Windows 7 black screen , super slow at start

[panF]

This problem started up a couple of days ago. Windows 7 became super slow at startup with black screen and cursor, after some long minutes the login screen appears. login is super slow as well. After login for quite some time everything becomes super slow. Can't open folders, cant launch browser , can't search in Windows menu.
Super slow shutdown as well.

After some time running it gradually picks up speed, yet quite slow at times.

• What I did so far:
• scanfnow: passed
• antivirus: symantec,malwarebyte: passed
• repair at startup: OK( no gain)

• Last system restore: worsened the problems actually,earlier the black screen eventually went away, now it doesnt, and I've to use "explorer.exe" to get rid of it.

REGEDIT: ClearPageFileAtShutdown was already set to 0, plus tweaked some other usual ones, I guess that improved shutdown speed.

Booted in safe mode, I've a feeling that safe mode is a bit slow too.

Also, network seems to be slow, youtube videos are slow to load. I work in university and they have a very high speed network.


I don't know what went wrong. This Win 7 PC is great, no problem in RAM(16GB) or CPU consumption. The computer was running continuously though for the last four months since the lockdown. I recently inserted an old WD external harddrive to get some data(the drive is perfectly clean rest assured), and apparently the problem started after that, but could be just my imagination.


Thanks all . Please let me know what to do next. Please bear with any delay in replying. The computer is now not connecting from my home through windows remote desktop.

 

[SIW2]

I recently inserted an old WD external harddrive to get some data(the drive is perfectly clean rest assured), and apparently the problem started after that,

Is that hardisk still attached?

If so, detach it.

 

[panF]

Is that hardisk still attached?

If so, detach it.

Already detached it. There was a printer and this external hard attached, both of them were removed but the problem persists.

 

[Megahertz07]

Run a disk check.
Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
chkdsk c: /f
It will say your disk is in use and if you want to schedule to next start = Yes
Reboot

 

[panF]

Thanks all, sorry for the delay. There was a stuck windows update, anyway solved the problem.

Ran SCANDISK, the report was good, no disk error or bad sectors. After running scandisk looks like black screen appears but almost immediately goes away.

SO I think the black screen problem is taken care of now. Still after LOGON the system starts a bit slow, gradually it picks up speed, in 15-20 minutes after start.

Do I need any more tweaking?

Thanks again everybody for your input

 

[Megahertz07]

Do you have a SSD?
When was the last time you did a Clean install?

Run disk cleanup (%windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe) and then defrag (%windir%\system32\dfrgui.exe) the disk

 

[panF]

I don't have a SSD. I never did a clean install.

I time to time run CCCleaner but haven't run defragmenter for quite a while.

 

[Megahertz07]

How old is the original installation? Is it a OEM (Dell, HP...)?
Windows collects a lot of trash along the years.
I would do a clean install, and instead of using WU to install the updates (along with telemetry and trash) I would use Simplix (all updates in one file).
Is it a laptop or desktop?
You can install a small SSD (120G - US$25) for windows and programs and use the HDD for data only. It's a way to have the speed of a SSD and the space of a HDD at low cost.

 

[panF]

How old is the original installation? Is it a OEM (Dell, HP...)?
Windows collects a lot of trash along the years.
I would do a clean install, and instead of using WU to install the updates (along with telemetry and trash) I would use Simplix (all updates in one file).
Is it a laptop or desktop?
You can install a small SSD (120G - US$25) for windows and programs and use the HDD for data only. It's a way to have the speed of a SSD and the space of a HDD at low cost.

Thanks
This is a DELL Desktop OEM from 2016

 

[Megahertz07]

Thanks
This is a DELL Desktop OEM from 2016

You can save the OEM SLP license then add a small (120G - US$25) SSD and do a Clean install.
During installation move C:\Users (SSD) to D:\Users (HDD). As all your data is already on the HDD it's very easy.

I've made it on my desktop and laptop. Boot in 20 sec and opens programs at a blink of an eye.

 

[panF]

Thanks a lot