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Steps to fix slow, unresponsive computer

A

Andy D

Active Member
I'm looking for advice on steps I should take before replacing components on my computer.
I built my own workstation about 1 1/2 years ago ( I have built many computers) and it worked great
up until about 2 weeks ago:
-It started to pause 2-3 seconds, even the mouse cursor wouldn't move.
-opening and saving files slowed down.
-sometimes I have to click something a couple times to select it.
All this regardless of what program I had open.
It hasn't crashed.

These are the things I tried:
- switch out mouse.
- made sure no programs were running in background.
- switch out graphic card with one I had.
- ran Defender AV, nothing found.
- did a stress test and monitored temps, everything well within range.
- ran Crystal Disk, to check my SSD, no bad sectors or other issues.

My computer:
- Window 10
- Intel i7
- 16 gigs of "ripjaw" ram
- HP SSD about 80% full
- Evga 700W power supply


Thoughts?
Thanks!
 
B

bannertime

Active Member
I'd look into replacing the SSD, and also run a memory check on the RAM. There are things about SSDs that don't have DRAM and at 80% full, if it doesn't have a DRAM I believe it's using up some of that empty space as a cache. So a new SSD should help.
 
A

Andy D

Active Member
That's what I was thinking too.
One issue might be that the way my case is set up, it doesn't have any "bays" at all, which
keeps it clean and great airflow, except the SSD installs behind the motherboard with no ventilation... but the temp stayed within the specs.
I was thinking about getting this new type of SSD, it is put into one of the motherboards PCIeX1 slots, and the transfer rate is way more than
typical SSD... You know anything about them?

https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-Gen3x4-000MB-SU001TBP34A80M28AB/dp/B07L6GF81L

upload_2020-5-21_14-10-8.png
 
B

bannertime

Active Member
I know an actual NVME M.2 slot is the hot stuff right now and currently "overkill" for most needs. Doesn't ever hurt to have the extra speed though. NVME on a PCIe adapter is probably good but I just don't know much about them.
 
WildWestDesigns

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
bannertime said:
I know an actual NVME M.2 slot is the hot stuff right now and currently "overkill" for most needs. Doesn't ever hurt to have the extra speed though. NVME on a PCIe adapter is probably good but I just don't know much about them.
Click to expand...

I like them. Been using NVME for quite a while. I have a 1TB on one computer and a 2TB on the other.

To the OP, did you clean out registry, cache, shadow copies etc? When I was on Windows, I used CCleaner, but you also have a built in utility (I think it's still there on Win 10, but I don't know now).

At 80% full, I wouldn't put much more stuff on that main disk. I could be more of an alarmist, but that's about the max that I like to go on SSD as far as used capacity. Nice thing about running NASs, as files tend to be what clutters up a system.
 
A

Andy D

Active Member
WildWestDesigns said:
To the OP, did you clean out registry, cache, shadow copies etc? When I was on Windows, I used CCleaner, but you also have a built in utility (I think it's still there on Win 10, but I don't know now).
Click to expand...

I did now, not sure why I didn't think of that... BTW I like the updated CCleaner.
What brand NVME do you have?
 
A

Andy D

Active Member
And I'm wondering, if you don't use an adapter, how is it supported? Or do they just stick out from the motherboard?

NM, I see now on Youtube... I don't have one of those slots, so I guess I would need an adaptor
 
Last edited:
N

netsol

Active Member
Andy D said:
I'm looking for advice on steps I should take before replacing components on my computer.
I built my own workstation about 1 1/2 years ago ( I have built many computers) and it worked great
up until about 2 weeks ago:
-It started to pause 2-3 seconds, even the mouse cursor wouldn't move.
-opening and saving files slowed down.
-sometimes I have to click something a couple times to select it.
All this regardless of what program I had open.
It hasn't crashed.

These are the things I tried:
- switch out mouse.
- made sure no programs were running in background.
- switch out graphic card with one I had.
- ran Defender AV, nothing found.
- did a stress test and monitored temps, everything well within range.
- ran Crystal Disk, to check my SSD, no bad sectors or other issues.

My computer:
- Window 10
- Intel i7
- 16 gigs of "ripjaw" ram
- HP SSD about 80% full
- Evga 700W power supply


Thoughts?
Thanks!
Click to expand...


andy
did you open task manager to see if disk is the bottleneck?

you will have to regedit to show disk usage
https://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0001203

it's possible cpu is at 100% from never finishing serch indexing, for instance
 
WildWestDesigns

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
player said:
Ya, turn off indexing?
Click to expand...

Along those lines, may want to try to do a reg edit to disable Cortana (if that reg edit is still available, I know MS has tweaked things to make them even harder for the user to mess with) as that is also another hog of resources.

There used to be tool that one could create a custom iso of Win 10 and pull out bits that one didn't want installed, but again, past a certain version, got harder and harder to do. Used to be able to strip out Cortana, but that would castrate searches. Reminds me back with IE 4 and when that was started to get integrated throughout the OS that trying to pull it out was tantamount to borking an install.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
netsol said:
andy
did you open task manager to see if disk is the bottleneck?

you will have to regedit to show disk usage
https://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0001203

it's possible cpu is at 100% from never finishing serch indexing, for instance
Click to expand...

I second this post. Anytime I saw a PC bogged down, I'd test HDD first, then look at Task Manager and see whats up. Last week my laptop's fan was running constantly and it wasn't dusty. Checked out taskmanager and saw some useless MS Office process stuck on full-throttle. I cleared it and CPU usage dropped back down to 1% and fans quit.

I will say this, I've never had much luck with hard drive testers on SSD. Test would pass but I knew something had to be up with it. I'd change SSD and problem fixed, so I don't put much faith in SSD testing.
 
O

OADesign

New Member
I would put money on drive space being the main issue. Drive space is a thing. I read somewhere a long time ago in a PC hardware and maintenance class in JC that the OS needs empty space to do its thing efficiently.
And it seems to be even more of a thing with SSD technology. Don't take my word for it. Confirm the theory by asking Google. The interwebs seem to think you will see dramatic drops in performance when said drive gets beyond 70% capacity. Consider cleaning up the drive or cloning to a larger SSD.

$0.02

Andy D said:
I'm looking for advice on steps I should take before replacing components on my computer.
I built my own workstation about 1 1/2 years ago ( I have built many computers) and it worked great
up until about 2 weeks ago:
-It started to pause 2-3 seconds, even the mouse cursor wouldn't move.
-opening and saving files slowed down.
-sometimes I have to click something a couple times to select it.
All this regardless of what program I had open.
It hasn't crashed.

These are the things I tried:
- switch out mouse.
- made sure no programs were running in background.
- switch out graphic card with one I had.
- ran Defender AV, nothing found.
- did a stress test and monitored temps, everything well within range.
- ran Crystal Disk, to check my SSD, no bad sectors or other issues.

My computer:
- Window 10
- Intel i7
- 16 gigs of "ripjaw" ram
- HP SSD about 80% full
- Evga 700W power supply


Thoughts?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
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