Computer suddenly extremely slow to the point of freezing

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A few days ago, my computer went from being fast and capable, to being completely useless, overnight. It behaves normally for the first 20 seconds after loading Windows, but then it slows down to the point where programs just crash instead of loading, and when hovering the mouse over the taskbar, it just shows the loading spinner. This also means that I have to manually shut down the computer by holding the power button. After shutting it down like this 2-6 times, It works normally, but then goes right back to being useless after I restart it...

First I thought it was virus, so I did numerous scans including a boot-up scan, but nothing was found. Then I decided to purge the entire system and install a fresh copy of Windows 10 - still, no change. Then I tried updating chipset and graphics drivers but also with no luck.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing, who can point me in the right direction?

Also, here are my specs: 

MB: MSI B250I PRO.
CPU: Pentium G4600.
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance.
SSD: 500GB WD Black (M.2).
GPU: XFX R9 380

user3649604

Posted 2018-03-23T20:34:53.177

Reputation: 3

Answers

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Isolating hardware from software would lead me to remove the SSD and install another one. Setup Windows fresh and use for a few days (maybe far less by your symptoms). That would tell me if it is software or hardware. I appreciate that this is inconvenient but I have done this myself and it ultimately ended up being a problematic USB connected scanner. When a fresh install of Windows on a new SSD did not address the issue then I knew I could go back to the original SSD and start to eliminate hardware.

So, rewinding for a moment... start with unplugging / swapping / removing external peripherals. You may find a problematic device without needing to start with a fresh OS install.

Also, any noises ? Dramatic fan speed changes ? etc.

Simon A Cousins

Posted 2018-03-23T20:34:53.177

Reputation: 16

The wierd thing is that nothing has changed, from what I can see. I am not using any new peripherals, there is no change in noise level and there is no elevated resource use during slow-downs. I've also tried running CrystalDiskMark which is telling me that the SSD is 100% healthy. If I can get a hold of another SSD I will try to eliminate that as the root of the problem. – user3649604 – 2018-03-23T21:05:46.780

I've had Spinrite save some drives a few times in the past. Maybe worth a go if you have a copy. – Simon A Cousins – 2018-03-24T01:47:10.020

I think I have found the problem. It appears to have been my 3-week old USB microphone (Blue Snowball ICE) which was causing the problems. – user3649604 – 2018-03-25T14:25:22.003

Aha ! Good find :) – Simon A Cousins – 2018-03-26T15:59:47.860

Asked: 2018-03-23T20:34:53.177

Viewed: 370 times

Active: 2018-03-23T20:52:46.277