Laptop Very Slow

clancyoo7

I have noticed that my laptop has got very sluggish over the last few weeks, it used only take bout 90 seconds to boot up and ready to go now it has gone to nearly 4 .5 mins. I have also noticed it is getting very hot, it is not overclocked or modded in any way it is a Dell Inspiron 1521 with a Turion Processor. I am wondering is it some sort of heatsink problem, or just a virus have avg but nothing detected. Any help would be much appreciated.

Alanstrainor

THe first thing i'd do in that case is reinstall the OS. Back up everything you have and reinstall. It'll probably sort it for you.

clancyoo7

Hi Alan thanks for quick reply, only done a complete reinstall a few months ago and partitioned the hard drive, I was hoping to avoid going through that all over again.

corkcomp

before reinstalling the OS check for processor usage and select cpu time column also.. it sounds like the processor could be close to 100% usage and if you can find out which process is causing this it might help..

RolandIRL

try running this as well - much better than AVG imo
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

irish1967

Handy thread here also with hints for speeding up a laptop.

http://m.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=62826975#post62826975

Ciar0468

AVG is rubbish use something better I use avast with zonealarm firewall, (all free), are you using a firewall? What operating system are you using? if its vista that can be usual behaviour if partition is too small, how big is the os partition? Have you recently installed updates, these can cause this? when you reinstalled did you update all drivers? how old is the laptop? have you installed any new programs/games? how much ram have you?

Im a software engineer and without a full view it can be impossible to tell whats wrong.

corkcomp

its a bit short sighted to be slating AVG when it is most likely not the issue with the laptop, it wont help the OP.. there are plenty good AV and security suites out there but I have AVG on between 250 - 280 machines and not a single issue

blue chuzzle

Alanstrainor wrote: »

THe first thing i'd do in that case is reinstall the OS. Back up everything you have and reinstall. It'll probably sort it for you.

lol that's bad advice - why not crush the laptop under a truck, set fire to the remains and then buy a new one? problem solved. (incidentally what you suggest wont even fix the problem if there is a virus or some sort of malware involved(so thats most of the time then). it will sit in your backed up files and reinfect when the files are transferred back)



start by running malwarebytes to clear out any bad stuff. check to make sure all your fans are working(you should be able to hear it/them working away - especially if you are running something intensive like hd video)


then run ccleaner to do a basic cleanup of the harddrive and registry but most importantly to check what programs are set to run on startup. you can disable any that mention updates (adobe, quicktime etc) if your not sure of some you can google them. there are none there that are critical and if there are any problems with programs not working after you do it you can just enable them again.

free disk space on the c drive is important - keep a few gigs there. when the drive gets very full new files get divided up into the few remaining spaces and it takes much longer to read them. your laptop uses a part of the c drive as memory in the same way as it uses ram (its called "virtual memory" and is used even if loads of the physical ram is free) and while this space is taken away from your total if the computer has to fragment this already slow data across the drive things get very snail like - including startup

Ciar0468

I slate avg from personal experience, it hogs resources big time. It may be ok at virus protection, but it will slow down your computer big time. It has a huge kernal size and hogs memory.

If a fresh install was done a few months ago, the laptop should not need cleaned, but trying it first wont hurt.

I cant help with diagnostics without more information as it could be any number of a list of thousands of things that are slowing it down.

clancyoo7

Ciar0468 wrote: »

AVG is rubbish use something better I use avast with zonealarm firewall, (all free), are you using a firewall? What operating system are you using? if its vista that can be usual behaviour if partition is too small, how big is the os partition? Have you recently installed updates, these can cause this? when you reinstalled did you update all drivers? how old is the laptop? have you installed any new programs/games? how much ram have you?

Im a software engineer and without a full view it can be impossible to tell whats wrong.

I am using XP the partition is 77gb with 35gb free havent installed updates lately yes i updated all the drivers with the latest and work perfectly was reasonably quick in the last few weeks performance has gone out the window particularly in startup where it takes 4.5 mins to get going.

corkcomp

clancyoo7 wrote: »

I am using XP the partition is 40gb havent installed updates lately yes i updated all the drivers with the latest and work perfectly was reasonably quick in the last few weeks performance has gone out the window particularly in startup where it takes 4.5 mins to get goin

all that is too vague to give any meaningful diagnosis - have you checked the processor / memory usage and which processes are hogging resources?

silkcutmauve

could be process running in the background. if you use task manager and switch to process and applications tabs you can see the % CPU use.

damagegt

whiteman19 wrote: »

try running this as well - much better than AVG imo
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

ya with whiteman on this.Its an excellent program and cleans alot of stuff others programs of this sort will miss

clancyoo7

corkcomp wrote: »

all that is too vague to give any meaningful diagnosis - have you checked the processor / memory usage and which processes are hogging resources?

silkcutmauve wrote: »

could be process running in the background. if you use task manager and switch to process and applications tabs you can see the % CPU use.

