Why do computers become slow after a while, even after factory reset or hard disk formatting?
In: Technology
A drastically oversimplified example is this: A similar reason why no matter what size space you live in, over time, it just seems to get cluttered up with stuff. Because it’s much easier to accommodate something new than it is to get rid of it forever.
Let’s take a real life example. Let’s say that you have a laptop for work, and you like to use Google chrome. But one day your work requires you to use Mozilla Firefox. So You install Firefox. Both browsers have a file that’s a component of the code that handles how your browser does secure connections to websites, HTTPS. This component gets linked to a bunch of other stuff in your operating system, like cryptographic services, password data stores, etc. But Mozilla and Google have, for their own reasons, decided to use slightly different versions of HTTPS. So you’ve got two files linking to basically the same things, doing basically the same thing for their particular product.
But then, you decide that you don’t really care that much about chrome anymore, and you’re just going to use Firefox. So you uninstall chrome. But the chrome uninstaller program doesn’t want to break your computer and any other programs that might use HTTPS, so when it removes itself, it’s extra cautious. So if it encounters some kind of difficulty unlinking that module, it doesn’t get all aggro and just rip it out, it probably just leaves it in place. So now you’ve got one set of links going to a file/function that actually does something, and another set that does nothing. And nothing’s ever going to try and remove that file ever again, cuz chrome is already gone.
And the two pieces of software that I’m giving examples of here are actually well-written pieces of software so they probably do a decent job of uninstalling. Many don’t. Remember that if you’re installing a piece of software, the company that makes a software is motivated for it to install properly. If you’re uninstalling their software, they just lost a customer, so they’re going to put their development efforts into the installer, and not the uninstaller.
And this example is still way oversimplifying matters. Windows registry editing is quite possibly one of the most painful IT support tasks that anybody could ever ask of anyone else. The Windows registry is just obscenely complicated, It’s the central nervous system of the operating system, and it never, ever gets less convoluted and tangled with use.
Dust bunnies, old thermal paste, old heatpipes, and worn out fan bearings can all contribute to this.
Factory reset is more like changing the tires on a car – not a tune up or oil change.
And software generally isn’t as optimized as it used to be, so that’s kind of like getting less horsepower or MPG out of the same gallon as before.
tl;dr answer: The computers don’t become slow, but they become inferior in terms of handling all the new stuff like bigger games or applications
None of these other comments are ELI5 material. When your computer is new, it’s like you’re single and you just bought a new house. There’s nothing in it, there’s tons of room to do whatever you want and it seems you can do anything and put anything you want inside and never run out of room.
Well 5 years later, you have a family and some kids, and now your house is full of garbage and extra junk. It’s hard to walk around, there’s no room to do anything, and you physically can’t fit anything more in your house.
So one day, you decide to throw out all the garbage and junk you’ve gathered over the years (like a factory reset/format). The problem is you still have your spouse and your two kids (the newer, modern programs and apps you like to use). Your spouse and kids still take up resources and space that weren’t there before, so even though you got rid of all the junk it still won’t be the same.
Now if you threw out all your junk, got a divorce and released custody of your kids – then your house will feel just like it did 5 years ago.
But you will also be a sad empty husk of a human.
Many of the other posts are good and true. Computers slow down for many reasons.
Here my ELI5:
Does your bike rust after leaving it outside for years?
Do the tires sometimes pop?
Parts need service or care to keep working at top speed. Like a bike needs cleaning, so does a computer.
Computers are physical things, they have physical problems like old your old bike. Wear and tear happen. For computers, the major problem isn’t rust, but dust. Most computers are air-cooled. When dust clogs up the air-cooling the system slows down some of the parts to keep the heat from burning out parts. Heat can be a real problem for computers.
Computers also have high precision parts, that can wear out over time, such as hard drives. That means it makes it more tries to do the same thing reading or writing of data. This is like having a bearing out on your bike wheel, it will take more force to move the wheel. Hard drives also have motors inside them that spin a disk that is shaped like a set of solid bike wheels stacked on top of each other.
Overall, most people don’t take the time to clean the dust out of electronics. This causes them to fail. My bro-in-law just cleaned his PS4, and it ran so much better. It was packed with dust. Isn’t much you can do about failing hard drives other than replacing them with a newer hard drive or storage method that doesn’t use moving parts.
There are tons of factors.
1. You perceive it as slower because you’ve been exposed to newer tech that’s faster.
2. Software becomes more and more demanding, including your OS, so that will slow down your system.
3. CPUs thermal throttle when they get too hot. Over time, you may build up dust, and your thermal paste may degrade, causing your computer to have trouble keeping temps low at high load.
physically speaking, dust can build up and slow down your computer because a processor will slow down if it gets too hot.
also ram and hard drives will start to have bad sectors that can no longer be uses. replacing them could easily fix some speed issues.
it could also be that your perception of it is slower and it’s all in your head, when in fact it’s not.
Latest Answers