Tami lives in Concord.

Tami was having issues with her desktop computer, it was running very slow.

The problem that Tami is having is actually quite common, and there are several things that could be causing this to happen. So what should Tami do?

We all remember the first day we set up our brand shiny new computer, and most of us fondly recollect how fast it once was. We look back at how much more we were able to accomplish because there was no lag in the time we typed and our computer responded. We relished the time savings and tasks that were done quickly.

But then something happened, and our computer started to show signs that there were problems looming in the future.  Even if we were able to avoid some of the other issues that potentially cause problems with our computers like viruses, malware and dirt/dust, our computers started to slow down.

Things continued to get more and more painful as we continued to add files to our computer, slowly filling the hard drive up with all our important documents.

Lets get back to Tami.

Tami was beyond frustrated with how slow her computer was, so she called a computer repair shop to see if there was a solution. Tami said over the phone to the computer repair technician “It’s super slow!”

Hearing this on the phone, the technician decided to remotely log into her computer to see what the problem was. Tami was surprised to hear that her computer could be looked at by the technician, even though he was a few miles from where she lived. This made her a bit nervous (we will talk about computer security another time) but the computer service shop had several good reviews so she decided it would be ok.

Once the technician ran a few tests on the computer, he saw that it had a failing hard drive. He informed Tami that he would be able to come by and do a hard drive replacement at her home the next day.  It was agreed that he would replace it with a solid state drive (SSD).

The next day  when the technician arrived he noticed that the machine was still on. He turned it off and started to clone the hard drive, but it failed so he had to restart the machine again. Upon further inspection, he found malware on the computer. So he deleted the malware, did a tune up, checked the disk and SFC.  Once this was done he started the clone again and this time it worked.

The technician removed the old drive and installed the new SSD drive. He gave the old drive to Tami and tested the machine.  It was working great.

So when your computer starts to get slow, make sure you at least get a remote diagnosis. Not all problems can be detected remotely, but more often than not it can be determined whether or not a visit from the computer technician is necessary.