The problem
A remote-support customer who edits video contacted Quanbot Tech because Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects had been running slowly for about a month. They wanted to know whether upgrading the existing computer or buying a new one would be the more cost-effective choice.
The desktop had 16GB of RAM, with Windows installed on a nearly full SSD and mechanical hard drives used for storage and footage.
The diagnosis
Before recommending any hardware, we looked at how the PC actually behaved during editing work: storage, memory and drive activity. The findings:
- The Windows SSD had only 4.78GB of free space.
- Adobe applications had built up a large amount of cache data.
- Memory use reached roughly 89% during Adobe workloads.
- The Windows paging file (virtual memory) was set up on a slower mechanical hard drive.
- That mechanical drive had periods of 100% activity.
- The footage being edited was stored on an external drive.
Put together, a nearly full system drive and virtual memory on a busy mechanical disk were likely contributing to the slowdown.
What we changed
- Diagnosed system resource usage and storage bottlenecks.
- Cleaned unnecessary Adobe Premiere Pro media cache.
- Emptied the After Effects disk cache.
- Ran a Windows temporary-file cleanup.
- Removed obsolete files, with the customer's approval.
- Moved the Windows paging file from the mechanical hard drive to the NVMe SSD.
- Restarted and verified the new paging-file location.
- Reviewed hardware compatibility and identified possible future upgrades.
No hardware was replaced, and the customer's editing applications and footage stayed in place.
Before and after: storage results
Free space on the Windows SSD, measured before the service and at the final check:
Net result: about 29.4GB of additional free space.
These are storage-capacity measurements, not measurements of overall PC speed. The final figure was recorded after the paging file was moved to the SSD, which uses some of the recovered space. Free space will also change over time as application caches rebuild.
The outcome
The customer reported noticeably improved performance following the service.
This is the customer's own qualitative feedback. We did not run benchmarks, so we make no claims about rendering times, export speed or frame rates.
Why we recommended optimization before replacement
The core hardware was still suitable for this kind of editing work. The bigger pressure points were a crowded system drive, accumulated cache and virtual memory placed on a slow disk. Those are configuration and maintenance issues, so we addressed them first in a single remote session.
The customer saw improvement without immediately buying replacement hardware. Future upgrades may still be beneficial, especially for larger projects, but they can now be planned rather than rushed.
Upgrades to consider later
We discussed two upgrades that could help with heavier editing projects in the future:
- Increasing memory to 32GB of RAM.
- Adding larger or faster SSD storage.
These were recommendations only. Neither upgrade was performed as part of this service.
Remote support nationwide, in-person help in Maryland
Anywhere in the United States
Eligible remote computer troubleshooting, Windows optimization and software support over a secure screen-share, like this session.
Maryland service area only
In-home visits in Glen Burnie, Pasadena, Annapolis, Linthicum and Severna Park. On-site repair is not offered outside this area.
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