Laptop is slow even after wipe

I have a HP DV7T-2200 laptop that sat on the shelf for a couple of years. Recently, I decided to get it back out and let my wife use it. So I wiped it, and installed Windows 7.

The problem is that the laptop is very slow and I can't figure out why (with the same software it had on it years ago and 3 GB of memory installed) it's so slow. The fan is working fine and it does not appear to be overheating.

Here is what I have tried:

Wiped the hard drive a couple of times
Checked the hard drive for bad sectors (ok!)
Ran memory test (ok!)
Ensured all drivers/windows updates were installed after wiping

What else could cause a laptop to slow down over time, even with the same exact software on it?

alexander7567

Posted 2016-01-29T13:48:03.597

Reputation: 293

Please elaborate on the hardware of the laptop. – kyze – 2016-01-29T13:52:31.017

1Is it possible it just seems slow because what you are using now, and are accustom to, is much faster? I have experienced this when resurrecting old PCs. – CharlieRB – 2016-01-29T13:54:50.313

2Alright, the hardware isnt overwhelming, can you add a screenshot of the resource-monitor ? (resmon.exe) – kyze – 2016-01-29T13:58:38.483

Run a SMART tool incase the hard drive is dead! Or, the hardware is worn out! – Dave – 2016-01-29T14:07:14.130

And update the drivers – Dave – 2016-01-29T14:19:07.507

Try using a spare working hard drive to eliminate one of the possible causes of the problem. – snaks20 – 2016-01-29T17:56:42.867

In Resource Monitor check your memory usage and hard faults. If memory is mostly in use and you see lots of hard faults, they could be virtual memory errors. Either increase physical memory or (what I did) switch to Linux. – user3169 – 2016-01-30T05:25:33.527

run this tool http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html and check for SMART errors. A failing HDD (pending sectors) can cause such slowness.

– magicandre1981 – 2016-01-30T07:45:42.707

Answers

Assuming there is no hardware failures, then it is most likely software. Two things come to mind. First, go to the manufacturer's website and download all the drivers for the motherboard, chipset, etc. It could be that Windows is using a generic driver that might be slowing it down. Secondly, and less likely, is the CMOS battery has died and the BIOS has reverted to less optimal settings.

Keltari

Posted 2016-01-29T13:48:03.597

Reputation: 57 019

The CMOS battery died? nope, even if it did, the BIOS would retain it's settings through the laptop battery, and you would also notice the biot resetting to factory settings because the clock would reset with it to something far back. And even if that had happened, it wouldn't have this kind of severe effect. – Cestarian – 2016-01-29T16:56:43.207

@Cestarian You are incorrect. He said it's been sitting for years. The battery could have easily died. As for the clock, it would get set once Windows booted and got the time from the Ntp server. – Keltari – 2016-01-29T17:39:57.320

If it has been sitting for years, it will not connect to the internet immediately hence it would have booted with messed up time. But I guess you're right, even still such a thing would not have such severe effects. Laptops (especially from that time) tend not to have any elaborate bios settings that affect performance in any measurable degree, and even if they do, they will almost always ship with the factory settings which they would be reset to if the cmos battery dies. So whether it happened or not is pretty much irrelevant in the end :) – Cestarian – 2016-01-29T17:45:00.370

The hard drive may be damaged, we have seen old hard drives with so many read or write errors. Try to replace the hard drive.

WalterH

Posted 2016-01-29T13:48:03.597

Reputation: 1

This is really a comment and not an answer to the original question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post - you can always comment on your own posts, and once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post. Please read Why do I need 50 reputation to comment? What can I do instead?

– DavidPostill – 2016-01-30T11:54:34.130

This is my experience with old hard drives. So I hope it will help others to solve this issue. – WalterH – 2016-01-31T12:31:33.527

That may well be true. On the other hand old drives can work for a long time. I have one that is 10 years old and still working fine. A better answer would have told the OP how to check his hard drive using SMART for example. – DavidPostill – 2016-01-31T12:35:46.230

That computer looks to be fairly dated, the hard drive could simply be wearing out (if your computer takes long to start, both itself and programs, this is most likely the problem, try replacing the hard drive; at least run a benchmark on it with crystalmark)

Also check your CPU temp, just because the fan is working doesn't mean that the CPU is being cooled properly (if the coolant between the CPU and heatsink dries up enough, the heatsink might as well not be there, same with the fan, but overheats would likely result in crashes so I don't think this is happening)

If I'm not wrong, the computer has a decent graphics card (GeForce 9000 series right?) so it should handle Aero, but just in case try disabling it.

Finally, make sure all drivers are installed. This is not an official link but seems like it could do the trick, make sure at least the chipset and storage drivers are installed (as well as of course the GPU drivers, if you have the card I think you do, you'd be best off downloading it from Nvidia's site.)

That's about all that could be wrong.

If all of this pans out, it's very likely that the laptop was always this slow, but at the time you used it it felt fast because it was for it's time, but it isn't for today, so if you've been using a faster computer it wouldn't be strange for you to perceive this laptop as slower than you did last time you used it.

If you want speed, and aren't going to be using the laptop for anything windows specific, you can try installing Linux on it. I would recommend Xubuntu for that laptop. Despite it's age, it should be blazing fast on that. If you're interested just ask and I'll give you an overview (the transition should be very easy, xfce (xubuntu's interface) is known to be very familiar for windows users, it's comparable to that of windows xp, but a bit less ugly) you can install google-chrome, firefox, libreoffice and vlc for your basic desktop needs (there are also better players than vlc, but libreoffice is the best available office pack).

Cestarian

Posted 2016-01-29T13:48:03.597

Reputation: 1 418