Lagging performance on brand new laptop

**cluberti** · 26 Sep 2011

lior said:

cluberti: the boot time is actually very good, it's once Win7 loads that it lags. For example, if I move the mouse very rapidly across the screen, you can easily tell it's lagging, it's as if something is running in the background. Another problem is with Thunderbird 6. Whenever it loads, if I want to scroll from one email to another, it takes like a second and a half. With the other system as well as my XPS desktop, it's instant. FF6 exhibits a similar behaviour and even MS word is not as smooth as it should be in contrast to how it runs on the other systems.

Sounds almost like potential interrupt problems from a driver (and given the behavior, it does seem potentially video or network-related). There are ways to determine what is causing this, but you'd need to install the Windows Performance Toolkit (as per my linked tutorial above) and run an xperf command to trace while the issue is occurring. If you're willing, we can do that.

lior · 27 Sep 2011

cluberti said:

lior said:

cluberti: the boot time is actually very good, it's once Win7 loads that it lags. For example, if I move the mouse very rapidly across the screen, you can easily tell it's lagging, it's as if something is running in the background. Another problem is with Thunderbird 6. Whenever it loads, if I want to scroll from one email to another, it takes like a second and a half. With the other system as well as my XPS desktop, it's instant. FF6 exhibits a similar behaviour and even MS word is not as smooth as it should be in contrast to how it runs on the other systems.

Sounds almost like potential interrupt problems from a driver (and given the behavior, it does seem potentially video or network-related). There are ways to determine what is causing this, but you'd need to install the Windows Performance Toolkit (as per my linked tutorial above) and run an xperf command to trace while the issue is occurring. If you're willing, we can do that.

Let's do it!! Where can I download the tutorial and kit?

The Howling Wolves · 27 Sep 2011

lior said:

cluberti said:

lior said:

cluberti: the boot time is actually very good, it's once Win7 loads that it lags. For example, if I move the mouse very rapidly across the screen, you can easily tell it's lagging, it's as if something is running in the background. Another problem is with Thunderbird 6. Whenever it loads, if I want to scroll from one email to another, it takes like a second and a half. With the other system as well as my XPS desktop, it's instant. FF6 exhibits a similar behaviour and even MS word is not as smooth as it should be in contrast to how it runs on the other systems.

Sounds almost like potential interrupt problems from a driver (and given the behavior, it does seem potentially video or network-related). There are ways to determine what is causing this, but you'd need to install the Windows Performance Toolkit (as per my linked tutorial above) and run an xperf command to trace while the issue is occurring. If you're willing, we can do that.

Let's do it!! Where can I download the tutorial and kit?

READ the following tutorial several times as it is not for the weak at heart.
Gathering a Startup, Shutdown, Sleep, Hibernate, or Reboot Trace

Proceed with caution.

lior · 27 Sep 2011

Thank you sir!

jramjee · 18 Jun 2014

Hi Lior, I have almost exactly the same problem as you (Dell Inspiron 17 5748). Did you figure out what was causing it on your end?

I've raised my issue on the DELL forum as well: Inspiron 17 5748 - sluggish! - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

gregrocker · 19 Jun 2014

Work through the steps to Clean Up Factory Bloatware.

Most tech enthusiasts would never run the factory preinstall larded with bloatware and duplicate utiltiies which interfere with better versions built into win7. Consider doing a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which will result in and maintain a perfect install. Otherwise you'll never even experience Win7 native performance on a factory install.