Slow Laptop - Needing a little help!

[Shinju]

I've got an HP Pavilion HDX and for a couple of years it's been run pretty smoothly with only the occasional hiccup. However in the past couple of months its been starting up really slowly and just running slowly in general.

Once the desktop finally decides to show itself when I sign on I can't seem to click on anything without it coming to a standstill. I always start up the internet when I log on and it just takes forever to come up.

I've found that opening up the task manager and closing explorer.exe makes my laptop come to life and I can browse the internet normally. Obviously everything else from my desktop disappears when I do this including the taskbar and I'm just left with the internet window I was using.

When I start up explorer.exe again everything is fine, the laptop runs like clockwork.

I'm no technical genius I'm afraid. I know most of the basics and thats about it.

I've done complete virus scans and spyware scans. I purchased a 1TB external harddrive and moved almost all my big files like films and software over to it thinking it would work. I got rid of useless startup applications in the hope of my laptop starting up faster. I did a system restore to a time before the laptop started playing up. I defragged my drives and cleaned them up. None of this has made a difference!

I'm hoping someone here can help me? I don't want to continuously have to do that thing with explorer forever more! T_T

 

[Rosemary]

No doubt someone more 'IT' than I will be able to help more than I can, Shinju.

However, I had so many problems too until I was advised by 'our best technicians here' suggested I get rid of Internet Explorer and use Firefox instead. It certainly helped overcome some of the slowness at least.

I hope you find the answer to your problem very soon, as I know how frustrating it can be

 

[J Riff]

Have you reinstalled windows? Is it XP or newer? Could it be overheating?
Sounds like something largeisstarting, that isn't showing in task manager.
Progs like AutoRuns can look at all running processes.

 

[Metryq]

Rosemary, I think the "explorer.exe" Shinju mentioned was Windows Explorer, not Internet Explorer—in other words, the file system navigation interface. A crawling computer is typically a sign of infection, and some malware is clever enough to evade the usual AV patrol routes.

A system restore may not help, either, as the restore state may have been infected by a virus with a date-sensitive activation on it.

Shinju, perhaps your router is nearby, or you have some other indicator for network activity? If booting the slow computer makes your network lights suddenly start flashing like a Broadway marquee, the computer is probably infected.

 

[mosaix]

This sounds like a common problem; your computer is fine for a couple of years then starts to run slowly. It's usually memory related.

Over time, as you use your computer, you load new applications and a lot of them load into memory as you start up your computer. Then, when you use them, they are already in memory and run instantly. The problem is that they take up memory all the time, whether you use them or not. This means that your system is slow to start up and, because available memory is reduced, there is an increase in page swapping.

Programs take only a second or two to load from disc so it's there's no real need to have them in memory all the time.

The result of computers running slowly is that users think their systems are getting 'old' and so replace them. This is, of course, what Microsoft want so they encourage software writers to load their program into memory at startup.

This website explains it in more detail:

PC Cleaner - Clean Windows Startup in Minutes! -PC HelpSoft

and seem to provide software that will help resolve the issue. I haven't used it but they seem to making all the right noises. I doesn't look like they charge either.

Anyway, good luck.

 

[Vladd67]

They don''t charge as it only downloads part of the software. Like most of these free PC cleaners they probably only identify the problem, to get the solution you have to pay a fee.

 

[mosaix]

Just downloaded and run it. It identifies and fixes, free.

 

[Chaoticheart]

I didn't check the link, but the vast majority of cleaners out there claim to be completely free but will only actually clean some insignificant amount or only do the scan.

I personally use CC Cleaner, which i know to be 100% free.
CCleaner - Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download

I'd also recommend defragmenting your hard drive with something like smart defrag.

To me it sounds more like you've got some malware though, especially if the problem seems to come from explorer.exe. Anyway, try a clean/defrag and if it doesn't work, try a system restore to a point before the slow down. If that doesn't solve it, you may have to do a full uninstall/install of the OS, or reformat.

Just as a side note: I recommend frequent defraging/cleaning alongside virus scans as part of regular pc maintenance.

 

[blacknorth]

I would echo what mosaix said about startup programmes hogging all your system resources. There are little bits of software which allow you to choose which programmes start automatically, though you have to be careful not to switch off anything vital. Personally I manually close all non-essential processes after booting.

