Are Your Computers Slow?

Is your team complaining about slow computer speeds? Are sluggish computers getting in the way of your organizational productivity?

The promise of a ten-second boot-up for your brand new hardware begins to disappear just months after you unbox your computer. All PCs – and even Macs – begin to slow from a sprint to a crawl over time. Although it happens to every computer, sloth-like speeds don’t need to remain a fact of life.

You can keep your hardware and your team running at full-speed.

Why Are Your Computers Running Slow?

If your computer is huffing and puffing when you try to run your browser and the Office suite at once, then it is more often than not an issue of routine maintenance. As you install new programs, download new files, and allow software updates, you clog up your system, which reduces your operating speeds.

Common Causes of Speed Loss

Most often, an underpowered computer is to blame. Unfortunately, when decision-makers in a business choose to go with consumer-grade hardware instead of opting for the better investment of business-class computers, they shorten the lifespan they can expect from their equipment.

A slow PC is often the sign of an outdated PC.

Purchasing consumer-grade computers or failing to upgrade older business-class devices costs more in lost productivity and puts your workflow in a higher risk of failure.

Sometimes, your hardware is okay, but these other issues are to blame.

• Your software needs updating
• You have extra software
• You need more RAM
• Your internet speed is slow

Why Sluggish Speeds Are Bad for Business

A computer that can’t run more than two or three light programs is more than just a headache. It’s also a productivity suck that hurts employee morale and your business.

Slow PC speeds cost each of your employees valuable time. Even if you have ten employees who lose ten minutes a day, that’s 100 minutes of work not being done. Between Monday to Friday, you lose 500 minutes of time. That’s just over eight hours – or a full day put in by one employee.

Lagging computer systems also prevent your team from multitasking. Even when they aren’t losing time waiting for a program to load or a file to download, they still aren’t meeting their full potential.

How to Improve Computer Speeds and Productivity

Because many computer slowdowns are IT maintenance issues, you can fix them yourself by going through a detailed checklist that addresses the most common culprits of slow speeds.

To identify the culprit and return your computers to like-new, you’ll need to:

• Complete all relevant software updates (use “Check for Updates”)
• Run a virus and malware scan and remove any hidden dangers
• Reduce your superfluous software and prevent unessential items from starting upon boot-up
• Move files to the cloud to free up storage space
• Add RAM to each computer (as necessary)
• Switch to a Solid State Drive

You need to complete most of the items on the list on a regular basis to prevent any unnecessary slowdowns.

Ask More From Your IT Solutions Provider

Running updates, scans, and productivity checks across your entire IT infrastructure is time-consuming and cumbersome. As a result, many organizations often avoid the tasks until absolutely needed, which often makes the problem worse.

SemTech IT Solutions can keep your computers running at top-speed with hardware, virtualization, and cloud backup services.

Our Managed IT Services offering is a proactive maintenance strategy that reviews your software licensing to keep everything up-to-date, repairs and updates hardware when needed, and ensures all your files are backed up and accessible. At SemTech IT Solutions, we even help you find a fast, cost-effective broadband connection that works best for your office.