SLOW DESKTOP

[wantingnot]

HP Pavilion Desktop PCTG01-2000i Running Windows 11.  No special programs or uses.  Use machine for letters, maintain a few spreadsheets, view and edit a lot of pics, document filing.  The slowness is not constant.  The machine will be slow for a few hours and then get back to normal speed for 5 minutes and then go pack to slow.  When watching pictures I get the message LOADING for a second or half a second as the picture is opened.  Average file size for pics is 350kb to 450kb.  The word projects are bigger but not a whole lot.  The XL files tend to run about 2900kb to 4300kb.   Another oddity - related? - the machine is loosing audio sometime each day but not when I'm using headphones.  Ideas?  Main disk memory 231 open 244 used.  All the files on my machine I work with are on a secondary large (1 ter) drive connected to the desktopm.  It is also divided between half full and half empty - 509 open 432 used.  Need more information, just ask.

[WAWood]

You apparently use an external drive for your primary data storage, so I would disconnect that, reboot the PC, and see if the slowdown and speedup cycles still happen.  If they do, it is not the drive.

If they do, go online and search about restarting in SAFE mode, which will eliminate loading your startup programs, and see if the slowdown and speedup cycles still happen.

If they do, then is is not drivers or startup apps, and the only thing that then comes to mind is disconnecting from the Internet to rule out Windows Update issues.

If they do not, then you have to go through the tedious process of disabiling/enabling the startup apps one at a time to see which one is causing the problem.