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Hi superuser community,
I have a problem with my old but good notebook since almost a year, that my PC (Win7) performance degrades over time with too long boot up time and too slow opening software. I mean slower, even after a fresh clean install. And no, I am not using it for intense operations, but even a web browsing turns into trouble or logging into skype takes 10+ minutes, even though 4 years ago I could run Civilization V without any problems.
I would like to have your opinions regarding the reasons of the performance issues, especially for SMART report as well as partitioning table below.
What I did:
- I suspected malicious software --> scanned, it was clean
- I made a clean Win7 install after formatting --> boot up and file operations or running SW still take too long.
- Installed Linux Mate dual boot (it was not the reason for installation), but currently it is much faster than Win7, therefore it might be a SW issue as well. But on the other hand it is comparing apples vs oranges
- I suspected RAM Issues: memtest --> it was OK
What I suspect:
- HDD failing down, since it is 6 year old notebook HDD Smart Report
- Bad Partitioning (Only 1 Physical Partition was available and for Linux Mate, I had to split it to logical partitions to preserve data, thus sub-optimal partitioning) Partition Table for HDD
- Complete old system, time to buy a new notebook
What could be the underlying reason of the degrading performance?
Thank you
Update: I booted windows to check the resource monitor and attached the results to below. I still cannot embed them to the post, therefore they are available as links.
I assume the disk I/O is the bottleneck, as it shows 100% active time (blue). The CPU usage seems OK around 10-30% and the task 'system' is the part uses the disk I/O a lot, assumed it is swapping the memory to disk, I think both SSD and RAM upgrade would a be a reasonable solution.
I know it is not a hw suggestion forum, but what I consider is: is it then worth to invest around 130€(90€ for SSD, 10€ for Caddy and around 30 € for 4gb ram) for this notebook or buying a new one around 600-700 with some decent specs and 2 year warranty.
A short info regarding the Notebook specs:
Dell N5110 Notebook
4gb ddr3-1330 (6-6-6-20) ram
i5 2410M CPU
5400rpm HDD
Nvidia 525M GPU
SMART Tool Output
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 152 139 021 Pre-fail Always - 1383
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 096 096 000 Old_age Always - 4787
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 184 184 140 Pre-fail Always - 126
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 080 080 000 Old_age Always - 14641
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 096 096 000 Old_age Always - 4068
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 164921
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 185
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 1214123
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 092 081 000 Old_age Always - 51
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 132 132 000 Old_age Always - 68
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0032 082 082 000 Old_age Always - 13738
241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 45299434411
242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 57505229630
254 Free_Fall_Sensor 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
I'm sure someone will chime in shortly. But your old hdd is most likely the cause. It's in your s.m.a.r.t report. – Tim_Stewart – 2018-02-13T00:09:08.793
https://lime-technology.com/wiki/Understanding_SMART_Reports – Tim_Stewart – 2018-02-13T00:14:44.850
2My experience has been that as Windows has more features added, such as applications running in the background, telemetry to MS, advertising screens and additional services, PC's slow down. As you stated above, Linux versions may run faster. On one PC, Windows OS became unusable, and switching to Linux works well even on Windows programs running in wine, so that was definitely not a HDD issue. – DrMoishe Pippik – 2018-02-13T00:52:01.593
How is your RAM/swap usage when you have "10min Skype opening"? That would cause the problems you are exhibiting I would recommend upgrading to a proper SSD (name brand like Intel or Samsung) and 8GB ram. Pending your hardware is in working order your CPU and GPU should be plenty for the average home/office user (non-gaming) but HDD and low RAM would make a laptop UNBEARABLE to use. We have a similar spec'd laptop but with 8GB and SSD and it runs lickety-split on Windows 7. – Damon – 2018-02-13T01:23:47.120
1I have a consumer old HDD in a server that has been indicating "Pre-Failure" for a long time that is running perfect in a RAID 1 for the hypervisor and am fully comfortable with it; I would take some of those statuses with a "grain of salt". – Damon – 2018-02-13T01:26:54.047
@Damon I can check it earliest tomorrow, but I remember the hdd active noise at Windows start-up. Probably swapping issue due to slow hdd and waiting for I/O. But the 4gb memory is not yet fully used. – birincilikteli – 2018-02-13T19:45:55.993
@Tim_Steward thanks for the link, I am going through it now. And teaching how to fish is more useful than giving a fish for feeding. – birincilikteli – 2018-02-13T19:48:21.553