Solved Slow performance cause?

[copiman]

I have a Gateway DX4860-UB20P desktop (Mfg date 2011). Here are the specs from Speccy:

CPU: Intel Core i3 [email protected] GHz (Temp 27 degree C)
RAM: 6G Dual Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard: Gateway DX4860 (CPU 1) (Temp 31 degree C)
Storage: 931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EADX-22TDHB0 ATA (SATA) (Temp 35 degree C)

I acquired this from a friend. It did have maleware on it. Cleaned up and it seemed very slow. Decided to to a clean install and it did not make any change. No error pop ups just slow to respond. Since there are no errors, no temp issue, performed clean install,and decent hardware specs, I'm not sure where to start in finding the cause for slow response.

I just looked at task manager and noticed the following:

29 processes, CPU 0%, Memory 12%. CPU will be a 7-10% when I open Task Manager but goes directly to 0%.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Give us some more detail:

Slow compared to what? Are you judging this PC in comparison to how it feels compared to some other specific machine?

I recently had to use my backup PC---a Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 ghz dual-core and thought I'd gone back to the stone age----but of course that's only in comparison to the much newer stuff I normally use.

Was it "fast" after you bought it from your friend and is now "slow"? From the way you word your post, it appears it's never been "fast". So maybe, what you have is completely normal for this PC. It never was a barn-burner (i3), so I'm wondering if you have unrealistic expectations?

"Slow to respond" in all task or just some tasks? Again, compared to what?

If a clean install makes no change, my first idea would be it's just the nature of the beast--unless you have a particular reason to think it's hardware-related.

Are all 6 GB of RAM recognized if it's a 64 bit machine?

Hard drive passes manufacturer tests?

Have you recently run malware and virus tests?

Have you run any benchmarks and compared your results to any other i3-2100 results you can find online?

29 processes is very low, which is good.

Task Manager says the CPU isn't being hammered, nor is the RAM.

Without more info, I'd say nothing is wrong.

 

[copiman]

Thanks for responding. I was able to find the cause of my issue. It was the hard drive. I noticed in Resource Monitor that the hard drive had nothing listed in it. This drive was the original drive that came with the PC. It is now moving fast. Never had one do this but there is always a first. The drive worked but only in slow motion

Should have given more info on original post. I have seen this PC before and it was faster than any of the ones I have. I received it performing slow. had a lot of malware. Thought that might be it. Cleaned out malware, removed junk programs, used ccleaner to clean up. Still slow (2-3 minutes to open control panel as well as most any other thing). I then wiped drive and did a clean install. Still was slow. I noticed task manager showed CPU at 0% with a 1% popping up every now and then. Then when I expanded disk in Performance Monitor I saw nothing associated with it. 0 MB/s and nothing showing in the field when I expanded it. What threw me off was the drive worked but not properly. Anyway, hope this explanation helps someone searching here.

Thanks again ignatzatsonic. You have helped me before and I will have more details in the my future posts.
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