Just running the malwarebytes to see if its a virus, will do a restart and see what process is causing the problem.

Cuddlesworth

clancyoo7 wrote: »

I have noticed that my laptop has got very sluggish over the last few weeks, it used only take bout 90 seconds to boot up and ready to go now it has gone to nearly 4 .5 mins. I have also noticed it is getting very hot, it is not overclocked or modded in any way it is a Dell Inspiron 1521 with a Turion Processor. I am wondering is it some sort of heatsink problem, or just a virus have avg but nothing detected. Any help would be much appreciated.

Is your fan still running? Do you have vista or Windows seven? If you do, do the following

Click Start, click in the Start Search box, type resmon.exe, and then press ENTER.

Check the cpu tab. Is the CPU "maximum frequency" sitting at a constant low number like 30-40% no matter what.

If it is, because its a Dell you can run a diagnostics test on the fan. Downloadable from here.

They can be installed on a cd or usb for best results. You can choose a custom system test and go for the fan to test it.

Cuddlesworth

I see your xp, just run the diagnostics on the fan. Should take 10 minutes tops from start to finish.

I've seen this extreme performance drop before, the bios and OS are artificially limiting the CPU using speedstep to stop it burning out because the fan is gone or barley working.

TouchingVirus

blue chuzzle wrote: »

lol that's bad advice - why not crush the laptop under a truck, set fire to the remains and then buy a new one? problem solved. (incidentally what you suggest wont even fix the problem if there is a virus or some sort of malware involved(so thats most of the time then). it will sit in your backed up files and reinfect when the files are transferred back)

You're hilarious. The OP never mentioned when they last wiped the OS in their OP, so it's perfectly valid advice. People come to me all the time with 'slow' laptops that have been bogged down with endless amounts of crap over years. So a reformat is perfectly good advice to give unless it's been done recently which indicates another issue.

clancyoo7

Done the anti virus and 7 suspect files were found. The laptop still very slow. had a look at the startup programs but cannot see anything out of the ordinary, is there any way i can show ye the programs at start up. i tried downloading the diagnostic for the fan and it just says no files need down loading and shuts down. The temp of both core processors is 62 degrees Celsius

damagegt

start
run
msconfig
and click start up tab

from here you can stop all non essential programs from starting on start-up i.e itune adobe and other such.then restart.
bring up the screen you can see and Press the Print Screen key on your keyboard. It may be labeled [PrtScn] then go to paint and paste and then up load that picture to here.

clancyoo7

list of start up items

corkcomp

until you determine exactly which processes are using up your memory / cpu time you are only going around in circles.. is the laptop only slow starting up or slow all of the time? there is a good chance one program / process is causing this

clancyoo7

corkcomp wrote: »

until you determine exactly which processes are using up your memory / cpu time you are only going around in circles.. is the laptop only slow starting up or slow all of the time? there is a good chance one program / process is causing this

Its slowest on startup. But once it gets goin it grand,

Bob Z

whiteman19 wrote: »

try running this as well - much better than AVG imo
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

malware bytes is for spyware avg is for virus's

RolandIRL

Bob Z wrote: »

malware bytes is for spyware avg is for virus's

even so, i use AVG for realtime protection but i run MBAM once a week to check for anything that AVG might have missed. MBAM has detected stuff for me that AVG missed. doesn't hurt to run it anyway.

Bob Z

whiteman19 wrote: »

even so, i use AVG for realtime protection but i run MBAM once a week to check for anything that AVG might have missed. MBAM has detected stuff for me that AVG missed. doesn't hurt to run it anyway.

Yes i know you can use both but my point is you can't compare them. avg doesn't scan for malware

damagegt

sorry bud im out of this one.just as i was typing smoke came from the back of my laptop.

rebeve

No harm to download and run hijackthis.Do a scan and see what nasties u have

Cuddlesworth

damagegt wrote: »

sorry bud im out of this one.just as i was typing smoke came from the back of my laptop.

Ahh that would be a smoker gremlin. Sprinkle some salt around to scare him away.

bonzodog2

Just as a temporary workaround, you could try hibernating instead of a full shutdown every time, I find it a lot faster, and you have all your open windows back when you un-hibernate