Windows 7 constantly "breaking"

[ytsephill]

Hey guys,

So I don't know what happened but while I was working a few days ago, windows just started getting really really slow. Everything started breaking, vidoe, audio. It couldn't open a single program. I could however run a virus scan (that took hours), and no relevant threat was found.

So I tried running Ubuntu to get my stuff out of there as I usually do and not even that worked. It still was really slow.

So I re.installed it anyways losing whatever I had there, which was not much.

Anyways, now, although it's not nearly as bad, it will break often times when I run for an example, firefox and windows media player. Which is nothing demanding at all.

I ran a virus scan again, and no threat is found.

Was looking for help on this matter
Thanks in advance

 

[ski]

Run Resource Monitor to get an overview of your CPU and memory usage.

 

[ytsephill]

Run Resource Monitor to get an overview of your CPU and memory usage.

Ok from what I can see from the CPU meter gadget, when I refresh or open a new page while listening to music, the CPU usage goes up to 50%, which I think is too much? RAM usage is 50% as well.

However when the page finishes loading, CPU goes down to 22% but RAM stays at 50%.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I would run the diagnostic tool provided by your hard drive manufacturer's, after backing up your data. You can rule out OS issues if the behavior occurs on two different OSes.

 

[t-4-2]

Hey guys,

So I don't know what happened but while I was working a few days ago, windows just started getting really really slow. Everything started breaking, vidoe, audio. It couldn't open a single program. I could however run a virus scan (that took hours), and no relevant threat was found.

So I tried running Ubuntu to get my stuff out of there as I usually do and not even that worked. It still was really slow.

So I re.installed it anyways losing whatever I had there, which was not much.

Anyways, now, although it's not nearly as bad, it will break often times when I run for an example, firefox and windows media player. Which is nothing demanding at all.

I ran a virus scan again, and no threat is found.

Was looking for help on this matter
Thanks in advance

Suggestions :

1. Do a dish cleanup :
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/818-disk-cleanup-open-use.html

2. Runs a disk defragmentation.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11733-disk-defragmenter-open-use.html
I have heard that running disk defrag manually will take forever.
I don't have this experience as I use a 3rd party defrag program call Auslogics. It take less than 4 minutes on my machine. ( Time required varies from one computer to another ).
Auslogics download : It is a free program.
Download Auslogics Disk Defrag for free

3. Run a system file check. It is to look for corrupted files, and if any found, it will try to repair them.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

4. Do a dish check. It is to check a selected hard disk for file system errors and bad sectors on it.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

 

[Shadowjk]

May I ask what is your motherboard model/make?

Josh

 

[ski]

CPU usage is ok, and RAM usage is not overly excessive if there's a lot of stuff running in the background. 80-100% would slow down performance.
HD may be the cause as suggested by others.

 

[Layback Bear]

I presume we a talking about Windows 7 32. All those things mentioned by t 42 are great ideas. By looking at your system specs your not going to set the world on fire and a good cleanup should help a lot. On my computers I use the built in Windows 7 defrag. It works for me and many others. If you do your clean up task first your defrag will go faster. I'm not hitting you over the head but you have a slow computer so your defrag will take some time. I will be worth the wait. You don't have to but I choose to defrag and do nothing else. I leave my computer and let it do it's thing. Once you get all those things taken care their is more things that can be checked. Get back to us, we are here to help.

 

[gregrocker]

Works through these basic Win7 troubleshooting steps

 

[ytsephill]

Ok guys I've followed every suggestion on here, did all the scans and no erros were found.

So, I decided to take a look at task manager. And to my surprise Bittorrent was using a lot of CPU. So when I shut it down, everything went back to normal.

What I don't understand is, I've had that program for about a year, always running in the background and nothing happened. Now, out of the blue, it just starts consuming a lot of CPU?

Any help on this matter?

 

[ytsephill]

Ok scratch that. Although it made a difference, somethins still definitely wrong here.
It's still too slow opening folders and other simple tasks.

Also, I know its pretty stupid that I haven't mentioned this, but I'm running windows on an iMac. I didnt mention it, cause I've been doing so for a year and everything ran smoothly, so I figured it had nothing to do with it.

Now, I'm tempted to just make the jump to OSX. I just don't want to cause I've never been a mac guy. (this iMac was a gift)

 

[DeaconFrost]

That would have been a very helpful bit of information. It sounds like a driver, maybe the Intel chipset drivers, are missing. If the problem persists over multiple OSes, then the issue is likely hardware. But, given that it isn't a standard Windows-type PC, it could be a driver issue.

 

[ytsephill]

That would have been a very helpful bit of information. It sounds like a driver, maybe the Intel chipset drivers, are missing. If the problem persists over multiple OSes, then the issue is likely hardware. But, given that it isn't a standard Windows-type PC, it could be a driver issue.

But why would that happen a year later and not the minute I installed it?

 

[gregrocker]

I would do one more reinstall following these tips which apply to get a Perfect Reinstall, based on hundreds done here:

This time, however, I would first update the BIOS if available or reset the CMOS if not: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

Then I would wipe the HD of all code: SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Unplug all other HD's and peripherals. Make sure the case is cleaned of all dust and connections are snug. Test your hardware per the Win7 Troubleshooting Basics

After install, update the drivers via optional Windows Updates, import any drivers missing in Device Manager until it becomes clear if performance still suffers and if so start working through updating the drivers by importing the latest chipset from the manufacturer's Support Downloads webpage.

Watch the logs carefully for clues to the performance probs.