Acer Aspire 5253 Is Running Slowly

If your computer is using substantial RAM, it will run more slowly than usual. To reduce the amount of RAM used by your computer, try deleting unnecessary browser add-ons or plug-ins. Disable or remove browser extensions and toolbars you don’t need using the following steps, depending on your browser:

• Firefox: Hit the menu button on the far right, select Add-ons / Extensions, then select disable or remove for each item on the list.
• Chrome: Right-click on any extension button / Manage Extensions, then uncheck the box to disable a particular item, or click the trash can to wave it goodbye.
• Safari: Hit Safari (top left) / Preferences / Security / Extensions, then select an item to uninstall. You can also turn off all Extensions here.
• Internet Explorer: Tools / Manage add-ons / Show All add-ons, then select the offender(s), and click disable or remove.

If you’re one of those tab-hoarders who claims that keeping tabs open is the best way to never lose a link, chances are that your browser is hogging more than its fair share of RAM. Bookmark any “necessary” links and close those tabs. You can also use One-Tab for Chrome and Firefox, which compiles all open tabs into a list in a single tab that can be accessed as needed.

If your computer is still running slowly after removing unnecessary browser add-ons, you may be trying to run too many programs at once. Your computer’s ability to run multiple programs at once depends partly on its RAM. RAM allows the computer to switch from processing one program to another with fluidity. If the open programs’ demands are using too much of your computer’s memory and processing power, your computer may start to run more slowly.

To reduce the number of programs your computer is handling, close programs from your computer’s file menu for Macs, Windows 10, Windows 7, and earlier versions of Windows operating systems. For Windows 8, the operating system is built so that programs run in the background for some amount of time, then automatically shut down. If you want to manually shut programs down and ensure that all associated files shut down with it, drag the icon from the top of the screen to the bottom, and hold the icon there until it flips over.

After you have closed all background programs, restart your computer.

If it’s been a while since you last completely shut down your laptop, you may be dealing with fragmented RAM. RAM used by a program is not always completely released when you quit the program, so the RAM gets fragmented, meaning that there is less RAM available to run the active programs. To defragment your RAM, search “Defrag” in the search bar of your computer. Click on “defragment and optimize drives,” then select your hard drive and click “optimize.”

Check how much processing power programs and processes are using by navigating to the Task Manager (Windows —> Ctrl+Alt+Delete) or Activity Manager (Macs —> in Applications/Utilities). Then, click the “CPU” tab to order the programs by how much processing power they’re using. If a program you are not actively using is near the top of the list, quit the process manually by right-clicking on it and selecting “Quit.”

If you have performed all of the above fixes and your computer continues to run slowly, your computer’s RAM may simply not be large enough to complete your tasks. Many computers have upgradeable RAM, so you can replace your old processor with one that has more processing power. Use the Acer Aspire 5253 RAM Replacement Guide to replace your computer’s existing RAM with a larger one.

If your hard drive is full or nearly full, your computer will pull up documents more slowly, and the overall speed and performance of your processors will decrease. You can check the used space on your hard drive by clicking on the “Computer” tab in your laptop’s control panel or documents page. At the bottom of the page, the amount of memory used and the amount of ‘free space’ left on your hard drive will be displayed. If the hard drive has less than 10% of its storage free, you may need to remove programs and documents to free up space. Depending on your laptop model, you may be able to replace your existing hard drive with a larger hard drive using the Acer Aspire 5253 Hard Drive Replacement Guide.

Computer hard drives include moving parts, so they will begin to fail eventually, causing your laptop’s performance to suffer. Run a hard drive check by installing “HDTune,” a program that will run a health check on your hard drive to diagnose if it is healthy or failing. Some experts recommend replacing your hard drive with a solid-state drive (SSD), which does not have moving parts and may be less likely to fail over time. Depending on your laptop model, you may be able to replace your existing hard drive with a larger (or non-faulty) hard drive using the Acer Aspire 5253 Hard Drive Replacement Guide.