Procedure checklist for slow computer problems

Question

For me one of the most hard to pinpoint the causes problem is to determine what is causing slow behavior. In many cases you can't find a process which is consuming more significant memory than the others or which is consuming more significant cpu time than the others. But still the computer is sluggish, and many times you have no error message to give you a hint. So I would like to know, counting on the help of our most experienced fellows, what, in their experience, would constitute a fair checklist, a fair group of steps of things to check on to determine what is causing the computer slow.

Answer 1

My checklist (personally) would be as follows:

1) The obvious stuff - CPU and RAM usage percentages, and per core CPU usage(s)

2) Hard drive active time, and response time

3) Kernel CPU times

4) Antivirus program stalls

5) Network stalls

Of course, how to check each one exactly depends on your specific OS

Answer 2

If your computer is slow first make sure you have enough ram and use the device manager and shut down programs at the start up your not gonna use. The operating system plays a role in it to depends on how old you computer is. Keep your registry clean and watch what anti virus software you desire.

Answer 3

My checklist for maximum performance.

Software

1. Startup and normal computing
2. Press WIN + R.
3. Type msconfig.
4. Check your startup and services.
5. Disable any unnecessary startup tools, programs, etc.

Internet browsing
Use any browser you want. Just cut down on the search bars, toolbars...

Hardware
If you have tried all of the above and the computer is still slow. Or if you want more performance, consider this.

• Hard Disk upgrade (Huge performance boost) $100 Applicable for Laptops and Desktops. Swap out your hard disk and replace with a faster solid state drive.
  Do prepare an OS on hand.
  Solid State drives are by far the cheapest and most effective way for slow boot times and overall system performance. I recommend the Samsung 850 PRO 128GB solid state drive.

• RAM upgrade (Moderate Performance boost) $50
  Applicable for Laptops and Desktops.

  If you have only 1 stick of RAM considering getting another similar one to add on for double lane memory. Note that little improvement gains will be observed for more than 8 GB of RAM.

• GPU upgrade (Large Performance boost, varies) $250 A good GPU gives better FPS in highly intensive graphics processing like games, or even just crunching pixels on screen. Aiming for 60 FPS is smooth for the eye. (although some may say otherwise) This reduces strain on the Integrated GPU on the CPU. I recommend NVidia GTX 750.

• Don't forget the CPU.
  AMD: Better collective multithread performance.
  Intel: Better single threaded performance.
  I recommend AMD A10 4600M or Intel i7 6500U for laptops.