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I have a Compaq laptop. And I've been using it 2 years now. Then this day, it suddenly became very slow. It almost took 5 minutes from turning on to the log on screen. I click my username and it took 3 minutes to show the desktop. I click on my computer then properties to see if it is still showing 2 Ghz for the Core 2 duo processor. And 2gb for the memory. It took 10 minutes for all the information to show up. And its still 2gb and 2Ghz. So I may conclude that this is not a problem in memory or CPU. Its still running perfectly last night. And I have not seen signs of it failing.

Things I already tried:

  1. Rebooting

  2. Shutdown then turn on again

    So how do I determine what causes this problem? How do I fix it?

Community
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Wern Ancheta
  • 6,620

7 Answers7

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In the case of a randomly slow computer you have one, or more, of a few issues:

1) Check your startup items to see if a service or startup program is causing this slowness. Go to Start->Run->msconfig then check the items that are in the Startup and in the Services area. Microsoft has a great utility to find rootkits on their Technet site in SysInternals. I would also download and run a full scan with MalwareBytes Anti-Malware.

2) You could have a virus/malware/spyware infection, or worse, a rootkit, on your system which is constantly using system resources. Open Task Manager by right clicking the Taskbar and selecting Task Manager, then check the Performance tab and Networking tab to see if there is unusual activity on the system.

3) Your third predicament could be that your hard disk drive is beginning to fail. I would suggest running a manufacturers hard drive tester on it to see if there are corrupt sectors, etc. There could be some chance that your RAM has become unstble/defective, so I would run MemTest86 or Memtest86+ (up to 4GB capable).

Last but not least, check your hard disk drive free space. A low amount of hard drive space makes Windows boot much, much slower due to the mass amount of hard drive activity during the boot process.

brandon927
  • 1,049
1

Boot from a AV CD you make and scan for viruses and other nasties/

http://www.techmixer.com/free-bootable-antivirus-rescue-cds-download-list/

When this is done

Install free MBAM, run the program and go to the Update tab and update it, then go to the Scanner Tab and do a quick scan, select and remove anything it finds

http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

When MBAM is done install SAS free version, run a quick scan, remove what it automatically selects. http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html

You should be clean of any nasties now.

.

Moab
  • 58,769
1

have you tried reformatting the entire hard drive? backup all your files and reformat the hard drive and re-install the software.if this solves the problem then its just your operating system causing the problem..if not possibly the hard drive, if this is the case try replacing your hard drive..

magnum45
  • 11
0

I had the same problem with me on my Dell Latitute E6400.

I was watching a movie on my laptop and the computer suddenly slowed down.

I solved this problem by re-installing windows 7, setting the BIOS back to default and downloading the latest version of all the installers from the internet (not using previously backed up installers)

I found that VLC Media player was infected with some type of malware which caused issues.

Now everything is working fine.

NULLZ
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Asif
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i have solution that why your laptop work's slow suddenly its all about hard drive sometimes the head of hardrive (head means where from reading data) stuck with some kind of dust that's why it's reading very slow data

solution is take out your hard drive from laptop and slap on it hardly not too hardy but much much believe me this will work 100%

Anil Kumar
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I've been seeing this myself lately. My suspicion is a background defrag. Try leaving your computer on overnight and see if the problem goes away.

Ryan Gooler
  • 1,942
-1

Scan the all system with a anti virus and if you find no virus then clean the disks with CCleaner (download it) and if it too shows a positive feed back then try

a) Back up all the software and files .

b) Try reinstalling windows or any other (I recommend Ubuntu , because most of the virus wont run in Ubuntu .... because viruses are designed by software programmers and they will make it to eork on the most popular OS as windows is the most popular one it attracts most of the virus)

If then too your problem is not solved then open the lap or desk top (CPU) and find the ram and take it off and scrub it with a clean cloth ( to make sure it is dirt free )

Happy to help

Dave
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Akash
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