Computer running slow

Everything takes an age, the spinning circle turns up at the smallest thing, and you have started to wonder whether the machine is on its way out. In most cases it is not. A computer that has slowed to a crawl is usually telling you something specific, and the fix is far more often one inexpensive change than a whole new machine. There are four checks further down this page you can do yourself, free, which will usually name the cause before anyone visits. Tell us how it behaves and when it started, and we will find the real cause, say plainly whether it is worth putting money into, and give you one fixed quote before any work. If we cannot help, you pay nothing for the work.

Send an enquiry Book a repair

No fix, no fee on the repairIf we cannot fix it, you do not pay for the repair. In writing, on every job.
Free advice by messageDescribe the fault and we will tell you what it sounds like and whether it is worth doing, before anyone travels.
We come to youAcross Leeds, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire, or we collect and return.
A real person repliesNot a call centre, not a ticket queue: we read every enquiry, day and night, Sunday to Friday. The fixed quote you agree is the price you pay.

The short version

Slow almost never means dying. It usually means one fixable thing.
An old mechanical hard drive is the commonest cause by far.
Four checks below usually name the cause before anyone visits.
Slow only online is the connection, not the computer.
A machine that was slow when new will stay slow.

Try this first

Four checks you can do before anyone visits

None of these need tools and none of them cost anything. Between them they will usually name the cause, and more to the point they will tell you which upgrade would be a waste of money. Worth ten minutes before you spend a thing.

Open Task Manager with Ctrl, Shift and Escape, choose Performance, then click Disk. Windows names the drive type there: SSD or HDD. HDD means a mechanical drive, and on a modern system that alone is usually the whole answer. You can often hear one too, a faint whirr or chatter while it works. A spinning drive only turns up in older Macs; newer ones are solid-state already.
Check how much free space is left: This PC in File Explorer, or Apple menu, System Settings, General, Storage. Once a drive is nearly full the system has nowhere left to work, and that slows everything rather than just saving files. Below roughly a tenth free is where it starts to hurt. Clearing space costs nothing and the difference can be immediate.
Look at what starts with the machine: the Startup apps tab in Task Manager, or System Settings, General, Login Items on a Mac (Login Items & Extensions on the newest macOS). A long list, especially several marked high impact, explains a desktop that is already busy before you have touched it. Switching off what you do not need is free and reversible.
Open a local folder and a document, then load a web page, and compare the two. If the machine itself feels quick and only the web crawls, the fault is the connection or the browser and no upgrade to the computer will change it. That one check has saved people the entire cost of an upgrade they did not need.

What it usually means

Why a computer gets slow, most likely cause first

An old mechanical hard drive that a modern system has outgrown. This is the commonest cause of all, and the one an SSD transforms
Too much loading itself with the machine, so every start-up drags and the desktop is busy before you have touched it
A drive so close to full that the system has no room left to work in
Too little memory for what you now ask of it, so a few tabs and a document bring it to a stop
Malware or unwanted software quietly using the machine in the background, which we test for rather than assume
Heat: a computer choked with dust deliberately slows itself to stay safe, and a clean can do more than parts
Less often, a drive that is beginning to fail, which is slow for a reason worth catching early

Not sure which is yours? Describe it in a message and we will tell you, free. Tell us what it is doing and we will work it out.

At a glance

What a slow computer usually means, and what actually fixes it

This is the fault where the honest answer varies most. A mechanical drive, a full drive, a cluttered start-up, heat and plain old age all feel identical from where you are sitting, and the fix for one does nothing at all for another. Find the row that matches what you found above.

What you have found	What it usually is	What actually changes it
Task Manager says HDD, or you can hear the drive working	A mechanical drive a modern system has outgrown	An SSD. This is the single change people notice most
Barely any free space left on the drive	No room for the system to work in	Clearing space, which costs nothing
Worst in the first few minutes, long start-up list	Too much loading itself with the machine	Trimming what starts. No parts needed
Fine at first, slower as the day goes on, fans loud	Heat, usually dust choking the airflow	A clean, sometimes fresh thermal paste. See the overheating page
Everything stalls once several things are open	Too little memory for what you now ask of it	More memory, where the machine allows it. Some are soldered in
The machine feels fine but the web crawls	The connection or the browser, not the computer	Nothing you buy for the computer. See the Wi-Fi dropping page
Slow overnight, adverts, programs you did not install	Malware or unwanted software using it in the background	A clean-up rather than parts
Freezing or hanging more and more often	A drive that may be starting to fail	Get your files copied off before anything else. This is the urgent row
A clicking or grinding noise from the drive	A drive failing mechanically	Switch it off now and do not power it up again. Every run risks the surface your files sit on - this one goes straight to file recovery, not a clean-up
Slow since the day you bought it	The machine was never quick to begin with	No upgrade rescues that. Keep the money towards a replacement

Most slow machines are two or three of these rows at once, which is why guessing tends to buy the wrong fix. The free advice by message tells you which ones you are actually in before you spend anything.

