Another "My Computer is slow" thread

I know you guys must see a thousand of these every day, but bear with me. I have an HP EliteBook 8530p running the latest Windows 7 Professional. Here are my hardware specs:


My Hardware

4 gigs of RAM (replaced a year ago)
Intel Core2 Duo (2.9 ghz)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650
Hard drive was replaced a year ago

I have the laptop connected to a Acer monitor, and I am using a wireless Microsoft mouse and a wired Microsoft keyboard.

My Problems

The computer ran fine for the past year. However, within the past two months it has been slowing down considerably. A program that normally takes 10 seconds to open took about a minute to open today. Programs will randomly freeze up, and sometimes when I enter text it will lag heavily. I highly doubt this is normal, as my other computer, a Dell desktop of the same age, shows no lag at all running the same programs.


My Attempted Fix

I run CCleaner, Spybot S&D, Webroot SecureAnywhere (passive protection), and Microsoft's defragmentation tool weekly. None of these have solved the problem. I ran memtest64 to diagnose my RAM, but that was fine. SpeedFan revealed that my hard drive was fine and operating normally. I decided the next thing to do was start monitoring my computer using perfmon. The only thing I found was that Webroot SecureAnywhere would sometimes jump up in CPU usage, though this never caused a freeze up. When there were freeze-ups, the application in question would spike to about 60%, but that didn't really tell me anything new.

I'm not really sure what to do at this point. It's definitely been slowed down rather suddenly, and it continues to get slower. However, none of the basic checks have revealed anything. What do you guys recommend?

Thanks!

Work through these steps to Clean Up Factory Bloatware especially to establish a Clean Boot, test System File integrity, edit Visual Effects of animation, sliding, fading, draggin intact and selection triangle.

If this isn't sufficient work through these Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 to check the logs, utilize System Resources, test hardware, etc until the problem resolves.

I would also check temperatures.
Make sure it's not a dust build up causing the CPU to throttle down due to heat.

Thanks for the response. I'll check those things (temperature first) and get back to you. Do you have a specific program in mind to test the internal temps?

You said you ran Speedfan which is to check temperatures, although you said it checked the HD. You can use that to read temps, or use CoreTemp to put the temps in your System Tray to monitor.

This is in the Troubleshooting tutorial I linked you which you ignored.

In most cases just establishing a clean boot will solve these hangs.

Yes, I don't have time to work on fixing the computer hence why I didn't read the troubleshooting list you linked. I plan to fully read through it though when I next have time to fix it.

I'm about to go through the list you linked Greg, but first here are my temps:

Ambient: 46C
Remote: 59C
HD: 41C
GPU: 56C

Temp2: 58C
Temp3: 52C
Temp4: 69C (!)

CPU is idling at about 1-4% with a few jumps to 10%. I have 935 MB of physical memory free out of 3gigs.

Thanks.

EDIT: ran a system health report, only thing I really got was this: "The average disk queue length is 2. The disk may be at its maximum transfer capacity due to throughput and disk seeks." Also, my temps have changed now that I am actually doing stuff:

Ambient: 52C and rising
GPU: 61C
Core0: 63C
Temp2 and temp3: 70C

Find out your exact CPU make and build then google maximum CPU temps to compare. You'll need to determine which is the CPU temp.

The temps seem high. Have you blown out the dust? When you did the upgrades a year ago was it cleaned out?

What I do is google the model for videos to clean out dust, upgrade hardware, disassemble, etc. to see how to get inside. Your Manual on the HP Support webpage for your model may also have schematics and how-to's.

karlsnooks said:

HanShotFirst,

Uninstall: Spybot S&D, Webroot SecureAnywhere (passive protection),
then REBOOT!

After that carry out following:

Install CCleaner:
CCleaner - PC Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download

list of STARTUP PROGRAMS

CCleaner | Tools icon | Startup button | Windows tab |
click on Save to text file button (bottom right side) |
accept Startup.txt as file name | SAVE button

list of SCHEDULED TASKS

CCleaner | Tools icon | Startup button | Scheduled Tasks tab |
click on Save to text file button (bottom right side) |
enter Scheduled Tasks as File name | Save button

List of INSTALLED PROGRAMS

CCleaner | Tools icon | Uninstall button |
click on Save to text file button (bottom right side) |
accept install.txt as File name | Save button


UPLOAD the startup.txt file
UPLOAD the Scheduled Tasks.txt file
UPLOAD the install.txt file.

HOW TO UPLOAD
Post a File or Screenshot in Seven Forums
===================================================

Incidentally, you will make no friends by saying that you don't have the time to carry out advice given to you by experts. A word to the wise.

I meant I didn't have time at that moment, which is a reasonable thing to say...

Anyway, as an update, I tried everything you guys said and noticed no improvement in the performance. I even replaced the fan and heat sink to no avail. I will upload those TEXT files.