Why are my Win7 systems so fucking slow?

[Antryg_Windrose]

I have Win7 installed on most of my desktop-replacement laptops. (Lenovo, HP, Toshiba.) They all go sluggish. Am I infected? I have AVIRA and MALWAREBYTES and SPYBOT installed and running. I clean their registries and defragment them weekly. They have plenty of RAM and I limit the number of apps and browser windows open. I'm ruthless about killing off suspicious or useless background tasks. Yet they still slug along. I've given up doing image editing on my most powerful because it's just too damn slow now. Help?

 

[Doog_kuron]

I have Win7 installed on most of my desktop-replacement laptops. (Lenovo, HP, Toshiba.) They all go sluggish. Am I infected? I have AVIRA and MALWAREBYTES and SPYBOT installed and running. I clean their registries and defragment them weekly. They have plenty of RAM and I limit the number of apps and browser windows open. I'm ruthless about killing off suspicious or useless background tasks. Yet they still slug along. I've given up doing image editing on my most powerful because it's just too damn slow now. Help?

Yikes. Could be a million and one...possibly two reasons for that. Is it a legitimate copy, is all your hardware up to spec not just ram. It might be applying some serious updates after initial install and might take a day or two to settle down. Could be infected with something despite what you have running. Are they new or old computers. See what's gobbling up resources in task manager, might help.

Finally, offer up a prayer to the god of electronics it may answer your plight!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Would need to know the type of processors in each, amount of ram in each and whether they are desktop or laptop. As for Win7...I went from Vista to Win7 and my machine was 5 times faster.

No. 1 reason for sluggish performance is heat. CPU gets hot, it slows down to alleviate the heat problem. If they get too hot, they shut down. Same for the GPU. The hotter it gets the slower it will go or just shut down the computer completely.

Make sure everything is clean, fans, circuit boards...blow out any dust. Take soft bristled brush and clean all the surfaces of the board inside...well as much as possible.

No. 2 reason for sluggish performance is mis-matched memory sticks. Size mis-match and order withing the dimms.

No. 3 reason for sluggish performance, disk drive failure. I had to replace a hard drive, also the reason I switched to Win7, a short while ago. About a month before it failed, the system became...sluggish.

No. 4 reason for sluggish performance, cluttered disk drive, but you say you clean them regularly. Same would go for the Registry, but you clean that out too. So this shouldn't be your problem.

No. 5 reason...CPU/GPU aren't up to the task you are trying to perform. If the CPU or GPU are just at the minimum needed to run the task, the computer will be sluggish while trying to perform that task.

Hope this helps you with your problem.

 

[borisk]

When was the last time windows was re installed? I do it about once a year, of course I have images already made so its quick.

 

[FGB]

#6 reason is Microsoft wants you to upgrade.

New Internet Explorers take more crap to run them and even in win 8.1 fucks up hangs up and freaks out...not to mention lets multi crap load that slows you down.

Try CC cleaner or something like that!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

#6 reason is Microsoft wants you to upgrade.

New Internet Explorers take more crap to run them and even in win 8.1 fucks up hangs up and freaks out...not to mention lets multi crap load that slows you down.

Try CC cleaner or something like that!

Who uses IE? Chrome, Firefox, Pale Moon...NEVER IE!

 

[Antryg_Windrose]

@Doog_kuron: Legal Win7 installs. Adequate RAM. Slow even when not updating. I get many NOT RESPONDING titlebar messages. They're not new computers but I'm pretty good at avoiding bloatware. Yes, I watch Resource Manager closely, but rarely see obvious resources sinks. I don't see serious levels of CPU, RAM, and disc usage. I am sorely perplexed.

@Zeb_Carter: All laptops, 3-5 yrs old, various CPUs. Heat: I have Core_Temp installed on each to monitor temps, and I regularly blow-out all vents. Memory: all matched sticks. Drives: yes, they fail, but mine seem up to spec. Clutter: like I said, I defrag and clean regularly. CPU/GPU: even when Resource Monitor shows CPU usage at just 10%, they're still sluggish. I suspect malware or unwanted background processes, but with low resource consumption, I don't see how those could be culprits.

@borisk: The one I'm on now got a new install less than 6 months ago. The (slower) others are admittedly older. I'll try re-installs; thanks for the suggestion.

@FGB: Microsoft is satanic. And I run CCleaner regularly, like this morning.

Who uses IE? Chrome, Firefox, Pale Moon...NEVER IE!

I run various Mozilla browsers on the machines. I hate Chrome but have it installed on a Win8.1 machine here. I find IE useful every now and then. The browsers are often the main CPU sinks, so I also suspect add-ons. But I've pulled as many of those as feasible, without benefit. I could try that again too.

Thanks for the suggestions. The quest continues.

 

[Sir Victor]

............

