Lag after using computer for a while?

[Daniel15]

Hey everyone,
Recently, my computer has been starting to lag after using it for a while (often after hibernating and resuming a few times). When it does start lagging, it's not too noticeable in a lot of apps, but things like moving the mouse over the taskbar icons (and getting the thumbnails pop up) and typing in Windows Live Messenger and Visual Studio lag heaps. Starting Calculator lags too (I can see it drawing all the buttons). The only way to fix it seems to be rebooting. Strangely, often when it's lagging, the CPU usage doesn't seem much higher than normal.

My computer is a Dell Studio 1545 with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo and 4 GB RAM. I'm using Windows 7 Professional build 7600 obtained from my university's MSDNAA program. I'm using NOD32 for my antivirus. Most of my drivers were installed via Windows Update, with the exception of my Bluetooth driver. I've checked to ensure they are all up-to-date.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

Thanks!

 

[ken9122]

Win 7 dose a lot of background indexing. Try letting it run overnight to let it catchup.
Ken

 

[Daniel15]

Alright, I'll have to try that .

Calculator is another thing that lags HEAPS when it's laggy - I can see it drawing all the buttons, whereas it's nowhere near as bad normally

 

[johnhoh]

Windows 7 is the best MS in terms of automatically finding drivers and keeping the yellow exclamation marks out of device manager, however unlike previous MS OS's, despite having a clean looking device manager, you can still suffer from driver related issues. This is frustrating because when device manager looks clean, we tend to assume the drivers are fine. My point is that you may have a driver issue. I would try de-installing display driver and chipset vga driver, and using the windows standard svga driver and see if the lags persist.

 

[iGSam]

I have the same issue. In programming terms I think what happens is that for some reason windows events start to lag, i.e. no processor overload, but windows (I mean literally windows) start to react slowly.
Log off/on solves the problem, but there's much simpler solution, it works for me - just move any window, i.e. push mouse down on the window header and move. And everything start to work as normal till the next lag in a while.
Hope that helps.
If someone will find what causes this and how to fix it, please post, help others!

 

[karlsnooks]

Let's do following:
WIN key | type Disk Cleanup | Enter key

Disk Cleanup - How to Open and Use

After, and only after that,
WIN key | MSCONFIG | Enter key | Startup tab

Now uncheck anything that is not from either MS or a manufacturer of your computer's equipment.

Apply | Ok|
restart your computer.


Now if you mucked around with the Page file, set it back to letting MS manage it.

Many AV programs can slow a system down remarkably.

The best, and also non-interfering, AV program is Microsoft Security Essentials which is free.
Microsoft Security Essentials Virus, Spyware & Malware Protection

 

[iGSam]

Let's do following:
WIN key | type Disk Cleanup | Enter key

Disk Cleanup - How to Open and Use

After, and only after that,
WIN key | MSCONFIG | Enter key | Startup tab

Now uncheck anything that is not from either MS or a manufacturer of your computer's equipment.

Apply | Ok|
restart your computer.


Now if you mucked around with the Page file, set it back to letting MS manage it.

Many AV programs can slow a system down remarkably.

The best, and also non-interfering, AV program is Microsoft Security Essentials which is free.
Microsoft Security Essentials Virus, Spyware & Malware Protection

Well, thanks for the suggestion. But the thing is that I'm a savvy PC user and I keep my computer uber clean and healthy. I have all kinds of techniques to make maximum out of it, and I work like a ninja. I have also Microsoft Security Essentials installed from the time of having Windows 7 on my machine. But the problem still remains. I had never experienced such a problem neither on XP, neither on Mac. It's something Windows 7 specific.

And also I'm sure it's a good idea to suggest Soluto – Anti-Frustration Software especially for new users. The program is really good and I think it's much better than "msconfig>uncheck all" approach. But still we can use both.

 

[Fumz]

When it starts to lag, what's your memory usage? Are you running any java apps?