Windows 7 running slowly despite having lots of CPU and memory free

2

This is my computer spec

  • Intel i7 2500k @ 3.4ghz,
  • Win7 64bit
  • 16gb of ram
  • Radeon HD 6800

My computer is starting to run progressively slower for example when switching between programs ie excel to word there tends to be quite abit of lag 2/3 seconds before the selected program loads up

Action taken so far;

  • run windows memory checker and all fine
  • checked the disk
  • Checked to make sure
  • Run CCleaner
  • system restore from a month ago!
  • checked cpu temps
  • checked all CPUs haven't been disabled

My reputation is <10 is there anyway I can post pictures / links to my resource monitor output ?

I have run the resource monitor but to be truthful I'm not sure what I'm looking at. The cpu and memory seem to be running at low levels but unsure with disk.

I'm a new user so unsure also how I post a picture of my resource monitor to get further advise ?

Thank you in advance for any input you can offer

willy757

Posted 2015-07-02T17:37:33.093

Reputation: 23

1"I'm a new user so unsure also how I post a picture of my resource monitor to get further advise ?"

To quickly take a screenshot in Windows, use the Snipping Tool. Press your Windows key and type "Snipping Tool" to find it. It's built into every Windows installation and you can choose to take screenshots of the whole screen, a specific window, or just a selection of the screen. – Egghead99 – 2015-07-02T19:40:34.147

Check CPU temperature, heat sink fan, dust accumulation, and so on. – David Schwartz – 2015-07-02T19:58:45.487

run this: http://pastebin.com/9R3Ehbs3 (ignore the startmenu, this was written for a different user here, but it also captures useful data)

– magicandre1981 – 2015-07-03T04:06:36.950

unable to post picture of resource monitor due to rep being <10 any other way I can post photos ? – willy757 – 2015-07-05T07:36:23.190

@willy757, +1 upload a picture in drive or dropbox – Hemant Rupani – 2015-07-05T08:14:35.627

@willy757 make sure you have not disabled one of your cpus. You can check this in msconfig in the boot tab. Click on the advanced options. The checkbox with the number of processors should not be active. – Valinho – 2015-07-05T09:28:36.623

capture the xperf trace, this is better compared to 1000 pictures. – magicandre1981 – 2015-07-05T17:36:33.997

@magicandre1981 not sure if I have doen this correct but shel file is here; http://wikisend.com/download/588222/SlowShell.rar very gratful for your time !

– willy757 – 2015-07-05T18:42:01.833

@Valinho thanks just checked but all cpus firing – willy757 – 2015-07-05T18:48:09.583

@DavidSchwartz download realtemp program all temps look good – willy757 – 2015-07-05T18:51:32.593

the trace is too short (oly 3 seconds). run it for at least 1 minute and do the actions, that are slow. – magicandre1981 – 2015-07-06T04:04:08.187

@magicandre1981 how do I increase trace time ? – willy757 – 2015-07-06T09:56:32.477

wait some time before pressing a key to stop it, or change the -1 after timeout to 60 to log 60 seconds. – magicandre1981 – 2015-07-06T17:46:15.680

@magicandre1981 I've done a full system restore again but from 2 months ago and this seems to have done the trick ! Looks like software conflict will slowly add programs back and keep you posted if I have any further problems. Thank you for your time ! – willy757 – 2015-07-07T07:10:17.377

you should still share the trace, otherwise you have the same issue in 2 months again. – magicandre1981 – 2015-07-07T17:37:46.697

@magicandre1981 should I do the trace even thou I'm not having any problems at the min thou ? – willy757 – 2015-07-11T15:35:52.867

if you have already restored Windows and currently have no issue it makes no sense to capture it. – magicandre1981 – 2015-07-11T17:34:19.813

Answers

2

Run resource monitor and look at the disk usage. At idle, it should be well under 1MB/s of transfer speed. Monitor any programs in the "Disk" section that are at very high disk usage - I often find Malware Bytes will run some kind of background task that abuses the page file and absolutely swamps my hard drive, while leaving memory usage and CPU relatively normal - this leads to everything becoming very laggy feeling, because disk accesses start to slow, which can become very obvious due to the really long access times. This is the type of slowdown an SSD can have a big impact on, and why everything has a very "snappy" feel.

I might suggest making sure your disk is defragmented and perhaps monitor what's running in the background - you may have some undesired or unnecessary background services and tasks that slowly build up over time and can slow things down quite a bit. Type "msconfig" into the start menu and check out what's under the Startup tab. If you're unsure what something is, just google the process name and if it's malware/unnecessary you should find a description of it online.

Stephen Arsenault

Posted 2015-07-02T17:37:33.093

Reputation: 21

-1

Try cleaning up your computer with ccleaner (clean up the registry as well). Also this additionally to what Stephen suggested.

Edit: overlooked the "windows 7" part. Do you completely shut down your PC from time to time (hibernating is not shutting it down)?

Gin

Posted 2015-07-02T17:37:33.093

Reputation: 9

Always shut down windows fully – willy757 – 2015-07-03T20:55:16.370

Asked: 2015-07-02T17:37:33.093

Viewed: 519 times

Active: 2015-07-06T09:58:28.233