Windows super sluggish right after start-up, no idea why

[aozgolo]

Okay so I've only had this issue the last few days, when my computer first boots up it boots up fine but after getting into windows it just goes INCREDIBLY SLOW. I have Resource Monitor (from Advanced System Care) up and it shows almost no RAM or CPU Usage. When I'm finally able to open up task manager and disable every unnecessary process it seems to make zero difference. If I close every active program that starts up... nothing... no difference. Yet if I leave it running awhile and come back to it it's performing fine, I can play games, watch movies, do everything as if my computer had no problems.

I honestly can't figure it out, when my PC does pick up speed I run all sorts of diagnostic and security things looking for viruses, malware, bad registry keys, and things of that nature but I come up with nothing out of the ordinary. Windows never seems to fully "lock up" as things like the Num Lock key on my keyboard still light up and even if a window stops responding I can still move my mouse around but even opening up shell menus or the start menu lags for an excessive amount of time before it pops up.

My only idea is maybe it has to do with heat? I know my machine's cooling is a bit lacking (my rear case fan broke and haven't gotten it replaced yet) but I don't know if heat would cause those issues or not.

It seems to perform fine under safe mode.

Any ideas for what to try would be appreciated.

 

[maxie]

Hi ... You could start with Uninstalling Advanced System Care .. As it known to cause problems see how your Computer performs after that ...

 

[indianacarnie]

Hi ... You could start with Uninstalling Advanced System Care .. As it known to cause problems see how your Computer performs after that ...

I agree 100%. Get rid of Advanced System Crapitizer and try a system restore to a point BEFORE you added this "software". You could also try running a system file check to find and possibly repair any corrupt system files. Heres a tutorial on how to do that if you haven't before : http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

 

[aozgolo]

I don't believe it's ASC. I understand people's misgivings about the program but I've used it for years on multiple machines and not had a problem. Plus I haven't done anything other than basic surface scans with it lately, I highly doubt it has anything to do with it. The PC runs fine in safe mode even if running with ASC.

I did a System File Checker and nothing comes up wrong.

The computer no longer recovers from the slowdown, that was apparently just the first few times that it did, but now I can not touch it for an hour and it still remains sluggish and I can't even open firefox (the process will load but the program never comes up).

CPU usage seems very low, like 1% normal usage spiking at a max of 5% usage, with RAM never going high at all.

I've disabled just about every startup program I have save for antivirus and firewall.

My basic system specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1
16GB DDR3 RAM
i3 2125 CPU @ 3.30 GHz
GEForce GTX 550 Ti GPU

I've done the following:

Ran complete virus scan (AVG)
Ran complete Malware scan (MalwareBytes)
Ran complete adware scan (Spybot S&D)
Ran Windows Update
Ran System File Checker
Ran Windows Diagnostics
Uninstalled any unknown or unused programs
Disabled most start-up programs
Cleared all caches
Checked that all drivers are up to date

 

[indianacarnie]

You could try a repair install.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

 

[aozgolo]

I did a rollback removing any windows updates in the past 2 weeks since the issue began. It helped slightly, the taskbar and task manager are more responsive.

Windows Explorer however is NOT responsive hardly at all in normal mode. I can get some programs open like my image viewer (irfanview) and it's in-program functions work fine but any functions relying on windows explorer like opening files or using the thumbnail browser just locks up the program. More resource intensive programs like Firefox simply won't open, the process loads but nothing ever comes up.

I'm fairly convinced at this point there's an issue with windows explorer causing the issue but I don't know what or how to resolve it.