Another Slow Laptop

doberryfirkin

I know threads covering 'slow PCs' seem to be quite common and I have visited a number of the other threads and tried remedies. However the symptoms on my laptop seem to have evaded most of those remedies.
I am running windows 7 home. 2 GB ram. Machine is quite new. For a week or two when you start the machine the CPU runs at 100% for a few minutes then calms down. After that it is quite satisfactory. If it goes to sleep then again after starting up again it maxes out for another few mins after which is calms down. I cannot find the cause. There was an error with the installation of a driver for a while and a message relating to a 'online armor miniport #' came up but that seems to have gone away.
Any suggestions as to remedy?

The_Economist

Not sure if this will help,but have a look here http://support.tallemu.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=5940

MarsdenCuckoo

Am deffo not an expert but have you got AVG or some other anti-virus programme? You obviously need something to protect your system. If you have then the slowness could be due to it scanning your system; on the other hand, if you haven't then it could be that you've been infected by something.

Another thought is have you tried running Ccleaner? Whenever you visit websites you leave a 'print' and that can slow your system down. Running Cc will 'release' you from all the baggage.

As I said, am no expert, but whenever my system runs slowly then I check those two things.

doberryfirkin

Thanks to both for replies. I shall take a serious look at uninstalling OA. I do have AVIRA AV running but have disabled the auto update mode. If I do is there anyone out there who could vouch for the fact that the windows firewall is as effective? Other websites always seem to imply you are better off with other, often freeware, replacements. Thoughts?

Hammyman

Yes the windows firewall is effective. The version in Windows 7 is as good and configurable as any paid for. Anyway, if you're using a Router, you're protected from inbound connections by NAT so the only thing to worry about would be something on the computer trying to phone home.

On Vista, I used to find new installs were a bit slow for the first week or so whilst the drive indexing did its thing.

dave2

Right-click on the taskbar (bottom of the screen) and run Task Manager. On the Processes page it tells you the programs you have running, including how much CPU and RAM they are using up.

keep it running and check occasionally. When the computer goes weird again, this will offer some pointers. The "image name" might be a bit cryptic but Google will solve.

Note though the above ignores everything that is running as a service. You can see those on the "services" pane of Task Manager, though without the useful CPU and RAM usage. Be careful with these as most will be essential Windows services.

Win7 firewall is effective, especially with a NAT router (most ADSL modems supplied by your ISP are). Of course every now and then you should visit Security Centre (in Control Panel) to view what programs it is allowing through.

doberryfirkin wrote: »

I do have AVIRA AV running but have disabled the auto update mode.

Leave auto update on but disable scheduled scanner. Not much point running it at all unless it's up to date, whereas without the scan it will still check your email attachments and downloaded files which are the main entry points.

aliEnRIK

Download HIJACK THIS (Make sure you click 'DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION')
http://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/
Click MAIN MENU then DO A SYSTEM SCAN AND SAVE A LOGFILE(Takes seconds) then post the log so we can see whats running
(do NOT do anything else with Hijack but scan and post the FULL log)

doberryfirkin

Ok got those suggestions and will try to capture the log next time I start up and then post to this site. thanks.

closed

Look at task manager, and see what is maxing it out, or backup data, and restore to factory settings. Hibernate/suspend often causes this type of symptom