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

I have a Core i7-4800Q CPU on a Dell Latitude E6540, it was almost maxed out in specs and price when I bought it, and has been as fast as any new computer until maybe a month or so ago... now I can't figure out why the frame rate has gotten so consistently low especially when using any browser.

The CPU is anywhere from 0 to 100% though the browser processes seems to be randomly spiking it... did something change in the browsers when it comes to CPU or GPU? Did Google or Intel or Microsoft suddenly turn off support for certain CPUs and GPUs?!

I don't want to have to upgrade my laptop (which is still in really nice condition) just to take a chance that it'll speed up the frame rate when using the browser or whatever... I really hate artificial upgrades if that's what it is.

I'm just not sure what to test or do at this point. I thought about upgrading to Windows 10 but that's still a gamble with drivers etc.

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.

Do a cleanup with ccleaner.
Try to set Services - Windows update to manual and never check on WU page.

Then there's the Disk Cleanup utility in System Tools which does a nice job if one remembers to check the boxes for Temporary Files and Recycle Bin when it's first used.

Also, most browsers have utilities for cleaning out cookies, temporary internet files, etc.

davesev said:

The CPU is anywhere from 0 to 100% though the browser processes seems to be randomly spiking it... did something change in the browsers when it comes to CPU or GPU? Did Google or Intel or Microsoft suddenly turn off support for certain CPUs and GPUs?!

What browsers? I had a similar problem not too long ago. Windows slowed way down. 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.

I don't want to have to upgrade my laptop (which is still in really nice condition) just to take a chance that it'll speed up the frame rate when using the browser or whatever... I really hate artificial upgrades if that's what it is.

I'm just not sure what to test or do at this point. I thought about upgrading to Windows 10 but that's still a gamble with drivers etc.

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. I also have Avast (not shilling for Avast) clean-up and run that once a week to get rid of bad registry entries and shortcuts, clean out stale log files and such.

Windows-10 isn't an upgrade.

davesev said:

The CPU is anywhere from 0 to 100% though the browser processes seems to be randomly spiking it... did something change in the browsers when it comes to CPU or GPU?

Most likely, no, nothing changed in the computer, but in the websites you're using. Since those are completely out of your control, if they change something to be "nicer" but more resource intensive, you'll see the impact if your hardware can no longer handle it.
Another frequent cause of problems are advertisements on web pages, for which an ad-blocker is a must these days. Ads are a common source of slowdonws and also security problems.

About the browser, if you update it frequently (or even worse, you set it to auto update) it can be changed in some way to consume more resources or some new feature has a performance impact. If your browser version is stable, it'll work in the very same way no matter what, an update always has some risk of newer problems, in addition to new features.

davesev said:

Did Google or Intel or Microsoft suddenly turn off support for certain CPUs and GPUs?!

No, and they even can't affect what you do in your computer (once again, unless you install a malicious update). Generally, updates include support for new hardware, but older one is still there (there is no reason at all to remove it). A CPU spike means high workload, not lack of drivers.

davesev said:

I don't want to have to upgrade my laptop (which is still in really nice condition) just to take a chance that it'll speed up the frame rate when using the browser or whatever... I really hate artificial upgrades if that's what it is.

I'm just not sure what to test or do at this point. I thought about upgrading to Windows 10 but that's still a gamble with drivers etc.

Take a look at what software did you update, new software, try another browser, if you've installed any Windows updates or any change like that. And that the webpages you're visiting aren't bloated.
Dowgrading to Windows 10 isn't going to be a big change, if at all, but about drivers, I would bet that you may have an easier time with them instead.

Hi davesev . I have often had this sort of thing when some great new feature is added to the AV . It just happened to me now again with my Avast . What is your AV ?
Try disabling it , and even uninstalling it . You can also try booting in Safe Mode , and see if that helps . If so , and it's not the AV , then you would need to just slowly eliminate each Startup Component , until you catch it .

The problem is random; just stuff starts running slow, the frame rate drops, the responsiveness is laggy... doesn't seem to have anything to do with the hard drive or internet, it seems to have to do with the video drivers or video hardware.

It's running like new right now (as usual), but the real problem is how difficult it seems to be to just identify what's actually causing the slowdown.

I could try all these tools or throw troubleshooting spaghetti at the wall, but I really need some sort of bloodhound way to start tracking down errors or events showing the problem or a trail to it.

I've tried going through Events and Services but that's difficult for me to navigate as I'm not a Windows tech expert so it takes a while for me to figure out what things mean and what to do next. Maybe that's the right path and I just need some guidance.

If anyone has tried tracking down this kind of thing (with the hint that it's probably video drivers or video hardware), let me know what I can do with what's by default installed in Windows (Event handler? PowerShell? WinUtils? Video driver software?), I'd prefer that over 3rd-party software or blindly trying to fix things.

I can leave detailed specs if you like. In the meantime, since I've seen Intel deprecate drivers for Windows 7 (like my USB 3 functionality), an upgrade to Windows 10 soon make fix everything. I'm ultimately worried I need to replace hardware but I'd like to identify which piece before just trying to replace things.