Spybot: Search And Destroy is a useful programme for keeping the rot out - it's free too. And a memory upgrade almost always helps.

 

[Shinju]

Thanks guys for replying, I really appreciate it! :]

I've spent the last few hours trying to sort it out, I'm not having much success but I have seen a slight improvement in the start-up speed on my laptop.

I downloaded PC Cleaner and it identified hundreds of problems, however I went to fix them and it took me to the website and asked me to pay! :[

Is there any other software out there that would clean up my memory? Something that maybe goes a bit 'deeper' than the majority out there?

I have CC Cleaner already, sorry forgot to mention that ^^ It is one of many cleaning softwares on my laptop!

I went onto YouTube and found several people recommending a 'Clean Boot'. So, I did that, this is what made the slight improvement... XD

Hmmm, I'll persevere. I'm extremely tempted to just transfer everything of importance that's left on here over to the external hard drive and just do a damn factory reset or whatever it's called! It's just so extreme though. xD

Many thanks again guys for your help so far! I'll be grateful for anymore suggestions, I'm trying it all here, haha!

 

[Vertigo]

To be honest, in my experience clean up programs are of limited help with this kind of thing.

However before you get too excited there are a couple of things you should check.

1. How much spare space do you have on your hard drive (the one with Windows on it if you have more than one) and what virtual memory page file size you have - go to MyComputer (or just Computer on Windows 7), Properties, Advanced and see what it says there. If these two figures are even remotely similar in size your computer will run very slowly.

2. How much RAM do you have. This can make a big difference. Even if it is the same as when you first got the computer, typically you will have updated the operating system and various applications since then and, again typically, each update tends to need that little bit more memory.

Bottom line is that the way Windows is managed internally your system will tend to get more and more "cluttered" with rubbish as time goes on. Cleaning programs claim to clear all this rubbish up but if it often difficult to figure what is and what isn't rubbish and I have found them only moderately sucussesful. Instead I do the ultimate clean once every year or so; I wipe my machine completely clean and reformat the drive (make sure you have backed up all your data first) and reinstall the operating system and all my programs from scratch. A pain but I guarantee it will be back to "as new" speed afterwards.

Oh, another thing to check is run Task Manager (don't have any other significant programs running at this point) go to the process tab and click on the CPU column header to sort by CPU usage and see what process is using all of your CPU time. If you are on XP it should almost all be the System Idle process (on Windows 7 they don't seem to display that one any longer) all other processes should be using negligible CPU time (maybe 3% or 4% max). If there is a process using significant CPU time then post back here what that process is called.

 

[mosaix]

They don''t charge as it only downloads part of the software. Like most of these free PC cleaners they probably only identify the problem, to get the solution you have to pay a fee.

Hmm... looks like you're right Vladd. After a reboot it asks me to download the full version. I've removed it.

 

[Boneman]

Erm, bought a computer that did exactly what yours did - got slower and slower to the point that I was going to throw it out. Did the scans, the virus checks and de-fragged, and nothing made any difference, except minute changes. Mentioned it to a computer whizz-kid, who tells me he has to deal with about 20 of these a week - and it's because there's a trojan that's got into your computer that's not identified as a virus (because apparently you invited it in, when you went on a particular site/downloaded a simple programme that it was attached to). Anyway, he spent half an hour dealing with it, and the computer now runs at the speed it did when it was a young sproglet!!

Might be worth asking a known or trusted professional in your area about trojans. At least you'll find out if it's fixable or not. Good luck!

 

[J Riff]

I just killed some new trojans, using a .reg file and a prog called MBam, which seems to be OK.
Can't see why you just don't reinstall windows, it's the sure way and doesn't take too long.

 

[Shinju]

Thanks again guys! ^^

There wasn't any process using a significant amount of CPU time and my virtual memory page file size was low compared to the amount of space left on my C drive.

I think I'll just reinstall windows. Apparently my laptop can restore itself without discs *shrugs* I'm sure it doesn't take too long, but the process of moving everything I want to keep to the external hard drive is something which I'm sure will :S

 

[Vertigo]

In many respects reinstalling is the most certain thing to do when you start getting unexpected behaviour (or the lack of it).

