SONY VAIO being EXTREMELY SLOW - everything seems to check out.

Hi Folks,

I'd appreciate some ideas on this (apart from bin the pc and buy a new one)!

The machine in question is a 10 y.o. SONY VAIO VGN-FW21L which had an amazing specification at the time.

Around a year/ 18 months ago, the machine started getting rather slow. I got some testing s/ware off the web and tested memory, HDD and CPU. All checked out as being fine.

I replaced the HDD (a size upgrade at the same time) and perfoemed a clean install of the OS.

Lately, the machine is getting to be so painfully slow at doing things, it is almost getting to the point of being unusable. The HDD light is on more or less constantly, which led me to think it may be a failing HDD issue or RAM. As I said above, I ran tests on the RAM and HDD and both come up as OK.

The HDD is a new one (well, it was 2 years ago) and the OS was a clean install of Win 7 HP SP1.

Any ideas? It is (or was) a good little workhorse and I'd rather fix it than bin it, but I don't know what the matter is with it.

I'm writing this post on another machine at the moment and can post specs of the pc in question should folks require the info.

Any help/suggestions gratefully received.

Zaph

Hi Zaphod,

as the HDD is allways running, sounds like somethings trying to update
most common resource hugger in this case is Windows updates - set to Never check to test.

can you run and post the results from this - ignore the title, produces a wealth of info
Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions

You should also run sfc /scannow and chkdsk /r from an elevated command prompt.


Roy

Hi Torchwood,

Thanks for the reply.

Ran both sfc and chkdsk recently and no errors.

Downloaded and ran UserBenchmark which says that the CPU (an Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 2GHz) has an extremely low single core score? UserBenchmark says "With an extremely low single core score, this CPU can barely handle email and light web browsing". They sure got that right!

It also says that the HDD (a WD Scorpio Black 750Gb 7200 BPKT) is "Performing way below expectations".





Will d/load & run the program you suggest and post the results.

Thank you.

Zaph

Hi Zaphod

Considering the age of OUR lappys, those results are pretty GOOD
(hehe mines ONLY better coz i've got an SSD- shame my lappys only SataII)

UP THE SAINTS


Roy

Did you turn OFF updates

Hi Torchwood,

I haven't had 'Automatic Updates' turned on - ever.

I choose (at least with everything before Win 10) what to install and when.

Zaph