Slow PC Issue

bchip

bchip

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Hi Guys

I seem to encounter this a bit and dont understand really, what just hoping for a bit of clarity.
On paper I bought a decent work laptop, not the best but decent for work.
i5 - 6200 CPU, 8GB Ram, 1TB HDD Dell

However on reboots its really slow, takes around 10min to really boot.
When opening the Task manager during the load process it shows this

Barely any CPU or RAM usage but the HDD is constantly at 100%

Is there any way to optimize this?
Is it because I dont have an SSD hard drive?

Thanks

Capture.PNG
 
Last edited:
Try setting the paging file to let windows automatically change it. You can find that in Performance Options - - > Virtual Memory. Quite a few fixes for this. Getting an SSD isn't necessary, but will make things much easier.
 
bchip said:
Hi Guys

I seem to encounter this a bit and dont understand really, what just hoping for a bit of clarity.
On paper I bought a decent work laptop, not the best but decent for work.
i5 - 6200 CPU, 8GB Ram, 1TB HDD Dell

However on reboots its really slow, takes around 10min to really boot.
When opening the Task manager during the load process it shows this

Barely any CPU or RAM usage but the HDD is constantly at 100%

Is there any way to optimize this?
Is it because I dont have an SSD hard drive?

Thanks

View attachment 460871
Click to expand...

Do yourself a favour and do a Dell Systems Diagnostic (F12 at boot and select diagnostics) - had a similar issue with a customer's laptop - turned out to be a screwed up drive. On drive replacement everything went back to normal levels.
 
Yeah, if your disk is at 100% with 0.8MB/s traffic, you have a problem with your disk!

Does it happen on every reboot, or only after the machine has been turned off for a while? (That could cause temperature differences, which may account for something)
 
How long have you left it on for? Leave it on for a week.
Or disable Windows search and still leave it on for a week for Superfetch to optimize.
 
Thanks guys for all the advise.

Will try these things when I get home.

To answer the one question, it happens on every reboot.
I usually don't notice it as I leave my PC running for 2-3 weeks.
It is worrying if its a hard disk issue.

Thanks again
 
Start by partitioning your disk. If that does not work, put in SSD. 1TB conventional drive for OS today is not "decent" as you say, it is just adequate for storage.
 
My boss' wife (our admin lady) had almost the exact same issue. After investigating, I found it only happens after she opens an ABSA URL she uses once a month, which opened via IE - the certificate requests permission after opening it, and then the above happens, and her system becomes unusable.

I created a shortcut to it for her in Chrome instead, about 2 months ago, and she hasn't had the issue since.

Don't ask me why the certificate does that using IE, because I have no idea, and I'm sure it's not the same cause in your case, but it shows you it can be pretty much anything random, and not necessarily your HDD.
 
Started by running chkdsk last night. (chkdsk /f /r)
PC feels 10 times faster.

Thanks guys, will keep playing around with it.
 
Found this in the Logs, doesnt seem to be anything wrong with the drive though. No Bad clusters


Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Windows.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
979456 file records processed. File verification completed.
19762 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed.
Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
1198616 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 2373 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2373 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2373 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
109581 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
36572880 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.

Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
979440 files processed. File data verification completed.

Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
26679819 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

929980415 KB total disk space.
821742388 KB in 776263 files.
402964 KB in 109582 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
1115783 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
106719280 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
232495103 total allocation units on disk.
26679820 allocation units available on disk.
 
Now that Checkdisk hasn't solved anything, we're going to need some more information.

Hit WIN key + R together to bring up the run dialog, and type in "winver" and hit enter. Make note of the version of Windows that you're using, because Microsoft fixed this problem for a lot of people in Creators Update. Occasionally a fresh installation with a new version of Windows works because it's a driver issue.

To rule out that it's a disk problem, download CrystalDisk Info and check the status of your drive. CrystalDisk will read information from the drive's SMART monitoring software and see if the drive controller has picked up any issues. If it does find something, maybe even a warning notice, take note of the drive's manufacturer and download the relevant tool from either Western Digital or Seagate (manual) to scan the drive using more lower-level software to see what the problem is.

If you've determined that it isn't a drive issue, hit Start and type in "task schedule" and you'll get a hit for the Task Scheduler. Click that. Drill down the menu options like so:

Code: 
> Task Scheduler
  > Microsoft
    > Windows
      > Windows Defender

You'll see four menu options for setting up the tasks that WIndows Defender performs on a regular basis. Double-click on each one, switch to the Conditions tab, and hit the checkbox for the following items:

  • Start the task only if the computer is idle
  • Stop if the computer ceases to be idle
  • Restart if the idle state resumes
  • Start the task only if the computer is on AC power
  • Stop if the computer switched to battery power

By default, Windows Defender is really aggressively set up to scan everything all of the time, and it's a workload more suited to SSDs than computers with spinning rust. It still can induce slowdowns on slower SSDs though, which is why I configure it like that for every PC I work with.

If you go through all of this and still haven't found anything, try updating the BIOS of your notebook. It may be the case that there's an issue with the firmware of the SATA controller, and it may have been fixed in the BIOS.
 
Last edited:
CataclysmZA said:
Now that Checkdisk hasn't solved anything, we're going to need some more information.

Hit WIN key + R together to bring up the run dialog, and type in "winver" and hit enter. Make note of the version of Windows that you're using, because Microsoft fixed this problem for a lot of people in Creators Update. Occasionally a fresh installation with a new version of Windows works because it's a driver issue.

To rule out that it's a disk problem, download CrystalDisk Info and check the status of your drive. CrystalDisk will read information from the drive's SMART monitoring software and see if the drive controller has picked up any issues. If it does find something, maybe even a warning notice, take note of the drive's manufacturer and download the relevant tool from either Western Digital or Seagate (manual) to scan the drive using more lower-level software to see what the problem is.
Click to expand...

Most modern Dell Laptops have a built in hardware diagnostic selectable at boot. If you run this it will check the drive's smart info and all other components and should there be a hardware issue provide a code which can be given to Dell support who will then authorise a swapout of the faulty component if under warranty. In fact you will only be able to claim the drive is faulty if this procedure is followed.
 
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