All programs "not responding"

[pavman]

Hello, Windows7 Forums:

I am trying to save a friend's Toshiba Satellite laptop that IT has told her to throw away. It is a 64-bit machine with a 2GHZ Pentium with 4 GB RAM. Up until 6 months or so, it was running fine. Now, every program lags with "not responding" issues that each run many seconds. Everything is slow, even opening programs from the Start button. I have run CCleaner on it, IObit's Advanced System Care, I have tried Selective Startup, a clean boot, an SFC/SCANNOW, nothing works for very long. The thing will be quick for a minute or so...I will think it is fixed and "not responding" reappears. Help.

 

[indianacarnie]

Welcome to the forums!

First , ditch the "Advanced System Care", snake oil pure and simple with the potential to REALLY screw things up. I'm assuming you've ran you Anti-Virus in safe mode/at boot, correct? I would also suggest a sfc/scannow in safe mode. Have you considered a Repair Install or even a clean install? We have many fine tutorials here at the forums, here's a couple that walks you through those options.

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

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

This last one gives a link to a official download source for a Windows .iso, all you'll need is your COA from the sticker.

 

[pavman]

Thanks Indianacarnie. I will try those tomorrow. I had no idea Advanced...was junk. CCleaner is legit? I haven't tried anything in safe mode, will try anti-virus and sfc/scannow, thanks. Will let you know the results. Thanks again.

 

[indianacarnie]

No problem, I or someone is always here. I'll check back throughout the day tomorrow. Yes Ccleaner is legit and very highly recommended. ASC (whatever number) and its kin has caused more problems/posts here (and other forums) than any other type of software. You can do everything it does yourself easier and much more safely.

Make sure you run the sfc/scannow as an Admin.!

 

[pavman]

OK. I have run sfc/scannow three times as admin in safe mode w/networking, no errors found, nothing fixed. I ran a quick scan with MS Essentials, nothing, now in the second hour of a full scan. I downloaded on another computer the ISO that I think I will need for a Repair Install although I don't have the registration key that I sustpect I will need to do that. Is that key in some hidden file you can help me find?

 

[Golden]

The product key will be on the COA sticker fixed beneath the laptop (or sometimes inside the battery compartment)

It looks similar to this:

 

[pavman]

Bingo, thanks for that Golden. Looks like the full scan will take 5 hours or so before I will be able to try the Repair Install. Thanks again.

 

[Golden]

 

[pavman]

I am screwed. It took over 12 hours of the Repair Install to stop at 66% at the next to last step and then tell me it failed. It has now been sitting on this screen for well over an hour: "The upgrade was not successful. Your previous version of Windows is being restored. Do not restart your computer during this time." It is not stuck, I can still move my mouse and the green bar continues to move on the bottom of the screen...any suggestions? I am now thinking it is hardware since the install took so long before failing but I haven't seen any indication of any hardware failure anywhere.

 

[pavman]

Help! This thing is still doing whatever restoring the old Windows. What will happen if I shut it down??

 

[pavman]

It finally reverted to the old Windows, stilll wicked slow, "not responding" constantly, don't know what to do next.

 

[indianacarnie]

Upgrade? I thought you were going to do a repair install? Or a clean install..................

 

[matts6887]

Help! This thing is still doing whatever restoring the old Windows. What will happen if I shut it down??

At this point I think the problem lays in the fact that it is only 2.0 ghz and its trying to run 64-bit windows. Sounds like it is not worth saving imo. But if you really still want to try; at this point do not shut it down!. doing so can corrupt windows system files!. Just let it revert to the previous version. And yes its probably because of the hardware as well. Sounds way out of date etc. I would also try a clean install of windows following the instructions in the link in my signature which i will also paste below:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[indianacarnie]

A 2.0 processor should be plenty to run Win7x64 without lagging. Straight from MS : If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Have you checked your HDD for errors? http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

 

[pavman]

It was a Repair Install took forever and finally failed. This machine was sold with Windows 7 64-bit, so I got to think Toshiba knew what it was doing. Ran Chkdsk, nothing, just downloaded malicious software tool from MS, trying anything now. Really at a loss.

 

[indianacarnie]

Run a CHKDSK , link to tutorial follows. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

Can you back up your wanted/needed files? If so, I urge you to consider a fresh clean install. I posted links on how to do that earlier.