Desktop Very Slow: Help My Wife Troubleshoot Now

[yungman]

Hi

My wife's desk top is very slow, it just take a long time to do anything. It's basically stuck. I pushed and hold the power button to turn off the computer, when is gave me the prompt, I started in Safe Mode with internet. It is so slow, I can see the lines "Loaded:\Windows...." coming up one by one slowly. It's been 10 minutes and still going nowhere.

I was going to run Malwarebytes, but I can't even get to it. I can't get to reinstall back to a previous day or anything.

It's been 10 minutes before it prompt me for the password. Just typed it in and still waiting. Kind of feel like the clock is running 1000 times slower! Feels like it's a hardware problem.

Can anyone help me on this?

Thanks

 

[mathman]

It is possible your memory is almost full. Check task manager.

 

[yungman]

It is possible your memory is almost full. Check task manager.

Thanks for the reply. I have a few G memory. We don't do video, movie or anything fancy, no skype, nothing. It's only like a 3 years old computer with Win7. It's not a cheap desktop, I bought it for my grandson to play video game on it...BUT he had not use this computer for months already since he got his gaming I7 laptop...Spoiled! So I can't blame on him at all. My wife use it for business no nonsense stuffs only.

I can't even open control panel or anything. I have been waiting for almost an hour and still going no where. I can't do anything on the computer.

 

[phinds]

If it is hooked to the internet, get it unhooked. It's unlikely but at least possible that you have a virus eating up all of your CPU cycles and doing something over the internet

 

[yungman]

If it is hooked to the internet, get it unhooked. It's unlikely but at least possible that you have a virus eating up all of your CPU cycles and doing something over the internet

Thanks

I tried unhook the ethernet, still slow.

 

[phinds]

Sounds like you have a hardware problem (as you suspected) but it's still remotely possible that it's a virus. Can you re-install the O.S. from scratch?

 

[yungman]

Sounds like you have a hardware problem (as you suspected) but it's still remotely possible that it's a virus. Can you re-install the O.S. from scratch?

You mean wipe the computer and start over? Ha ha, I think I want a new toy.

I already back up all the files...painfully and slowly...It's like running is super slow motion.

 

[stoomart]

You mean wipe the computer and start over? Ha ha, I think I want a new toy.

I already back up all the files...painfully and slowly...It's like running is super slow motion.

Most computer systems have a pre-boot hardware diagnostics tool you can run by repeatedly hitting F2, F12, or ESC after powering on. I suggest calling the vendor first before nuke/pave.

 

[jedishrfu]

How about your disk space. If it's full then it's hard for the computer to swap things in and out of memory.

You should have at least twice to four times what your memory size is in disk space that's free.

Did this happen all of a sudden? After an install or update? Did you install some product that took up a lot of space?

 

[rootone]

Yes, being short on available disk space is the innocent explanation, just delete a lot of old stuff and see if it improves.
However a sudden unexpected use of disk is a sure sign of malware.
Back up everything important, do it now.
Next take a look at task manager, is it the disk or the CPU which is getting cloberred?

 

[DaveC426913]

Might consider defragging the drive. Even if there's plenty of room, it could be all split up.

 

[StevieTNZ]

The hard drive could be dying.

 

[NFuller]

Aside from outdated hardware, the general cause of a slow computer is too many background processes. This is often caused by software which tries to install various addons and startup executables. A lot of software does this and you should be mindful to check what an installer is doing whenever you install a new program.

When the computer finally boots, check your task manager. If the cpu is loaded down, search for the processes that are hogging resources and disable or remove them.

 

[DaveC426913]

Antivirus programs (Norton, McAfee, etc) are often the worst culprits for slowing down computers.

Now that I think of it, if your computer is more than a few years old, it will not be able to handle much of the newer software apps installed since then. Newer apps will assume and utilize high processor speeds and large memory capacities.

 

[yungman]

Hi All

I checked, the HDD is 1T size and still has 813G free space. The amount of RAM is 8G total. The procession is I5-4570 4th gen. It is still very new computer with plenty of disk space and plenty of memory give my wife is running excel, word, photoshop at most! Not gaming, no video. Some Youtube music. That's it.

I don't think I am running out of anything. I disconnect the ethernet cable for quite a few hours. I seems to be a little faster, but by no means it is normal, still takes a long time when I right click on each drive and click properties to look at the size and space of disk drive etc.

It's more like when I did the back up of all the files, it started out really slow, but feels like it got slightly faster after a while even with the ethernet was still connected. It just seem slowly getting slightly faster...or maybe I get used to the slow speed.

You think the fat lady sang yet? I am starting to look at new computers, seems like the price has gone up quite a bit in general. I looked on Amazon for laptop, 15.6", SSD drive, 7th gen I5 or I7. Cheapest is $650. Desktop is not better when I want later generation I5 or I7 with SSD. Seems like the desktop is even more expensive now a days. Even the 2nd gen I5 ( older than this one) still want like $300. I think of all things, SSD drive is the most important.

