Computer Sluggish - what am I missing?

Sully

I've a Dell Inspiron All in One 3264. Only used for basics mostly- webmail and browsing. Very sluggish trying to get apps open.

Its got a 1 TB HDD with 711 GB free. All good temporary files too.

8 GB of RAM, using about 4 GB of this

Startup applications very limited, so that doesn't appear to be slowing it down.

No malware or viruses showing during scans.

Any other suggestions? Can't figure out what other checks, as the basics usually get me sorted!

Inquitus

Sully wrote: »

I've a Dell Inspiron All in One 3264. Only used for basics mostly- webmail and browsing. Very sluggish trying to get apps open.

Its got a 1 TB HDD with 711 GB free. All good temporary files too.

8 GB of RAM, using about 4 GB of this

Startup applications very limited, so that doesn't appear to be slowing it down.

No malware or viruses showing during scans.

Any other suggestions? Can't figure out what other checks, as the basics usually get me sorted!

Does it get progressively worse the longer it is left without being rebooted? or is the performance universally bad? Also is the HDD an SSD or an old mechanical drive, this can impact performance greatly, and you can get an SSD for the boot drive pretty cheaply these days?

smuggler.ie

Storage
Interface•SATA 3 Gbps for optical drive•SATA 6 Gbps for hard drive
Hard driveOne 2.5-inch drive
Optical driveOne 9.5-mm DVD+/-RW drive (optional)

https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/inspiron-22-3264-aio_setup-guide_en-us.pdf


Should come apart easily for HDD-to-SSD upgrade
https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/inspiron-22-3264-aio_service-manual_en-us.pdf

babi-hrse

Could be trying to do a system backup everytime it starts up
I have mine set to Sundays and it can make the computer stutter while it's running
You can also adjust system to run for performance rather than appearance. Chrome can act up at times try with different browsers

ED E

Pentium Gold 4415U

Fairly puny CPU, wouldn't take much to overwhelm it. Its a sku designed for €300 laptops, not a desktop replacement. SSD would help but Id say saving for something better is a smarter move.

Inquitus

ED E wrote: »

Fairly puny CPU, wouldn't take much to overwhelm it. Its a sku designed for €300 laptops, not a desktop replacement. SSD would help but Id say saving for something better is a smarter move.

ED E is right, that PC is simply too low a spec to be up to much these days, and it really needs replacing.

You can get an 128GB SSD as a boot drive for €20 or so as a temporary measure, that would defo improve boot times and application loads etc. and you could move that into a new rig as secondary storage when you have saved up for one.

smuggler.ie

OP to confirm, but there were models with i3/i5-7xxx

My bet is on HDD, but could be other factors involved too

Did you noticed excessive heat/fan noise? Does fan spin at all?
Over years it might have build up some dust and start overheating/throttling.

Does not seam that Dell were concerned about airflow design much.

Sully

It's an i3 7100U processor. The computer was only bought in 2018, to be fair, seems awfully drastic to replace.

Everything is slow to load, opening up settings or even a PDF. Stating the computer is the same, takes an age before its ready and to be fair, it's like it's never ready.

Switching to an SDD hard drive could be a shout. Minium for a new PC these days is about 600 quid, and I'm conscious it's a decent AIO setup bar the sluggishness. So if swapping drives makes a difference in terms of performance - sounds worth it.

I partially wondered is it anti virus, we have Eset NOD32. Disabling it made no odds, but either way having to remove an anti virus and replace with another seems unnecessary, the computer should handle the application smoothly.

Inquitus

Sully wrote: »

It's an i3 7100U processor. The computer was only bought in 2018, to be fair, seems awfully drastic to replace.

Everything is slow to load, opening up settings or even a PDF. Stating the computer is the same, takes an age before its ready and to be fair, it's like it's never ready.

Switching to an SDD hard drive could be a shout. Minium for a new PC these days is about 600 quid, and I'm conscious it's a decent AIO setup bar the sluggishness. So if swapping drives makes a difference in terms of performance - sounds worth it.

I partially wondered is it anti virus, we have Eset NOD32. Disabling it made no odds, but either way having to remove an anti virus and replace with another seems unnecessary, the computer should handle the application smoothly.

It shouldn't be that slow. I would trawl through the installed apps and get rid of anything you don't use and I would also ditch the virus software, Windows Security works perfectly well as long as you are sensible about what you download etc.