What we do

How we find what is actually slowing it down

You tell us in your message what it is like to use and when it changed, because sudden and gradual point at different causes
We come to you across Leeds, at home or at work, or we can collect the machine and bring it back if that is easier
We measure the actual bottleneck rather than guess at it
That means the drive and its health, whether the memory is running out, what loads at start-up, and whether heat is throttling it
We check for malware and unwanted software working away in the background rather than take it on faith
Where a cheap change is the answer, an SSD, a start-up trim, freeing the drive, we tell you what difference it will actually make first
Where nothing will meaningfully help, we say that too, because there is no sense selling you parts that will not change how it feels
You get a fixed quote before any work begins, and if it is not worth it, we say so and you pay nothing beyond any call-out you agreed

Is it worth fixing?

Is a slow computer worth upgrading?

Very often worth it, and far more so than people fear when a computer starts crawling. The causes we find most, an old spinning drive, a cluttered start-up, a drive with no room left or too little memory, are usually one modest change away from a machine that feels new again, which costs a fraction of replacing it. The honest exception is a computer that was slow from the day it was bought, or one old enough that the processor itself was never going to be quick, since no upgrade rescues that, and there your money is better kept towards a new machine. There is one row of the table above that changes the order of things: if the slowness is a drive beginning to fail, the first job is getting your files somewhere safe, and the speed question comes second. If that is where yours has landed we will tell you plainly, rather than sell you parts that will not move it.

This is a computer upgrades and speed-ups job. Advice by message is free, then you get one fixed quote before any work starts. If we cannot fix it, there is nothing to pay for the repair.

Send an enquiry and describe the fault

Where we work

We come to you across Leeds, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire

Home or work, day or night, Sunday to Friday. There is no walk-in shop, so we come to the machine, or collect it and bring it back. Start at computer repair in Leeds, or pick your area.

Questions

Slow computer questions we get asked

Why has my computer suddenly got so slow?

A sudden change is a useful clue, because it points somewhere different from a machine that has crept slower over years. Something arriving overnight is often a drive that is filling up or beginning to fail, an update that has left something running heavy in the background, or unwanted software that has installed itself and is quietly using the machine. A gradual slide is more often the drive being old and the start-up growing cluttered over time. When you get in touch, telling us whether it came on all at once or crept up on you helps us point straight at the likely cause.

Is it slow, or has it got a virus?

It can be either, and they feel much the same from where you are sitting, so we test rather than guess. Malware and unwanted programs slow a machine by using it in the background, and a computer that got slow overnight, throws up adverts, or has toolbars and software you never installed is worth checking for exactly that. A machine that has simply grown tired over years is usually the drive, the memory or the start-up instead. Part of the free advice by message is telling you which of those you are actually dealing with, so you are not paying for parts when the answer is a clean-up, or the other way round.

Will an SSD actually make that much difference?

On a machine still running a mechanical hard drive it is the change people notice most, because that drive is what everything else is waiting on: starting up, opening programs, saving, searching. What it does not do is make the processor faster, so a machine that was slow when it was new will still be slow afterwards, only with quicker loading. That is the distinction we will be straight with you about before you spend anything. Moving your whole setup across to the new drive takes as long as your data takes to copy, which is not work worth rushing.

Is it worth adding more memory instead?

It depends what the slowness actually feels like. Memory helps one specific symptom: everything stalling once several things are open at once, a stack of browser tabs and a document, or a big spreadsheet alongside everything else. It does nothing at all for a slow drive, which is the far commoner cause, so adding memory to a machine with a spinning drive usually disappoints. Worth knowing too that on a good many laptops the memory is soldered to the board and cannot be changed, which we check before ever suggesting it.

It is only slow on the internet. Is that the computer?

Often it is not the computer at all. If the machine itself feels quick but web pages crawl, videos stall and everything online lags, the fault usually lies with the connection or the browser rather than the hardware, and no drive or memory will change it. A browser buried under add-ons and open tabs is a common culprit too. If it also keeps disconnecting, the Wi-Fi dropping page covers that fault properly. We will help you tell the two apart, because there is no sense upgrading a machine that is not the thing slowing you down, and we would rather say so than take the work.

Does a slow computer mean it is about to die?

Usually not, and this is the worry we most often talk people down from. Slow is a symptom, not a death sentence, and the great majority of slow machines are held back by something ordinary and fixable rather than failing. There is one exception worth catching: a drive that is starting to fail can show up as things loading slowly, freezing or hanging, sometimes with a clicking noise, and that is a reason to look sooner rather than later so your files are safe. If it has also started crashing or showing blue screens, the blue screen page is the better place to start. The free advice by message tells us whether yours is simply tired or genuinely on the way out, and either way you will know where you stand.

Can you fix it today?

Sometimes, and we will be straight with you rather than promise a slot we cannot keep. A clean-up, clearing out what loads at start-up, or dealing with unwanted software can often be sorted on the visit. Anything that needs a part, an SSD or memory for your exact machine, depends on how quickly that part reaches us, and moving your whole setup across to a new drive is mostly waiting for your files to transfer, which is not work worth rushing. Tell us what it is doing when you get in touch and we will give you a realistic answer, not an optimistic one.

Sound more like one of these?

Tell us what is wrong.

Send an enquiry and describe the fault. We will find the fault properly, give you a fixed quote before any work, and if we cannot fix it there is nothing to pay for the repair. A real person who does the work, not a call centre.