System hangs for 10 to 20 sec everytime

System hangs for 10 to 20 sec everytime

Hi Yusuf,

There could be a lot of reasons why your computer hangs like that. Here are some of the things you should consider and check on your computer:

1. Virus – Everybody knows that viruses can cause disruption and damage to a computer. Your machine may have been infected. Run a thorough Scan.

2. Malware – There are also other malicious software that can eat up the computer memory resources. Worms, which are technically not a virus, is known to do this kind of destruction to computers. Worms, multiplies itself and uses the computer resources especially when connected to the internet.

3. Clean up – There could be a large number of temporary files and cache stored in your PC. These pile up especially if you have recently installed a new program. Use a third party cleaner such as CCleaner to easily remove these unnecessary files.

4. Page filing – The Virtual Memory increases page filing which helps the RAM run programs and applications. If you have more memory allotted for Virtual memory, your computer will be able to run applications better.

• Control Panel >  System > Advanced tab
• Under Performance press Settings button >Advanced tab
• Under Virtual Memory, press Change
• Change the size in accordance to the free space in your hard disk.
• Restart

5. Disk Fragmentation – Over time, your hard disks get fragmented. This is like an office filing cabinet that looks like it was thrown around the room where all the folders in the cabinet are in no particular order at all. Defragging your computer arranges the files in the order of usage, thus helping the computer run programs and applications better.

• Start > All Programs > Disk defragmenter
• Choose the drive and press Analyze. It will tell if you if you should defrag or not.
• Restart after Defragmentation

6. Start Up Programs – There are applications that are programmed to run or start operating at start up or as soon as you log in. Some of these software programs are really unnecessary or at least not needed as soon as you log in. If there are plenty of programs trying to run all at once during boot up, then this could cause your computer to slow down. You can disable programs to run at startup to help your computer run better.

• Type in Run or the Search box “msconfig” > Startup tab
• Choose Programs that you recognize and you think can be stopped.
• Google some programs that you are not sure of – It could be that one of them is a virus.

7. Services – There are Windows Services that run in the background which are used to process different tasks. These services are a lot of these and they are no exception to the use of resources. The good news is, not all of them are actually needed all the time especially by home users and can be safely disabled.

• Type in Run or the Search box “services.msc”
• You will see that some are already disabled by default
• If you want to disable some more, Google Windows Services of each service name to see the function and find out if it’s alright to disable.

Some of the services you can disable are:

• DFS Replication
• Computer Browser
• Distributed Link Tracking Client
• IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules
• IP Helper
• IPsec Policy Agent
• KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator
• Offline Files
• Remote Registry
• Secondary Logon
• SSDP Discovery
• Tablet PC Input Service
• Terminal Services
• Windows Error Reporting Service

8. Hardware acceleration – If there are plenty of windows services and start up programs that are running in the background, not to mention actual applications that you are using, streaming or watching movies may be difficult for your graphics card.

• Control Panel > Display > Advanced > Troubleshooting tab
• In the Trouble shooting tab, click Change Setting
• Move the slider to None on Hardware Acceleration
• Restart

9. Windows Memory Diagnostics – Test your RAM, it may be failing. Run the Windows Memory Diagnostic Test from here:

• Diagnosing memory problems on your computer

10. Codecs and videos players – Since your computer is running slow when streaming or watching, another thing you can check will be the codecs that the movie uses or the actual video player. If you computer does not have the right codecs installed for the format of the movies you are playing, it may have a hard time playing them or may not work at all.

• VLC Player is a good open source video player which can pretty much play any kind of video.
• You can also download codes for free to help your computer play more videos and better.