Dell are notorious for bundling a load of crap with their PC's. Another option is to reset the PC and start from scratch only installing what you actually need. This will wipe everything, so make sure you backup data you need. It will also re-install any bloatware that came with the PC so you will have to uninstall that afterwards.

smuggler.ie

Save to assume you on Win10?

Post screenshot of your TaskManager (Processes - sort by disk, Performance - highlight CPU, Start-up - sort by status)

While at it, check if all updates applied, if there is failures - delete/rename C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder and re-check for updates.
Disable fast startup in Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\System Settings

As there is no bay for second drive, i would suggest getting bigger SSD - 500 GB or more if can afford, they are not terribly priced.

Inquitus

smuggler.ie wrote: »

As there is no bay for second drive, i would suggest getting bigger SSD - 500 GB or more if can afford, they are not terribly priced.

You can hang an SSD anywhere you don't need a bay for it really.

smuggler.ie

Inquitus wrote: »

You can hang an SSD anywhere you don't need a bay for it really.

AIO we talking about, check images online or see pdf's i posted above

Inquitus

smuggler.ie wrote: »

AIO we talking about, check images online or see pdf's i posted above

I missed that, fair point, will defo need a 500GB SSD minimum.

Inquitus

Also do you have a dog, cat or any shedding furry pets, they will jam up the vents and cripple the cooling after a while which will kill the performance until cleaned out properly.

smuggler.ie

Sully wrote: »

Switching to an SDD hard drive could be a shout

slowly repeat after me: "Solid State Drive, SSD"

Sully

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Save to assume you on Win10?

Post screenshot of your TaskManager (Processes - sort by disk, Performance - highlight CPU, Start-up - sort by status)

While at it, check if all updates applied, if there is failures - delete/rename C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder and re-check for updates.
Disable fast startup in Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\System Settings

As there is no bay for second drive, i would suggest getting bigger SSD - 500 GB or more if can afford, they are not terribly priced.

Just took photos as not posting from the PC.

I'm just not entirely buying that its hardware related purely based on the functionality of this computer, but I'm not spotting much in the background slowing us down.

Xterminator

you don't need a 500gb SSD. if money is not a concern, no worries, but you could easily get a 240gb SSD and then use your 1TB external drive for files. you can get an enclosure for your 1TB HD and keep the expense down.

if money is no concern then i'd replace the laptop not upgrade HD.

smuggler.ie

And is it "sluggish" in current state? Monitor Disk% when opening app/file - does it stay in high % prolonged time?
How is temperature/noise?
What is Win update status?



Worth checking disk fragmentation level

Sully

Both CPU and disk usage is very low when just running idle.

It peaks up, to be fair not for very long, when loading an application. CPU usage doesn't peak too high but Disk Usage does peak very high.

On a side note, boot time with this computer frequently pausea at "Checking Media Presence " and "Star PXE over IPv6", before bringing you to the windows welcome screen for a period, and the loading process just continues. Watching the performance, disc usage is at 100% while windows gets itself ready

Inquitus

Sully wrote: »

Watching the performance, disc usage is at 100% while windows gets itself ready

That's entirely normal, SSD's are much faster than HDD's hence the boot time is usually 3-4x faster, and a HDD will be maxed out for that period.

CoBo55

Sully wrote: »

Both CPU and disk usage is very low when just running idle.

It peaks up, to be fair not for very long, when loading an application. CPU usage doesn't peak too high but Disk Usage does peak very high.

On a side note, boot time with this computer frequently pausea at "Checking Media Presence " and "Star PXE over IPv6", before bringing you to the windows welcome screen for a period, and the loading process just continues. Watching the performance, disc usage is at 100% while windows gets itself ready

Change the boot order putting the disc first.

Sully

Inquitus wrote: »

That's entirely normal, SSD's are much faster than HDD's hence the boot time is usually 3-4x faster, and a HDD will be maxed out for that period.

Its still at 100%, which seems unusual?

Inquitus

Sully wrote: »

Its still at 100%, which seems unusual?

Aye I have a HDD in this laptop, it takes abut 10 mins of hammering the Boot HDD before it settles down when I boot.

ED E

Sully wrote: »

Its still at 100%, which seems unusual?

Doesnt mean that the drive is doing full transfer speed, means its fully queued. Common with spinning rust drives as they spend a lot of their time getting ready to read not actually reading.