What's changed recently in browsers or Windows to slow down my PC?!

iko22 said:

Hello davesev
Well, you could try a different browser and see if that delivers a different performance. or delete the browser cookies in your current browser, or check what add-ons the browser has installed. Browser add-ons are known to slow down performance.

Firefox runs slower than my normal browser Chrome regardless of the problem.

Brave runs like Chrome.

I don't care to use any other browsers.

Rabbit hole #1 skipped. I'd really like to diagnose before troubleshooting, as in check somewhere to see what's amiss... events? Errors? I already checked Windows Task Manager (even for all users), every tab there for anything unusual, and Resource Manager. Maybe you can point me to look at something more specific.

TechnoMage2016 said:

a computer needs regular maintenance

My cleaning habits with the laptop have not changed. I already tried cleaning it the normal Windows ways.I have MSSE running its normal thing (real-time scanning and suggested scan) and random ClamWin scans. Sometimes they find things and clean them. This has not been consistent with the problem.

TechnoMage2016 said:

When was the last time you did anything like that on your PC?

I don't install 3rd-party software to clean my computer.

TechnoMage2016 said:

Browsers are really pack-rats. Clean out your History and Cookies on a regular basis.

I've already tried this multiple times. Nothing I do there speeds anything up. The problem starts and ends randomly.

TechnoMage2016 said:

One very important tool I use to keep my Own PC running like new, is "WinUtilities"... I use it to clean up the HD and then the Registry.
A bloated registry can really hurt your PC's performance.

I don't trust 3rd-party "cleaners". I've "fixed" way too many computers of other people's that had that crap installed. I don't need more who-knows software that could gum up the PC from a bug or update or good-turned-evil owner. I especially don't trust registry cleaners as I've had problems with them and read over the years to not use them, and in fact Microsoft stopped trying with it.

I'm not new to this. That's why this problem is so vexing. I just haven't dove this far into troubleshooting/investigating. I feel like there's somewhere that will tell me why it runs slow. Errors? Where do I check? Logs? Hardware files?

I already tried uninstalling or removing or reinstalling every video and display software driver and program I could find. The laptop is fine for a while then randomly runs slow for a while.

ShadouFox said:

It turned out to be a bad extension for Pale Moon after installing the VCL media player. Pale Moon came back with a diagnostic saying this extension crashed on start-up. Disabling the damn thing didn't help. The only solution was to delete VCL.When VCL went away, so did my Pale Moon and Windows problems.

There may be a recent install or extension that is causing a problem. I'll have to go through program uninstall or background services. It's really bizarre. It just seems like some video software issue.

The only browser extensions I have installed are Pocket (totally forgot about it, bye) and Pushbullet (great program, will disable and uninstall temporarily).

ShadouFox said:

Did you try rolling back to when it was working correctly? I don't allow automatic updates even though Windows constantly complains, and I always check here to see if the latest updates cause problems before doing a manual install.

It's been going on probably since last year and I didn't notice much and didn't get annoyed enough until recently. Rolling back is not an option.

ShadouFox said:

Windows-10 isn't an upgrade.

I know, but after noticing 2 or 3 Dell updates failing (and after PITA research learning Intel stopped supporting Windows 7 like last year), I feel like a Windows 10 "upgrade" then factory reset (I hope it'll factory reset to 10) will make all the drivers just work like magic on this old-ass laptop that ran like lightning until a while ago.

Snick said:

See what's running
Process Monitor - Windows Sysinternals
SysInternals Pro: Understanding Process Monitor

That's nice to see what's running but it doesn't tell me what the problem is. I need something like a bloodhound to find clues as to what's going wrong. Right now there's just all this stuff and the whole thing just randomly run slow even when the hard drive is not doing anything.

NoN said:

MSE (Microsoft Security Essential) is known to slow down the system by analyzing files of folders when you open them and softwares you're using too, if you have set the real time protection.

I had recently to uninstall MSE and let "Windows Defender" integrated to Windows 7 (it activates itself when MSE is uninstalled) because i ran onto the same and even more troubles since Windows could'nt log on to system events and crashed with the Anti Malware Telemetry.

Check that maybe if using MSE (uninstall and check then reinstall if you need).

You can't uninstall MSE in Safe Mode and i had to be very patient to have access to Programs and Features

I have MSSE on multiple computers (7 and 10) and they're running fine (at least consistently) even though one of them is a Core 2. MSSE CPU % is not consistent with the problem.

Megahertz07 said:

Open WU (windows update) page and manually ask to check for updates. Does it run forever?

I'm supposed to wait for Windows Update to run forever? This is literally the worst suggestion I've ever heard in my life. I need something substantive, I need to see what is going wrong.

Megahertz07 said:

Did you disabled windows update as I instructed on post # 4?
set Services - Windows update to manual and never check on WU page.

I'll disable it but that seems like a really bad idea and I've already dealt with WU issues on other computers and I could identify that WU was the problem... there's no consistency with the CPU % of any program or service when the problem is happening.

The problem just starts and runs for a while (minutes or hours or until shut down). I need some way to do real detective work, not just try things and see if they work.

The CPU % column in Task Manager looks absolutely normal all of the time the problem is happening; I don't think it's a program overusing the CPU.

Just something is not clicking or syncing or maybe a core is being disabled... I'm not even seeing how to tell, I'm not getting any warnings, I don't know where I should look for them if they're there, I need something to tell me what the problem is or where to look for any indication of what's wrong.

davesev said:

I'm supposed to wait for Windows Update to run forever? This is literally the worst suggestion I've ever heard in my life. I need something substantive, I need to see what is going wrong.


I'll disable it but that seems like a really bad idea and I've already dealt with WU issues on other computers and I could identify that WU was the problem... there's no consistency with the CPU % of any program or service when the problem is happening.

The problem just starts and runs for a while (minutes or hours or until shut down). I need some way to do real detective work, not just try things and see if they work.

WU can almost freeze the computer when analyzing the needed updates.
- There is an update that makes WU not work properly. If you manually ask to search for updates and it runs forever, you will know that WU isn't working properly.
- The reason to set WU to Never Check is to control what M$ is installing on your computer, avoiding the tracking and spy "updates".

Many of us had set WU to Never Check and install the Security only updates.

MS releases SP2 for Windows 7

I uninstalled and cleaned as much as I could, but it wasn't until I uninstalled the program AMD Software that the laptop started running fast again... after freezing and crashing multiple times with a static wallpaper or blank screen.

I didn't reinstall it but it's back... I guess the other times I reinstalled the AMD drivers and software (from their site) just had some bug in it and whatever I got now is "fixed".

Yay. Thanks for the suggestions.