my windows 10 pc got really slow although CPU and memory usage is fine. what else can I do?

Question

since two weeks my windows 10 pc got really slow, and I have no idea why. I can still do everything, but everything takes much longer to a degree that I'm struggling to get my school work done. listening to music is usually not fluent but "stammering", mouse movement is sometimes also interrupted and opening webpages can take ages.

I already tried the following, but none of them solved the problem:

• free up space on hard disk (C:). now there's 16 GB free, but problem remains (lenovo recovery disk (Q:) is almost full, only 500 MB out of 13 GB are free, but someone told me that this doesn't matter?)
• check task manager for CPU, memory, network and disk usage, but it's constantly around 50% max (well within the limits) and the computer is still slow

• try different programs and internet connections, but my pc remains slow, even with the super fast internet at my university

Answer 1

thanks for your answers, guys, but the solution was actually something else. Turned out that the task "system and compressed memory" is not actually run by windows, but run by some malware which disguises itself as windows. I reset my PC completely, and now it's running fine again.

Answer 2

I had the same problem but the solution was different. My CPU, Memory usage and everything looked normal but it seems my system had high page faults which was slowing down the entire system. To check if this is a problem in your system

1. Start->Run->perfmon

2. Select "Performance monitor" and click on "Add a counter" (+ button)

3. In the list of counters shown, locate and expand Menory and select the "Page faults" counter

4. Watch the performance monitor to see if the page faults are high. In my case it was at 100 always

If you have confirmed that you have high page faults, now we need to find out which application is causing it. Follow the below listed steps.

1. Search google for "ProcessExplorer" from SysInternals.

2. Download ProcessExplorer and run as administrator

3. Under the "View" menu click on "Select Columnns"

4. Click on the "Process Memory" tab.

5. Enable "Page Faults" and click OK.

6. Now you will see the "Page Faults" column. Sort it in descending order. You will find out which one is causing high page faults. If it is a user installed application try uninstalling and re-installing it.

In my case, it was "KasperSky". My license got expired and I renewed it from the KasperSky app. Guess something got messed up with that. I uninstalled and re-installed KasperSky and my system was back to normal!

Answer 3

In researching my "slow CPU" problem I found many others with Windows 10 having similar problems. Mine- and I believe many others- was thermal related.

The "normal" description for this problem- besides all the errors caused by the CPUs slow operation- is, when looking at the performance tab in Task Manager, the CPU Utilization is less than 50% AND the CPU is running at about 50% of its Base Speed. You can probably check to see if your system has this same "thermal fault" by turning off your computer for 15 minutes or so to let it cool down and when booted back up, looking at task manager- first- to see if the CPU will run at higher than 50% Utilization and Base Speed. (You may need to run an application or two while looking at the performance tab just to get the CPU cranked up to a higher speed and utilization).

If your CPU- now cooled off- runs at its rated speed but soon drops to the 50% levels as you monitor the performance tab in Task Manager, there is a good chance that your problem is thermal related. Windows 10 apparently responds to overheat notices from the CPU and will, in fact, toggle the CPU from its rated speed and utilization to half or less, then back to normal as the CPU cools down. If your CPU can't cool down enough after some processor intensive operations, Windows will keep the CPUs performance at half levels.

This seems to be a fine safety feature when it works properly but clogged air vents, failed fans, abundant Registry entries and too many apps running at the same time (check your bloatware) overloading the CPU can prevent a cooler operation of the CPU. Anything that could prevent your CPU from cooling off should be checked. Additionally, I placed Furniture Caster Cups under the rubber "feet" of my laptop in order to raise it higher off the desk and allow for more cool air to get to the underside.

My system now works just like it's supposed to, going to half-speed and utilization when I overwork and thus overheat the CPU but it cools quickly and returns to normal speed after any such processor intensive work.

You can find many tips searching on the Internet for things to do to help this heat problem, so I won't go into any more here. Just don't make any changes that have Windows ignore the overheating- the system will begin to shut down on its own and you risk destruction of your CPU and more.

Answer 4

the last cumulative Windows 10 Update KB3156421 can causes the slowness. Try to disable Cortana:

• Click in the Cortana search box to bring up Cortana

• Click the Notebook

• Click Settings

• Move the slider under “Cortana can give you suggestions, ideas, reminders, alerts and more.” to “Off”.

if this doesn't fix it, try to uninstall the update and use the Windows Update MiniTool to hide the update.

Answer 5

You can try to speed up windows a bit. By turning off some things. Try this and see if it helps.

• All that is under the option autostart. just turn it off. You don't need it. If your computer need a software to start when you you start your computer it will start. Trust me. So when you are in task manager go to startup and disable all.

• Next step is to turn off services you don't need. To do this go again to Task Manager and then services and after that open services.

I can tell you what to disable. But if you are unsure, just change it to manual. If you have Amd or Nvidia services. Just change all to disable. You don't need em to run at auto.

Then you can disable all this: AxInstSV, AJRouter, AppReadiness, ALG, AppMgmt, aspnet_state, BitLocker Drive Encryption Service, Connected Device Platform Service, Fax, InstallDriver Table Manager, Net.Tcp, XboxNetApiSvc, RemoteRegistry, Routing and Remote Access, Smart Card, Smart Card Device Enumeration Service, Smart Card Removal Policy, XblGameSave, XblAuthManager

All services above is useless for a ''normal'' user. Then there is a lot of services you can change to manual. But i'm sure you find em by your self. Windows give you a description too what the service do.

• Next you can speed up your UI at the desktop. To do this press Windows Key and R.

In the search windows write: sysdm.cpl in the next window that come up, go to advanced and then the first settings you see. (There is 3). In next window you see disable this:

animate windows when minimizing and maximizing

animate controls and elements within the window

Animations in the taskbar

slide menus into view

smooth scrolling for list boxes

save taskbar thumbnails

show window contents while dragging

show shadows for icon labels

Show shadows under windows

Show shadows under mouse

If you do this it will run more smoothly.

• Press Windows key and R again and write: msconfig and press enter, in the new window that you see go to services and press Hide all Microsoft services. After that just uncheck all services you see.

And restart you computer. I do this on all my computers fast or slow and it help somewhat for me. Windows do a lot of unnecessary things in the bakground that steal performans when you play or do some work.

// Marcus.