SOLVED Laptop Very Slow To Open Any Programme

[bari]

Hi, I have a Dell latitude E4300 2.4ghz chip and 6gig memory, just lately it has become very slow to open any programme. whether I am using the internet or not. I have run Malwarebytes and got a clean bill, done a memory check and all is well. My hard disk has more free space on it than I am using. my internet upload and download speeds have not altered. I am wondering if my hard disk is on the way out or even is the laptop feeling its age (8 years approx.) and decided to retire. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

 

[Trouble]

Difficult to say definitively, but....
IF that is the original hard drive that came with your Dell eight years ago it might be time for a replacement.
I would first backup everything critical including creating a system disk image.
I would then employ something like Ccleaner to get rid of any unneeded crap.
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/builds
I typically use the free portable version as it requires no installation.

Then I would likely manually defrag the hard disk using the native defrag utility (now called "Defragment and Optimize Drives").... just click the start button and type defrag and select it from the top of the list.
Do it once. Reboot the computer then go do it one more time.
See if a little TLC like that helps at all with your system performance.

 

[bari]

Hi, I have done all of the above and it doesn't seem to have made any difference. However I have found that whenever I open a programme the cpu works away at around 90% for the two or three minutes it takes to get the programme onto the desktop. It doesn't seem to matter whether the programme is a large complex one or something simple like notebook.

 

[Trouble]

Have you checked the hard disk for errors?
Use the native check disk utility from an elevated command prompt type
chkdsk C: /R
hit enter
Answer the prompt in the affirmative "Y" when prompted
hit enter
restart and let it run, it can take quiet a while, don't interrupt it. It will reboot when it's done automatically.

The results can be found in the event viewer -> windows logs -> application log
Use the menu bar -> action -> find
just type chkdsk
look near the bottom of the report for anything indicating bytes in bad sectors.

 

[bari]

OK, tried that. at first the computer refused to do it saying the drive was in use but that it would do it on a restart. I restarted it. It sat there for about a minute with a completely black screen then up came the little circling dots and it said chkdsk 100% completed. This then disappeared and after another minute or two the restart carried on. I checked the application logs as suggested but the search function refused to find chkdsk and so I checked through the list and found no sign of any chkdsk entry. I did come across numerous warnings regarding ESENT all of which were about EDGE. Perhaps after the creators update I have come to the limit of the machines capabilities as I note that this machine is not supported by Dell for windows 10.

 

[Trouble]

It sat there for about a minute with a completely black screen then up came the little circling dots and it said chkdsk 100% completed.

Doesn't sound to me like it did anything.
It can easily take, depending on the size of the hard drive, half hour, an hour or more if the drive is multi-terabytes.
As I mentioned above you need to type the command
chkdsk then a space then C: then another space then forward slash R and hit enter
chkdsk C: /R
and when prompted you must then type a "Y" and reboot the machine. That is to confirm that you wish it to run upon the next restart of the computer.

 

[bari]

OK redone the chkdsk and this time it seemed to work it sat for about an hour saying it was 14% done then restarted. the log report only found that some free space had been allocated as being used and sorted it out but that was all.

 

[Trouble]

only found that some free space had been allocated as being used and sorted it out

That's not all that unusual.
At the botton did you see where it said 0 (zero) bytes in bad sectors?

 

[Norton]

bari I have to ask. What antivirus program are you running. AVG or Norton dump (uninstall) them and run Windows Defender.

 

[bari]

the only anti virus I run is Windows Defender and it did say zero bytes in bad sectors.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Might be time to invest in an SSD.

 

[Trouble]

You might want to try clean booting your system as described here
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135

Easily done, easily undone.
Basically you're just disabling all the Startup Items and All non-Microsoft services.
Be sure to check the box to hide Microsoft Services, as you don't want to accidentally disable any of those.

 

[bari]

I have now found the problem, its the last update kb4022725 after a bit of cogitating I decided to uninstall it and everything turned back to normal. However when I re installed it everything went slow again
My thanks to all who suggested remedies.

 

[Norton]

bari Thanks for your letting members know.

 

[Trouble]

Nice bit of investigating and diagnosing your own problem. Thanks for sharing your results.
A bit of searching for the KB number and you'll find that you are not alone.
Many are reporting some pretty strange issues after that particular update
Anything from failure to install, boot loops, running slow, broken apps and peripherals and even deletion of some files.
Apparently the gift that keeps on giving.