- guardian.co.uk, Saturday August 30 2008 00.01 BST
- The Guardian, Saturday August 30 2008
My laptop has been running very slowly. Are there any simple suggestions about what to do?
There are lots of reasons your PC may be slowing down, such as a lack of free memory or too much going on at once. It could even be that you're just pushing it too far.
Your first port of call is to use a program such as AVG to check that there's no malicious software or viruses hiding on your system. After that, try trimming everything back: get rid of those programs you've downloaded but never use; shift old files you don't really need on to a CD or external hard drive; check you don't have lots of programs that automatically start every time you boot up. The more space you can free up, the better.
Still struggling? Google to check whether there are known bugs with any of the programs you use, or existing conflicts you should know about. If all that fails, you're left with boosting your computer's RAM - or admitting that your old PC is struggling with the pace of programs written for more modern systems.
· email your problems to gadget.clinic@guardian.co.uk
