What could be causing my laptop's slowness?

[PotatoChip]

My laptop has been running very slow since last Saturday. And another strange thing too- Not sure if it is a related problem, a DU problem or what, but sometimes I get logged out of DU after having checked out a link, profile, or whatever. I can log right back in but it's a real PITA.

Biggest concern is the slowness though- It's gotten very bad and I know it's not my ISP.

I have a theory though- something may be eating up my bandwidth or RAM or memory or whatever-you-call-it... Could that cause the slowness and if so, is there a way to find out what it could be and remove whatever it is?

The reason I say this is because a couple of months ago, I had spilled coffee on my keyboard so I had a local guy replace the keyboard for me. Fortunately, that was the only issue the coffee caused- Anyway though my only contact w/local computer fix it guy was via phone (my SO brought the laptop in and picked it up) the fix-it guy at some point mentioned that I seemed to have very little room left on my hard drive. I found that perplexing because Dell had, only months before, given me a brand new hardrive. Computer fix it guy said, "Well do you have a lot of pictures on it or something"? No, I told him, I did not.

However, the issue was never explored any further because once fix-it guy got the keyboard in, he replaced it for me and my SO picked it up right after, without asking fix-it guy if he found (or even looked for) the source of the slowness. All of that happened about a month or so ago, and since the laptop seemed ok to me then, I just let the issue drop. But there has been (I think) a gradually increasing slowness ever since, and a sudden onset of major slowness about a week ago- At the time I thought it might just be a DU glitch since everyone seemed to be having issues that day (Saturday). I now know it is not just DU for me though.

So- do you guys think that maybe something is eating away at my harddrive, and if so, what, if anything can I do about it?

Sorry about the length of this-not sure if you needed all of that info, but added it just in case...

Thanks in advance!

One more thing--- My McAffee has not picked up on any problems, nor has my iolo system mechanic.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Questions...

1. Have you tried turning your computer off, then back on?
2. Which operating system?
3. How much RAM?
4. When the computer is being slow, does your hard drive light blink a lot?

[PotatoChip]

3. Ok, here goes-

1) Yes, I have tried that. It seems to help briefly but slows right down again after awhile- One thing I've noticed though is that the iolo system mechanic almost always seems to be automatically "compressing hive" (whatever that means?) and doing other diagnostics just about every time I restart my computer. I have no idea why and don't remember it doing that so often before. (Again, not sure if you need to know that-but...)

2) Windows 7, IE

3) I apologize, but I am pretty darn close to computer illiterate, so embarrassingly, I'm not sure of the answer to that question But it is a 2 year old Dell Inspiron 1545 Intel Pentium Processor, T4400, 4G memory, 320GB Hard Drive (hard drive new/replaced as of last October) Does that answer?- I hope...

4) Don't know the answer to that either, but I don't think so. At least, I've not noticed it blinking- It just takes very long, with that round thing going. It even has frozen briefly on occasion.

[MannyGoldstein]

13. Hard to tell without the computer in front of me, but...

If it's running faster when you restart then slowing down, it usually means that you're running out of memory (RAM) then your computer needs to store temporary "stuff" to the hard drive, which is much slower than RAM. But 4GB of RAM should be plenty. So I'm confused.

This can be analyzed using Task Manager and some other tools - here's an article that might help? http://www.pcworld.com/article/224448/windows_task_manager_a_troubleshooting_tool.html

[PotatoChip]

18. Thank you for that link!

I found the Task Manager thanks DUer 'Old And In The Way' but had no clue as to how to interpret the data. I've had to read and re-read your link several times (and I'm still only at about a 40% understanding ) But...

By sorting by CPU I've found that only two processes seem to be hogging everything; bouncing around between approx 60% for something called "System Idle P" and "ieexplorer" at approx. 40%. A few other things come in at around 1% to 2%, but they are generally at 0% for the most part. Can that possibly be normal?

Yet the CPU usage summary (at the bottom) seems to be running at about 25% to 35%---- So, could this possibly mean that there is some sort of malicious activity going on, or am totally misunderstanding what this passage from your link means? BTW processes from all users is checked in the box.


You might also be able to identify suspicious or malicious activity If you find processor or memory resources being consumed by processes that you don't recognize or can't make out which application they belong to.