Can I make a suggestion to you if you are doing this. As you have just identified, getting all your data safe first can be a chore. When you re-install it is worth partitioning your drive (really very easy to do nowadays) and keep the operating system on one partition and all your data on the other (ie. don't use My Documents etc.) Then should you need to do the same again it will be easier next time, also backups are much, much easier to do. Only problem is that some applications (notably MS ones like the Outlook Express address book) are really reluctant to let you control their store location in this way.

One other thing - you say your laptop can restore without need for any disks. Many laptops can do this now (essentially the disks are stored in a separate partition of your hard drive - which is fine unless your hard drive dies!!!). However, you want to reformat your C drive and fully re-install; if you have possibly become infected then I wouldn't bet on a Windows restore (not the same thing as reinstalling) clearing it out fully.

Another little tip for the future; it is worth getting hold of an imaging program like Acronis (I believe there is a free version for personal use). Get your computer reinstalled and set up with all your favourite programs installed. In other words get everything back running stable exactly how you like it. Then use Acronis to take an image of the c: drive (generally takes between about 30-90 mins). If anything goes wrong in the future you simply reformat and then copy the image back and you are fully functional again within a couple of hours. Simples!

 

[Shinju]

In many respects reinstalling is the most certain thing to do when you start getting unexpected behaviour (or the lack of it).

Can I make a suggestion to you if you are doing this. As you have just identified, getting all your data safe first can be a chore. When you re-install it is worth partitioning your drive (really very easy to do nowadays) and keep the operating system on one partition and all your data on the other (ie. don't use My Documents etc.) Then should you need to do the same again it will be easier next time, also backups are much, much easier to do. Only problem is that some applications (notably MS ones like the Outlook Express address book) are really reluctant to let you control their store location in this way.

One other thing - you say your laptop can restore without need for any disks. Many laptops can do this now (essentially the disks are stored in a separate partition of your hard drive - which is fine unless your hard drive dies!!!). However, you want to reformat your C drive and fully re-install; if you have possibly become infected then I wouldn't bet on a Windows restore (not the same thing as reinstalling) clearing it out fully.

Another little tip for the future; it is worth getting hold of an imaging program like Acronis (I believe there is a free version for personal use). Get your computer reinstalled and set up with all your favourite programs installed. In other words get everything back running stable exactly how you like it. Then use Acronis to take an image of the c: drive (generally takes between about 30-90 mins). If anything goes wrong in the future you simply reformat and then copy the image back and you are fully functional again within a couple of hours. Simples!

Many Thanks Vertigo! ^^ You certianly seem to know your stuff!

Hmm, so the way to go is re-installing Windows rather than 'restoring' it? I take it I would need disks for that then? How do I get a hold of those? I just had a rummage through the box my laptop came in and found nothing! :[

I will certainly partition my hard drive once I do this, that sounds handy, thanks! :]

 

[Vertigo]

Hmmm I know some stuff and I'm close to my limit here. I'm not sure but you may also have the option of a re-install from the internal restore stuff. If not you may need to contact HP, I think they're required to provide them if you request them. I have both with my Dell.

 

[Shinju]

Hmmm I know some stuff and I'm close to my limit here. I'm not sure but you may also have the option of a re-install from the internal restore stuff. If not you may need to contact HP, I think they're required to provide them if you request them. I have both with my Dell.

Thanks Vertigo! I'll have a check. Yeah I was looking through some of the documents that came with my laptop this morning and in tiny smallprint it said to contact HP for recovery media! :]

I think I'll be fine now just doing the re-install! Thanks again to everyone who helped! Really appreciate you guys taking time to give me tips.

 

[Vertigo]

Ah yes I thought it might be along those lines - do check first whether you can do a full recovery from the internal stuff as you never know how llong it might take to get the media from HP.

I don't worry too much about that now as when I get a new computer I immediately make an image with Acronis, so I know I can always quickly put the computer back into a "fresh from the factory" state. Then I do all my base software installations and make another image for my base "Mike's configuration state". The nice thing about this is that it includes all the registry settings. However you don't want to leave it too long before taking said image as you will also be imaging any rubbish that has accumulated!

By the way welcome to the Chrons and you can't be too far away from me - I live half an hour north of Inverness.