Let’s say there is a PC that is running slow, takes quite a bit of time to execute stuff and so on. But it’s CPU usage is minimal to medium, and it has a lot of free RAM. Using autoruns (with hide microsoft enties filter) I disabled \ deleted everything that I don’t need under Logon, Scheduled Tasks and Winlogon tabs (i’m afraid to disable stuff in other tabs, like services, drivers, codecs etc, cuz I think it might break the system). I used Ccleaner to clean temp files and stuff, scanned with malwarebytes, superantispyware, CCE and hitman pro, apart from bunch of coockies everything appears to be clean, I also used Auslogics to defragment drives (Pagefile has a fixed size and is in 1 part so to speak). So after all that why is it still pretty slow?
Hi Maniak2000,
A little information about hardware and Operating System along with installed programs could help in diagnosing the causes.
Has it always been lethargic or just recently been noticeable?
Here’s the hardware info
http://speccy.piriform.com/results/6O4oDp1LV3hurHCDepGT8qM
Attached is Autoruns list
There aren’t really any programs installed to speak of, CIS, malwarrebytes (on demand) superantispyware (on demand) hitman pro (on demand) bunch of codecs from Zoom player (no codeckpacks), bunch of games.
I don’t know when it began to slow down cuz I don’t use that notebook (Asus Vaio) often, but when I bought it it was running fast (obviously).
Maybe it’s disk usage or something? how do I check that? What are normal values for that?
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Hi Maniak2000,
I can not see any issues from the speccy report, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any.
Disk usage is the amount of space used/unused, right click the drive and choose properties.
You could check the reliability history to look for any possible issues or problems.
Control panel, action centre, expand maintenance, View reliability history or type reliability history in the Search box from Start menu then click on View reliability history.
You could also check the Windows experience index score for any potential hardware with an extremely low score (Re-run the assesment to get up to date scores).
Control panel, performance information and tools or type window experience in the search box from the Start menu then click on Check the Windows Experience Index.
Note: My instructions via control panel are for when the control panel is set to view by icons.
By disk usage I meant that if some process constantly reads or writes to file(s) that could slow the system down, right?
Windows Experience Index for that notebook is 5.9 (RAM and HDD is 5.9 everything else is 6.7).
And reliability history is empty… is it disabled? Or Ccleaner clears that?
As far as disk usage activity you can check for any excessive usage with windows resource monitor, but as far as reading the values or deciding what is normal I hope someone with more knowledge helps here.
The reading here might be helpful.
Reliabiltiy monitoring not working and AFAIK CCleaner doesn’t touch this.
I would count out hardware as your index score is very good.
Are you certain it is (excessively)slow compared to previously or could it be that your other main more used system is just excessively fast?
I hope someone joins in here with some other ideas for you.
Download and run HDTune (Pro not needed). Go to Error Checking Tab and run a full scan. It is completely non destructive and Read-Only.
Note the speeds on the right side, for a newer SATA II HDD it must be hanging around 60-100 MB/s. Check to see if this is OK. You can check the burst transfer rates also in the Benchmark Tab.
Note:
Start Windows is Safe Mode and try to run the apps you feel that are running slow. See if this makes any difference.
HdTune test came out all green (no damaged blocks). Benchmark results are: Transfer rate: Min - 40.8 mb\s Max - 92 mb\s Avg - 66.5 mb\s Access time - 19 ms Burst rate 76,9 mb\sec Cpu usage -1%
It is trure that I don’t use my notebook often and my main system is faster by a notch or two… or three. Here’s specs for main system
http://speccy.piriform.com/results/fCK17jpfJFEQ48kStgTWepg
So it may be “slow” just by comparison, but I want to make sure it’s fast as it can be.
The HDD is surely working fine. It’s performance is also not bad at all.
As you thought, it could just be an issue of comparison. Anyway, can you specify where do you feel the slowness or the lag? Any particular operation or application ?
The slow-ness is usually from starting up programs, especially right after boot up, programs themselves seem to work fine… they just takes quite a bit of time to start up.
I’m starting to think that my notebook is slow just because my main system is fast, and I don’t use the notebook often (comparison issue).
But thank you all who replied.
Hi Maniak2000,
I would try disabling the search indexer if you haven’t already.
Your speccy results show it as stopped, so you may have already done this.
Enable or Disable search indexer
Is the laptop running Vista. Vista is very busy at boot time. After max 10 minutes it is ready I noticed and it is snappier after that period.
It’s running Win 7 x64, and windows search service (indexder) is disabled.
Specs show it to be an i5 processor.
I thought the memory was slower than it could be but that may be due to it being a laptop instead of a desktop.
There are numerous performance tweaks you can do to enhance your laptop.
Win7 Forums (Win7 Tweaks)
Ultimate Windows Tweaker
ASKVG.COM
So they say basically switch unneeded services to manual startup mode, that way they will load only when needed.
So I thought why not switch all services to manual mode? That way services will only load when needed, which should improve overall speed. …But since it’s Microsoft I doubt it will work like that, and I’ll end up with unbootable Notebook.
So maybe there are a few critical services that must always be on auto and everything else can be on manual? Will that work? Or maybe it’ll backfire somehow and make the system slower?
Some required services will still fail to start if set to manual, with the loss of some functionality or outside world connection.
This may vary from system to system and all I can suggest is to study each service functions and decide if that function is required in your circumstances and set-up.
IMO the following is a good site to research each service functions and requirements.
Each service has a link to help explain what it is.
Black Viper’s Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Service Configurations
If you do disable services, I recommend taking note of the service in case of malfunction and do only one at a time unless you are certain.
All the best.
I have used Black Viper’s recommended settings with [no] startup issues.
I do recommend this site for info about and for which services to disable or set as manual.
How many user accounts do you have?
Delete all the system restore points and create a new one
Uninstall all the .net framwork software (just use ccleaner to uninstall it)
Install the newest one
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17718
Do the same with java (uninstall the oldest one and install the newest one)
https://www.java.com/en/
That’s all I can think of that hasn’t been said
Unless that’s changed recently, I don’t think uninstalling all .Net software and replacing it only with latest one is good idea, becouse (again, unless that changed recently) .Net isn’t backwards compatible…sort of… or rather some programs require that you have specific .Net version (for example 2.0) and they don’t care that you have 4.5, they want 2.0 or no deal. So I think it’s required to have .Net framework versions 2.0 3.5 (it seems to include 3.0) 4.0 and maybe 4.5 (but I think 4.5 is currently in beta or RC stage ) and XNA framework latest (I think 4 is latest), so that some programs and games won’t crash with strange errors.
some programs require that you have specific .Net version (for example 2.0)like some older games and software
newer games benefit more from it
Most notable would be
Performance improvement including better multicore support, background garbage collection, and profiler attach on server.
The .NET Framework 4 is backward-compatible with applications that were built with the .NET Framework versions 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5. In other words, applications and components built with previous versions of the .NET Framework will work on the .NET Framework 4.However, in practice, this compatibility can be broken by seemingly inconsequential changes in the .NET Framework and changes in programming techniques. For example, performance improvements in the .NET Framework 4 can expose a race condition that did not occur on earlier versions. Similarly, using a hard-coded path to .NET Framework assemblies, performing an equality comparison with a particular version of the .NET Framework, and getting the value of a private field by using reflection are not backward-compatible practices. In addition, each version of the .NET Framework includes bug fixes and security-related changes that can affect the compatibility of some applications and components.
I was only posting that to get every possible bit of performance that hasn’t been said
this won’t help for your computer bootup times