Suddenly extremely slowed down on well-maintained computer

[SJLPHI]

Hello,

I've had my Lenovo E530 with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit as my "server laptop" for 1 year and half about now.

As of yesterday, the entire computer seems to respond extremely slow, here are few key features that I would like to inform you:

1. There is Kaspersky Internet AV and firewall active, with full scan every week. It was performed the day before.
2. There is Spybot-2.* anti malware/spyware manual scan every week

3. The laptop is updated everyday if there is anything there

4. Specs:[
2.5Ghz dual core, 4 threads
10GB RAM, 1600Mhz
Factory HDD, 500GB 7200RPM(My suspicion is here)
]

5. The computer is dusted and cleaned weekly. This is my "server" laptop and I do maintain the computer properly, I am quite clueless what else is there to do.

I have ran all hardware scans provided with Lenovo, none found and The computer is too slow to even perform defrag. I recall having similar issues with my Lenovo T410S when HDD was failing, but on T410S, files were actually going missing.

I just stopped myself from doing a factory reset on E530, any suggestions on what else to try/do?

 

[SJLPHI]

I forgot to mention I frequently use Ccleaner, Defraggler, often, and it shares an external HDD with a Linux laptop

 

[cjkuhlenbeck]

Slow performance can be caused by just about anything. A memory issue, processor, bridge/mobo, and HDD on the hardware side. Applications installed, corruption, registry issues, or bad settings.

That's why it's best to analyze what happened right before the issue started. Did you install anything new, or change any settings? Did you clean anything right before, like the registry, or something one of your cleaners found?

If you're set on the drive as the cause, it may be best to try an app like HDTune to see if it catches any smart, I/O, or persistence errors.

It's also worth noting drive errors are completely random. I've had drives fail with a hum, and others quiet until the end. Some lost files, others just died. Some we're dodgy at the end and intermittent, others smoothly declined, and some ...just died. Since there's a lot of components to a drive, it really depends on what failed to mark the situation. But, out of the hundreds of times i've seen slow performance issues, only maybe 5 percent at best we're the drive.

 

[SaNdMaN82]

You are not giving us any details...
Where do you find this 'slowness' ?
Is the HD more active than before?.
If so, this could indicate a hw issue on the drive...
Since it's a notebook, they are prone to fail more often that the desktop ones...

 

[SJLPHI]

By slowness, I mean ranging from boot to opening google chrome or VLC to watch a movie takes much longer than it used to. At least by a factor of 5.

HDD is not any more active than before.

Also I've read reviews on E530 where many customers experienced Motherboard failing after a year. I'm not sure how to even test that

 

[SJLPHI]

I think the last action performed before slowing down is to deleting cache and cookies for google chrome. I didn't note that because I thought that was irrelevant. There was an update to my Opera which I was unaware of until I checked the logs

 

[BurnOmatic]

im thinking it could be that superfish thing lenovo just got shafted by, here read this

Lenovo Sued Over Superfish Adware | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

then use the tools on this link to see if you have it, and so you can remove it.

How to Remove Superfish From Your Lenovo PC | News & Opinion | PCMag.com


hopefully it helps you out.

 

[SJLPHI]

Thank you for letting me know but, I didn't find anything to do with super fish.

I'm unsure if this would be considered as Hardware or Software issue.

 

[BurnOmatic]

you should look in that page, there is a link that will test your laptop to see if yours is infected with superfish

this is the link where you test your pc to see if your infected,

https://filippo.io/Badfish/

 

[cjkuhlenbeck]

Test in a new admin user account. This rules out preferences set, and your personal data. Make sure your account is fully logged out for this.

Test in safe boot AND safe boot with networking. This rules out apps that run in the background

If the issue appears in both of those situations, do an in place install of Windows overwriting windows without replacing your personal data. This resolves most OS issues.

If it's still happening, backup, and format/reinstall

If the issue still happens after, then it's the hardware.

Personally, i've found this to be the most efficient process. There is about 4 dozen tests and scans you can do to avoid doing a potential reinstall, but those take time in itself. This is typically the fastest way, even though the last step is a bit time consuming.

If it is hardware, it's likely not the processor, as that causes a more extreme presence. You can test the harddrive typically with chkdisk for errors, and HDTune as well for I/O errors

for memory, stress testing. There's millions of apps for this. I don't know if this forum has an official recommendation for that, but memtest86 works great for me.

If either the new account, or safe boot relieves the issue, then troubleshoot accordingly. For instance, if it works fine in safe boot, load up msconfig and start removing apps 5-10 at a time until the issue stops. then start adding some back from the last set you removed. You could also check task manager, and look for apps using alot of Private Working Memory, and high CPU percentage usage.

 

[Faladu]

If you have already ruled out viruses/rootkits/etc:

I'd be looking for some unusual activity in Task Manager (CONTROL+SHIFT+ESC)

Processes Tab and Resources Tab + it's Resource Monitor in particular.

 

[SJLPHI]

There aren't any suspicious files installed/running. I would like to know if there are any more software-related issues that I may be able to rule out. I think it could be hardware issues.

 

[RolandJS]

Everest Home Edition can run some benchmark tests and render a report, which may spotlight a problem within hardware. There are numerous programs that can do a series of software checks, I believe both SevenForums, Windows Club and BleepingComputer have loads of utilities one can download, install & run. As they would also recommend, I recommend staying away from programs offering to fix-it-all, monitor/fix-it-all, update-drivers-etal and such -- such often cause more harm than good.

 

[xips]

Have you run a CheckDisk @ boot?