Windows PC very slow

Thomas_Holding

My wife's PC has the following specs

Processor Intel i5-5200 CPU @2.20 GHz, 

Ram 8.0 GB

Local Disk 464 GB 78 GG free

Windows 10

It has Avira antivirus

Last year it got really slow so I re-installed Windows 10.

It is now getting slow again (4 minutes to start up and Google drive is unusuable) !  I don't really want to re-install Windows again - any ideas?

This is 4 minutes to start with no apps running apart from Avira and Chrome.
It took 30 minutes to open this page and write this post.

dipsomaniac

if it was mine i would backup important files/format/fresh install windows without avira

dipsomaniac

if you really don't want to fresh install i take it you have tried uninstalling avira and chrome and just reinstalling chrome

dipsomaniac

be careful installing chrome as there are a lot of dodgy links out there

grumpycrab

Thomas_Holding said:

Local Disk 464 GB 78 GG free

Guessing that's a normal hard drisk drive - must be quite an old PC for 500GB...I'd blame the disk drive but could also look at...
Are Windows Updates  in progress?  Look in Task Manager and see if computer is "disk bound" IE Processes tab -> Disk. Is it running close to 100% all the time?  Remove Avira; reboot.  Check Windows Updates are complete. Any difference?

dipsomaniac

further to grumpycrabs post might be a good idea to pick up a new small drive for os and keep current drive for data only

JJ_Egan

Slow startup check what's running at startup .

Thomas_Holding

dipsomaniac said:

if you really don't want to fresh install i take it you have tried uninstalling avira and chrome and just reinstalling chrome

No I haven't tried that.grumpycrab said:
It was slow last December before I bought Avira.  I wondered if 

Thomas_Holding said:

Local Disk 464 GB 78 GG free

Guessing that's a normal hard drisk drive - must be quite an old PC for 500GB...I'd blame the disk drive but could also look at...
Are Windows Updates  in progress?  Look in Task Manager and see if computer is "disk bound" IE Processes tab -> Disk. Is it running close to 100% all the time?  Remove Avira; reboot.  Check Windows Updates are complete. Any difference?

It was refurbished -it should have had 1Tb.
No windows updates are running.  It is 72% disk full.  CPU 22%
JJ_Egan said:

Slow startup check what's running at startup .

Avira, RealTek HD Audio Manager, Windows Security notification and XBox App Services and XBox Autostart (which I have just turned off).

Would it be worth getting a new HD?  Would it be tricky to put it in?

dipsomaniac said:

if it was mine i would backup important files/format/fresh install windows without avira

The thing is that I am worried that I need to keep doing that every 2 months - which is very very time consuming. 
It is so slow that backup files is going to be tricky.

TheRightOne

Thomas_Holding said:

dipsomaniac said:

if you really don't want to fresh install i take it you have tried uninstalling avira and chrome and just reinstalling chrome

No I haven't tried that.grumpycrab said:
It was slow last December before I bought Avira.  I wondered if 

Thomas_Holding said:

Local Disk 464 GB 78 GG free

Guessing that's a normal hard drisk drive - must be quite an old PC for 500GB...I'd blame the disk drive but could also look at...
Are Windows Updates  in progress?  Look in Task Manager and see if computer is "disk bound" IE Processes tab -> Disk. Is it running close to 100% all the time?  Remove Avira; reboot.  Check Windows Updates are complete. Any difference?

It was refurbished -it should have had 1Tb.
No windows updates are running.  It is 72% disk full.  CPU 22%
JJ_Egan said:

Slow startup check what's running at startup .

Avira, RealTek HD Audio Manager, Windows Security notification and XBox App Services and XBox Autostart (which I have just turned off).

Would it be worth getting a new HD?  Would it be tricky to put it in?

dipsomaniac said:

if it was mine i would backup important files/format/fresh install windows without avira

The thing is that I am worried that I need to keep doing that every 2 months - which is very very time consuming. 
It is so slow that backup files is going to be tricky.

SSD should be fitted. Clean install Windows 10 to it.

We cannot know how easy or difficult since you haven't told us the device involved.

Think about it. Do you think all devices are the same? Exact model.

grumpycrab

Thomas_Holding said:

No windows updates are running.  It is 72% disk full.  CPU 22%

For windows updates - need to check if they're in progress - can slow a computer down.  Type windows updates bottom left and then click on windows udate settings or check for updates and it'll tell you when last checked or whether its doing an update NOW.
Guessing your 72% disk full is 72% in use?  Clicking on the Disk heading will order disk usage and you'll be able to see what's using the disk.

You need a solid state drive but your probably thinking its not worth the expense - might as well buy a new computer?
2 options; 1. buy a 500GB ssd for £50 and image the existing disk to ssd
2. buy a 120GB ssd for £20 and clean install W10 to it and (gives you a fast boot drive = c:  drive); use your existing drive as a data drive (e.g. Windows may give is the label D);  you'll need to reinstall your office suite of choice.
NB. clean install W10 is always recommended even though it means having to reinstall software.

Thomas_Holding

TheRightOne said:

Thomas_Holding said:

dipsomaniac said:

if you really don't want to fresh install i take it you have tried uninstalling avira and chrome and just reinstalling chrome

No I haven't tried that.grumpycrab said:
It was slow last December before I bought Avira.  I wondered if 

Thomas_Holding said:

Local Disk 464 GB 78 GG free

Guessing that's a normal hard drisk drive - must be quite an old PC for 500GB...I'd blame the disk drive but could also look at...
Are Windows Updates  in progress?  Look in Task Manager and see if computer is "disk bound" IE Processes tab -> Disk. Is it running close to 100% all the time?  Remove Avira; reboot.  Check Windows Updates are complete. Any difference?

It was refurbished -it should have had 1Tb.
No windows updates are running.  It is 72% disk full.  CPU 22%
JJ_Egan said:

Slow startup check what's running at startup .

Avira, RealTek HD Audio Manager, Windows Security notification and XBox App Services and XBox Autostart (which I have just turned off).

Would it be worth getting a new HD?  Would it be tricky to put it in?

dipsomaniac said:

if it was mine i would backup important files/format/fresh install windows without avira

The thing is that I am worried that I need to keep doing that every 2 months - which is very very time consuming. 
It is so slow that backup files is going to be tricky.

SSD should be fitted. Clean install Windows 10 to it.

We cannot know how easy or difficult since you haven't told us the device involved.

Think about it. Do you think all devices are the same? Exact model.

Sorry it is Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Series.
I am a bit slow I am recovering from Corvid 19.