My Desktop lags a lot

[karan11000]

My PC lags randomly for no reason.
I tried almost everything.
Formatting and reinstalling windows, cleaning/dusting every hardware, updating drivers, trying softwares.
I don't even play games nowadays, yet it lags and stutters for 2-10 minutes.

What else can I do now? :/

 

[BrandonYoung]

Could you describe this "lag" in a bit more detail? It could be internet cutting out, causing a "lag" in your browser (or game), it could be your RAM filling up, so the computer is forced to use your hard drive as 'virtual memory' (which is very very slow).

I would monitor CPU temperature to see if that has anything to do with it, even if the fan/heatsink is clean, your thermal paste could potentially need re-application.

 

[karan11000]

Could you describe this "lag" in a bit more detail? It could be internet cutting out, causing a "lag" in your browser (or game), it could be your RAM filling up, so the computer is forced to use your hard drive as 'virtual memory' (which is very very slow).

I would monitor CPU temperature to see if that has anything to do with it, even if the fan/heatsink is clean, your thermal paste could potentially need re-application.

It lags randomly, like when you switch windows or when you click on some button/link on an app, it freezes for a long time.
I believe it's something with RAM, as 2.5GB is being used normally and 1GB is free.
Also, it might be related to HDD, as I always notice it getting fragmented.

 

[BrandonYoung]

Low RAM will always cause this kind of lag, as will fragmented hard drives, mix the two together and your computing like we were in the 80's. Although with 1GB free RAM, you shouldn't run into slowdowns caused by virtual memory I wouldn't think, this would lead me to believe hard drive issues (need to defrag) or perhaps some malware/virus/etc...

Just a side note, solid state drives are amazing to store your OS, and can speed up the most out of date systems (not saying yours is however...).

 

[karan11000]

Low RAM will always cause this kind of lag, as will fragmented hard drives, mix the two together and your computing like we were in the 80's. Although with 1GB free RAM, you shouldn't run into slowdowns caused by virtual memory I wouldn't think, this would lead me to believe hard drive issues (need to defrag) or perhaps some malware/virus/etc...

Just a side note, solid state drives are amazing to store your OS, and can speed up the most out of date systems (not saying yours is however...).

Can't afford anything new right now, though i have considered buying an SSD for 1 year.
My HDD and RAM are more than 3.5 years old. So, yeah, its quite old. The rest of the parts have been upgraded.