So my 2 year old PC is being very slow. When I get it to turn on the CPU seems to be running around 100% and when you try to shut it down it either sits on the “preparing to configure windows” screen or the “shutting down” page. I have tried running Malwarebytes which detected nothing and neither did a full scan with MSE.

It’s running Windows 7 and up until recently was running well.

Any ideas?!

If you look at ‘Processes’ in Task Manager, it should tell you what’s tying up the CPU?

Any other symptoms? Any recent changes?

What does task manager say?

Would you suggest I turn it off whilst it says not to as it is still preparing to configure Cougar? I am concerned I’ll do more damage if I do!

Sounds like its apply windows updates

How long did you wait on ‘preparing to configure’? Doesn’t it say ‘do not turn off your computer’ ?

Ok, update. Left the machine on over night and this morning it is no longer preparing to configure windows and is now shutting down. If it is still shutting down when I get home tonight should I force it to shut down and start it again in safe mode?

Backup all your emails (unless they are stored online) and documents to a portable hard drive.

Stick in the recovery CD, restart, and then choose to reinstall windows AND format the hard drive at the same time.

It will fly after this. Just be careful you don’t miss anything as you’ll lose everything on the drive.

I try and do this once every 1-2 years, it makes a huge difference.

Spooky, apologies as I an a layman but what is a recovery disk?

computers these days come with the OS already installed so when you first start it up your meant to do a recovery disk which you can later use to fix any issues. If you didn’t do this you may have a problem

Hmm, given I did not create a recovery disk shall I just force a shutdown and start it up again?

If the computer is still working after forcing a restart, back up files, followed by creating the recovery discs. should be in the start menu somewhere. alternatively, look in ‘my computer’, if there are two hard drives listed, the recovery data may be on a partition of the hard disc, which means you can format and reinstall the system from the data on the partition.

If this is going over your head, find a mate who can take you through it as you don’t want to cock it up. I did it once, my recovery dvd was scratched at 98%, computer was buggered until I found someone who had the same pc and could lend me the disc!

Backing up is good advice. You should do that as a matter of course anyway, though.

Not sure as I’d advocate ‘format it and start again’ though, it’s a sledgehammer / walnut solution (especially as we’ve not yet progressed beyond “shall I try switching it off and on again”).

Pull the power, remove the battery, press the power button. Replace, power it up, and assess where we are then.

It may be a sledgehammer, but it is almost guaranteed to fix the problem, whilst at the same time returning it to ‘showroom fresh’ condition, i.e. you’ll turn it on and it will take you through the ‘set up your brand new PC’ regime.

The alternative is buggering about for several evenings, downloading various bits of supposedly free software that then tell you that you have several hundred scary tracking cookies, and to pay up to remove them! At the end of this, even if you’ve fixed the problem, you’ve still got a hard drive half full of unused programs eating away the performance.

it is almost guaranteed to fix the problem

Oh, sure. So will buying a new laptop.

I’m not saying it’s necessarily a bad idea. I just think it’s overkill as a first step without doing any sort of diagnostic to identify the problem. Ie, if it’s a failing hard disk or other physical problem, you’ll be no nearer after formatting and potentially a lot further away if it is a disk issue.

you’ve still got a hard drive half full of unused programs eating away the performance.

With respect, I think you’ve got a fundamental misunderstanding of NT6 architecture here. On a well-maintained system you can install a million programs and it won’t make a jot of difference to performance so long as none of them are installing services or otherwise launching on boot.

I’m sure that anecdotally I’m wrong and your system speeds up when you format it. But again, we’re back to sledgehammers. Far better to take control, not install crap in the first place and ensure that you only have running the software that you need running, rather than spending weeks setting everything up again every few months. Here be dragons.

The alternative is buggering about for several evenings, downloading various bits of supposedly free software that then tell you that you have several hundred scary tracking cookies, and to pay up to remove them!

I think I see why you need to format your PC regularly. Again, I’m not having a pop, but what you’ve described there is blindly downloading rogue programs rather than seeking advice.