot time.

Try Disk Defragment Tool only if you are using an HDD.

If you found out a suspicious process in Task Manager, You can google the process name to find out it's parent software, If it is a third party software, try updating and if it still slows down your system, then you might need to remove it.

03. If you already running an SSD and you PC is still slow, then you might need to check for keyboard errors. 

Also having dust clogged inside system fans also slows down your PC. You can check that using Windows Task Manager. If your temps are not shown in Task Manager, You can try a third party temperature measuring software like CPU-Z, GPU-Z or MSI afterburner.

At this point, you need to clean the PC cooling system properly and reapply thermal paste for the maximum heat dissipation.

Disassembling your laptop/desktop is not recommended unless you are experienced, as it may very likely damage internal components and cause more troubles.

Click here to learn more about SSDs