PC Running Slow? Here's How to Diagnose the Problem
Slow is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Four checks separate a fixable machine from one worth replacing.
Open the task manager and watch what saturates during the slowness: CPU, memory, disk or network. Each points somewhere different, and guessing without looking is how people buy the wrong upgrade.
Sustained 100% disk activity on a spinning drive is the most common cause we see, and swapping to an SSD is the single best money-per-minute upgrade available for an older machine.
Memory pressure shows up as constant paging and browser tabs reloading. Sustained high CPU with nothing obvious running suggests background software, telemetry or something unwanted.
If the machine is over roughly seven years old and needs more than one of those repairs, replacement usually wins on cost. If it needs exactly one, fix it and get several more good years.
Questions about your own setup? A FinkIT assessment is free, and you keep the recommendations either way.
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