Win 7 randomly slowing for no reason it seems

Tranquillity · Nov 5, 2011

I've had this laptop for about 8 months now. Kept very clean, always plugged in. First thing I did was get AVG and kept it up to date. Kept Windows up to date as well. Scan regularly, disc cleanup and defrag regularly as well.
About 1 month ago it started being significantly slower than before. Quite frustrating mainly because I can't figure out why. Hard drive is about half full, no viruses according to AVG[I haven't had a virus since I got my last computer 5 years ago to the best of my knowledge]
I don't do a whole lot, play WoW and listen to music mainly. Sometimes leave Facebook or MSN on in the background as well. Used to work great. Not sure why it's slowing down.
Anyone have an ideas as to why it may be doing this? I've tried all the basics I can think of.. Thanks!
System info in my profile if needed as well
Also - when I hit Fn key and adjust volume, sometimes it will stop showing me what it's at[little pop up on the screen] and seems like I have to press it 2 or 3 times as much to get the normal volume adjustment. Bah

zigzag3143 · Nov 5, 2011

Tranquillity said:
I've had this laptop for about 8 months now. Kept very clean, always plugged in. First thing I did was get AVG and kept it up to date. Kept Windows up to date as well. Scan regularly, disc cleanup and defrag regularly as well.
About 1 month ago it started being significantly slower than before. Quite frustrating mainly because I can't figure out why. Hard drive is about half full, no viruses according to AVG[I haven't had a virus since I got my last computer 5 years ago to the best of my knowledge]
I don't do a whole lot, play WoW and listen to music mainly. Sometimes leave Facebook or MSN on in the background as well. Used to work great. Not sure why it's slowing down.
Anyone have an ideas as to why it may be doing this? I've tried all the basics I can think of.. Thanks!
System info in my profile if needed as well
Also - when I hit Fn key and adjust volume, sometimes it will stop showing me what it's at[little pop up on the screen] and seems like I have to press it 2 or 3 times as much to get the normal volume adjustment. Bah

There are several ways to find what the problem is. The best is to go into event viewer (type eventvwr in search). Event viewer (local) and look for errors listed in the last day, week, etc. Then go to the windows log>application tab. Finally the windows Logs>system tabs.

You want to look for all errors (they have red in the left column ).

When you find them you want to look for critical errors that say app hang, app crash, or anything that relates to the problem.

When you find them please note the event ID, and the source codes and tell us what they are.

Tranquillity · Nov 5, 2011

Well. There's an awful lot going on. I hope it's okay to show a screenshot. Under apps there's about 5 or 6 pages, looks like it's almost all the same stuff as on the screenshot over and over. Pretty close by what I can see anyhow. Here is the Apps tab
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
And here is Sys tab
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

Thanks a lot. Looks nasty in there.

zigzag3143 · Nov 5, 2011

Tranquillity said:
Well. There's an awful lot going on. I hope it's okay to show a screenshot. Under apps there's about 5 or 6 pages, looks like it's almost all the same stuff as on the screenshot over and over. Pretty close by what I can see anyhow. Here is the Apps tab
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
And here is Sys tab
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

Thanks a lot. Looks nasty in there.

It might be easier if we sorted by date/time so we can see what sequence of event happened but you are right there are a bunch of errors.

I am assuming you dont have a backup to restore to.

Do you hve the win 7 dvd to do a repair install?

Tranquillity · Nov 6, 2011

If I sort bye date/time, the most recent error on the 3rd is Service Control Manager - 7011 - None.
Next is on the 2nd; volsnap - 36 - None.

I don't have the disc, comp was bought at Wal-Mart.
I haven't used system restore in any way so I doubt there's anything of use there, but you'd know better than me

Hope that helps. I could go on with errors but they're quite a distant apart in terms of lots of in between issues so it would take a long time. Any specific errors to look for?

zigzag3143 · Nov 7, 2011

Tranquillity said:
If I sort bye date/time, the most recent error on the 3rd is Service Control Manager - 7011 - None.
Next is on the 2nd; volsnap - 36 - None.

I don't have the disc, comp was bought at Wal-Mart.
I haven't used system restore in any way so I doubt there's anything of use there, but you'd know better than me

Hope that helps. I could go on with errors but they're quite a distant apart in terms of lots of in between issues so it would take a long time. Any specific errors to look for?

Without the DVD and a restore point your options are somewhat limited.

