Got a 2 year old HP G604 laptop that worked fine until about a week ago. Now it is dog slow. There is a delay when I type, the internet isn’t the quickest and YouTube is jumpy (it isn’t buffering and the sound is unaffected, but the image freezes).

It has been getting quite warm recently and the fan has been working a lot.

I don’t download any dodgy stuff or spend time on left handed websites. I’ve done a disk clean up, deleted all of the temp files and rubbish, run the HP system check and the antivirus.

Ideas?

Sounds like the HDD is fragmented/dying*.

*Cougar will be along shortly to give real advice.

It sounds like it’s up to something.

What’s grabbing all the CPU/Memory. Start task manager and have a look.

clocks going back and something needs syncing.

Sounds like fatigue to me.

Do you leave it on all the time? If so, the poor thing is probably just knackered.

Shut it down and leave it open facing the TV for a while (assuming you’ve not run your telly into the ground too).

Some people have no idea about how modern technology works. 😕

One thing you need to do is to clean out the fan with a can of compressed air. When finished*, make sure that the fans are still able to spin properly – last time I did this I needed to give them a nudge with a straightened paperclip.

*finished = when there is more dust on you than in the fans

It is on for about 4 hours every evening but not in continuous use.

[edit] Good call on cleaning the fan. I’ll pinch an air duster from work[/edit]

Oh and check the taskmanager to see what the processor is doing.

CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, click on the Processes tab and order on the CPU column.

Also check out the performance, and how much memory is being used.

You might find the latest Windows update has added such a load more stuff that it’s now got insufficient memory to work as fast as before.

Some antivirus software can slow the thing down too, as can a load of tasks sitting in the background. My home PC gets used by my son who has a Samsung phone and I’m certain it runs like a dog unless I Ctrl Alt Del and stop the Kies programs that it has installed.

You’ve tried things like ccleaner, superantispyware, malwarebytes? Worth trying more than one doo-dah I think. My daughter’s laptop was stuck on 100% CPU with some dodgy IE toolbar shopping add-on.

+1 for checking in task manager for whatever’s hogging resource and also for looking at spyware. Malwarebytes and the like often pick up stuff which your normal AV misses.

Have a look at the size of your paging file also

CCleaner has just detected 4Gb of crap!

The air duster blew out a cloud of dust!

😳

Quicker, but still not great.

do you use it on your knee, cushion, bed, carpet or any other fiberous substance? if so you can start by vacuming to cooling fan out and using on a hard surface (Table) then check for viruses and any programmes that you dont need you can delete.

Have you tried switching it off and back on again?

+1 on Malwarebytes, that should be your next priority (even if just so we can rule out an infection).

What AV are you using?

What version of Windows?

CCleaner has its place, but it shouldn’t really be making things -faster- per se. I’d guess the air duster made more of a difference, which would be consistent with the OP; to wit, it may be heat related. Does it start ok from cold and get worse? Does the fan sound like it usually does? (An asthmatic fan that sounds like it’s working harder might actually be turning slower).

Downloaded and run ARO2012. It found 2475 errors, which was at the green end of the yellow section on the “how shit is your computer scale” Is this bad?

AV – AVG Free

Windows – 7

Fan – Much quieter. Had to put my hand over the exhause to check it was running.

Slow from a cold start.

vaccum it anyways, you may be surprised

Downloaded and run ARO2012. It found 2475 errors, which was at the green end of the yellow section on the “how shit is your computer scale” Is this bad?

I’ve never heard of ARO2012 so I suspect it’s bollocksware. Let me guess, it’s found 2475 errors and then asked for your credit card details?

AV – AVG Free

This may be the cause of your issues, it’s very heavy these days. Consider getting rid (Microsoft Security Essentials is currently weapon of choice). However,

Fan – Much quieter. Had to put my hand over the exhause to check it was running.

… this is looking to be your problem. It probably needs replacing.

Ah, Google would suggest that ARO is a registry cleaner. Your registry isn’t dirty, leave it alone.

+1 for losing avg. MSE on win7 machines is great and light enough that its barely noticeable.

Scores on the doors.

Had a similar experience recently. Thought we had a virus or an update had slowed everything up.
Turned out the hard drive was on the way out. Got it replaced and all fine again.

To rule out a software problem you could try rolling it back to a restore point prior to you having problems (windows updates should create them automatically) If that clears it then I’d be looking at the windows updates. If it doesn’t then I’d agree the HD may be on it’s way out. You could try running a defrag and chkdisk.

That task manager screenshot does not look like a machine that’s thrashing its nuts off… If it’s still slow to type then something very odd is happening.

If it worked fine 1 week ago then run a system restore to a point about 2 weeks ago. Often the easiest way to fix any problem (unless that problem is a virus)

Then remove AVG and stick on MSE instead. It may sound a bit silly but from time to time I’ve found that just removing and re-installing the same AV helps but MSE is better at the moment.

Edit – oops, didn’t see sprocketjockeys post.

If you’re using Firefox you should try updating to the latest version of Flash player. Also there’s a setting in the about:config bit of Firefox that determines how often it saves each open tab for crash recovery – if you’re seeing a periodic stalling of your browsing then you can tweak that (upwards) and it makes things smoother.

Or use Chrome.

AVG gone
MSE installed

This has improved the internet speed but there is still a lag when typing in Word.

Then, on restart I got a black screen a NO BOOTABLE DEVICE ON START UP message, followed by a rather abrupt farting noise as it switched off.

It is the third time it has done this in the last week.

Turned it back on and it was OK.

The black screen and the farting bothers me.

right click on “My Computer” -> Manage -> Event Logs -> System log

Check for errors/warnings, especially related to disk/IDE.

You can filter the event logs for errors and warnings, and if there are a number in the last week, post up a screen grab.

That error message would imply a disk issue, which would be consistent with your symptoms. However, I’m wondering if that’s a secondary problem brought on by overheating from the failing fan. Without seeing it it’s difficult to be sure.

Either way, I’d suggest making backups of any data you want to keep, just in case.

back up your files because you may be nearing a HDD failiure (better safe than sorry Eh)

Does it feel hot? I forgot to ask. Like, on the keyboard, or the underside of the laptop?

A Cougar just asked if it feels hot….

… it does now 8)

It is warm, but not as hot as it felt before I blew all of the crap out of it yesterday.

The free memory value has gone up to 580 from the 23 figure shown in the screen dump.

Video is still a bit jerky.

The IT guy is back in work on Monday. I will have to bribe him… How much is a new hard drive going to cost me? 😐

It’ll cost you the price of a hard drive, plus the price of a packet of biscuits/some alcohol. Actually, having worked in IT support back in the day, just the alcohol – it numbs the pain.

If the drive is knackered- what was in the system log ? – pay a bit more and get an SSD drive. They use less power and are a great way to speed up a normally working laptop.

… assuming it’s a faulty hard drive.

Ah yes.. what’s that hard drive compatibility mode thing it does? When something’s wrong it goes into a sort of limp mode based on early 90s standards and it becomes catastrophically slow.. that’ll be it.

Hard drives are pretty cheap, £30-£50, and are easy to change 🙂

Result!

The hard drive was on its way out.

The IT guy had a spare one in his desk. Job done for the sum of £0.00.

The laptop is now quite a lot quicker so it must have been struggling for a while.

😀

Groovy. (-:

Job done for the sum of £0.00.

Pay in beer.

Beer, biscuits and probably a tea bagging session.

You’re a true friend.

I know, but he saved me money that I can now spend on Scalextric cars.