Windows 7 gets slower and slower, and then.......

[bill2reg]

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. My HP desktop runs fine, at least for a while. After a few days, or a couple of weeks, I see it start to slow down. Eventually, everything I try to do takes forever. If I click on a desktop icon, for several seconds absolutely nothing happens. After maybe 15-30 seconds, I see the blue "busy" circle near my mouse pointer, and that circle will disappear for several seconds, then reappear, etc. After a very long wait, (two minutes, maybe more), the thing that I want to run MIGHT start, but often nothing ever happens. It doesn't matter what I want to do......task manager, start button, open a folder, go online, etc. BUT.........if I shut down for a few hours, or overnight, the next day everything is running great, fast and perfect. I have not changed any settings or anything else, and haven't installed any new software. It just does this and the only solution is to shut down/power off, then restart the next morning. I doubt that it's hardware, because when it's running OK, it's PERFECT, so I don't think bad hardware would fix itself. I've checked the scf/scannow, no problems. I've run two virus scan programs, no problems. I've done disk checks on all drives, no problems. Any ideas welcome. Maybe others have experienced something like this.

 

[Ranger4]

How close to full is your Windows hard drive. If you are running at 80% plus of the HDDs capacity could cause this problem. Windows likes at least 10% free as an absolute minimum. When the computer is running the page file can grow quite a lot & general file loading & unloading do take up space.

It's always a good idea to shut the computer down every now & then, if you like to lave it on all the time. Personally I prefer to shut mine down whenever I am not using it.

 

[torchwood]

Hi Bill,

Been looking back at your earlier thread re Power outage. suspect thats why you have this problem

When this occurs it does tend to screw up multiple services

Do you have an image prior to this date
(if not download Macrium free and use it once your sorted)

Believe your best bet is a repair install - NO loss of personal data
Repair Install - Windows 7 Help Forums

Roy

 

[Megahertz07]

It can also be a issue with Windows update.
Open WU and do a manual Search for Updates. See if it runs forever.

After some issues with WU, I have:
- under Services, I have set WU to manual.
- Under Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Update I have set to Never Check

Now I only install the Security ONLY updates. MS releases SP2 for Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[chitownbob]

Have you checked the event viewer for unusual errors during startup?

 

[bill2reg]

torchwood, the computer's been running fine even after that power outage. This problem seems to happen every so often, and was doing so even before the outage.

Ranger4, hard drive is 60% free space, so that should be fine.

Chitownbob, not sure what the "viewer" is.

 

[Megahertz07]

It's probably WU. See my post #4.

 

[bill2reg]

Megahertz, I don't see WU (or any update reference) in services. I already have updates set to "never" in control panel.

 

[Megahertz07]

Services - %windir%\system32\services.msc - WU is almost at the bottom.

Did you run WU (Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Update) manually to see if it runs forever?

 

[bill2reg]

xxxxxxxmegahertz - don't know where you are referencing. In task manager under "Services", I don't see windows update. What are the things you show with the % signs, etc.?xxxxxxxx

EDIT:

Forget this post. I found it under Control panel administrative tools services. But it IS set to manual. If I start it manually, won't it install updates? I don't want to change anything, because in the past, Windows updates have caused more problems than they solved.

 

[Megahertz07]

When WU is set to manual under services WU won't run automatically when Win starts.
If WU is set to Never Check on WU page, when you manually run it, it will give you the available updates. Then you decide what updates you want to install. I now only install Security ONLY updates and the Office updates.
For security updates, have a look at my post MS releases SP2 for Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums.
I add the Security ONLY updates link every month.

 

[chitownbob]

Chitownbob, not sure what the "viewer" is.

Event viewer is a Microsoft tool for viewing system events. START SEARCH event viewer.

You can drill for it yourself under All programs, Administrative tools.
I usually view Administrative Events under custom views. Any errors can be googled. Ignore errors. Don't get too freaked out by errors unless they are recent and consistent. Your goal is to see if there are errors occurring during startup that are not reasonable or might cause your error.