First, though, click the checkbox at the bottom of the Processes tab next to "Show processes from all users." If you sort the Processes based on the CPU column, you will most likely notice that adding up the numbers of the processor percentage in use by the displayed processes does not match the CPU usage reported in the dashboard at the bottom of the Task Manager. That's because the Processes tab displays only the tabs running in the logged-in user's context by default--so system processes and processes from other users aren't shown unless you click this checkbox.

One more thing... before I hit Post my reply, I went back and checked CPU again "System Idle P was at 98%. I'm confused!

[MannyGoldstein]

22. "System Idle P" is the % of the time the CPU is doing nothing

just hanging out and taking a break. It's actually "System Idle Process" if you expand the column.

Total of all processes should equal 100%. The % utilization of the CPU doing "real work" is 100%-"System Idle Process".

So it sounds like your CPU is not overtaxed - it's hanging out doing nothing much or most of the time.

Next thing to check is memory usage. Here's another link: http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2005/05/tip-of-the-day-use-task-manager-to-track-memory-usage/

[PotatoChip]

23. D'oh!

That totally makes sense. But thanks not laughing!

Ok, that link is next up- I'm determined to learn these basics. Wish I had been brave enough to try a long time ago.

[Old and In the Way]

2. Bring up Task Manager and check the processes tab.

That will show you what is running and what app is taking up the majority of your CPU processing time (%). You can post what the apps are that seem to be accounting for most of the processing time. If you're running out of disk space, the cpu is moving stuff around to accommodate. You can download a memory map to visualize what is taking up space on your hard drive. Space Monger is free to try http://www.sixty-five.cc/sm/ and this is also good: http://windirstat.info/

[PotatoChip]

5. Ok will try this right now. BRB (nt)

[PotatoChip]

11. I didn't go to the links, but

why in the world would I have 3 different iexplore. exe (one of which is 38,528k)? I'm the main user of this laptop, but my SO- once in awhile. No one else.

Also, I'm seeing 7 McAffee listings- one at 70,016k. why so many?

And another big user is something called svchost. exe 82, 272k. I have no idea what that is.

Lots of other thing too. Problem is, I've no idea what most of them are, so not sure if I can safely remove them.

As far as the CPU they all mostly say 0.0% but the CPU on bottom seems to jump around from 0% to 9% to 21% -- I have no idea what to make of it.

[Old and In the Way]

15. svchost is legit.

You should Google the names of each of the processes and you'll find information on what each one does. The ones that have multiple instances might mean that the app is not behaving correctly. Mcaffee might run a bunch of different processes in your set-up...you might see how the system reacts when Mcaffee is not running. I know some people have complained about this being a resource hog. Typically, you can Right Click and shut it down. You'll get a warning that it might create system instability issues, but in most non-MS windows cases that's not an issue. It doesn't sound like you have a processor bottleneck if it runs between 0-21% A lot of programs will call for cpu use over time to do certain housekeeping chores while running, so the amount of processor use will fluctuate between 0-100%. If you saw the cpu usage pegged out at 100% for long periods, that's usually what causes the system to slow down, programs to lag on opening, etc.

I'm thinking it might be a bandwidth issue if your problem is slow loading of internet webpages (see below)

[PotatoChip]

19. Thank you so much!

I've learned quite a bit today thanks to you guys. I absolutely despise dealing w/Dell, so the more I'm able to learn on my own, (well w/help from all of you -that is) the better off I am. Yeah, definately something is off kilter but I'll figure it out sooner or later. I may try using your suggestion, as I do think McAffee is one of the culprits.

And as DUer 'Count All Votes' pointed out, there are better, and free anti-virus programs out there.

I've spent the better part of this afternoon trying to figure out what is going on but it's well worth it. Thanks again.

ETA: Googling all of the processes- Great advice. I'd really like to see if there are some I can do away with.

[lastlib]

24. I had an issue w/ slowness on my desktop a couple years ago....

...turned out my antivirus (Norton), which I hadn't updated (due to cost) in over a year, was putting the kibosh on system resources (memory, swap file...) I uninstalled it, and my system took off like a rocket! I almost think they want to force you to pay to use their latest or else....

[hlthe2b]

4. Is the problem only when you are searching the web? Or when you are off line and using

locally installed programs. Viruses or trojans are always a possibility, but....