 

[CeasarBoobage]

It seems like you have a decent handle on both how the OS and the hardware works. Getting a bit more "under the hood" work is now in order. Try using the SysInternals tools (some tools were only available from before it was bought by microsoft). Running regmon, diskmon, and filemon can show you all the calls being made, and by looking at the 'not found' or error results, you may be able to spot recurring problems that can point to the source(s) of the problems.

Also try downloading Ubuntu to create a live boot USB drive. You dont have to install it, just boot from it to see how it runs. You can use the Disk Utility to run a SMART test on the drive. This can show if the drive is failing in ways that aren't otherwise obvious. Just general usage of the OS would show if the hardware is good, and that the problems are truly with Win7 and not the hardware.

 

[CeasarBoobage]

I run various Mozilla browsers on the machines. I hate Chrome but have it installed on a Win8.1 machine here. I find IE useful every now and then. The browsers are often the main CPU sinks, so I also suspect add-ons. But I've pulled as many of those as feasible, without benefit. I could try that again too.

Thanks for the suggestions. The quest continues.

Don't forget to add plugins as well. Ghostery and AdBlockPlus are great for limiting the network traffic that can slow down your browsing (with a side benefit of blocking advertisers from profiling you). Adding a flash plugin blocker also does well on this. I've seen this help speed up many browsers by limiting cpu/memory usage.

Although you may already do it, this post is also for other people's info as well.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Another thought...

How many processes are running? How many services are running?

See if you can shutdown some processes...there are a lot that aren't really needed that Windows likes to run. The same goes for services.

My machine is only running 53 processes when Chrome isn't running.

And 63 services, I think I say a few in there that shouldn't be running unless needed and they aren't needed right now.

 

[LostShade]

Zeb got it right. Probably too much running.

Win7 is horrible. Should have 30ish things running. not 63

goto Start > Run > type "msconfig" a window pops up.
under services "hide microsoft services" turn off everything else.
under startup you can likely turn off some. Be careful clicking things off you don't know about. Could loose your sound or printer. Though easy enough to turn back on.

 

[silverwhisper]

huh...considering my win7 laptop is around a year old and still flies, i'm kinda surprised you're having this issue, antryg_windrose. you certainly sound like someone who's pretty comfortable with dealing with his tech needs.

i'll admit to being surprised you dislike chrome, but that's not why you're here. the fresh install is probably your best bet. i oughta get an image of my own HD, come to think of it...

actually: one other thing comes to mind, antryg_windrose. your machines are from different manufacturers. have you already hit up their own forums for performance issues? i've got a lenovo l series and other than one minor issue i love it--but periodically the touchpad goes out so i have to reinstall the driver. i found that solution on the lenovo support forum, so that might prove helpful.

ed

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Zeb got it right. Probably too much running.

Win7 is horrible. Should have 30ish things running. not 63

goto Start > Run > type "msconfig" a window pops up.
under services "hide microsoft services" turn off everything else.
under startup you can likely turn off some. Be careful clicking things off you don't know about. Could loose your sound or printer. Though easy enough to turn back on.

Uh, don't do this.

There other things needed beside the MS stuff. You virus checker, any other processes needed by your computer, like video card services and such. Any licensing services for purchased software.

If you are using Spybot S&D there will be two services for that, which needs to be on. So unless you really know what you are doing...

You can shut down services that deal with updating things like google chrome, Adobe, etc.

Don't turn off Windows Update service.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Another thought...

Did your ISP have you install software so you could register you modem?

I know Comcast techs would try to install Comcast software on the computer they were using to register the modem. I always told them no, because it was usually filled with bloatware and would track you activity. It was also the devil to get rid of once it was installed.

 

[ChasingShadowsX]

I have Win7 installed on most of my desktop-replacement laptops. (Lenovo, HP, Toshiba.) They all go sluggish. Am I infected? I have AVIRA and MALWAREBYTES and SPYBOT installed and running. I clean their registries and defragment them weekly. They have plenty of RAM and I limit the number of apps and browser windows open. I'm ruthless about killing off suspicious or useless background tasks. Yet they still slug along. I've given up doing image editing on my most powerful because it's just too damn slow now. Help?

Are you saying other operating systems (OS) are working faster? Windows 7 itself isn't too sluggish of an OS.

I might suggest if you have three anti-virus/malware/spyware programs running, that alone would slow the systems down. Try formatting and not installing these programs. Generally they're unnecessary.

Additionally how old are the systems? They might just be getting physically old.

 

[desireunbounded]

I'd replace the HDs with solid state drives. I've had my laptop for about 2 years now (custom) and still have a 19 second boot up in Win7. Advanced SystemCare is also a good program for cleaning up the drive in a pinch. Check to see if there is any extra heat you didn't have before. Fans may need replacing for a start.