Tranquillity · Nov 8, 2011

So Windows just screws up at times even if taken care of, and if you didn't want to spend the extra $100+ when buying the comp you're screwed..?

mjf · Nov 8, 2011

You could try running Disk Defragmenter and select analyze to see how fragmented your disk is. While your at it do some basic disk and file system checks-
at elevated command prompt run
sfc /scannow

You might as well then use Windows to do a check on the HDD
Computer > right click properties>tools>check now

When your PC is running particularly slow look at Resource monitor
type "resource monitor" in bottom left search box.
In particular look at CPU and Disk and see whats hogging resources.

Corazon · Nov 8, 2011

Even though you say you haven't "used System Restore in any way", it might still have created a number of restore points on its own. It usually does when an installation or update is detected. So this is worth doublechecking just to make sure.

Your computer should have a hidden partition to restore it to factory conditions, but you could also ask for them to give you restore discs...this should only cost you a small fee if anything.

Tranquillity · Nov 8, 2011

So after analyzing it says it's only 1% fragmented. Doesn't make sense seeing as I let the thing run all night. It does multiple passes and then finishes but never shows anything. I liked the XP defragmenter much better...
Apparently I'm not the administrator, so I can't run the sfc /scannow, which is kind of a piss off seeing as I'm the only account on here. How to I switch to admin or admin abilities?
Resetting to do the HDD check now thing

mjf · Nov 8, 2011

here is the link for your Acer support if you haven't found it???
Acer Support: Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / Aspire / Aspire 5552

You should have made recovery Disks or you can order them.
There is probably an Fn access to eRecovery.

Tranquillity · Nov 8, 2011

Restored to 4 months ago. Didn't seem to do a whole lot, though I'm very sure 4 months ago it wasn't slow like this.
Any leads on administrative abilities? Or how I can defrag all night and have it do mulitple passes but not actually.. work?

torre · Nov 8, 2011

Please define slow for us: slow start/shutdown, slow page display, etc. What browser and added programs do you have ? Internet connection OK ?

Tranquillity · Nov 8, 2011

Net is good, always has been. Slower startup, which isn't really a problem. There's a lot of random times where it will lock up a few times over a few seconds. Get's really annoying. Anytime I open up WMP it's always saying updating media, never stops. Takes forever to load WMP on fireup. Locks up for about 2 mins before I can use it. Only 8 GB of music. Far as I've been told, that's not a whole lot. Programs are quite basic. Couple games, had Google Chrome, but I removed it. IE, most up to date one. Live messenger, Skype, Steam. AVG Free, always updated. That's about it.

No addons on the browser either, aside from Google Toolbar.

torre · Nov 8, 2011

Hopefully, one of the more knowledgeable forum members will reply.

In the interim, click on the tutorial link at top of this page. Run some of those tests like SFC/scan now.

Tranquillity · Nov 9, 2011

Ran the SFC/scannow a few times now. Keeps saying it did not find any integrity voilations. Bah

Tranquillity · Nov 9, 2011

Got a free system scanner. Cleaned up a lot of crap. But I've noticed that everytime I open Windows Media Player.. it really gets bad. can I reinstall?

Tranquillity · Nov 24, 2011

nothing? remove and install windows media player..?

hello2011 · Nov 24, 2011

Why don't you try checking your Task Scheduler? Windows could be running something in the background without your knowledge (Defrag, Diagnosis, DiskDiagnostic, etc.). Also, some other applications might be doing the same according to schedule or triggered by certain conditions (automatic log, sync, program update, error reporting, etc.)

writhziden · Nov 24, 2011

You may also watch your hard drive light (it lights up when the hard drive is busy) and see if it is spinning more during these slow moments. It could be a program is accessing your hard drive, slowing down any other in/out writing to the drive and making the system appear sluggish.

If this is the case, run resource monitor (Start Menu->Search Programs and Files->type Resource Monitor) and see what is using your hard drive.

If it is not the hard drive, we will need a picture of what processes are running (take one picture, scroll down, take another picture, etc. until you reach the bottom of your processes) and your startup programs (same method as the processes). You can reach the processes through task manager (right click the double ^ near the clock, click task manager, click the tab for processes). Start programs can be accessed by going to Start Menu->Search Programs and Files->type in msconfig

To post a picture of your processes and startup programs, use http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums-5.html

Edit: It would also be good to see a picture of Resource Monitor->Disk tab if this appears to be the culprit slowing down your system.

Win 7 randomly slowing for no reason it seems

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