If it is largely when you are surfing, you might start with a "speed" test of your internet provider. Not sure how you connect to the internet, but if it is a problem of "network congestion" or even a provider "throttling your speed" that will show up. Because I travel so much I'd been depending on a wireless cellular device for my connection, rather than DSL--even though it costs more and is always slower. But, in recent months I am spending more time in an area with insufficient network capacity, so I'm getting drop-offs and very slow connections. While they've promised an upgrade is coming shortly, it is becoming unworkable and I will likely drop the service shortly.

Just my thoughts.

[Old and In the Way]

6. This is a good online place to check bandwidth

http://www.speedtest.net/

It doesn't sound like the OP's problem is with their internet connection, but, if it is, this is a way to check it and see if that's the problem.

[PotatoChip]

9. Hey that was cool.

Download Speed: 2.95
Upload Speed: 0.49

Is that bad, average, good?

[Old and In the Way]

16. That's about where my system runs.

Usually adequate for surfing and even watching Netflix. It's good to check when you think your websurfing is slow.

[PotatoChip]

7. Just when I'm surfing

But I'm rarely ever offline.

I have DSL wireless. I doubt congestion unless it's happening some distance from me. I live in a very rural area (we just got Cell Phone capability 1 year ago and DSL 2 years ago) I've only seen 1 other connection w/in my vicinity, and that only rarely--- as opposed to when I visit my kid in Manhattan- Then I see tons of them.

So I don't think it's my ISP, but I could be wrong.

[CountAllVotes]

8. My McAffee

My McAffee could well be your problem.

I'd recommend get rid of it and installing something else.

Personally, I run Avira Free Antivirus which is available at download.com and I'd highly recommend it as well.

[PotatoChip]

10. I've heard other people say that too.

That McAffee is just not very good. May try the Avira. I've also heard that Malware Bytes (I think it's called) is another good, free program.

[CountAllVotes]

14. more re: McAfee

You might read this. I remember I had it on one of my computers (came w/it) and it was a real SOB to be rid of in my case.

Here are some removal tips/etc. here:

http://www.pchell.com/virus/uninstallmcafee.shtml

I like Avira for one reason -- it doesn't take up a lot of memory. I run old laptops personally and McAfee would be a killer for me to run on any which one of them.

I have Avira installed on all of my computers and it has caught viruses, etc. when you needed it to be there. Same w/scans.

Best of luck!

[Dead_Parrot]

26. I'm with CountAllVotes...

McAfee eats into your resources like anything: They are also the king of false positives (although classifying Vista as a virus was kind of funny). AVG or Avira would be my suggestion for a freebie: Avira is the better one imho, but the free version does (or did, anyway) flash up a full-screen ad every so often that can be annoying.

If you are up for spending money, Kaspersky, ESET or the paid version of Avira.

It's a rather subjective thing, though, so expect others to give different advice.

Edit: Once the AV is sorted, grab a copy of CCleaner and let it do it's thing (The 'cleaner' and 'registry' options: Check your recycle bin doesn't have anthingy useful in it, and let it back up the registry changes). You should be flying.

[SecularMotion]

12. Have you cleared the cache in your web browser?

http://kb.iu.edu/data/ahic.html

[PotatoChip]

21. Yup. Thanks for that.

Used your link earlier to clean that out. Another one of those things that can't hurt and might help.

[Old and In the Way]

17. I'd also recommend using the following

ccleaner- does a good job of cleaning out temporary files, disk caches, registry, etc. After that, run the MS disk defragger or download Auslogics disk defrag which I think is a superior defragger. Using these 2 tools could help speed up your laptop a lot.

[PotatoChip]

20. Well, I have something called System Mechanic

I think it is supposed to do a lot of that stuff, but I doubt it would hurt to try the ccleaner anyway.

[lastlib]

25. Iolo? Dump it--it's a lemon!

I would bet Mr. Romney ten thousand bucks that it's slowing you down! Yes, I have experience with it as well, and would never put it on my machine!

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

27. I don't like...

...depending on HDDs for more than 3 years. I'm a WD/Seagate snob. If the HDD is full, windows will slow down some. To check the HDD, open Explorer and right-click the C:\ drive. Select Properties from the bottom of menu. If more than 3/4 of the pie graph is blue you are low.