 

[yungman]

I just went up and opened task manager, I look at the cpu usage, 0% to 3% even when I try open a word file. Memory usage is 1.3G. It's not busy. Things are quiet!

I also looked at the cpu usage for all the opened programs, all 00, occasionally one goes up to 03 and back to 00. Nobody is busy.

It almost feels like the clock is running 30MHz instead of 3GHz. The whole thing is just slow! If I have to make an ignorant guess, I said the crystal clock circuit is screwed up and the whole computer is running in slow motion.

The computer is very calm, it's not like a lot of disk clicking sound or fan and all that indicates it's very busy. It's just calm and quiet!

 

[DaveC426913]

Have you tried the Turbo button?

 

[yungman]

I went and hooked up the ethernet, no activity after initial few moments. I click on the firefox, just a blip on the network usuage and then quiet down. CPU usuage never even jump. I waited for 10mins and still it did not open the browser. I also click on the Photoshop and waited, never open the program and CPU did not even jump. The whole computer is just calm and cool. If I just look at it, it's in idle state resting.
EDIT: When I went up can check the "turbo button", I notice it finally get into Photoshop beginning, still trying to load, no response yet. It did "kind of " open the firefox after 15minutes. Still not complete yet.

 

[yungman]

Have you tried the Turbo button?

View attachment 207191

There is no turbo button! The computer was working perfectly last night and has been working, this is a very reliable computer since it was new, it just happen today.

 

[phinds]

There is no turbo button!

I think Dave was pulling your leg.

 

[StevieTNZ]

What are the stats for hard drive activity in task manager?

And I've always wondered what that turbo button did, what does it do?

 

[OCR]

Turbo button...

 

[NTL2009]

I highly recommend using another computer to install Linux on a USB thumb drive. You can then boot your problem computer from this thumb drive, and use it to troubleshoot. It doesn't change/add anything to the hard drive, runs completely from the thumb drive.

A few articles on it, you can find many more:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2147...w-ubuntu-can-help-a-computer-in-distress.html
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-ul...-your-pocket-ultimate-boot-cd-on-a-usb-stick/
https://www.winhelp.us/recover-files-using-puppy-linux.html

 

[yungman]

What are the stats for hard drive activity in task manager?

And I've always wondered what that turbo button did, what does it do?

I took a screen shot of the activity:

You can see, CPU and menory usage is very low even I am doing the screen capture, you can see the disk usuage is high because of the screen shot, but it return to very low again after that. Everything is just idle and slow.

I have seen tubo button, it's not new to me. This computer just don't have it. I never know what it does because I tried and no difference in anything. It's not as if it run faster.

Thanks

 

[rootone]

Since you have already backed up your data and don't have a huge amount of software installed it might be quickest just to reset Windows.
That is a new feature of 10. but basically is a full reinstall.
It takes a while of course, but maybe quicker than just trying different things to see what makes any difference.
If it's still slow after that then at least you have got it nailed down to being a hardware issue.
(Double check that you really have backed up everything important first!)

 

[1oldman2]

My wife's desk top is very slow, it just take a long time to do anything.

Try this site. https://forums.spybot.info/forumdisplay.php?22-Malware-Removal

 

[bishop27]

Have you tried the Turbo button?

View attachment 207191

LOL, I had one of this, 20 years ago.

 

[bishop27]

Geez, your computer is calm and yet so slow. It's prepping for a storm, I mean, a hdd or other hardware failure. But in order to be sure keep it powered on and in windows mode for at least 4hrs. According to you it is hardly used and I assume that it is also hardly powered on and into windows mode. So the services that are scheduled to run might have been piling up like 10 guys stuck wanting to go out as soon as you open the door. And some of them use the internet so when you disconnected it from the internet, they just shut up. The antivirus and defragmenter also runs on schedule. Automatic upkeep of windows 7 also runs on schedule. Just go buy SSD and make it your system disc then make you 1T hdd as databank. Uninstall any browser toolbar that has RSS Feeds.

I hope these helps.

The Turbo Button is only available in PCs made before the 90's. Instant cpu overclocking.

 

[yungman]

No, the computer is being used everyday for business, it is not being used as gaming, nor serve a lot on the web. We have Norton 360 all along and I never suspect it's been infected. Up till it failed, it was working perfect. No body else touch the computer for a month other than my wife using for business.

I tried to recover the computer, it does not even work. I managed to upgrade to Win7 Pro, but the problem remains.

 

[rootone]

You could try (temporarily) disabling Norton and other AVs you might have, (while disconnected from the net).
It can happen that AV's get into a knot trying to solve something,especially if you have more than one of them running.
That's just a long shot suggestion, if that was happening you would probably see heavy disk use, and you say the disk use is quite low.
Another long shot, could be failing memory chips; if you have compatible memory on another machine you could try swapping them.